answersLogoWhite

0

Protestant bibles reject the books which are not found in the "Palestinian Canon" of the Old Testament. This was the scriptures generally used in Palestine in the centuries before Christ. Another canon, the "Alexandrian Canon" was used in Jewish communities in other parts of the world, namely Alexandria in Egypt, where the Old Testament had been translated into Greek. This canon included books not found in the Palestinian Canon which were 'missing'. Thus, these books were only found in Greek. Due to sociological and perhaps political reasons, Palestinian Jews generally rejected the Alexandrian Canon in favor of the Hebrew Canon. This was not an alarming situation, as there was not a real hard-and-fast agreement among various populations of Jews as to what was Sacred Scripture and what was not.

The [Catholic] Church accepted the Alexandrian canon and, indeed, the New Testament makes direct and indirect references to the books which are missing from the Hebrew canon and it even repeats a number of editorial variations which are found in the Alexandrian Canon, but not the Palestinian Canon. While there was some mushiness in the Christian Canon through the centuries, it was pretty much in place by agreement of the bishops of the Church at council on the eve of the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, the canon of Scripture remained relatively unquestioned until the Protestant Reformation when reformers rejected the 'extra' books of the Alexandrian Canon.

Interestingly, some modern Protestant Communities now accept the 'deuterocanonical' ('second canon') books in worship and study, while rejecting them for the basis of theology and doctrine. (The 'troublesome teaching' on purgatory and praying for the dead, for instance, can be found in deuterocanonical book of II Maccabees.)

The simple explanation of the basis for the rejection of the deuterocanonical books by some groups has been that there were no authentic Hebrew or Aramaic sources of the books in the Alexandrian Canon which are only found in Greek. Interestingly with the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, all of the deuterocanonical books, except Esther, now have verified sources in the ancient languages, which would undermine this argument.

The Catholic Church retains to itself, as the authentic and historical Church of Christianity, the authority to define and interpret Sacred Scripture. Thus, it is the Church's job to discern, through the gifts and protection of the Holy Spirit, what books are of divine origin and what books must be rejected. Through the centuries the Church has made these decisions corporately and without objection from dissenters. That is why we do not have in the New Testament the Letters of Clement, as theologically rich and as authentic to the tradition as they may be. That is also why 'lost' Gospels and other non-biblical texts such as those which have been featured in the popular media and various documentaries are not accepted.

Yet, according to Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter in the year 367 (Bishop of Alexandria), there are only 27 books of the New Testament as scripture.

Since, however, we have spoken of the heretics as dead but of ourselves as possessors of the divine writings unto salvation, and since I am afraid that -- as Paul has written to the Corinthians [2 Cor. 11:3] -- some guileless persons may be led astray from their purity and holiness by the craftiness of certain men and begin thereafter to pay attention to other books, the so-called apocryphal writings, being deceived by their possession of the same names as the genuine books, I therefore exhort you to patience when, out of regard to the Church's need and benefit, I mention in my letter matters with which you are acquainted. It being my intention to mention these matters, I shall, for the commendation of my venture, follow the example of the evangelist Luke and say [cf. Luke 1:1-4]: Since some have taken in hand to set in order for themselves the so-called apocrypha and to mingle them with the God-inspired scripture, concerning which we have attained to a sure persuasion, according to what the original eye-witness and ministers of the word have delivered unto our fathers, I also, having been urged by true brethren and having investigated the matter from the beginning, have decided to set forth in order the writings that have been put in the canon, that have been handed down and confirmed as divine, in order that every one who has been led astray may condemn his seducers, and that every one who has remained stainless may rejoice, being again reminded of that.

Athanasius now in the first place enumerates the scriptures of the Old Testament. He then proceeds:

Continuing, I must without hesitation mention the scriptures of the New Testament; they are the following: the four Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, after them the Acts of the Apostles and the seven so-called catholic epistles of the apostles -- namely, one of James, two of Peter, then three of John and after these one of Jude. In addition there are fourteen epistles of the apostle Paul written in the following order: the first to the Romans, then two to the Corinthians and then after these the one to the Galatians, following it the one to the Ephesians, thereafter the one to the Philippians and the one to the Colossians and two to the Thessalonians and the epistle to the Hebrews and then immediately two to Timothy , one to Titus and lastly the one to Philemon. Yet further the Revelation of John

These are the springs of salvation, in order that he who is thirsty may fully refresh himself with the words contained in them. In them alone is the doctrine of piety proclaimed. Let no one add anything to them or take anything away from them...

