WHY DO CATHOLICS, PROTESTANTS AND
JEWS
HAVE DIFFERENT BIBLES?
Copyright
© 2008 Kay Murdy
Catholics and Protestants are in agreement on the 27 books in the New Testament. However, there are 39 books of the Old Testament in the Hebrew and Protestant version and 46 books in the Catholic version. Why are there seven extra books in the Catholic Bible? To answer this we have to go back to the conquest of Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great toppled the Persian Empire with lightening speed around 331
BC. From 333 to 323 BC, almost as long as it would take to walk the route, Alexander conquered the greatest empires the world had ever known, stretching all the way to the borders of India. It is said that
when Alexander got to India he wept, because there were no more kingdoms to
conquer. Of course, he did not know of the existence of ancient China.
Alexander not only wanted political control of these vast territories, he also wanted the Greek culture to unite the empire.
Alexander saw himself as the great "missionary" for Greek culture and language. Everywhere Alexander and his troops went in the world, Alexander established Greek colonies such as Philippi, Antioch, and Alexandria that would promote Hellenism. The word "Hellenism," which means "becoming like the Greeks," comes from the Greek Hellas Isles. The influence of Hellenism showed itself in language, government, literature, art and architecture, economics, athletics, theater, and even the names of children. Greek philosophy was taught in schools: Platonism, Aristotelian, Epicureanism and Stoicism.
Within one hundred years of Alexander's conquest, Hellenism dominated the Eastern Mediterranean area including Palestine. Many Jews felt old-fashioned and embarrassed by their distinctive religious practices compared to the cosmopolitan culture of the Greeks. Many gradually became Hellenized, accepting Greek culture while maintaining their adherence to the less conspicuous aspects of their Jewish tradition. Greek became the common (koine) language everywhere outside of Palestine, and, even there, Greek became the dominant language of business and trade. Jews living in the diaspora, outside of Palestine, no longer spoke Hebrew, although Hebrew remained the liturgical language, much as Latin did for centuries in the Church long after it was no longer understood by the common people.
As Hellenism grew throughout the Jewish diaspora, a dilemma
developed. Greek-speaking Jews did not know how to read Hebrew; therefore,
they could not read the scriptures. A need arose for a Greek translation. Starting about 285
BC, a group of prominent rabbis, likely authorized by Ptolemy
Philadelphus, decided to translate the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This was begun in Alexandria in Egypt where Greek-speaking gentiles were being accepted into the Jewish faith.
There is a legend that 72 interpreters worked independently and composed their translations within just 72 days, each arriving at identical translations of the Scripture. This miraculous event resulted in
the Greek translation known as the Septuagint (meaning
"seventy" or, for short, LXX). This story is very unlikely, as the translations were probably done by many people over a long period of time.
COUNCIL OF JAMNIA
According to the Jewish Encyclopedia on "Academies
in Palestine," the destruction of Jerusalem put an
abrupt end to the disputes of the contests between political parties
[Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots]. It was then that a disciple of
Hillel, the venerable Johanan ben Zakkai, founded a new home for Jewish Law
in Jabneh (Jamnia), and thus evoked a new intellectual life from the ruins
of a fallen political existence. The school at Jabneh was the recognized
tribunal that gathered the traditions of the past and confirmed them; that
ruled and regulated existing conditions; and that sowed the seeds for future
development. In Jabneh were held the decisive debates upon the canonicity of
certain Biblical books. Today, there is no
scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish canon was set. Nevertheless, the
outcomes attributed to the Council of Jamnia did occur whether gradually or
in a definitive, authoritative council.
It is believed that near the end of the first century, about 90 AD, Jewish leaders, mostly Pharisees, gathered in Jamnia to determine which of the many books in circulation at that time were authentic scripture. Detailed knowledge of how the Old Testament canon came together remains somewhat indefinite, but a few stipulations were made to safeguard the future of the Jewish faith. In order to be considered part of the Jewish canon of Scripture, the books had to meet three criteria. They had to have been:
1) written in Palestine
2) written originally in Hebrew (or Aramaic as in parts of Ezra and Daniel)
3) written before the time of Ezra (although a few books were in fact written after that time, they were thought to be
written earlier — e.g., the
book of Ecclesiastes was claimed to be written by Solomon).
The books of the "Law and the Prophets" were the first two parts of the Jewish canon confirmed since they had been in use for centuries. The third part, "The Writings," were the most troublesome and uncertain. Into this division, everything else in the Old Testament was placed: psalms, wisdom, history and so on. At least five of these books were questioned by the Jewish community as to their canonicity – Esther, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and Ezekiel, but these were later accepted. The rabbis rejected anything they determined that were not part of the Hebrew language text, including the Septuagint, or Greek Old Testament, widely used by the Hellenized diaspora, as well as later additions to the books of Daniel and Esther. The Septuagint Greek translation had seven more books than the Hebrew Bible: Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) and Baruch.
