Is there any part of the Old & New testaments that hasn't been bastardized by one Protestant Sect or another?

Question

Christian Bibles have expanded versions of several of these books (Ester, Ezra, Daniel, Jeremiah and Chronicles) including extra material that is not accepted as canonical in Judaism. This extra material was part of the ancient Greek translation of the Tanakh, but was never a part of the official Hebrew Tanakh. Jews regard the additional material as apocryphal. Among Christians, there is a difference of opinion. Catholics regard this material as canonical, while many Protestant sects regard this material as Apocrypha. What is and is not regarded as Apocrypha varies among the many Christian sects.

Cite:http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Tanakh.html

I hope all that read this Q&A that they have not been able to Name a single part.....perhaps because they know the next question would bring forth the bastardized section and words of that part. They would look even more foolish and hateful than they already are.

The Best Answer wrote a paradox for me to solve. I don't believe I can. If Christians would gladly allow every philosophical or religious thought written with the possibility of helping humankind full space in the sun of attention and study of all, I would have few problems. But, they denigrate and deny all others and the bastardize their own as well. Then they force feed Christianity to children from the moment the children have any understanding at all, but no critical judgement.

The Best answer is a truth, but it is a truth twisted and denied by the need for power and control in several major religions.

Answer 1

No, there isn't any part of the Old & New Testament that hasn't been bastardized by ANYONE.

But does it really matter? I mean, if someone reads a book - ANY book - and they take it to heart and make changes in their lives that enriches their spiritual life - shouldn't we all as spiritual people ourselves - be happy for them?

Someone was an alcoholic and ruining his/her life as well as his/her family's but read The Bible and decided that there was a meaning to his/her life.

Someone else was abusing drugs but read the Vedas and found meaning to his/her life.

Someone else was suicidal but studied Tao Te Ching and found new meaning to his/her existance.

Shouldn't we celebrate their revelations? Aren't all words really inspired by The Divine any way? My thoughts - my emotions - my inspirations are all products from my spiritual connection to The Divine. Aren't yours?

Answer 2

I think some of the other Scriptures don't really relate to the purpose of what the OT was about. We know that the "Standard" Bible does not include these because they do not talk about the coming of Christ. Some of those scriptures are historical as well as Romantic. Esdras can be compared to Nehemiah and Ezra. Maccabees is about the Revolt and the establishment of the Hasmonean State. (Although probably worth reading from a historical point.) But the nature of the Bible was basically to show the predictions of the coming of a Savior, (OT) Which then can be confirmed by the NT through the Ministry of Christ. (A three year reign, I believe. *Strange how in three years he was able to conquer Rome by words alone.)

Answer 3

First, Protestants do not have sects, they have denominations. Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholics are sects.

Second, there are tens of thousands of ancient manucripts of the Bible in existence, 95% of them containing the exact same words. The Dead Sea Scrolls from the 1st and 2nd century BC also contains a copy of all of the Old Testament books except Esther. The King James version - the ultimate "Protestant Bible version" - is 99.99% word for word accurate in its English translation when compared to the manuscripts. Christian Bibles do NOT have expanded materials in the books you mention - the Roman Catholic religion uses the Apocrypha, which is totally denounced by Christians as heresy. The Old Testament of the King James Version contains the exact same text of the Ben Chayyim Messoretic Text of the Hebrew Scriptures that are used in synagogues around the world.

I'm afraid your accusations are totally unfounded and uneducated.

-Rev. Jim Cunningham

Answer 4

Have a corn dog. It is the real thing. Promise.

Answer 5

They are not honest to themselves so why would they honestly answer you ?


.

Answer 6

--THE BIBLE CANON did not depend on any special counsil of the church state to be established---IT WAS established at the death of the last legitimate Bible biographer John!

