The Holy Bible consists of the Old Testament (OT), and the New Testament (NT).
Testament means covenant or agreement. The Bible consists of forty-six Old testament Books, while The new Testament has twenty-seven Books.
The forty-six Books of the OT are divided into;
Twenty-seven (27) historical Books,
Seven (7) Wisdom Books,
Eighteen (18) Prophetic Books
They all together make up the Law, the Prophets and the writings.
The twenty-seven NT Books consist of;
Five (5) Historical Books
Twenty-one (21) Wisdom Books
One (01) Prophetic Book
The OT was originally written in Hebrew by Jewish authorities in the Jewish language. But after the dispersion of the Jews, when people were scattered abroad and settled in many other lands outside Palestine, they began to lose their Hebrew tongue and became familiar with Greek, which was then the universal language, it was then necessary to furnish them with a copy of their Scripture in the Greek language. That was what gave birth to the Greek OT translation called the Septuagint, meaning seventy in Latin – it was the work of seventy translators.
This was the acknowledged Bible of all Jews of the dispersion and was the version used by Our Lord, His Apostles and Evangelist and by Jews, Gentiles and Christians in the early days of Christianity.
There were other translations for Christians in other lands who did not understand Greek. All these translations were superseded by the grand and most important version made by Saint Jerome in, the 4th century A.D. in Latin, called the “Vulgate” – that is the common or current or accepted version.
Pope Saint Damasus commissioned Jerome in 382 A.D. to make a fresh Latin version of the NT (which was practically settled at this time) correcting the existing versions by the Greek manuscripts available.
THE CHURCH CAME BEFORE THE NEW TESTAMENT
The New Testament Books were not written all at one time, or by one person. Years passed between the writings of the first, and the writing of the last of the books. There were at least eight writers. Christ himself as far as we know, did not write anything in Scripture. There was no command from him for anything to be written down. But he said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptised will be saved: but he who does not believe will be condemned”. (Mark 16:15-16:) The Apostles obeyed this command as they spread out to different parts of the world. Only five out of the twelve wrote down something that you can find in the bible. Bible scholars believe that it was not until about ten years after Christ’s accession that the first writing was done, about 45A.D. Remember, the Church Church came to be at Pentecost.
....but how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14)
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH COMPILED THE NEW TESTAMENT
New Testament writings were everywhere there were bodies of Christians. It took about four hundred years before the Church collected all the writings, and separated what was inspired from the non-inspired collections.The inspired writings were added to the Old Testament to form what we now call the Bible. So, for almost four hundred years of Christianity, there was no bible as we know it today.
Many Christians were not even aware of the existence of the NT writings. So, how can anyone then claim that the Bible is the sole guide for teaching and guide to God?
Now you know how to respond when next someone says, ”that is unscriptural” or asks “where is that in the bible”?The Canon of Scripture (contents) of the Bible was accepted by the Council of Rome in the 4th century in 382 A.D, again in 393 A.D, in the Council of Hippo, and confirmed in 397 A.D in the Council of Carthage through the influence of Saint Augustine. The decision was sent to Rome for confirmation.
Before 397 A.D, there were other writings and materials of the NT found in various countries by various authors. Some examples are;
Gospel of Thomas,
Shepherd of Hermes,
Epistle of Barnabas,
The Doctrine of the Twelve
Epistle of Saint Clement, and others.
There were doubts about some of these writings as to whether they should be included in the Canon or not. Another Council presided over by Saint Augustine was convoked in 405 A.D where the renewal of the former decision and Decree was renewed. Boniface the Bishop of Rome received and confirmed this latest Decree. From that date, all doubt ceased as to what was, and what was not spurious or genuine or doubtful among the Christian writings then known. Rome has spoken, a Council of the Catholic Church has settled it.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT BIBLES
When the Protestants Reformation happened one thousand five hundred years (1500) after the Catholic Church had had possession of the Bible, they cast out some of the Books from the collection. If you open a Protestant Bible you will find there are seven Books that are not there compared to a Catholic Bible.
The books are;
Tobias
Baruch
Judith
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus (Sirac)
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees,
together with seven chapters of the book of Esther and sixty six verses of the third chapter of Daniel, commonly called “The Song of the Three Children” (Daniel 3:24-90) Douay Version.
Catholic Bible has forty six (46) Old Testament Books
Protestant Bibles have thirty-nine (39) Old Testament Books.
SOLA SCRIPTURA – Bible Alone
Scripture Alone biblical? There is nowhere in Scripture where you will find that scripture alone is to be believed, or be the guide for Christians, instead, you see the opposite in (John 21:25), and (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Sola Scriptura was the main thrust of Luther’s movement. Protestants still hold on to it firmly to this day. But we, of course know what Christ charged to the Apostles was in (Mk 15:16).
The big Protestants’ dilemma;
Which Bible did the Apostles use in the first four hundred plus years of Christianity, for preaching and for supporting their claims? The New Testament was not yet in existence. Also Bible were not yet readily available as we have them today, because printing had not yet been invented. Imagine Peter, or any other apostle, in a town or village to preach baptism, imagine the people insisting on seeing where Jesus wrote down that you must be baptised to be saved. The Protestant reasoning is that, if something is not in writing, that thing cannot be true.
The Bible did not produce the Church, the Catholic Church produced the bible. What comes to your mind when you hear people describe their Church as a “Bible church”, with one thousand and five hundred years of history and Tradition lost?
