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: Among Jews the oldest canon appears to be the one defining the Torah (the first five books of modern Bibles), which we also call the Pentateuch (from two Greek words meaning "five scrolls." The Torah was generally accepted by Hebrews as authoratative some 500 years before Jesus' time on earth. Most Jews of the first century A.D. appear also to have accepted a second canon called the "Prophets". But the Jewish sect called the Sadducees accepted only the Torah. The remaining books of the Hebrew Bible -- that rounded out the total list corresponding to the Protestant Old Testament canon -- are what the Jews called the "Writings". The entire list of books -- the Torah, Prophets, and Writings -- reached final form probably not until around 70 A.D. Some minor debates may have continued beyond this time, but the canon prevailed, and by the middle of the second century A.D. the Hebrew Old Testament canon was considered closed. It contained the same material that we know today as the 39 books of our Protestant Old Testament Bible. During the Reformation Protestants on the European Continent used the Hebrew canon to define their Old Testament canon. The Anglicans granted a secondary canonical status to books, some fifteen in number, not found in the Hebrew canon, the so-called Old Testament Apocrypha. The KJV translators, being Anglican, translated the Apocrypha and included them in the original publication of the King James Bible. Roman Catholic translations, Anglican translations, as well as some translations that are neither Catholic nor Anglican, include the Apocrypha. The Revised Standard Version is an example. It can be purchased with or without the Apocrypha. In addition to the Hebrew canon (same as the Protestant) and the Apocrypha there is a third group of writings, some 65 in number, that is known as the Pseudopigrapha. These documents are often attributed to one or another of the Hebrew patriarachs. While they contain valuable information regarding the history and development of the Jews and Judaism, few if any Hebrews ever considered them on a level with the books that comprise the canon. In summary, what we know today as the Bible is a product of centuries of scholarly criticism of the most exacting kind. No collection of writings has been so carefully scrutinized by so many for so long. The plain and evident fact that the Hebrew canon has withstood the severe test of time, having gone virtually unchallenged for nearly two thousand years, is in itself a remarkable attestation to its authenticity. Moreover, people of faith down through the centuries and even to the present day believe and affirm the promise of the Lord who said that His words would never pass away. --Hank |