But for the sake of greater accuracy I add, being constrained to write, that there are also other books besides these, which have not indeed been put in the canon, but have been appointed by the Fathers as reading-matter for those who have just come forward and which to be instructed in the doctrine of piety: the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, Tobias, the so-called Teaching [Didache] of the Apostles, and the Shepherd. And although, beloved, the former are in the canon and the latter serve as reading matter, yet mention is nowhere made of the apocrypha; rather they are a fabrication of the heretics, who write them down when it pleases them and generously assign to them an early date of composition in order that they may be able to draw upon them as supposedly ancient writings and have in them occasion to deceive the guileless.

Protestant Answer:

Protestants rejects these books for a number of reasons.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Jerome was hesitant to include most of the apocryphal books in the canon, due to numerous errors. Even after he did concede to include them (in the fourth century), they were not decreed to be inspired scripture until April 8, 1546 at the Council of Trent. So for 1100 years, they were part of the canon, but not officially scripture. The reason for this is again, because of the numerous errors. It appears they were ultimately accepted at Trent, because without doing so, the Catholic Church had no scripture upon which to base the doctrine of purgatory, invocation and intercession of the saints, the worship of angels, the redemption of souls after death, etc. In fact, if you'll look at the Catholic Encyclopedia, you'll find discussion of "problems" or "errors" with most of the apocryphal books.

Neither their authors nor the circumstances of their writings are known.The Jews nor the early Christians accepted them as inspired scripture.The books themselves don't claim inspiration.There's no"Thus saith the Lord"'s .Although the N.T has 263 direct quotes from and 370 allusions to the O.T,there's not a single reference to the books of the apocrypha.It was at Trent,Ap.8th1546,that the pope declared tradition+the apocrypha to be canonical and authoritative.

Judith falsely states that Nebuchadnezzar reigns over the Assyrians,whereas he ruled Babylon instead.Torbit could not have witnessed the division of Israel into the northern and southern kingdoms in 931BC(Tor1:4),and have been deported 200 years later in 734BC(Tor1:10).Ecc3:3 states that giving money forgives sins. This contradicts Christs' work on the cross. Jesus and the apostles quote 260 times from the 35 out of 39 OT books, yet they NEVER quoted the apocrypha.

Jerome plainly rejects all the apocryphal books from the canon. In his Prologus Galeatus he says "As there are twenty and two letters, so there are counted twenty and two books. Therefore the Wisdom of Solomon, and Jesus, and Judith, and Tobit, are not in the canon." (See the intro. to the Vulgate in his own hand.)Gregory the Great,in his commentaries on Job,(Lib.XIX.C16) expressly writes that the books of Mac, isn't canonical,as well as the rest.Josephus agrees.

Again, at Trent, the roman catholic organisation mearly defined what IT would use as the Bible. There were in fact, many Bibles in circulation way before the rcc claimed to have given us the Bible ( which is a historic and Biblical lie )

Versions of the NT in other languages available early in Christianity: Peshitta Version AD 150 The Italic Bible AD 157 The Waldensian AD 120 & onwards Gallic Bible (Southern France) AD177 Gothic Bible AD 330-350 Old Syriac Bible AD 400 Armenian Bible AD 400 (There are 1244 copies of this version still in existence.) Palestinian Syriac AD 450

326. Athanasius, bishop at Alexandria, mentions all of the New Testament books.

315-386. Cyril, bishop at Jerusalem, gives a list of all New Testament books except Revelation.

270. Eusebius, bishop at Caesarea, called the Father of ecclesiastical history, gives an account of the persecution of Emperor Diocletian whose edict required that all churches be destroyed and the Scriptures burned. He lists all the books of the New Testament. He was commissioned by Constantine to have transcribed fifty copies of the Bible for use of the churches of Constantinople.

185-254. Origen, born at Alexandria, names all the books of both the Old and New Testaments.

165-220. Clement, of Alexandria, names all the books of the New Testament except Philemon, James, 2 Peter and 3 John. In addition we are told by Eusebius, who had the works of Clement, that he gave explanations and quotations from all the canonical books.

160-240. Turtullian, contemporary of Origen and Clement, mentions all the New Testament books except 2 Peter, James and 2 John.

135-200. Irenaeus, quoted from all New Testament books except Philemon, Jude, James and 3 John.

100-147. Justin Martyr, mentions the Gospels as being four in number and quotes from them and some of the epistles of Paul and Revelation.

I hope this helps.

