How Many Books Are In The Old Testament? How Can One Know For Sure?

http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:3H9DFQ1z8rIC:www.aloha.net/~mikesch/hebrew-canon.htm+List+of+books+in+Hebrew+canon&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 ^ | 10/14/02 | unknown

[RnMomof7]

How Many Books Are In The Old Testament?
How Can One Know For Sure?
(Popes and Councils Proved To Be In Error)

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Examine the Old Testament listing of books in a Catholic, and a Protestant Bible, and you will normally find a discrepancy. You will find several more books in the Catholic Old Testament than in the Protestant Bible, the Protestant counting 39 and the Catholic counting some 46 or 47 books. The extra books in the Catholic Bible are referred to as the Apocryphal, or Deuterocanonical books, by Protestants and Catholic respectively. Apocrypha means "hidden", and Deuterocanonical means "second canon". This raises the obvious question, who has the correct list of books in their Old Testaments, the Protestant or the Catholic? (The New Testament is identical in the Protestant and Catholic Bibles.) For the disputed Old Testament there need not be any doubt as to who's list of books is correct, Catholic or Protestant, because the New Testament actually tells us not once, not twice, but three times. But first, let's begin with the following passage:

Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?
Rom 3:2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

Now in the Roman Catholic Douay Rheims translation that reads:

Rom 3:1 What advantage then hath the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?
Rom 3:2 Much in every way. First indeed, because the words of God were committed to them.

So the word of God was committed originally to the Jews. As the designated custodians of the inspired word of God, they knew which books were canonical, and which were not, and they knew this without the assistance of the yet to appear Catholic Church.

Now, on to our quotes defining the Old Testament canon.

Christ Declares The Hebrew Canon The Word of God.

Luke 24:44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.
Luke 24:45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

Here in the above verse, Jesus divides the written word of God into three categories. The Hebrew Bible, known by the acronym TaNaKh, has these three divisions, first the Torah, the first five books of Moses, second the Nevi'im or Prophets, and third the Ketuvim or Writings. Christ was appearing to the disciples shortly after His resurrection and He was expounding to His disciples on the testimony of the scriptures about Himself, from one end of the Bible to the other. From the beginning at Moses; next to the prophets; and then on to the last division that began with Psalms; Christ explained from the Hebrew Bible, the TaNaKh, how it revealed Him to be the Messiah.

Next, note this passage in which Jesus is chastising the scribes and Pharisees:

Mat 23:29 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
Mat 23:30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
Mat 23:31 Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
Mat 23:32 Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
Mat 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Mat 23:34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
Mat 23:35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Here the scribes and Pharisees are boldly proclaiming that had they lived in the times of their forefathers, they would not have stoned the prophets of God, that they would have known better. But Jesus says they have persecuted men of God just as their fathers had, and that they would continue to do so (v. 34). Then note what is said in the next verse "... from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias"... . What could Jesus be referring to? Well, Abel was murdered in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. And Zacharias? What book is his murder related in? Well let's look at our third text, a parallel passage, first:

Luke 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
Luke 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

Note that Jesus accuses the scribes and Pharisees of taking away the key of knowledge. What key is that? And what is God requiring of that generation? The answer is in the phrase "From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias ...". Well, again, Abel was slain in the first book of the Bible (Gen 4:8). Now those Protestants who anticipate the answer might begin looking for the murder of Zacharias in the book of Malachi. Why? Because Jesus is again referring to the full breadth of the scriptures (the key of knowledge, the oracles of God), from the first book of the Old Testament, to the last book of the Old Testament. A Protestant therefore, might well open their Bible to search in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, for the martyrdom of Zacharias. However, Malachi is not the last book of the Hebrew TaNaKh! What? That is correct. The Hebrew Bible, though identical in content to the Protestant Old Testament, is not in the same order as Protestant or Catholic Bibles. In the Hebrew Bible the last book is the book of Chronicles. That is where we find the murder of Zechariah between the altar and the temple:

2 Chr 24:20 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada* the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.
2 Chr 24:21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.
2 Chr 24:22 Thus Joash the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and require it.