PRODUCING THE HOLY BIBLE
Bible manuscripts were copied by Monks, who transcribed them from Greek to Latin, or from Latin into English, as printing or typing machines had not yet been invented at the time.
The work was slow and liable to errors. Errors did creep in, if by the share volume of the work alone. There are 35,000 verses in the bible. The bible without printing was full of a variety of errors and blunders. Even today, with printing, there are still errors, maybe only to a lesser degree.
Many people believe there are no errors in the bible, that is true, only if you get the genuine book, the originals as they came from the hands of the Apostles, Prophets and Evangelists.
These were the only people inspired and protected from making mistakes.
Invention of Printing
Printing was invented around 1450 in Mainz, Germany, by Johannes Gutenberg. He perfected the movable-type Printing Press. This system allowed books to be produced faster, cheaper, and in greater numbers than manuscripts, revolutionising the spread of information and the Gospel.
First Major Book:
The first substantial book printed using this system was the Gutenberg Bible. It was completed around 1455. About 180 copies were printed.
Importance of Tradition
Scripture does not tell us which books belong in the bible, for that we have to turn to the Tradition of the Church. (Luke 1:1-4). Without the Tradition of the Church, we would not have a bible, because rejecting eye witness accounts and accounts passed down through oral and written forms would have made it impossible to have material to work with. Not all Tradition have been committed to writing, as some Christians would want us to believe. (John 21:25)
Why Protestant Bibles are different
At the time of the approval of the Canon by the Church in 397 A.D, some Jews no longer accepted the Canon of the OT. At the end of the First Century AD, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans, in 70 A.D, a group of Rabbis met in Jamnia(Yavneh) in Palestine.
The Historical Context: Jamnia (Yavneh)
After the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the center of Jewish religious authority shifted to the town of Jamnia (Yavneh) under the leadership of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. This was not a single "Council" but rather a period of intense scholarly debate and consolidation lasting several decades (c. 70-90 CE).
The goal was not to create a new Canon but to define, stabilize, and unify Jewish practice and scripture in the wake of a catastrophic national trauma and in the face of growing sectarianism (especially from early Christianity, which was using Jewish scriptures for confirming and proving to doubting Jews that Jesus is the Christ).
Why exclude some of the Books?
The Rabbis at Yavneh used specific criteria to evaluate books. A book was likely to be questioned or excluded if it:
1. Was not composed in Hebrew: Most of the debated "extra" books were written in Greek or had only a Greek version available. Hebrew was believed by Jews to be the sacred language of revelation.
2. Was not considered sufficiently ancient: The age of prophecy was believed to have ended with Ezra (c. 5th century BC). Books clearly written after that (like Maccabees, 2nd century BC) were assumed not to have the same authority.
3. Contradicted the Torah: Any book that seemed to conflict with the laws and theology of the Five Books of Moses was problematic (hence the scrutiny of Ezekiel).
4. Lacked clear religious or moral content: Books with a primarily nationalistic, romantic, or secular philosophical tone (like Esther, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes) had to be rigorously justified as containing divine wisdom.
5. Was not widely accepted and used in communal worship: Canonicity was as much about communal practice as it was about doctrine. A book needed to have a history of being read and revered across Jewish communities.
The scholars at Yavneh did not "vote books out." Instead, they:
· Formally closed the canon of the (Writings). Until then, this section was somewhat fluid. They affirmed the core list that had been developing for centuries.
· Debated the status of the borderline books (Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Esther) and argued for their inclusion based on allegorical interpretation and traditional use.
It was these objections of the 3rd Century Rabbis that the Reformers picked up in the 16th century to exclude the above listed Books, chapters and verses from the Canon.
It is interesting to know that the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a Cave between 1946 and 1956 at Qumran in the West Bank on the northern shore of the Dead Sea, dating from the 3rd Century BC to the First Century A.D, has confirmed the Catholic Canon.
CHAPTERS AND VERSES
The division of the Bible into chapters and verses had to wait for several centuries before they were introduced into it in 1226 A.D, by Stephen Langton, a professor at the University of Paris. He later became the Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury.
Later, in 1551, Robert Stephen, a renowned printer, introduced the numbering of verses into the text.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
Because of the many inaccurate and error-ridden Bible and Christian publications in circulation, the Church introduced the Nihil Obstat (Nothing Hinders) and the Imprimatur (May be Printed) to all its authentic publications as a mark of recognition.
Any purported Catholic publication without these marks has not been approved as doctrinal error free, and so, has not been approved for printing by the Church as conveying true Catholic teaching.
Contribution of the Monks
The Bible was produced and preserved by monks and priests. It was in the monasteries that multitudes of copies of the Holy Scripture were made. Monasteries were centres of learning in those times even more than they are today. An indispensable part of the monastery was a library. “A monastery without a library” the saying of a monkey goes, “is like a castle without an armoury.” He goes on to declare that the great defence in the monastic armoury should be the Holy Bible. The monks were the most learned men of those days, by profession, scholars who had renounced worldly pursuits and pleasures, dedicating themselves to a life of prayer and study. One of the principal parts of their scholastic activity was the copying and transcribing of sacred scripture. For this purpose, there was a large room called the Scriptorium, in which a dozen or more monks could be engaged at a time. However, there were also many monks employed, each in their own cell.
Some Helpful Texts on Scripture Interpretation and Authenticity.
(2 Peter 3:15-16), Acts 8:30-312, Peter 1:20
On Authenticity of the Word;
2 Peter 1:16, John 19:35, Acts 2:22