Why do the Catholic Church, Protestant Churches and Greek Orthodox Church have different biblical canons?

Question

Thrown in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with another canon.

It just show that the bible is a human construction.

Answer 1

Different people make up different canons.

Answer 2

I haven't studied the Greek Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox canons, but here is my take on the Catholic canon vs Protestant canon.

The New Testament canon of the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are the same with 27 Books.

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 of 46 books, 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. 46 + 27 = 73 Books total.

1500 years later, Protestants decided to keep the Catholic New Testament but 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.

Answer 3

The Roman Catholic Church use the Latin Vulgate and the Eastern Orthodox use the Septuagint, which includes some books that are not in the Hebrew Bible. Those books, translated from the Septuagint, are designated deuterocanonical in the Latin Vulgate Bible. Protestant Bibles follow the Jewish scheme and exclude these books. The Vulgate is an early 5th century version of the Bible in Latin which is largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. Its Old Testament is the first Latin version translated directly from the Hebrew Tanakh (Torah) rather than from the Greek Septuagint. The Septuagint is a collection of Jewish scriptures in Koine Greek, translated in stages between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC in Alexandria. It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Who should you believe? Both... it is just that one is a Latin and the other a Greek translation. There are some good English translations available today, besides the King James Version. I prefer the New American Standard Bible myself, which adheres as closely as possible to the original languages according to current English usage.

Answer 4

Because canon is a good way to lead a person away from God.
It is a serious mistake, to identify Jesus and His heavenly Father with the god of the Old testament.
Catholic Church, Protestant Churches and Greek Orthodox Church have done this mistake. They have lost the true imige of God and tried to create their own one, that would be profitable for them.That's why the Bible has a lot of introduced by man.

Answer 5

" The Apocrypha refers to 14 or 15 books of doubtful authenticity and authority that the Roman Catholics decided belonged in the Bible sometime following the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Council of Trent (1545-1563) canonized these books. This canonization took place largely as a result of the Protestant Reformation. Indeed, Luther had criticized the Catholics for not having scriptural support fur such doctrines as praying for the dead. By canonizing the Apocrypha (which offers support for praying for the dead in 2 Macabese 23:45-46), the Catholics suddenly had "scriptural" support for this and other distinctively Catholic doctrines.
Roman Catholics argue that the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament) contained the Apocrypha. As well, church fathers like Iranians, Tortellini, and Clement of Alexandria used the apocryphal books in public worship and accepted them as Scripture. Further, it is argued, St. Augustine viewed these books as inspired.
Protestants respond by pointing out that even though some of the Apocryphal books may have been alluded to in the New Testament, no New Testament writer EVER quoted from ANY of these books as holy Scripture or gave them the slightest authority as inspired books. Jesus and the disciples virtually ignored these books, something that wouldn't have been the case if they had considered them to be inspired.
Moreover, even though certain church fathers spoke approvingly of the Apocrypha, there were other early church fathers - notable Origin and Jerome - who denied their inspiration. Further, even though the early Augustine acknowledged the Apocrypha, in his later years he rejected these books as being outside the canon and considered them inferior to the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Jewish Council of Jamie, which met in A.D. 90, rejected the Apocrypha as Scripture. Combine all this with the fact that there are clear historical errors in the Apocrypha (especially those relating to Obit) and the fact that it contains unbiblical doctrines (like praying for the dead), and it is clear that these books do not belong in the Bible. In addition, unlike many of the biblical books, THERE IS NO CLAIM IN ANY APOCRYPHAL BOOK IN REGARD TO DIVINE INSPIRATION.

Answer 6

I daresay the average person on R&S isn't even aware of all those canons. In their view, the Protestant canon is THE canon, and the Catholic Church "added books" in the 16th century. Pathetic.

Answer 7

very simple. the bible, or any other comparable religious doctrines, is just mans interpretation of the word of God. there is room for error and misinterpretation because it was written by people who probably didn't have a complete understanding of what they were hearing or seeing. this is why the religious texts should be taken with a grain of salt. they should be used as examples and philosophical interpretations. it should never be taken literally because we are no longer living in the times that it was written. the social standards of then, which had a large influence on how man interpreted and wrote the texts, were very different from today. now days people are putting their own meaning in to the words of ancient men. its not that any are wrong or right, its just an example of how every ones faith is individual. every persons interactions with their higher power will be individual to them and they will go by their doctrines accordingly. hope this helps.

Answer 8

Because to some religion is a buffet line where you should be able to take only the things you can actually paltably swallow. Those things which sound distasteful or bitter should be left on the line instead of being put on your plate. Such is the thought of many and the reason why we have so many world faiths and doctrines.

Answer 9

The question speaks to biblical canons - these are the lists of books contained in the Bible used by a particular church or religion. The early Christian church fathers collected the scrolls written on by humans which they believed were inspired by God. They worked with the Jewish scrolls of the day and determined which of the Old Testament books to include in their list (canon) for the Christian Bible.

Lots of human interest prevailed so they had ecumencial councils to determine the list (canon) accepted in each generation. The first of these councils was held in Jerusalem and documented in the Acts of the Apostles. This council did not have to address the list (canon) because all the fathers (apostles) were then in agreement.

Because their was continued contention about certain writing or scrolls. The church fathers called for a Council at Nicea. Most Christian churches accepted the list (canon) of scrolls (books) in the Bible established by the Council at Nicea in 325.

When some of the Eastern Orthodox churches split from the Roman church in the 11th Century, the list (canon) of books in the Bible used by each faith (church) was then adjusted by East and West as their authorities agreed in councils.

When the Protestant Reformation occurred in the 16th and 17th Century each of the Prostenant Churches created its own list (canon) of books in the Bible used by each faith (church).

Believe it or not, the original King James Version of the Bible, 1611, had the same list (canon) of 80 books as the Douai-Rheims version used by the Roman Catholic Church at that time. King James insisted on the removal of certain books because they went against the desires of the Church of England for morality (i.e. divorce and remarriage) and beliefs (i.e. purgatory).

Because most of the Christian churches (faiths) outside of the Roman Catholic Church do not believe in a supreme earthly authority, i.e. the "Rock" upon which Christ built His Church, who speaks for Jesus on Earth, which has a direct line of succession from Peter with the apostolic succession of bishops in the Magisterium of the Church around him to act in councils, it is difficult for them to justify changes in the list (canon) of scrolls or books in the Bible.

Answer 10

I take it you have not read the Gospels. Jesus is the enemy of organized religion. They will not make their churches houses of prayer. Instead they make doctrines, rites, and money making projects. The religious system is identified as the "Great Whore" that has committed fornication with the kings of the whole earth. Why do you care about their misguided intentions? You and I need to deliver your own souls- they will receive double judgment.

Answer 11

because of schisms and divisions.Catholics, Protestants and Greek Orthodox churches are all division of Christianty.they worship the same God and can't agree to disagree.