Since the people who God breathed His words through, whose minds were opened to the scriptures by Jesus Christ, understood conclusion “A” absolutely soundly (the original interpretation)…they all (Paul, Peter, John, etc.) taught it to those they themselves trained and appointed to places of leadership, and they also taught the same conclusion they had been taught (Conclusion A)….people like Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Ignatius, and even Mark when he was sent to Alexandria all knew conclusion A because there was no other alternative conclusion. They all held all these conclusions (the same doctrine) in common no matter what Apostle trained them (this is a loud witness to the truth).
The same universally accepted conclusion A (what they taught the scriptures meant by what they said) continued for generation after generation of leadership for 100s of years. Conclusion B, C, and so on, came after many centuries. Though A preceded B…today we host the entire alphabet of conclusions...embrace the doctrinal understanding the Apostles taught that the scriptures mean.
Now I believe the Bible to be THE word of God and the truth upon which all our doctrines are to be based, just as the early church fathers did (shall I supply many quotes). I find their witness 100% more reliable as to how to interpret and as to what these things mean as theirs was the interpretation given them from the Apostles themselves, or from those who the Apostles themselves taught and appointed.
As for faulty translations that is a lark. They read the originals and direct copies of the originals in their own native tongue. This reality can hardly be compared to the hodge-podge of differing versions we now must bear. What I found fascinating is that many passages the bibles based on the so-called critical text exclude or play down are actually quoted by some of the fathers hundreds of years before these heavily edited discarded texts were found.
As for relying on scriptures, as I set out some time ago to capture the quotations used by the fathers I found NO doctrine or belief they espoused for 200 years (and more) not founded therein. For example, in Iranaeus Against Heresies, for this purpose only just having finished book four , I have over 12 pages of NT quotations from Mat, Mk, Lk, John, Acts, Rom, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Gal, Philip, Col, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, 1 Peter, James, and Rev, and I haven’t even cracked book 5…and the OT quotes are just as many…so please accept no more lies about how they allegedly did not follow, know, or rely on the scriptures for their doctrinal understandings and positions ….
just my $.02
In His love
Paul