*** si Study Number 4—The Bible and Its Canon ***
--Studies on the Inspired Scriptures and Their Background
--The origin of the word “Bible”; determining which books rightfully belong in the Divine Library; rejection of the Apocrypha.
--SINCE the inspired Scriptures are commonly referred to as the Bible, it is of interest to inquire into the origin and meaning of the word “Bible.” It is derived from the Greek word bi·bli′a, which means “little books.” This, in turn, is derived from bi′blos, a word describing the inner part of the papyrus plant from which, in ancient times, a “paper” for writing was produced. (The Phoenician port of Gebal, through which papyrus was imported from Egypt, came to be called Byblos by the Greeks. See Joshua 13:5, footnote.) Various written communications upon this type of material became known by the word bi·bli′a. Thus, bi·bli′a came to describe any writings, scrolls, books, documents, or scriptures or even a library collection of little books.
--2 Surprisingly, the word “Bible” itself generally is not found in the text of English or other-language translations of the Holy Scriptures. However, by the second century B.C.E., the collection of the inspired books of the Hebrew Scriptures was referred to as ta bi·bli′a in the Greek language. At Daniel 9:2 the prophet wrote: “I myself, Daniel, discerned by the books . . . ” Here the Septuagint has bi′blois, the dative plural form of bi′blos. At 2 Timothy 4:13, Paul wrote: “When you come, bring . . . the scrolls [Greek, bi·bli′a].” In their several grammatical forms, the Greek words bi·bli′on and bi′blos occur more than 40 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures and are usually translated “scroll(s)” or “book(s).” Bi·bli′a was later used in Latin as a singular word, and from the Latin, the word “Bible” came into the English language.
--3 It Is God’s Word. While various men were used in the inspired writing of it and still others have shared in translating it from the original tongues into the written languages of today, the Bible is, in the fullest sense, God’s Word, his own inspired revelation to men. The inspired writers themselves viewed it this way, as is evidenced by their use of such phrases as “expression of Jehovah’s mouth” (Deut. 8:3), “sayings of Jehovah” (Josh. 24:27), “commandments of Jehovah” (Ezra 7:11), “law of Jehovah” (Ps. 19:7), “word of Jehovah” (Isa. 38:4), ‘utterance of Jehovah’ (Matt. 4:4), and “Jehovah’s word” (1 Thess. 4:15).
***THE DIVINE LIBRARY
--4 What man knows today as the Bible is in fact a collection of ancient divinely inspired documents. These were composed and compiled in written form over a period of 16 centuries. All together this collection of documents forms what Jerome well described in Latin as the Bibliotheca Divina, or the Divine Library. This library has a catalog, or official listing of publications, which is limited to those books pertaining to the scope and specialization of that library. All unauthorized books are excluded. Jehovah God is the Great Librarian who sets the standard that determines which writings should be included. So the Bible has a fixed catalog that contains 66 books, all products of God’s guiding holy spirit.
--5 The collection, or list, of books accepted as genuine and inspired Scripture is often referred to as the Bible canon. Originally, the reed (Hebrew, qa·neh′) served as a measuring rod if a piece of wood was not at hand. The apostle Paul applied the Greek word ka·non′ to a “rule of conduct” as well as to the “territory” measured out as his assignment. (Gal. 6:16, footnote; 2 Cor. 10:13) So canonical books are those that are true and inspired and worthy to be used as a straightedge in determining the right faith, doctrine, and conduct. If we use books that are not “straight” as a plumb line, our “building” will not be true, and it will fail the test of the Master Surveyor.
--6 Determining Canonicity. What are some of the divine indications that have determined the canonicity of the 66 books of the Bible? First of all, the documents must deal with Jehovah’s affairs in the earth, turning men to his worship and stimulating deep respect for his name and for his work and purposes in the earth. They must give evidence of inspiration, that is, that they are products of holy spirit. (2 Pet. 1:21) There must be no appeal to superstition or creature worship but, rather, an appeal to love and service of God. There would have to be nothing in any of the individual writings that would conflict with the internal harmony of the whole, but, rather, each book must, by its unity with the others, support the one authorship, that of Jehovah God. We would also expect the writings to give evidence of accuracy down to the smallest details. In addition to these basic essentials, there are other specific indications of inspiration, and therefore of canonicity, according to the nature of each book’s contents, and these have been discussed herein in the introductory material to each of the Bible books. Also, there are special circumstances that apply to the Hebrew Scriptures and others to the Christian Greek Scriptures that help in establishing the Bible canon.
***THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
--7 It should not be thought that acceptance of what constituted inspired Scripture had to wait till the completion of the Hebrew canon in the fifth century B.C.E. The writings of Moses under the direction of God’s spirit were from the very beginning accepted by the Israelites as inspired, of divine authorship. When completed, the Pentateuch constituted the canon up to that time. Further revelations concerning Jehovah’s purposes given to men under inspiration would need to follow logically and be in harmony with the fundamental principles concerning true worship that are set forth in the Pentateuch. We have seen this to be true when we considered the different Bible books, especially as these deal directly with that grand theme of the Bible, the sanctification of Jehovah’s name and the vindication of his sovereignty by means of the Kingdom under Christ, the Promised Seed.
--8 The Hebrew Scriptures, especially, abound with prophecy. Jehovah himself, through Moses, provided the basis for establishing the genuineness of prophecy, whether it was really from God or not, and this helped to determine the canonicity of a prophetic book. (Deut. 13:1-3; 18:20-22) An examination of each of the prophetic books of the Hebrew Scriptures along with the Bible as a whole and secular history establishes beyond doubt that “the word” they spoke was in Jehovah’s name, that it did “occur or come true,” either completely or in a miniature or partial way when it had to do with things yet future, and that it turned the people toward God. Meeting these requirements established the prophecy as being genuine and inspired.
--9 Quotations by Jesus and the inspired writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures provide a direct way of establishing the canonicity of many of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, although this measure is not applicable to all, for example, the books of Esther and Ecclesiastes. In considering the matter of canonicity, then, one other most important factor must be kept in mind, one that applies to the entire Bible canon. Just as Jehovah inspired men to write down his divine communications for their instruction, upbuilding, and encouragement in his worship and service, so it logically follows that Jehovah would direct and guide the collating of the inspired writings and the establishing of the Bible canon. He would do this so that there would be no doubt as to what made up his Word of truth and what would constitute the enduring measuring line of true worship. Indeed, only in this way could creatures on earth continue to be given ‘a new birth through the word of God’ and be able to testify that “the saying of Jehovah endures forever.”—1 Pet. 1:23, 25.
--10 Establishing the Hebrew Canon. Jewish tradition credits Ezra with beginning the compiling and cataloging of the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures, and it says that this was completed by Nehemiah. Ezra was certainly well equipped for such a work, being one of the inspired Bible writers himself as well as a priest, scholar, and official copyist of sacred writings. (Ezra 7:1-11) There is no reason to doubt the traditional view that the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures was fixed by the end of the fifth century B.C.E.
--11 We today list 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures; the traditional Jewish canon, while including these same books, counts them as 24. Some authorities, by putting Ruth with Judges and Lamentations with Jeremiah, counted the number of books as 22, though still holding to exactly the same canonical writings. This made the number of inspired books equal the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The following is the list of the 24 books according to the traditional Jewish canon:
--The Law (The Pentateuch)
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy

The Prophets
6. Joshua
7. Judges
8. Samuel (First and Second together as one book)
9. Kings (First and Second together as one book)
10. Isaiah
11. Jeremiah
12. Ezekiel
13. The Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, as one book)

**The Writings (Hagiographa)

14. Psalms
15. Proverbs
16. Job
17. The Song of Solomon
18. Ruth
19. Lamentations
20. Ecclesiastes
21. Esther
22. Daniel
23. Ezra (Nehemiah was included with Ezra)
24. Chronicles (First and Second together as one book)

--12 This was the catalog, or canon, that was accepted as inspired Scripture by Christ Jesus and the early Christian congregation. It was only from these writings that the inspired writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures quoted, and by introducing such quotations with expressions like “as it is written,” they confirmed these as being the Word of God. (Rom. 15:9) Jesus, in speaking of the complete inspired Scriptures written up till the time of his ministry, referred to the things recorded in “the law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms.” (Luke 24:44) Here “Psalms,” as the first book of the Hagiographa, is used to refer to this whole section. The last historical book to be included in the Hebrew canon was that of Nehemiah. That this was under the direction of God’s spirit is seen in that this book alone provides the starting point for reckoning Daniel’s outstanding prophecy that “from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem” until the coming of the Messiah there would be a period of 69 prophetic weeks. (Dan. 9:25; Neh. 2:1-8; 6:15) The book of Nehemiah also provides the historical background for the last of the prophetic books, Malachi. That Malachi belongs in the canon of the inspired Scriptures cannot be doubted, since even Jesus, the Son of God, quoted it a number of times. (Matt. 11:10, 14) While similar quotations are made from the majority of the books of the Hebrew canon, all of which were written prior to Nehemiah and Malachi, the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures make no quotations from any so-called inspired writings written after the time of Nehemiah and Malachi down to the time of Christ. This confirms the traditional view of the Jews, and also the belief of the Christian congregation of the first century C.E., that the Hebrew Scripture canon ended with the writings of Nehemiah and Malachi.
***APOCRYPHAL BOOKS OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
--13 What are the Apocryphal books? These are the writings that some have included in certain Bibles but that have been rejected by others because they do not bear evidence of having been inspired by God. The Greek word a·po′kry·phos refers to things “carefully concealed.” (Mark 4:22; Luke 8:17; Col. 2:3) The term is applied to books of doubtful authorship or authority or those which, while considered to be of some value for personal reading, lacked evidence of divine inspiration. Such books were kept apart and not read publicly, hence the thought of “concealed.” At the Council of Carthage, in 397 C.E., it was proposed that seven of the Apocryphal books be added to the Hebrew Scriptures, along with additions to the canonical books of Esther and Daniel. However, it was not until as late as 1546, at the Council of Trent, that the Roman Catholic Church definitely confirmed the acceptance of these additions into its catalog of Bible books. These additions were Tobit, Judith, additions to Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, three additions to Daniel, First Maccabees, and Second Maccabees.
--14 The book of First Maccabees, while not in any way to be reckoned as an inspired book, contains information that is of historical interest. It gives an account of the struggle of the Jews for independence during the second century B.C.E. under the leadership of the priestly family of the Maccabees. The rest of the Apocryphal books are full of myths and superstitions and abound with errors. They were never referred to or quoted by Jesus or the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures.
--15 The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, of the first century C.E., in his work Against Apion (I, 38-41 [8]), refers to all the books that were recognized by the Hebrews as sacred. He wrote: “We do not possess myriads of inconsistent books, conflicting with each other. Our books, those which are justly accredited, are but two and twenty [the equivalent of our 39 today, as is shown in paragraph 11], and contain the record of all time. Of these, five are the books of Moses, comprising the laws and the traditional history from the birth of man down to the death of the lawgiver. . . . From the death of Moses until Artaxerxes, who succeeded Xerxes as king of Persia, the prophets subsequent to Moses wrote the history of the events of their own times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life.” Thus Josephus shows that the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures had been fixed long before the first century C.E.
--16 Biblical scholar Jerome, who completed the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible about 405 C.E., was quite definite in his position on the Apocryphal books. After listing the inspired books, using the same counting as Josephus, numbering the 39 inspired books of the Hebrew Scriptures as 22, he writes in his prologue to the books of Samuel and Kings in the Vulgate: “Thus there are twenty-two books . . . This prologue of the Scriptures can serve as a fortified approach to all the books which we translate from the Hebrew into Latin; so that we may know that whatever is beyond these must be put in the apocrypha.”
***THE CHRISTIAN GREEK SCRIPTURES
--17 The Roman Catholic Church claims responsibility for the decision as to which books should be included in the Bible canon, and reference is made to the Council of Carthage (397 C.E.), where a catalog of books was formulated. The opposite is true, however, because the canon, including the list of books making up the Christian Greek Scriptures, was already settled by then, that is, not by the decree of any council, but by the direction of God’s holy spirit—the same spirit that inspired the writing of those books in the first place. The testimony of later noninspired catalogers is valuable only as an acknowledgment of the Bible canon, which God’s spirit had authorized.
