Bible Question: Who decided and selected the books we read in the protestant bibles ? What was the basis to confirm that this is the Word of God when there was a confusion about old testament books even during the life of Jesus on earth ? How can we be assured that no forgery took place ? |
Bible Answer: Old Testament Books - The Gospels prove that Jesus Himself quoted from almost all of our current Old Testament books in his preaching and teaching, demonstrating that there was already an informal consensus among the Jews of His day concerning which books were considered sacred Scripture. The Old Testament canon was officially ratified by the Pharisees who met in the council of Jamnia in 90 A.D. New Testament - The canon of New Testament writings grew over time though usage in the early Christian churches. General consensus regarding the 27 books of the New Testament was ratified by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419 A.D. Major considerations when these early Christians were struggling to determine which writings were inspired by God included: a) were the writings clear in presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ? b) were the writings apostolic, or by someone close to an apostle? Several books (Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation) were disputed for a time, but over time proved themselves through their usefulness and divine power as being inspired by God. The Holy Spirit - Not only do we as Christians believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the Holy Scriptures that we now read in the Bible, but we also trust that God guided and preserved these sacred writings down through the centuries for us. Early Jewish scribes were very meticulous concerning the transmission and copying of Scripture; they counted sentences, words, and even the characters of each book to make such that no mistakes were made. Concerning the New Testament, we have ancient copies going back to the third and even second century A.D. that help us when we encounter some of the very few copyist errors that inevitably creeped into transmission of the sacred texts. These ancient texts allow us to determine with great accuracy the original texts of the Scriptures. Therefore, the modern reader can with great confidence take a current copy of the Bible in hand and firmly believe that it contains the true word of God, from cover to cover. The Apocrypha - The Apocrypha, extra writings in the Holy Scriptures, appear in several copies Catholic Bibles. These changes and additions to Holy Scripture were made rather late in the history of the Holy Scriptures, approved by the Roman Catholic Council of Trent in 1540 (?). However, at that same council the first Protestants, including Martin Luther, were condemned by the Roman Catholic church... and were not present. That explains why Roman Catholic Bibles today have some extra books... that most Protestant Bibles do not contain. And while these books make interesting and sometimes helpful reading, we do not believe them to be a part of sacred Scripture. The King James Bible - The King James Bible, commissioned in 1611 by King James of England, is drawn from very reliable Hebrew texts... but the Greek texts (New Testament) are relatively late, from the 11th and 14th centuries (as I recall). Since that time more accurate and earlier translations of the New Testament have been found that do not contain some of the few scribal additions that are found in the King James Version (1 John 6:7, for example). However, we should note that NONE of these tiny additions alter the doctrine of the Bible in the slightest. While the KJV is a very poetic and beautiful Bible to use, it is NOT the most accurate. More modern translations, especially the NASB and the NIV, tend to be more faithful to original Hebrew and Greek texts that we now have available. -I welcome any comments or questions from my brothers and sisters in the faith - Brady Blasdel ChristOur@aol.com |