Seems like you've eaten from the forbidden fruit of the rabbinical Talmud and the Toledoth Yeshu! Mr. Bernard, notwithstanding his credentials, was first and foremost a blind and biased Talmudist.
We have hundreds of writings from the Church Fathers and secular writers that quote from the Scriptures. From these writings of the first and second century, we can reconstruct the New Testament simply from their quotations. This completely demolishes Bernard's thesis that the Romans fabricated or rewrote the Scriptures.
Let me illustrate my point by quoting from a translation from the original sources. We will begin with Polycarp a disciples of St. John the Apostle.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE EPISTLE OF POLYCARP TO THE
PHILIPPIANS.
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[a.d. 65-150.] The Epistle of Polycarp is usually made a sort of preface to those of Ignatius, for
reasons which will be obvious to the reader. Yet he was born later, and lived to a much later period.
They seem to have been friends from the days of their common pupilage under St. John; and there is
nothing improbable in the conjecture of Usher, that he was the "angel of the church in Smyrna," to
whom the Master says, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." His pupil
Irenaeus gives us one of the very few portraits of an apostolic man which are to be found in antiquity,
in a few sentences which are a picture: "
Now, let's quote from his writings where this disciple of John quotes from many books of the New Testament that Bernard says was supposedly fabricated by Rome in the fourth century.
I will quote only two paragraphs from the original work to illustrates the extent of the quotes from the New Testament. These quotes verify beyond a shadow of a doubt that the New Testament Scriptures are authentic and were written during the middle and last half of the first century.
The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians1
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Polycarp, and the presbyters2 with him, to the Church of God sojourning at Philippi: Mercy to
you, and peace from God Almighty, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, be
multiplied.
Chapter I.-Praise of the Philippians.
I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because ye have followed the example3 of
true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in
chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and
our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days4 long gone by, endureth even
until now, and bringeth forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death,
[but] "whom God raised froth the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave."5 "In whom, though
now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; "6 into
which joy many desire to enter, knowing that "by grace ye are saved, not of works,"7 but by the will
of God through Jesus Christ.
Chapter II.-An Exhortation to Virtue.
"Wherefore, girding up your loins,"8 "serve the Lord in fear"9 and truth, as those who have forsaken
the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and "believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus
Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory,"10 and a throne at His right hand. To Him all things11 in
heaven and on earth are subject. Him every spirit serves. He comes as the Judge of the living and the
dead.12 His blood will God require of those who do not believe in Him.13 But He who raised Him up
from the dead will raise14 up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love
what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil
speaking, false witness; "not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing,"15 or blow for blow, or
cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching: "Judge not, that ye be not
judged;16 forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you;17 be merciful, that ye may obtain mercy;18 with
what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again;19 and once more, "Blessed are the poor,
and those that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God."20
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Now I will give you the citations from the New Testaments from which Polycarp took the quotations.
1 The title of this Epistle in most of the mss. is, "The Epistle of St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and
holy martyr, to the Philippians."
2 Or, "Polycarp, and those who with him are presbyters. "
3 Literally, "ye have received the patterns of true love."
4 Phil. i. 5.
5 Acts ii. 24. Literally, "having loosed the pains of Hades."
6 1 Pet. i. 8.
7 Eph. ii 8, 9.
8 Comp. 1 Pet. i. 13; Eph. vi. 14.
9 Ps. ii. 11.
10 1 Pet. i. 21.
11 Comp. 1 Pet. iii. 22; Phil. ii. 10.
12 Comp. Acts xvii. 31.
13 Or, "who do not obey him."
14 Comp 1 Cor. vi. 14; 2 Cor. iv. 14; Rom. viii. 11.
15 1 Pet. iii. 9.
16 Matt. vii. 1.
17 Matt. vi. 12, 14; Luke vi. 37.
18 Luke vi. 36.
19 Matt. vii. 2; Luke vi. 38.
20 Matt. v. 3, 10; Luke vi. 20. |