It is worth noting that while Abel was the first martyr, Zechariah is not the last in the Old Testament, chronologically speaking. That was the prophet Urijah, killed by king Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 26:20-23, more than a century after the martyrdom of Zechariah:

• King Joash, who had Zechariah stoned within the temple's court (2 Chr 24:20-22), was the 13th king of the northern kingdom of Israel, and he ruled from 798-782 B.C.
• King Jehoiakim, who slew Urijah with a sword (Jer 26:20-23), was the 18th ruler of the southern kingdom of Judah, and he reigned from 609-598 B.C.

Had Jesus been speaking chronologically, (from the first martyr to the last) He would have said - from the blood of Able unto the blood of Urijah, but that is not what He intended. He was clearly saying from the first book of scripture, to the last book of scripture. Therefore, in Matthew 23:35 and Luke 11:51, and in Luke 24:44, Jesus was explicitly referring to the order and divisions of the books in the Hebrew Bible as the complete span of scripture.

The following table shows the collective logical result of the quotes of Jesus. Note particularly that the third division of scripture is defined as beginning at Psalms and ending with 2 Chronicles.

TaNaKh (Hebrew Bible As Delineated By Christ)
The Law	The Prophets	The Writings
Genesis - Deuteronomy	Joshua - Malachi	Psalms - 2 Chronicles

Already in apostolic times, long before any Roman Catholic councils, this same Hebrew Bible, the TaNaKh, was being referred to by the Christians as the Old Testament.

2 Cor 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ.

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* Son of Barachias - Son of Jehoiada: Some Catholics may object that there is a discrepancy between 2 Chr 24:20 and Matt. 23:35, that they refer to two different people because of the seeming difference in fathers. Because the parallel passages of Luke 11:51 and Matt. 23:35 both state that Zechariah perished between the altar and the temple, it is clearly the same Zechariah mentioned in 2 Chronicles. So why the seeming discrepancy in lineage? Look at the first verse of Matthew:

Mat 1:1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

But I thought that Jesus was the son of Joseph!? Scripture does not necessarily intend, when it says "son of", to indicate the immediate father-son relationship. It can also mean "descendent of" in a general sense. So to say that Zechariah was the son of Barachias in one place in scripture, and then say he was the son of Jehoiada somewhere else, does not present the problem some might want, as Matt. 1:1 adequately demonstrates.

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The Altered Grouping and Ordering of Books
in the Greek Septuagint

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The Alexandrian canon

The Old Testament as it has come down in Greek translation from the Jews of Alexandria via the Christian Church differs in many respects from the Hebrew Scriptures. The books of the second and third divisions have been redistributed and arranged according to categories of literature -- history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy.

Source:  Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

B.  THE CANON AMONG THE ALEXANDRIAN JEWS (DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS)

It is a significant fact that in all these Alexandrian Bibles the traditional Hebrew order is broken up by the interspersion of the additional literature among the other books, outside the law, thus [in the opinion of the Catholic writer] asserting for the extra writings a substantial equality of rank and privilege.

Canon of the Old Testament entry, Catholic Encyclopedia Online.

It is this striking change in grouping and sequencing of books in the Greek Septuagint that so eloquently testifies to the fact that in the above quotes from Jesus Christ, He was referring not to the Septuagint, which included apocryphal books not found in the Hebrew canon, but to the original TaNaKh, the Hebrew Bible, which excludes the apocryphal books. Yet, Catholic Tradition largely accepted the books of the Greek Septuagint as the canon of the Old Testament.

