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A Brief History of the Bible
A translation of the entire Hebrew Bible from Hebrew into the Greek language was begun
between 285 - 246 B.C. The translation was completed between 250 and 125 B.C. and was later called the Septuagint. This is
a Latin word for the number 70 (LXX in Roman numerals), which describes the number of Jewish scholars traditionally believed
to have undertaken the task. The Septuagint contains 46 books. The Catholic Church, using the authority given it by Jesus
Christ (Matt: 16:18), officially approved 46 books of the Septuagint comprising the Old Testament, at the Council of Hippo
in 393 A.D. This Council (and another) declared that the canon (rule, or measure) of Scripture includes the 27 books of the
New Testament. In 405 A.D. Pope Innocent I approved the 73-book canon and closed the canon of the Christian Bible.
The
canon of the Catholic Christian Bible was universally accepted for 1100 years until Martin Luther called it into question
in the year 1517. He cited the same concerns of the Jewish Council at Jamnia, namely that there were no Hebrew counterparts
to the seven books rejected by that Council. The great biblical scholar St. Jerome shared these concerns; however, he ultimately
acceded to the decision of the Catholic Church as authoritative on the canon of Scripture, but Martin Luther sided with Jamnia.
Ironically, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 in caves at Qumran, Israel, ancient Hebrew copies of some of
the disputed seven books were discovered. This discovery undermines rejection of some of the seven books based on the fact
that there are Hebrew counterparts to the Greek texts. Additionally, some of the books falter against the "written later than
the time of Ezra" criterion proposed by the Jewish Council at Jamnia.
St. Augustine said, "For my part, I should not believe
the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church." It is ironic that Martin Luther, a once devout Augustinian
monk, would not submit to the same authority as did the founder of his order. In his commentary on St John, (Chapter 16) Martin
Luther wrote, "We are obliged to yield many things to the Papists (Catholics) that they possess the Word of God which we received
from them, otherwise we should have known nothing at all about it." If the Catholic Church gave us the Bible (according the
Martin Luther), why change it?
Perhaps the most important validation in addition to the authority of the Catholic Church's
proclamation of the 46- book-canon rather than the 39-book-canon is that the Septuagint was the text quoted more than 300
times by the writers of the New Testament (as opposed the to Hebrew version of the same texts.) Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas,
CMRI points out, "The Apostles and New Testament writers quoted principally the Septuagint. In fact, of the three hundred
and fifty Old Testament quotations found in the New Testament, about three hundred are taken directly from the Septuagint."
Proof is commonly demonstrated in word usage. For example, Hebrews 1:6, quotes Deuteronomy 32:43. The New Testament quotation
does match the English versions of the Bible translated from the Old Testament texts written in Hebrew, but it does match
the English versions of the Bible translated from the Septuagint written in Greek.
We can assume that if the Septuagint
was quoted by the writers of the New Testament, it stands to reason that Jesus accepted the 46 books derived from the Septuagint
as the inspired word of God. Why? Because it was not until 70 years after the crucifixion that the Jewish Council of Jamnia
convened to remove the additional books. If Jesus accepted all 46 books, why shouldn't we?
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