One of many things separating Catholicism from Christianity is the Sufficiency of Scripture (a.k.a. Sola Scriptura). This concept is abundantly taught in the scriptures, as well as the fact it just makes sense. We believe the Bible is the word of God. Who's more authoritative than God? Certainly not the Catholic Church.
But the Catholic Church would disagree. In their religion, as the Catholic in the image to the left told me, the church and scripture are "mutually reinforcing", but the Church gives the Bible its authority, not the other way around.
Not only do Catholics have the audacity to say such things, they also often do their best to defend the idea. One question they use to do so is which came first, scripture, or the Church?
The simplest answer, and, without trying to sound like a troll, the one which tends to get the funniest results, is to say scripture preceded the Catholic Church. This is a historical fact. There was no Catholic Church in the first and second centuries, but there were scriptures. All of them, in fact. On the traditional timeline (though some suspect there may be error), Revelation is the last scripture to be completed, and this was done by 95 A.D. While there are other theories and timelines, there is no sensible dispute that scripture was completed before the end of the first century.
There is, however, sensible dispute that the Catholic Church came into existence before the end of the first century. Exactly when the Catholic Church came about is not easy to pin down. Some would say it was the Edict of Milan (313 A.D.) that began the Catholic Church. Others would say Augustine is basically the Father of Catholicism. Catholics, of course, argue that the origin of the Catholic Church can be seen in Matthew 16:18, but it's worth noting that did not become the official teaching of the Catholic Church until First Vatican Council in 1869, whereas before that, a Catholic scholar named Jean de Launoi surveyed the Church "Fathers" and found that the overwhelming majority of them favored the interpretation that Peter's confession "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16), rather than Peter himself, was the rock of Matthew 16:18.
Ultimately, all attempts to trace Catholicism back much further than the fourth century will inevitably fail. Thus, scripture most definitely preceded the Catholic Church. But most of it did not precede the Jews. From Matthew to Revelation, the entire New Testament was written long after the Jews had been established as God's chosen people. Yet, surely no Catholic would suggest "they came first" leads to the conclusion "they have authority"?
The irony is, they'd actually be correct, at least in one sense. Although the Jews had no authority over the scriptures, they did have authority to declare them. As Paul says in Romans 3:1-2, "What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God." In other words, the Jews have a greater claim to authority over the scriptures than the Catholic Church. Yet, in 1548, the Council of Trent made an unprecedented move by adding the Deuterocanon to the Old Testament, even though the Jews had long recognised them as non-canonical. In other words, the one and only time the Catholic Church made an "authoritative" declaration regarding the canon, they got it wrong, all because they were angry with Martin Luther and wanted to stop him.
"But the Jews apostatised!" the Catholic might reply. Mostly true. While there are a few Jews who know their Messiah, most Jews will not call Him Lord until it's too late. Nevertheless, reading through the New Testament, it is impossible to sustain the belief that the Jews' lack of faith resulted in God failing to keep His promises to them. First, continuing a mere two verses on in Romans 3, we read "For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written: “That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.”"
But moving on to Romans 11, it gets far worse for the idea that any Church has replaced Israel. The very first verse settles that dispute by asking "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!..." And it continues to basically batter the idea that God is finished with the Jews. Most noteworthy is the analogy of God cutting off and grafting on branches. "And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either." (Romans 11:17-21).
The long and short of that? Don't boast against the Jews as if you're secure. So if Catholics really want to claim, erroneously, that the Jews lost their authority because they weren't faithful to it, what are we to make of them, given how far the Catholic Church has fallen from the faith? They even make many of the same mistakes. Comparing the Catholic Church to the Pharisees, we see a number of similarities.
Perhaps the most obvious response to the question "which came first, the scriptures or the Church?", is to ask another in turn: Which came first? Jesus, or John the Baptist? John the Baptist came first, yet by his own words, "...‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’" (John 1:15b).
Ah, but look, the Catholic may reply. It says "for He was before me". Therefore, in reality, Jesus came before John the Baptist. To this, I say yes, absolutely. Here's why that is so devastating to your question: Scripture is the word of that very God. And Catholics agree. Now, because we agree it is the word of God, the only way we could say "the Church came first, therefore the Church has authority over scripture" is if we want to say something so unbelievably asinine as "God loses His authority over time", or "God should have just dropped the Bible on the Earth, then created Adam".
Of course, in reality, what God says tomorrow is exactly as authoritative as what He said yesterday. Therefore, regardless of when the scriptures were written, they superseded any and every Christian who has ever lived, individually or as a group, before the ink had even dried.
And so we see that the question as to which came first, while it can be answered many ways, is ultimately flawed beyond all reason, as it seeks to take authority from the Living God and give it to a body of sinful men, who will then have the audacity to claim they, and they alone, have authority from Him. In legal terms, the word for that is "treason".