The Greek Septuagint Old Testament
Codex Vaticanus 4th Century	Codex Sinaiticus 4th Century	Codex Alexandrinus 5th Century
Pentateuch 1. Genesis 2. Exodus 3. Leviticus 4. Numbers 5. Deuteronomy Historical Books 6. Joshua 7. Judges 8. Ruth 9. 1 Kings - (1 Samuel) 10. 2 Kings - (2 Samuel) 11. 3 Kings - (1 Kings) 12. 4 Kings - (2 Kings) 13. 1 Paraliponenon - (1 Chronicles) 14. 2 Paraliponenon - (2 Chronicles) 15. 1 Esdras*** 16. 2 Esdras - (Ezra-Nehemiah) Poetical Books 17. Psalms (with Psalm 151)* 18. Proverbs 19. Ecclesiastes 20 Song of Songs 21. Job 22. Wisdom (of Solomon) 23. Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach) Historical Books 24. Esther - Chapter 10 beginning at verse 4, thru Chapter 16. 25. Tobit 26. Judith Prophetical Books 27. Hosea 28. Amos 29. Micah 30. Joel 31. Obadiah 32. Jonah 33. Nahum 34. Habakkuk 35. Zephaniah 36. Haggai 37. Zechariah 38. Malachi 39. Isaiah 40. Jeremiah 41. Baruch 42. Lamentations 43. Epistle of Jeremiah 44. Ezekiel 45. Daniel - Chapter 3, verses 24-91, Chapters 13+14 Note: 1 and 2 Machabees are omitted	Pentateuch 1. Genesis 2. Exodus (missing) 3. Leviticus (missing) 4. Numbers 5. Deuteronomy (missing)  Historical Books 6. Joshua (missing) 7. Judges (missing) 8. Ruth (missing) 9. 1 Kings - (1 Samuel) (missing) 10. 2 Kings - (2 Samuel) (missing) 11. 3 Kings - (1 Kings) (missing) 12. 4 Kings - (2 Kings) (missing) 13. 1 Paraliponenon - (1 Chronicles) 14. 2 Paraliponenon - (2 Chronicles) 15. 1 Esdras*** 16. 2 Esdras - (Ezra-Nehemiah) 17. Esther - Chapter 10 beginning at verse 4, thru Chapter 16. 18. Tobias (Tobit) 19. Judith 20. 1 Machabees 21. 4 Machabees* Prophetical Books 23. Isaiah 24. Jeremiah 25. Lamentations 26. Ezekiel (missing) 27. Daniel (missing) 28. Hosea (missing) 29. Amos (missing) 30. Micah (missing) 31. Joel 32. Obadiah 33. Jonah 34. Nahum 35. Habakkuk 36. Zephaniah 37. Haggai 38. Zechariah 39. Malachi Poetical Books 40. Psalms (with Psalm 151)* 41. Proverbs 42. Ecclesiastes 43. Song of Songs 44. Wisdom (of Solomon) 45. Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach) 46. Job Note: Baruch omitted	Pentateuch 1. Genesis 2. Exodus 3. Leviticus 4. Numbers 5. Deuteronomy Historical <B s

[RnMomof7]

So it would seem, based on the above Catholic commentary, that Catholics do, in fact, accept that Christ was referring to scripture in the Hebrew language, and NOT a Greek translation!

The oldest existing manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint (Codex Vaticanus, Sinaiticus and Alexandrinus) are dated no earlier than the 4th century A.D., and were clearly produced by Christians as they included the books of the New Testament. These Christianized versions of the Greek Septuagint were apparently commissioned by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century in order to establish a common Christian canon.

What is the LXX?

No Jewish source versions of the Septuagint are known to exist today, fueling speculation that the apocryphal books may never have been a part of the original Jewish produced Greek manuscript, but were only included in subsequent Christian copies. The caves of Qumran, in which were found all of the canonical books of the Old Testament except Esther, also contained fragments of chapter 6 of the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus [Wisdom of Jesus the Son of (Ben) Sirach] in Hebrew, found in Cave 2, a fragment of  Tobit in Aramaic, found in Cave 4, and a fragment of the Epistle of Jeremiah (Baruch Chapter 6) in cave 7. See Inventory of the Qumran manuscripts.

Previous to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the two oldest known complete Hebrew (Masoretic) texts of the Bible were the Aleppo Codex dated to the 10th century A.D. and the Leningrad Codex, dated to the early 11th century A.D. Both these texts, attributed to Ben-Asher, placed Chronicles at the beginning of the 3rd division, the Ketuvim (Writings). However, modern reprints of the Leningrad Codex have moved the book of Chronicles back to its tradition place at the end of the Ketuvim. See Biblia Hebraica Leningradensia

The King James Old Testament was translated from a Hebrew Bible printed in Venice in 1524-25 by Daniel Bomberg. Known as the Second Rabbinic Bible, it was edited by Ben Chayyim (or Ben Hayyim), and was compiled from many collected Hebrew texts. Considered the standard Masoretic text for the next 400 years  (well into the 20th Century), it placed Chronicles at the end of the Ketuvim.