--18 The Evidence of Early Catalogs. A glance at the accompanying chart reveals that a number of fourth-century catalogs of the Christian Scriptures, dated prior to the above-mentioned council, agree exactly with our present canon, and some others omit only Revelation. Before the end of the second century, there is universal acceptance of the four Gospels, Acts, and 12 of the apostle Paul’s letters. Only a few of the smaller writings were doubted in certain areas. Likely this was so because such writings were limited in their initial circulation for one reason or another and thus took longer to become accepted as canonical.
--19 One of the most interesting early catalogs is the fragment discovered by L. A. Muratori in the Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy, and published by him in 1740. Though the beginning is missing, its reference to Luke as the third Gospel indicates that it first mentioned Matthew and Mark. The Muratorian Fragment, which is in Latin, dates to the latter part of the second century C.E. It is a most interesting document, as the following partial translation shows: “The third book of the Gospel is that according to Luke. Luke, the well-known physician, wrote it in his own name . . . The fourth book of the Gospel is that of John, one of the disciples. . . . And so to the faith of believers there is no discord, even although different selections are given from the facts in the individual books of the Gospels, because in all [of them] under the one guiding Spirit all the things relative to his nativity, passion, resurrection, conversation with his disciples, and his twofold advent, the first in the humiliation arising from contempt, which took place, and the second in the glory of kingly power, which is yet to come, have been declared. What marvel is it, then, if John adduces so consistently in his epistles these several things, saying in person: ‘what we have seen with our eyes, and heard with our ears, and our hands have handled, those things we have written.’ For thus he professes to be not only an eyewitness but also a hearer and narrator of all the wonderful things of the Lord, in their order. Moreover, the acts of all the apostles are written in one book. Luke [so] comprised them for the most excellent Theophilus . . . Now the epistles of Paul, what they are, whence or for what reason they were sent, they themselves make clear to him who will understand. First of all he wrote at length to the Corinthians to prohibit the schism of heresy, then to the Galatians [against] circumcision, and to the Romans on the order of the Scriptures, intimating also that Christ is the chief matter in them—each of which it is necessary for us to discuss, seeing that the blessed Apostle Paul himself, following the example of his predecessor John, writes to no more than seven churches by name in the following order: to the Corinthians (first), to the Ephesians (second), to the Philippians (third), to the Colossians (fourth), to the Galatians (fifth), to the Thessalonians (sixth), to the Romans (seventh). But though he writes twice for the sake of correction to the Corinthians and the Thessalonians, that there is one church diffused throughout the whole earth is shown [?i.e., by this sevenfold writing]; and John also in the Apocalypse, though he writes to seven churches, yet speaks to all. But [he wrote] out of affection and love one to Philemon, and one to Titus, and two to Timothy; [and these] are held sacred in the honorable esteem of the Church. . . . Further, an epistle of Jude and two bearing the name of John are counted . . . We receive the apocalypses of John and Peter only, which [latter] some of us do not wish to be read in church.”—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1956, Vol. VIII, page 56.
--20 It is noted that toward the end of the Muratorian Fragment, mention is made of just two epistles of John. However, on this point the above-mentioned encyclopedia, page 55, notes that these two epistles of John “can only be the second and third, whose writer calls himself merely ‘the elder.’ Having already treated the first, though only incidentally, in connection with the Fourth Gospel, and there declared his unquestioning belief in its Johannine origin, the author felt able here to confine himself to the two smaller letters.” As to the apparent absence of any mention of Peter’s first epistle, this source continues: “The most probable hypothesis is that of the loss of a few words, perhaps a line, in which I Peter and the Apocalypse of John were named as received.” Therefore, from the standpoint of the Muratorian Fragment, this encyclopedia, on page 56, concludes: “The New Testament is regarded as definitely made up of the four Gospels, the Acts, thirteen epistles of Paul, the Apocalypse of John, probably three epistles of his, Jude, and probably I Peter, while the opposition to another of Peter’s writings was not yet silenced.”
--21 Origen, about the year 230 C.E., accepted among the inspired Scriptures the books of Hebrews and James, both missing from the Muratorian Fragment. While he indicates that some doubted their canonical quality, this also shows that by this time, the canonicity of most of the Greek Scriptures was accepted, only a few doubting some of the less well-known epistles. Later, Athanasius, Jerome, and Augustine acknowledged the conclusions of earlier lists by defining as the canon the same 27 books that we now have.
--22 The majority of the catalogs in the chart are specific lists showing which books were accepted as canonical. Those of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen are completed from the quotations they made, which reveal how they regarded the writings referred to. These are further supplemented from the records of the early historian Eusebius. However, the fact that these writers do not mention certain canonical writings does not argue against their canonicity. It is just that they did not happen to refer to them in their writings either by choice or because of the subjects under discussion. But why do we not find exact lists earlier than the Muratorian Fragment?
--23 It was not until critics like Marcion came along in the middle of the second century C.E. that an issue arose as to which books Christians should accept. Marcion constructed his own canon to suit his doctrines, taking only certain of the apostle Paul’s letters and an expurgated form of the Gospel of Luke. This, together with the mass of apocryphal literature by then spreading throughout the world, was what led to statements by catalogers as to which books they accepted as canonical.
--24 Apocryphal Writings. Internal evidence confirms the clear division that was made between the inspired Christian writings and works that were spurious or uninspired. The Apocryphal writings are much inferior and often fanciful and childish. They are frequently inaccurate. Note the following statements by scholars on these noncanonical books:

