Investigating the Bible's Background
THE BIBLE: Where did it come from? When was it written? Who compiled it? Why can we trust it? What is the difference between a Protestant Bible and a Catholic Bible? Does it matter?
These are just a couple questions regarding Faith that I began independently investigating when I was in my mid-teens/early twenties (a common and critical time for discerning Truth). While I was grateful to come from a loving and Devoted family, it was important for me to make my Faith my own. After moving to the "Bible Belt" for college, I was surprised by how heated some conversations would get regarding "God's Truth according to Scripture" (I don't think there's another place in the world where some people stand on a corner preaching in the middle of a football tailgate??). Over the first few years, I visited varying churches -mainly because I received so many invitations! (In case you've never visited the South, the common greeting goes something like this: "Hello Sir/Ma'am! What's your name? Where are you from? Where do you go to church?")
Eventually I wanted to get a better understanding for why there are so many divisions and different denominations when it comes to Faith Practice, especially when the majority of the churches insist the Bible provides them with everything they need to form their foundational teachings. (Every Jesus-Lover I encountered earnestly claimed to be "lead by the Holy Spirit" when interpreting Scripture, but I started to wonder if the Holy Spirit was schizophrenic?! How can one church claim Truth that is the complete opposite of the church next door? Since most Christians rely heavily on the Bible, my investigation had to start with "what does Scripture really say?" and how was it meant to be Received?)
My digging is still ongoing nearly two decades later, but one of my passions is to promote dialogue amongst Seekers. The Holy Spirit is supposed to be Unifying (not schizophrenic), thus I want to work on building bridges and finding common ground in our journeys towards Truth.
Since Scripture is considered God's Inspired Word where we can gain access to understanding His Ways, l'm going to focus this blog on a few facts about these Holy writings:
First, did you know there is a difference in a Protestant Bible compared to a Catholic Bible?
Catholic Bible: 73 books total. 27 books in the New Testament. 46 Books in the Old Testament.
Protestant Bible: 66 books total. Same New Testament. Lacks 7 books of the Old Testament (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 & 2 Maccabees, and parts of Esther and Daniel)*
*Catholics call these 7 Old Testament books “Deuterocanonical”, while Protestants call them “Apocrypha”. In contrast, Catholics use the word “Apocrypha” to describe the books that were not included in the New Testament –books that were not considered Inspired but still useful for reading such as the book of Thomas, Acts of Peter, etc.
History: the Jews before Jesus were divided into two groups –those dwelling in Palestine (spoke Hebrew) and another large group of Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire (spoke Greek).
With the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70 A.D. some of the Jewish leaders got together to re-examine things. At the Council of Jamnia (~100 AD), they eliminated several books from their existing collection of Scripture based on four criteria:
1) the writings had to be in harmony with the Pentateuch (Tora or Law);
2) they had to be written before the time of Ezra;
3) they had to be written in Hebrew;
4) they had to be written in Palestine.
As a result, these criteria eliminated Judith (written in Aramaic); Wisdom and 2 Maccabees (written in Greek); Tobit and parts of Daniel and Esther (written in Aramaic and probably outside of Palestine); Baruch (written outside of Palestine); & Sirach and 1 Maccabees (written after the time of Ezra).
It's important to note that this change regarding the Canon of Old Testament Scripture came after the time of Jesus. In reality, the Scriptures that Jesus studied & quoted came from the Septuagint*, and included the 7 books of the Greek-Roman tradition (or Alexandrian Canon**).
*abbreviated LXX, for the 70 men who translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek by the beginning of the first century B.C. **This was the version of the Old Testament used by the New Testament authors and all Christians from the time of Jesus until the Protestant Reformation sixteen centuries later!
In the mid 1500's, Martin Luther adopted the Hebrew-Jewish list (Palestinian Canon), putting the Deuterocanonical books in an appendix. Luther tried to remove the New Testament books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation as well (he perceived them to go against personal beliefs that developed into Protestant doctrines such as Sola Fide and Sola Gratia), but these attempted omissions were not generally accepted amongst his followers.
Regardless of the disagreement pertaining to the Old Testament, all Christians share the same New Testament. But who decided which writings would be Inspired and included? (Short answer is "God", but how did we determine the Divine "Table of Contents"?)
Here's a brief timeline of New Testament history:
Jesus began his public Ministry around 30-33 AD.
The first (chronological*) book of the New Testament was the letter of James which was written about 10 years after Jesus died. The last recordings of the New Testament were the letters of John and the book of Revelation written between 90-96 AD. *It's important to remember and really interesting to note that the first Jesus-followers didn’t have access to all the circulating letters or Gospels that currently comprise the Canon that Christians accept today! It wasn't until the following councils that the "Church Fathers" definitively decided which writings were Divinely Inspired:
Council of Rome (382 AD) –here the Decree of Damascus determined 73 books to be God's Inspired Word... the same writings comprise the Catholic Bible as used today.
Council of Hippo (393 AD) & Council of Carthage (397 AD) –both confirmed the same Canon of Scripture.
1500’s –first Protestant Bible was published, omitting 7 books of the Old Testament.
1600’s –King James version (the 3rd English translation as commissioned by the Church of England)
...So I'm going to stop here because the Bible is such a Best-Seller nowadays -it has been translated into over 2000 languages! :)
Why does any of this matter? I'll share a comical quote from a well-intentioned "Bible Christian" I met several years ago. We were in a non-denominational study together and started comparing a verse that was worded differently in each of our translations. My friend stated, "If the King James Bible was good enough for Paul, then it's good enough for me!" That struck me so funny -the disciple Paul had been dead for seventeen centuries before King James came around!
Basically, my point is: if Christians are going to spend so much time studying Sacred Scripture (as they should), then it's important to know which ones count!
Stay tuned for a subsequent post regarding "Sola Scriptura" (a Protestant doctrine that states “Scripture Alone” is the solitary authority for Divine Instruction pertaining to faith and morals...I know I'm a nerd but I like to figure out facts from falsehoods!)
DISCLAIMER: I'm not a Theologian and my doctorate is not in religious studies. However, I am a Daughter of God who desires to understand her Designer. I can't take credit for hanging the moon nor commanding my next heartbeat. I trust my Creator wants to teach me and satisfy my thirst for Truth. The purpose of examining any topic related to Faith, is not to begin or win arguments but to spread openness to a Sovereign Truth (even if it challenges our comfort or surpasses our human understanding).
🙏✌🏼❤️