Below is a comparative table of the Old Testament canon of the Hebrew, Protestant and Catholic Bibles. Note that while the Hebrew Canon counts 24 books, and the Protestant Old Testament counts 39 books, they are identical in actual content, the difference for the count being the grouping of certain books into one scroll in the Hebrew canon. Also note the change in arrangement and sequence of books between the Hebrew and Christian Old Testaments.

The Hebrew Canon (TaNaKh)
24 books

Protestant Old Testament
39 books

Latin Vulgate and
Catholic Old Testament
46 books

Torah (Law)
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy
Nevi'im (Prophets)
6. Joshua
7. Judges
8. Samuel (1st + 2nd)
9. Kings (1st + 2nd)
10. Isaiah
11. Jeremiah
12. Ezekiel
13. The 12 Minor Prophets
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
Ketuvim -Writings (Hagiographa)
14. Psalms
15. Proverbs
16. Job
17. Song of Songs	The Five Scrolls  (Hamesh  Megilloth)
18. Ruth
19. Lamentations
20. Ecclesiastes
21. Esther
22. Daniel
23. Ezra + Nehemiah
24. Chronicles (1st  + 2nd)

 

Pentateuch

1. Genesis

2. Exodus

3. Leviticus

4. Numbers

5. Deuteronomy

 Historical Books

6. Joshua

7. Judges

8. Ruth

9. 1 Samuel

10. 2 Samuel

11. 1 Kings

12. 2 Kings

13. 1 Chronicles

14. 2 Chronicles

15. Ezra

16. Nehemiah

17. Esther

Poetical Books

18. Job

19. Psalms

20. Proverbs

21. Ecclesiastes

22. Song of Solomon

Prophetical Books

23. Isaiah

24. Jeremiah

25. Lamentations

26. Ezekiel

27. Daniel

28. Hosea

29. Joel

30. Amos

31. Obadiah

32. Jonah

33. Micah

34. Nahum

35. Habakkuk

36. Zephaniah

37. Haggai

38. Zechariah

39. Malachi

 Pentateuch

1. Genesis

2. Exodus

3. Leviticus

4. Numbers

5. Deuteronomy

Historical Books

6. Joshua

7. Judges

8. Ruth

9. 1 Kings - (1 Samuel)

10. 2 Kings - (2 Samuel)

11. 3 Kings - (1 Kings)

12. 4 Kings - (2 Kings)

13. 1 Paraliponenon - (1 Chronicles)

14. 2 Paraliponenon - (2 Chronicles)

15. 1 Esdras* - (Ezra)

16. 2 Esdras* - (Nehemiah)

17. Tobias (Tobit)

18. Judith

19. Esther - Chapter 10 beginning at verse 4, thru Chapter 16.

Poetical Books

20. Job

21. Psalms

22. Proverbs

23. Ecclesiastes

24. Canticle of Canticles

 Wisdom Books

25. Wisdom (of Solomon)

26. Ecclesiasticus
(Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach)

Prophetical Books

27. Isaiah

28. Jeremiah

29. Lamentations

30. Baruch
(Letter of Jeremiah = Baruch ch. 6)

31. Ezechiel

32. Daniel - Chapter 3, verses 24-91, Chapters 13+14

33. Osee - (Hosea)

34. Joel

35. Amos

36. Abdias - (Obadiah)

37. Jonas

38. Micheas - (Micah)

39. Nahum

40. Habacue

41. Sophonias- (Zephaniah)

42. Aggeus - (Haggai)

43. Zecharias

44. Malachias

45. 1 Machabees

46. 2 Machabees

Orthodox Catholics also include
3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees,
and Psalm 151.

* The four books called Esdras:

RSV,  KJV (1611)	Septuagint	Latin Vulgate
Ezra	2 Esdras (Chap. 1-10)	1 Esdras
Nehemiah	2 Esdras (Chap. 11-25)	2 Esdras
1 Esdras	1 Esdras	3 Esdras
2 Esdras		4 Esdras

So the New Testament, recognized unanimously by Catholics and Protestants alike as the inspired word of God, clearly indicates through the words of Jesus Christ that the Hebrew Bible, the TaNaKh, contains all the inspired canonical books of the Old Testament. This excludes as spurious, and non-canonical, the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books found in Catholic Bibles, which are colored red in the above tables, and proves that Catholic definitions of the canon by Popes and Councils, to include the "infallible" declaration of Trent, are in error.

