Christian Problem, Jewish Roots
The Bible is not a book, as some people believe. Rather, it is a library. It is made up of 73 books. Some of them are long, such as the book of the prophet Isaiah that contains 66 chapters. Others are very short such as the book of the prophet Obadiah that does not even reach a full chapter for it contains only 21 verses. The shortest of all is the Third Letter of John with only 13 verses.
These books are divided into the Old Testament having 46 and the New Testament with 27.
Once in a while, we take hold of a Bible that we call the “Protestant Bible” and we are surprised to find out that this Bible lacks 7 writings. It contains only 66 books.
The books that are omitted are from the Old Testament and include the following: 4 belong to the so-called historical books (Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees), 2 are from Wisdom literature (Wisdom and Sirach) and 1 prophetic book (Baruch). What is the origin of this difference between “Catholic” and “Protestant” Bibles?
The Palestinian Old Testament
In the first century of the Christian era, the Jews (who logically accepted only the Old Testament) had not yet completed the list of their Scriptures, so they had not yet finalized the Bible. There remained the possibility that new books would appear to make the Sacred Scripture thicker.
But some centuries back, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century BCE* and the disappearance of the free Jewish state, the concern to conserve the faith of the people became more and more accentuated in Jewish religious leaders. They became conscious of the necessity to look at the official list of the writings that recognize the faith of the people of Israel. This was done to identify the books that were circulated among religious circles containing theologically correct ideas and to reject books that were doubtful, even dangerous.
In fact, then, they started to be more and more acquainted with the books that were considered divinely inspired and these books were accepted as Sacred Scriptures. This compilation of official books that the Jewish community recognized as inspired and containing authentic doctrine we call “canon,” (a word that means “norm,” “rule”) for it serves as a rule of life for those who believe.
As time passed, the books that were rejected came to be known as “apocryphal” (meaning, “hidden”) since they had questionable teachings and as such were considered to have “hidden origins.”
In the first century of our own era, the Jewish community of Palestine accepted 39 books as sacred.
The Seventy
Simultaneously, in the same epoch, there lived in Alexandria, a city in Egypt near the Mediterranean coast, an important Jewish colony. They were the most numerous outside Palestine for they were more than 100,000. Since these Jews from Alexandria did not understand the Hebrew language anymore, in 3rd century BCE they made a translation of the Bible (that is, the Old Testament) into the language that they used (Greek) and they used this version of the Bible in their liturgies. They called this version “The Septuagint.” The name is based on old tradition that it was almost miraculously translated by 70 wise men.
But this version of the Septuagint is peculiar: apart from the 39 books that have been translated from the Hebrew Canon, some other texts were included, some translated from Hebrew and some others directly from Greek.
The Jews in Palestine never considered the difference with their Alexandrine siblings as something good, and so they rejected these other new books.
Since then, there has been two lists or “canons”: the Palestinian and the Alexandrian canons.
Considering the Readers
The first Christians who heard that Jesus did not come to abolish the Old Testament but to fulfill and complete it (Mt 5:17), recognized in their Bible the books used by the Jews. But immediately they found themselves in a dilemma. Should they use the short canon of the Hebrews or the longer one of Alexandria?
The Christians, who were spread throughout the Roman Empire didn’t know the Hebrew language since the common language then in the Near East was Greek, so they opted for the Greek version.
Therefore, by using the Bible version of the Septuagint, they accepted the 7 other books that were included in this longer canon.
To Avoid Confusion
During the 2nd century CE, when the Jews observed that the Christians were also using the Old Testament as part of their Bible, they resolved to definitively close their canon. And as a reaction against the Christians, they chose the shorter Palestinian canon.
They, then, established their Bible (the Old Testament) as having 39 books. Until now, the Hebrew people keep as their Sacred Scripture these 39 writings that are included in the Palestinian Canon.
In contrast, while the Roman Catholic Church had not yet made an official resolve, the Christian communities became more and more acquainted with the usage of the 46 books.
Once in a while discordant voices rose within the church, seeking to have only the 39 books accepted by the Jews. Among those who proposed this were St. Cyril of Jerusalem (4th century CE), St. Epiphanius (5th century CE), St. Gregory the Great (7th century CE) and in modern times, Cardinal Cajetan.
What Luther Started
When Martin Luther initiated the Protestant schism and separated from the Catholic Church in the 16th century CE, one of the changes that he introduced in his new church was the shorter canon, contrary to the tradition maintained for 15 centuries by the Church.
The reformist was exceedingly disappointed that these 7 extra books were written in Greek. This is due to the fact that for the Jews, only the Hebrew language was considered a religious language.
Before the Reformation, the bishops of the entire world met in what is known as the Council of Trent. It was the longest council of the Church, lasting for 18 years (1545-1563). It was convoked to precisely determine the Catholic doctrine which in some aspects including the biblical ones had not yet been defined, and to come to an agreement. On April 8, 1546, through the decree “De Canonicis Scripturis,” the definitive Catholic canon of Scriptures was declared to have all 46 books of the Old Testament, including the 7 books, unauthorized by the Protestants.
A Difficult Name
Since then, the so-called “Protestant” churches and the sects born from it have walked in history with that void. For the Catholics, then, the Old Testament consists of 46 books, 39 written in Hebrew and 7 others written in Greek.
These 7 books, being the object of much dispute, entered in the official list much later. They were given the name “deuterocanonicals” (from the Gk. Deutero= “second”), to signify that they passed through a second moment of the canonical formation. The first ones (the 39 books), which were never disputed, were called “protocanonicals” (from the Gk. protos = “first”) since they have been included in the canon from the very start.
Thanks to modern archaeological discoveries, especially that of the Qumran scrolls, it was confirmed that not all the deuterocanonical books were originally written in Greek. We now know, for example, that the book of Tobit was earlier composed in Aramaic while those of Judith, Baruch, Sirach and 1 Maccabees were written in Hebrew. Only 2 Maccabees and Wisdom can be rightly considered as redacted in Greek.
The longed-for unity
From the moment Luther translated his Bible in German in 1534 and segregated the deuterocanonicals from the official index of the Bible, the Protestant churches followed suit. But in recent years there have been symptoms of a return to that more moderate attitude for these writings that they now prefer to call “apocryphals.” In fact, they are realizing that certain biblical doctrines (such as the resurrection of the dead, the theme of the angels, the concept of retribution, the notion of purgatory) already started to appear in these 7 latter books. To omit them is to cut off a precious link in the progress and unity of revelation and it makes for an abrupt leap towards the New Testament.
For this reason, we are already seeing that some Protestant bibles are including these 7 books even though they do not appear with the same relevance. How we wish that the day would come when a further step will be taken and they would definitely accept the proper importance due to the Word of God to be able to go back to the unity that was lost one day.
