Additional Books in and out of the Bible

If you look at a Catholic Bible or even an early copy of scripture, like the Septuagint, one of the things you are likely to notice first is that there are additional books/letters in there.  So, one might ponder, “Why are there other books included there and not in mine?”, “Why are there other books mentioned in scripture that aren’t in the Bible?”.  Those are some great questions.  Let’s try to explore that a bit without boring us on all the detail.

As a side note, this has been debated and changed for centuries.  What I am going to share is why don’t view these books as canon.  And when I say “canon” I am saying, “considered to be the authoritative scriptures”.  

The Old Testament (OT) books were selected by Jewish scribes, mainly because they were written by Prophets of God, who heard and followed God.  Another requirement was that it had to be written in Hebrew, which was the language of the time.  If a letter was written by a prophet that didn’t hear from God or had false prophesy, the letter was immediately thrown into the fire, along with the prophet that wrote it.  I think they were serious about authorship.  Actually, that was a command from God, and this action helped to keep false prophets away.

There is much more detail to the story, and if you want to know more, spend some time researching it. You can find a ton of info online, just make sure they are legitimate sources. You can start by following the link below.  This is how we ended up with our OT books.

CLICK HERE

 

As for the New Testament (NT), there were several criteria used to make a book/letter considered canon.

1.      Must have been written by an Apostle, those whom Jesus personally sent out to preach the Good News, or someone associated with a recognized Apostle?

2.     Was it 100% truthful, not contradictory with another book(s)?

3.     Were the books circulated and used by the churches, were the churches edified by them?

Regarding the additional books in the Catholic Bible, follow the link below.

CLICK HERE

In class this past Sunday, I mentioned another book, the Book of Enoch.

Just by mentioning this, some would scream “HERETIC”.  The Jewish community threw this book out because it was not fully written in Hebrew.  Also, there is debate on the actual origin and when it was written.  I say they threw it out, but they knew it, they just didn’t consider it part of the Torah. A copy of the Book of Enoch was actually found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, but still, the majority of the letter was written in Greek, not Hebrew.   Some claim that there are errors in this book, but I cannot confirm nor deny it since I have not done extensive search on this.

Now, there are some great historical truths that can be gathered from reading Enoch and some of the other books, but I will throw out a word of caution.   Don’t consider it all to be truthful.  These books are not meant for us to use as doctrine and position our lives around.  Your only guide for this, is the Word of God, the Holy Bible.  I believe that God has preserved what He wanted us to use to get to know Him.  It’s dangerous to look outside of it for truths about God.