Definitions of the Canon of Scripture Frequently Cited By Catholics

    360  - Synod of Laodicea (Canon LX)
    382 - Synod of Rome (Pope Damasus / Decretal of Gelasius), Roman Code lists the canon
    393 - Council of Hippo (Canon XXXVI)
    397 to 419 - First / Second Council of Carthage (Canon  XXIV - Greek xxvii.)
    405 - Canon of Pope Innocent I (letter to Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse)
    787 - Second Council of Niceae (ratifies Council of Carthage/African code)
    1442 - Council of Florence (Session 11)
    1545 - Council of Trent (first ecumenical council to define the canon)

The Protestant Bible of 66 books, while it contains the same 39 Old Testament canonical books as the Hebrew TaNaKh, does not retain the original grouping and order cited by Jesus Christ, rather, it follows the order of the Latin Vulgate used by the Council of Trent in 1546, when it allegedly declared the Roman Catholic Canon infallibly.

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The Hebrew Bible (TaNaKh) Online
The Apocryphal / Deuterocanonical books Online
The TaNaKh (English Translation) is available at Amazon.com
Council of Trent Decree Concerning the Canonical Scriptures
The Hebrew Bible entry of the Catholic Encyclopedia Online.
Canon of the Old Testament entry of the Catholic Encyclopedia Online.
The Septuagint Version entry of the Catholic Encyclopedia Online.

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A Rebuttal to Catholic Apologetics International
on the Old Testament Canon

CAI's Wibisono Hartono Responds

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A Challenge To The Scripture Expert At EWTN's Web Forum
On the Old Testament Canon

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A Challenge To The History Expert At EWTN's Web Forum
On the Old Testament Canon (11 Nov)

Dr. Carroll responds (12 Nov)

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http://www.aloha.net/~mikesch/

[RnMomof7]

Bump

[american colleen]

Oh yea! I love going in circles!

[RnMomof7]

Back at ya friend...only those that do not fear the truth will read this...the rest will shrug..cause as scripture says people love the darkness more than the light..

[ksen]

Good article Mom. ;^)

[Uri’el-2012]

T:

Great Spirit-filled work !

Bookmarked.

Habakkuk. 2:4 .. the righteous will live by his faith
Romans 1:17 "The righteous will live by faith."
Galatians 3:11 "The righteous will live by faith."
Hebrews 10:38 .. the righteous will live by faith.

Bless you and yours.

Chuck <truth@YeshuaHaMashiach>

[RnMomof7]

I posted it for a reference bookmark for the Protestants ..it is only available in a cache and it is great material..glad you like it too

[sharktrager]

There's only one way to settle this:

Steel cage match between the Pope and Billy Graham.

[Wrigley]

As long as his cardinal and bishop goons are kept backstage.

[RnMomof7]

and Billy is allowed to use the sword:>)

[Wrigley]

Of course, I expect the Pope to have his staff with him. Fair is fair. :-)

[editor-surveyor]

Keep it coming!

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[Invincibly Ignorant]

My copy of "The Scriptures" which I use daily, copyright 1998 by Institute for Scripture Research (Pty) Ltd, Starts the Old Testament in Genesis and ends with II Chronicles. Just how its supposed to be. "From Abel to the righteous Zecharrias". :-)

[RnMomof7]

"From Abel to the righteous Zecharrias". :-)

I was trying to remember something about that ...Jesus indicated the last book in the OT in a teaching..do you remember the quote?

And where did you get the Bible?

[RnMomof7]

Of course, I expect the Pope to have his staff with him. Fair is fair. :-)

You miter say that ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Over50Million]

Q: How many books of the Old Testament are found in Guttenberg's printed Bible?

A: The same number that are in any Catholic Bible today -- 46 Old Testament books plus the 27 New Testament ones, for a total of 73 books (a much more spiritual number than the Protestant canon of 66 books ;-). The Guttenberg Bible -- the first Bible ever printed -- was a Catholic Bible (in fact, the Protestant Reformation had not even happened yet), and the number of books in Catholic Bibles has been the same ever since the Bible was first canonized at the Council of Rome in A.D. 382 under Pope Damasus I (see my piece Defending the Deuterocanonicals for more information).