Roman Catholic AnswerIt was Protestantism that removed these "deuterocanonical" books from the Bible, many centuries later. And contrary to the myth, the early Church did indeed accept these books as Scripture.

The seven disputed books are: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (or Sirach), and Baruch. Catholic Bibles also include an additional six chapters (107 verses) in Esther and three chapters (174 verses) in Daniel.

According to major Protestant scholars and historians, in the first four centuries Church leaders (e.g. St. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Cyprian, St. Irenaeus) generally recognized these seven books as canonical and scriptural, following the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament, following the Council of Rome (382), and general consensus, finalized the New Testament canon while also including the deutercanon, in lists that were identical to that of the Council of Trent (1545-1563).

There's a scholarly consensus that this canon was pretty much accepted from the fourth century to the sixteenth, and indeed, the earliest Greek manuscripts of the Old Testament: the Codes Sinaiticus (fourth century) and Codex Alexandrinus (c. 450) include the (unseparated) deuterocanonical books. The Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran did not contain Esther, but did contain Tobit.

According to Douglas and Geisler, Jamnia (first century Jewish council) was not an authoritative council, but simply a gathering of scholars, and similar events occurred afterward. In fact, at Jamnia the canonicity of books such as Ester, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon was also disputed. Since both Protestants and Catholics accept these books today, this shows that Jamnia did not "settle" anything. The Jews were still arguing about the canonicity of the books mentioned earlier and also Proverbs into the early second century.

And St. Jerome's sometimes critical views on these books are not a clear-cut as Protestants often make them out to be. In his Apology Against Rufinus (402) for example, he wrote:

When I repeat what the Jews say against the story of Susanna and the the Hymn of the Three Children, and the fables of Bel and the Dragon, which are not contained in the Hebrew Bible, the man who makes this a charge against me proves himself to be a fool and a slanderer; for I explained not what I thought but what they commonly say against us (Apology Against Rufinus, book II, 33)

Significantly, St. Jerome included the deuterocanonical books in the Vulgate, his Latin translation of the Bible, (And he defended the inspiration of Judith in a preface to it.) All in all, there is no clear evidence that St. Jerome rejected these seven books, and much to suggest that he accepted them as inspired Scripture, as the Catholic Church does today. But St. Jerome (like any Church father) does not have the final authority in the Church. He's not infallible. The historical evidence, all things considered, strongly supports the Catholic belief that these books are inspired and thus indeed part of Holy Scripture

from The One-Minute Apologist by Dave Armstrong; Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press, 2007

User Avatar

Wiki User

13y ago

What else can I help you with?

Related Questions

How many books are there in the whole Bible?

There are a total of 73 books in the Catholic Bible.


What is the collection of 73 books in the Bible called?

The Catholic Bible.


Why does it say the Catholic Bible has 72 books but when counted there are 73?

Today's Catholic Bibles usually count a 73-book canon of Scripture not 72..Catholic AnswerBibles either have 72 or 73 depending on whether Lamentations and Jeremiah are counted as two books or one.


How many books are in the whole Bible?

There are a total of 73 books in the bible


How many books are in the modern Bible?

The Protestant has 66 books while the Catholic has 73. The Hebrew Bible has 39.


How many stories does the holy Bible have?

King James bible has 66 books Catholic bible has 73


How many books are in a holy bible?

The Hebrew Bible has 24 books, Catholic Bibles have 73 books, Protestant Bibles have 66 books, and Eastern Orthodox Bibles have up to 81 books.


How many books make up the christian bible?

Depends on which Bible you mean...There are 66 books in the King James Bible and 73 in the Catholic Douay Bible.


What is the difference between the Lutheran Bible and the catholic Bible?

Lutheran Bible has 66 books and Catholic Bible has 73 books. There is no difference in the New Testament of Catholics and Lutheran. However, Catholics consider 7 more books as divine in the Old Testament of the Bible.


What are the differences between the King James Bible and the Catholic Bible?

The main differences between the King James Bible and the Catholic Bible are the number of books included and the translation style. The King James Bible contains 66 books, while the Catholic Bible includes 73 books. Additionally, the King James Bible is a Protestant translation, while the Catholic Bible includes additional books known as the deuterocanonical books.


How many books are the in the holy bible?

There are 66 books in the bible. 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. 66 for the Protestant Bible. 73 for the Catholic Bible.


How many books are in part 1 in the bible?

There are 66 books in the Protestant bible, 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The Catholic bible contains 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament.