Why do use a Bible when the first Christians didn't?

[excalibur]

During Jesus' ministry period there were no Bibles. Not even a single Christian text yet, nor would there be for at least 30 years after Jesus' death (or whatever.) And what would become the New Testament didn't exist until at least 100 years after-Jesus. Even then, the first Bibles wouldn't exist for several centuries more.

So if you follow Jesus (or more likely Paul) identifying as a Christian, why use a book neither Jesus nor his disciples or their followers used?

Pleeeeeease .......... use common sense, and you can answer that question yourself. Had that second cup yet? If not, get it to clear your head a little, or a lot.

Jesus taught what he taught absent a Bible. I wonder then if Christians have effectively abandoned Jesus' teachings for a book they placed too much importance upon.

How often do Christians say, "The Bible says..." instead of "Jesus taught..."

Quite silly, as the four Gospels are the account of, and often contain quotes of, Jesus. So saying Jesus did not have a Bible is a non starter. He was the Word made flesh.

The Apostles who walked with Jesus spoke to others about what Jesus had said after He returned to the Father, then the Spirit moved the writers to write the four Gospels.

In the years between 95 and 98, the Church of Rome sent a letter to the Church of Corinth, known as the First Letter of Clement. It refers to St. Paul's Letters to the Corinthians, in a way that asserted their normative and public value, thereby implying that they were read at liturgical assemblies.

Subsequently, toward the middle of the second century, St. Justin Martyr explained that "the memoirs of the Apostles and the writings of the Prophets" were read (I Apologia, 67, 3) at Eucharistic celebrations.

The term "memoirs", at first sight enigmatic, becomes clear on an analysis of the works of St. Justin who generally uses it to introduce passages from the Gospels or from evangelical traditions.

Since in a writing such as the Apologia, addressed to a pagan public, the word "Gospel" meaning "Good News" would have been simply incomprehensible, St. Justin preferred to fall back on a designation widely attested to in the classical tradition.

Bodmer Papyrus History Becomes Reality