So was Guttenberg an idot, mis-guided or what to not print 66 books? Why didn't he listen to some "man" and print just 66? Why would any one listen to just one "man" (Martin Luther) and believe there's only 66 books when there had been 73 for more than a millenium?

[FormerLib]

The Apocrypha?

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If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away that person's share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Revelation 22:19

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All Christians - Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant - agree that the Books in the Bible are the inspired, written Word of God but disagree on which Books belong in the Bible. Specifically we do not agree on the Old Testament (OT) canon - the list of Books inspired by God. The Catholic OT Canon includes - Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I and II Maccabees - plus sections of Esther and Daniel which are absent from the Protestant OT. Protestant Christians do not accept these Writings as inspired by God and refer to them as the "Apocrypha".

Sometimes this problem is used to defame the Catholic Church. As an example, John Ankerberg and John Weldon in their book, The Facts on Roman Catholicism, write:

Catholicism teaches that Scripture involves more than the canon accepted by the Jews, Jesus and the Church of the first four centuries, i.e., the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament. [A&W, p.33]

Allegedly the Catholic Church added to the OT that Jesus used.

Now it may be true that Protestants share the same OT canon as Jews today; however, the situation was a little different during the time of Jesus. The Jews before the 2nd century A.D. did not appear to have a rigidly defined OT canon. In the words of James King West, a Protestant Bible scholar:

The Scriptures of Judaism were not, therefore, a precisely defined body of literature absolutely set apart from all other literature, but a central body of material, the Torah (i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deut.), which from the time of Ezra had remained fixed as... the Scriptures par excellence, surrounded by other interpretive material of varying degrees of importance and authority. [S&W, p. OT 432]

By the time of Christ, all Jews accepted the five Books of Moses - the Torah - as Scripture; however, Books, like Esther and Ecclesiastes, were debated. From the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Jews at Qumran apparently read and copied Tobit, The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch 6) and Sirach as Scripture, while Esther is missing from the scrolls. [JBC, pp. 522 & 565] Unfortunately we can only speculate on what Jesus thought on this issue. No where in the New Testament (NT) does Jesus or His Apostles present a complete list of the OT Books or even discuss this issue.

Before the 2nd century, most Palestian Jews preferred a canon loosely similar to the Protestant OT; however, the Greek-speaking Jews preferred the larger canon found in the Greek Septuagint Bible - a 2nd-century B.C. Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture. It was the "Bible" for the Greek-speaking Jews. When the Apostles began to evangelize the Greek-speaking Jews and Gentiles, they used the already established Septuagint as their Bible. Using the Hebrew Scripture would have been as effective as using a Russian Bible to evangelize Americans. The Septuagint served to bridge the culture gap. Quickly the Greek-speaking converts outnumbered the Hebrew Christians. Scholars also recognize that the NT writers quoted extensively from the Septuagint, e.g. Matt. 1:23. The Septuagint became the OT of the early Church. [S&W, p. OT 433]

Only after the destruction of the Temple and debates with Christians, the Pharisees at Jamnia finally limited the Hebrew Canon in the 2nd century A.D. - a century after the Resurrection of Christ. They restricted the Hebrew Canon to Books written before 400 B.C. in Hebrew. They also rejected the Septuagint claiming it to be corrupted by the Christians. [S&W, p. OT 433]

In the mid-2nd century, St. Justin Martyr in his Dialogue With Trypho commented on the difference between the Christian OT and the Hebrew Canon. Tertullian during this period also commented on this difference. [JBC, p. 523] These comments and concerns would have been inappropriate, if the early Christians and Jews shared the same OT canon.

The OT of the most ancient surviving Christian Bible manuscripts - Codex Vaticanus (4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) and Codex Alexandrinus (5th century) - are Greek Septuagint text. Apart from holes and missing pages, the Codex Vaticanus contains all the Books of the Catholic OT, except I and II Maccabees. The Codex Sinaiticus only lacks II Maccabees but also includes IV Maccabees. The Codex Alexandrinus contains all of the Catholic OT Books plus III and IV Maccabees. These manuscripts show that the Septuagint with its larger and looser canon was the OT "Bible" of the early Church.

