What is the set of scriptures sometimes refered to by Protestants as extra-biblical? And where could I get a copy of them? I was raised Baptist and so have never gotten a chance to read them. I was recently asked by a Catholic friend of mine why they would conflict with the Bible and had to admit I don't know. I would like to study them for myself to see the differences and similarities.
2006-11-27 13:52:04 · 7 answers · asked by West Coast Nomad 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The texts Protestants refer to as "deuterocaninical" are the seven sacred books that their founder, Martin Luther, tore out of the Word of God and threw away. These you can easily find in any complete Bible, available at any Catholic bookstore. Even some Protestant Bibles are now including these seven books, either between the Old and New Testaments or at the very end. But in a Catholic Bible they will be right where they always have been, in their proper order within the Old Testament.
However, while these seven books are and always have been part of the Holy Bible (as are the three New Testament books Luther tried unsuccessfully to throw), there are a great many apocryphal writings like the Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Mary, the Shepherd of Hermes, and many others. Most of these can be found online under "apocrypha" or "apocryphal writings". These are texts that were rejected by the Catholic Church when it compiled the Canon of Scripture at the end of the 4th Century. As for the so-called "deuterocanonical books", Protestants offer a number of fanciful versions as to just how and when the Catholic Church "added" these texts to the Bible; but the plain historical fact is that the original Canon of Scripture, defined once and for all time at the Council of Carthage in 397 AD, consisted of 73 divinely inspired books - 46 Old Testament and 27 New Testament - and not a word of the text has been changed, added, or removed since that time - except by Protestants.
2006-11-27 14:15:28 · answer #1 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
When the Jewish people were first scattered all over several of them went to outlaying areas and over time did not read Hebrew or Aramaic any longer but, because of trade most everyone read Greek so the Scriptures were translated into Greek (The Septuagint) and at that time there were these seven books in the Scriptures. These books (The Apocrypha) were in the Scriptures that Jesus and all the Apostles used and they remained there until the reformation when Protestants thought they knew more than God (Jesus did not delete these) and took them out of the Bible. Several pieces support Catholic Doctrines so this is partly why they were removed. There is even a part in the book of the Maccabees that talks about a woman and her sons being put to death for their Faith and how she will be spoken of for all time because of this but, why would they remove her? Also in the book of Tobit we are introduced to the Archangel Rafael, why would they do away with him? How can they say these were not inspired Scriptures. Something is rotten in Denmark, if you know what I mean.
2006-11-27 14:35:50 · answer #2 · answered by Midge 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
The New Testament canon of the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are the same.
The difference in the Old Testaments actually goes back to the time before and during Christ’s life. At this time, there was no official Jewish canon of scripture.
The Jews in Egypt translated their choices of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the second century before Christ. This translation, called the Septuagint, had wide use in the Roman world because most Jews lived far from Palestine in Greek cities. Many of these Jews spoke only Greek.
The early Christian Church was born into this world. The Church, with its bilingual Jews and more and more Greek-speaking Gentiles, used the books of the Septuagint as its Bible. Remember the early Christians were just writing the documents what would become the New Testament.
After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, with increasing persecution from the Romans and competition from the fledgling Christian Church, the Jewish leaders came together and declared its official canon of Scripture, eliminating seven books from the Septuagint.
The books removed were Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom (of Solomon), Sirach, and Baruch. Parts of existing books were also removed including Psalm 151 (from Psalms), parts of the Book of Esther, Susanna (from Daniel as chapter 13), and Bel and the Dragon (from Daniel as chapter 14).
The Christian Church did not follow suit but kept all the books in the Septuagint.
1500 years later, Protestants decided to change its Old Testament from the Catholic canon to the Jewish canon. The books they dropped are sometimes called the Apocrypha.
Here is a Catholic Bible website: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/
With love in Christ.
2006-11-27 17:43:47 · answer #3 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋
It's called the Apocrypha. You can probably even find those books online, but if not...you can just buy a Catholic bible or find one in the library. The books will be between the old and new testament.
Here's a website that may help.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/apo/index.htm
2006-11-27 13:53:44 · answer #4 · answered by Lisa E 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You can find a Catholic Bible at Christian Book stores. They will contain the Apocryphal books. One of the reasons that the Prostestant bible don't have them is because Jesus never refered to these books in his teachings.
2006-11-27 16:54:10 · answer #5 · answered by Freedom 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
There are other scriptures, try the Gnostic Scriptures for some alternate reading on what the disciples said.
2006-11-27 14:13:00 · answer #6 · answered by Old guy 124 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
never heard of 'em. there are a lot of writings that the church judged uninspired so they were not chosen to become part of the bible tho
2006-11-27 13:57:57 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