Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Bible History


I have been finding it very interesting to look into early Christianity. I just recently found as I was searching it up that Catholics have a different bible than Protestants. Orthodox Christians have a different bible as well.
As I searched more I found that the earliest of christian manuscripts were not universal in what what considered "canon." Canon literally means "measuring stick" but the word canon is used to describe divinely inspired scripture. 


The Eastern Orthodox Church:
The Old Testament-

  • The pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
  • The history (Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther) Also included in history: Prayer of Manassah, 1 Esdras, Additions to Esther, Tobit, Judith, 1 2 & 3 Maccabees. 4 Ezra and 4 Maccabees are included by the Georgian Orthodox Church
  • The Wisdom (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs) Also included in wisdom: Psalm 151, Sirach &Wisdom
  • The Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel) Also included in the major prophets: Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah &Additions to Daniel
  • The Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi)
The New Testament-
  • The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)
  • Acts
  • Paul's Letters (Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon)
  • General Letters (Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1 2 & 3 John, Jude)
  • Revelation
The Catholic Church:
  • Almost the same as orthodox except it excludes several books : Prayer of Mannassah, 1 & 2 Esdras, 3 & 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151
The Protestant Church:
  • The protestant church excludes all the extras that the catholic and orthodox add in. The basis of that is that the Jews do not use the Apocrypha in their bible. 

I have always identified with protestant churches and therefore never considered the bibles of the other churches. I disagreed with beliefs of catholic and orthodox churches. I was unware their bible was different from mine. It makes me realize that we tend to believe most what we were first taught. But let's say you were first taught hinduism. That doesnt make it right. I want to look more into this. 

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