Books in the Bible?

[Hilander]

This is just something I've been thinking about lately after being mentioned on TV. Why have so many books been taken out of the bible? What would be the purpose of that?

 

[CaptainObvious]

During the Protestant Reformation Martin Luther eliminated several books from the Old Testament, mostly because he felt they did not support his ideals of Sola Fide. He also disagreed with the Catholic Church's use indulgences. Books like Maccabbees talked about praying for the dead and insinuated

 

[Hilander]

Thanks CO, I have wondered for a while why they were left out. I thought maybe because they were trying to hide something. The thing is if they were meant to be part of the bible I don't understand why they wouldn't leave them in even if they didn't agree with them.

 

[CaptainObvious]

When the early Christians started organizing and had counsils, such as the Council of Nicea and Synod of Hippo. they accepted certain books and eliminated others. There were Gospels that were kept out that they felt didn't have enough evidence to support them, or weren't influenced by God. Likewise, the New Testament is made up of letters written mostly by St. Paul as well as the Catholic letters such as Saints Peter and James that were accepted. Most of that was based on if they felt they were actually written by those authors or others.

The Catholic Bible has 73 books, while the non Catholic has 66. All of the New Testament is the same, the difference is some books of the Old Testament.

 

[dDave]

CO, that's interesting to note. Scholars today look at some books and question who really wrote them (such as the book of Hebrews due to style) but they're still accepted in the Bible.

I really want to read the apocryphal books. Martin Luther wasn't necessarily correct to decide what is in the Bible and what isn't. Church was kind of corrupt back then but that's not reason enough to change the Bible.

 

[CaptainObvious]

Yeah, I mean as a Catholic I disagree with Luther and the doctrine of Sola Fide, but I do agree there was a lot of corruption at the time and the selling of indulgences. His aim was to just do away with them.

I guess with today's technology and study of letters and writings it might be easier to compare and opine on who or when something was written than to the people of 300 AD.

 

[The_Chameleon]

I understand that some books were also edited and/or removed by the Catholic Church because they conflicted with the ideals or morality they were trying to promote. From what I understand, Song of Solomon for example is very tame compared to it's original version which back then especially would be considered practically X-rated.


- Cham