“There is no question of any one’s having excluded them from the New Testament: they have done that for themselves.”—M. R. James, The Apocryphal New Testament, pages xi, xii.

“We have only to compare our New Testament books as a whole with other literature of the kind to realize how wide is the gulf which separates them from it. The uncanonical gospels, it is often said, are in reality the best evidence for the canonical.”—G. Milligan, The New Testament Documents, page 228.
“It cannot be said of a single writing preserved to us from the early period of the Church outside the New Testament that it could properly be added to-day to the Canon.”—K. Aland, The Problem of the New Testament Canon, page 24.
--25 Inspired Penmen. This further point is of interest. All the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures in one way or another were closely associated with the original governing body of the Christian congregation, which included apostles personally selected by Jesus. Matthew, John, and Peter were among the original 12 apostles, and Paul was later selected as an apostle but was not reckoned as one of the 12. Although Paul was not present at the special outpouring of spirit at Pentecost, Matthew, John, and Peter were there, along with James and Jude and probably Mark. (Acts 1:14) Peter specifically counts the letters of Paul in with “the rest of the Scriptures.” (2 Pet. 3:15, 16) Mark and Luke were close associates and traveling companions of Paul and Peter. (Acts 12:25; 1 Pet. 5:13; Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11) All these writers were endowed with miraculous abilities by holy spirit, either by special outpouring as occurred at Pentecost and when Paul was converted (Acts 9:17, 18) or, no doubt as in the case of Luke, by the laying on of the apostles’ hands. (Acts 8:14-17) All the writing of the Christian Greek Scriptures was completed during the time that the special gifts of the spirit were operative.
--26 Faith in the almighty God, who is the Inspirer and Preserver of his Word, makes us confident that he is the one who has guided the gathering together of its various parts. So we confidently accept the 27 books of the Christian Greek Scriptures along with the 39 of the Hebrew Scriptures as the one Bible, by the one Author, Jehovah God. His Word in its 66 books is our guide, and its entire harmony and balance testify to its completeness. All praise to Jehovah God, the Creator of this incomparable book! It can equip us completely and put our feet on the way to life. Let us use it wisely at every opportunity.
[Footnotes]
Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1973, Vol. 4, cols. 826, 827.
The Books and the Parchments, 1963, F. F. Bruce, page 112.
--Insight on the Scriptures, Vol. 1, pages 122-5.
--Insight on the Scriptures, Vol. 1, pages 129-30.