In the 4th century, some Church fathers, especially those who debated with the Jews, like Jerome, favored the shorter Hebrew Canon. Some Church fathers like Ambrose and Augustine favored the larger canon of the Septuagint. Others like Gregory Nazianzen also excluded Esther from the Bible [JBC, p. 522]. Jerome while favoring the shorter canon, several times in his writings cited Books from the larger canon as Scripture. [S&W, p. OT 434] The Councils of Hippo and Carthage in the late-4th century were the first real attempts by the Church to end the confusion over the OT canon. The OT canon which they proclaimed is still found in Catholic Bibles today. The controversy continued but in 1441 the Council of Florence upheld this larger canon. In response to the Protestants, the Council of Trent definitively upheld the larger OT canon. [S&W, pp. OT 434-435; JBC, p. 517]

Now the Catholic Church is not alone in accepting the Books which Protestants label as "Apocrypha." The Coptic, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches also recognize these Books as inspired by God. In 1950 an edition of the OT containing all these Books was officially approved by the Holy Synod of the Greek church. Also the Russian Orthodox church in 1956 published a Russian Bible in Moscow which contained these Books. [JBC, p. 524] More details from a scholarly Protestant viewpoint can be found in The New Oxford Annotated Bible (Oxford, 1977).

Some Christians attempt to discredit these Books by pointing out apparent historical errors contained in them. [A&W, p. 33] It is common knowledge among scholars that Tobit and Judith contain obvious historical inaccuracies; however, these Books are recognized as didactic parables, like Jonah. It is also common knowledge among scholars that Daniel suffers from similar glaring historical inaccuracies, e.g. Daniel 1:1. [S&W, p. OT 419] Some scholars have suggested that both Daniel and Judith may actually be a disguised historical account of Antiochus Epiphanes [S&W, p. OT 462].

Other Christians may point to the immoral deceit of Judith in Judith 9:10-13 in an attempt to discredit this Book. [A&W, p. 33] Unfortunately the OT contains other less than edifying practices, for example: the deceit of Jacob in Genesis 27, incest in Genesis 19:32 and inhumanity in Psalm 137:9. Also in Hosea 1:2, God commands the prophet Hosea to marry a woman who would commit adultery. These OT events simply show the need for Jesus Christ. Finally we cannot use human reason alone to judge the Word of God.

In conclusion the Catholic Church did not add to the OT. The Catholic OT Canon (also the numbering of the Psalms) came from the ancient Greek Septuagint Bible. Protestants, following the tradition of the Pharisaic Jews, accept the shorter Hebrew Canon, even though the Jews also reject the NT Books. The main problem is that the Bible does not define itself. No where in the Sacred Writings are the divinely inspired Books listed completely. (The Table of Contents is the publishing editor's words, like the footnotes.) The Bible needs a visible, external authority guided by the Holy Spirit to define both the OT and NT Canons. This authority is the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. As St. Augustine writes, "I would not have believed the Gospel had not the authority of the Church moved me." [Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th ed., 129:8]

REFERENCES
[A&W] John Ankerberg & John Weldon, The Facts on Roman Catholicism (Eugene, OR; Harvest House Publishers, 1993).
[JBC] The Jerome Biblical Commentary (Englewood Cliffs, NJ; Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968), Vol. II, Chap. 67.
[S&W] Donald J. Selby & James King West, Introduction to the Bible (New York; The Macmillan Co., 1971).

SUGGESTED READING: H.G. Graham, Where We Got The Bible (Rockford, IL; TAN, 1977).

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NIHIL OBSTAT:
Reverend M. James Divis, S.T.L.
Censor Librorum

IMPRIMATUR:
Most Reverend Fabian W. Bruskewitz, D.D., S.T.D.
Bishop of Lincoln

February 2, 1994

The NIHIL OBSTAT and IMPRIMATUR are official declarations that a book or a pamphlet is free from doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained therein that those who have granted the NIHIL OBSTAT and IMPRIMATUR agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed.

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[RnMomof7]

Hey Hi..How are ya?

Did you read the article? The Jewish canon closed around 200 BC the Hebrew Bible Jesus used did not have the non cannonical books in it....I think He knew what was inspired huh?

[RnMomof7]

Jesus knew which were inspired and which were not...He used the Hebrew Bible with a closed canon 200 years before His birth..none of the non cannonical books were in that canon

The books are interesting from a cultural and historical perspective..but they were like Shakespeare  ..not inspired but common knowlege and a sweet read