Another concern of the remaining Jewish communities in Israel would have been the growing problem of conversions to Christianity, based in part on Christian promises of life after death. As Christianity spread from Israel to Syria, Asia Minor and Greece, Christians, like the Jews, were influenced by the Greek language and lifestyle. The early Church used the Septuagint Greek version rather than the Hebrew text for their Bible. This was especially true after Paul founded so many Gentile Christian communities where Greek was the common, or koine, language. The Septuagint was in use in Jesus' day. We do not know what version Jesus himself knew, although it seems unlikely that he spoke Greek. However, many of Jesus' sayings were influenced by the book of Sirach. When the New Testament quoted the Hebrew Scriptures, 85% of the time it is from the Septuagint version. Many apostolic writers also quoted from the books in the Septuagint version and considered them inspired. Until the changes of the Vatican II Council, the Greek Septuagint, just as it had been translated in the third century BC, continued to be used by Christians for 1500 years and became known as the "Old" Testament.
ROMAN EMPIRE
Let's roll
the clock forward about 400 years. A lot happened in those four centuries. The Greek Empire
had fallen and was replaced by the Roman Empire. When Israel rebelled against the Romans,
the Romans crushed the rebellion. Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, and the Jewish leadership was scattered.
Judaism, which survived the Exile to Babylon, was in grave danger of not surviving the Roman onslaught. The Jews wondered how their faith and community could remain alive with their Jewish heritage so profoundly threatened.
Judaism was also challenged by a fast growing group of people known as Christians, who were regarded as renegade Jews. At first, Christians saw themselves as a branch of Judaism. They continued to read the same scriptures and worship at the synagogue. Jesus was the fulfillment of the scriptures as he himself said: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17).
After Christ's death and resurrection, hostility and suspicion arose between Jews and Christians who began to see themselves as distinct from Jews. This caused great confusion among traditional Jews. Unsurprisingly, the Jews decided that Christians could no longer participate in the synagogue and were not to be considered Jews. The Jews initiated procedures that brought about a formal split with Christians. We see this in John's gospel in the Healing of the Blind man.
[The Blind Man's] parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself." His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue (John 9:20-22).
LATIN VULGATE
Christians in the West now spoke
Latin. There were numerous attempts at re-translation of the scriptures
into Latin, but this was done from the Greek text not the Hebrew. It would not be until the early 4th century
when Jerome
was commissioned by Pope Damasus to compose an entirely new translation in
Latin, this time from the Hebrew text. Jerome discovered that the Jews had a different
Bible, which he wrongly believed was the Bible used in Jesus' time. He wanted to adopt the Jewish canon, but the tradition of the Church prevailed. Hence the Latin
Bible known as the Vulgate (Latin vulgata, or
"common" ), contain the same books as the Greek Septuagint. Catholics call these seven books:
Deuterocanonical, meaning "in the second listing" or "Second
Canon." This does not mean that they are second in importance, but
because they were settled at a later time than the
Protocanonical books (the "First Canon").
PROTESTANT REFORMATION - LUTHER 16TH CENTURY
Let's roll our time-machine forward again. In 1520 AD. Martin
Luther, an Augustinian monk, openly
rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church. Luther decided that those who followed his reformation of the Church would use the Hebrew version of the scriptures. Luther and his followers accepted the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Old Testament as normative and rejected the seven
Deuterocanonical books, calling them apocryphal (meaning "hidden" ) because
they did not accept them as inspired. Some other books of the Christian era
were called into question such as the letters of James, Hebrews, Jude and the
book of Revelation, but Luther was unsuccessful in excluding them. Luther's next step
was to translate the Bible into the German vernacular from the unfamiliar Latin so that
everyone in Germany, not just the educated few, could read it.
The Catholic reaction to the Protestant Reformation came with the Council of Trent
(1545-63 AD). The Council Fathers accepted the 27 books in the New Testament, originally written in Greek, and the 46 books in the
Greek Septuagint Old Testament, following what appeared to be a firm tradition of the Church from ancient times. The Council settled the question of canonicity for Catholics, making the Latin
Vulgate the official Bible for generations. Although we use the terms "Catholic" and
Protestant" Bibles, in fact, what we really have are "Hebrew" and
"Greek"
Bibles. Most Bibles, either Catholic or Protestant, have adopted an order inspired by the Greek Septuagint version.
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