Why do protestants accept the Catholic canon of the new testament but only the Jewish Pharisaical for the old?

Question

By canon I mean the inspired books that are in the bible.

The Church decided what books where inspired.

Protestants follow the Jewish council of Jamnia held in 90 AD in their canon of the old testament.
Protestants then rather listen to the Jews than the Apostles.

Answer 1

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 2

As a Catholic... Short Answer: YES Loooonnggg Answer: The official Church's stance, has been stated in various ways throughout time, but has always been essentially the same. 1) We don't get to judge. It is God's decision. 2) It is not guaranteed that any of us go to heaven.. even Catholics. 3) God wishes ALL to be reunited with him and offers his son as an offering and a way. So all have an offer extended to them. 4) Christ established 1 church and it is through the teachings of this church that he extended salvation. So in a sense ALL have a chance because of, or through his church, even if indirectly. 5) All Christians ARE our brothers in Christ and, though, not perfectly, are therefore in 'communion' with the Catholic church to a certain degree. Even if this unity is not 100% (in other words, we share beliefs and we are all Christians) 6) Therefore, other Christian groups do have the hope of salvation just like Catholics, even if they do so without the fullness of the Sacraments and on their own. 7) Catholics hold that the "way to Salvation" as taught in the bible and through Jesus Christ and taught/spread by The Church is the normative way that God calls us to be reconciled. We are therefore bound by this normative means. - But God is not. He can do whatever is within his divine will. So there is always a small sliver of hope for anyone. (though we shouldn't bank on this) And lastly... At I mentioned, the Church's stance has been articulated in different ways. One of the main ways this idea was put forth in reaction to the Protestant Reformation for several centuries was 'There is no salvation outside of the Church" But what that rather draconian statement attempts to convey is that had the Church never existed, had the Apostles remained locked up in their room and never spread the Gospel.. had the early Church buried the truth to avoid persecution - then there would be NO salvation for the world. IF a person willfully rejects everything that the church teaches, which would include the bible and the gospels, then that person places themselves outside of God's mercy and therefore can not be saved (because they don't want to be) Make sense? -- It doesn't mean literally that if you aren't Catholic, then you are doomed. It means more generically either: A) if Christianity never existed or B) if a person rejects Christianity

Answer 3

interesting question, it would seem the only reason would be by fully accepting the canon of catholic scripture they would have to be catholic......stands to reason i guess. the early reformer luther struggled with catholic concepts he couldn't handle(his problem with indulgences makes sense to me but it was a small sect of the church acting wrongly and the church rectified the problem...). most accounts even have the jewish canon of scripture as being set up to counter that of the earliest christians(catholics). interestingly jesus quoted from the "apocrypha" or deleted books some 300 times,why did jesus quote from these scriptures if indeed they were of no importance to his message? there are many ways to go about this but at teh core it does seem that the main reason is the protestants, to whom they owe christianity in any form, would have to be catholic,the majority of whom don't understand what being a catholic is truly about and not the sad misconceptions and lack of understanding regarding the one true faith.

adding onto your additional comments, the protestants reject the same books as those who rejected jesus christ!!!!!!

Answer 4

Try reading the New Testament... concentrate on the latter parts of the "Gospels" (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) and early part of Acts.

That will explain why portions of the old Jewish Law are considered void by both Protestants and Catholics.

And... Protestants DON'T accept Catholic cannon... thats why they are called protestants... The split is based on protesting the way the Catholic church is run.

Answer 5

The early Catholic church is a far cry from what it has been the last 200 years

Answer 6

We do not accept the Catholic canon. We only accept the canon from the Nicean Council. Long before the catholic church.

Answer 7

The Catholics have the smae old testament, the extra books are part of a separate part called the apochrypha

Answer 8

The Bible, especially the New Testament, is a fabrication of the Roman Emperors to pacify a rebellious Judea, who subsequently edited the Old Testament ex post facto to prophesize about the Roman invented Jesus myth

Answer 9

Cause they live in thsi world where they can pick and choose what they like from the "word of god" and live their strict pointless boring lives in matrmony.

Answer 10

it is not about books.

It's about your donations being used to decorate rooms where priest molest choir boys.

Do you realize that Catholic church could probably solve world hunger is the sold all the gold and silver in Vatican?