Should we take out the books of the Bible that we now know no longer fit the original criteria for the. . .?

Question

Biblical canon? One of the criteria was that it was apostolic in nature. We now suspect many books of the Bible as not having the authorship they claim. The Books of Peter, Moses, and I think Mark, for example.

umm, did anyone stop to consider that Revelation was not part of the BIble when it was written? At the time it was written, the "Word of God" that you are not supposed to add or take away from was the Jewish Torah/Septuagint etc. So by canonizing a whole other section of the Bible, we already added to what was originally there.

And I didn't mean to never read or learn from them, but to just take them out of the Bible that we say is definitely God's word. It's not really that absurd if you actually put a little bit of thought to it. Going by your logic of "learning" from it, we should be just fine to put other gospels back in the Bible, such as the gospels of Judas and Thomas. Who cares who actually wrote them if we can learn from them, right?

And you call ME many synonyms for unintelligent. It is people like you who make me realize how ignorant Christians can be and make me want to abandon Christianity altogether.

Answer 1

Before you start changing the Bible, maybe you should read this warning from the Book of Revelation:


Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [from] the things which are written in this book.

Jesus Himself said that Moses was the author of the first five books. The authorship of Peter and Mark have been well established for centuries.

No, I don't want to take any books out of the Bible.

Answer 2

There was no "Biblical Canon" until the Council of Trent. The books compiled in the 4th century were not canonized.

Every book of the Bible has a disputed authorship, but there is no way to rule out apostolic authorship of any book in the New Testament. The preferred criteria was always this: Which books are read publicly in the Churches? The canon is determined by the lectionary.

It really doesn't make much sense to remove books from the canon based on suspicion of authorship. If we did, we would remove the entire Bible. And the same suspicions that we have today were voiced when the canon was originally compiled.

Otherwise, the books of the Bible that are not under suspicion are the non-pastoral letters of Paul. Everything else in the Bible is of disputed authorship.

Answer 3

Biblical scholars have debated the authors of the Bible since critical analysis began (right away!). The early Christians were scattered from Asia Minor, Greece, Jerusalem, and Rome and each proclaimed to have the true doctrine while denouncing one another as frauds. At the council of Trent the books to be included in the NT were chosen on the basis of the doctrine they contained, not authorship. I do not think that any church would make a change in the Bible on the basis of authorship.

Answer 4

Moses was a prophet not an apostle.
He did write the first five books and the book of Job.

An apostle had to be someone that Jesus selected.
Luke was not an apostle, but he was a believer and Paul's doctor.
He wrote his gospel after he interviewed many that where there and witnessed Jesus firsthand.

Peter certainly wrote 1Peter and 2Peter.
John Mark did write the gospel according to Mark.

Paul wrote most of the New Testament and those letters could stand alone. Paul's letters are a Bible unto themselves, so to speak.

There is not much Paul does not cover.

grace2u

Answer 5

You talk to THE author, and YOU tell HIM that you're going to mess with HIS word. Guess what, He'll still love you! And love you some more. Though some only believe that it was Moshe and David, Peter, James, and John (let's not forget rav Shaul) who wrote the scriptures, remember what is written in 2 Timothy 3:16 all scripture is inspired by G-d (Theo [G-d]- pneustra [breathed]). We have scientific proof of this from work done by Ivan Panin and a link to some information about it is posted for you. Frankly, don't look for any alteration in the canon of scripture because of what you postulate, because I'm very familiar with the author. Very familiar.

Answer 6

Peter was an apostle. An apostle was one "who saw the Lord", and the Greek word meant "captain/admiral of the Greek navy". By assuming the name apostle, the early church figures wanted to distinguish themselves as the admirals, as it were, of the Christian church. The Old Testament authors were not "apostles" because they hadn't seen Jesus, yet we have the Old Testament because it is a prelude to the New, because only by reading the Old Testament can we understand what God's grace is saving us from. It is supposed that Mark was an eyewitness, but not one of the twelve, but sorta tagged along with them nonetheless. Luke was not an eyewitness, he was a convert of Paul and wrote both the gospel bearing his name and the Acts of the Apostles. The importance of Luke is that he functions as a historian, and being a physician he was well educated, and being a physician he was interested in the compassion of Jesus and the social importance of his teachings. Paul was considered an apostle because of his revelation on the road to Damascus.

The significance of the books of the New Testament is that they corroborate an entire story, though they differ enough to show that they were not edited and the writers did not collaborate with each other about exactly what to write, but largely wrote from their own memory or their own investigation, such as in the case of Luke.

Answer 7

Every generation has someone wanting to take a book out of the Bible. Even Martin Luther wanted to take the book of James out of the Bible.

Thank goodness no book has ever been taken out of the Bible. They are always so helpful the next generation.

Answer 8

Other religions take away or add to the word of GOD.. But there is a warning about doing such things...


Rev 22:14-21

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Answer 9

Various books of the Bible were not written by the authors that are attributed to them. Out of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.....it is believe that all but one were written by the same person, and it is believed that none of the people mentioned wrote any of them.

Instead of the books being written by the people they are named after....it is believed that the books are named after those people to honor that person.

Answer 10

Denying the Word of GOD is blasphemy. All scripture is GOD breathed. All the books of the bible are scriptural.

The thing to keep your heart head and hands on is the fact that if your name is not written in the lambs book of life then your destination is hell.