Development of the Canon of Sacred Scripture

Over the course of the centuries several canons, or lists of sacred books, developed. Let us look at the reasons.

Around the year 605 B.C., the People of Israel suffered a dispersion or, as it is known biblically, a “diaspora.” King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem and took the Israelites captive to Babylon, beginning the “Babylonian Captivity” (cf. 2 Kings 24:12 and 2 Kings 25:1).

But not all the Israelites were taken captive; a “remnant” remained in Israel: 2 Kings 25:12; 2 Kings 25:22; Jeremiah 40:11; Ezekiel 33:27. Also, a number of Israelites were not taken captive to Babylon but went to Egypt: 2 Kings 25:26; Jeremiah 42:14; Jeremiah 43:7.

King Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:20; 2 Chronicles 36:23) and gave the Israelites freedom to return to Israel, thus ending their slavery. Some returned to Palestine (Ezra 1:5; 7:28 and Nehemiah 2:11), but others went instead to Egypt, settling mostly in the city of Alexandria (founded by Alexander the Great in 322 B.C., it had the most important library in the world at that time). Greeks, Jews, and Egyptians lived together in this great city. Thus the Jews were dispersed even after the end of the captivity: some in Palestine and others in the diaspora, especially in Alexandria. In the time of Jesus there were more Jews in Alexandria than in Palestine itself (1 Maccabees 1:1).

While the first semblance of a Hebrew canon was beginning to take shape, the Hebrew language began to die out and had disappeared completely by the year 135 B.C. For this reason Jesus and his contemporaries in Palestine spoke Aramaic, a dialect of Hebrew.

The Translation of the Seventy (Septuagint)

As in most of the civilized world, the main language of Alexandria in the third century B.C. was Greek. There was therefore a great need for a Greek translation of the Sacred Scriptures. History relates that Demetrius of Phalerum, librarian of Ptolemy II (285–246 B.C.), wanted copies of the Jewish Law for the Library of Alexandria. The translation was carried out at the beginning of the third century B.C. and was called the Translation of the Seventy (after the number of translators who worked on the project). Beginning with the Torah, they translated all the Sacred Scriptures, that is, everything Christians today know as the Old Testament. They also introduced a new arrangement and included Sacred Books which, because they were more recent, were not in the ancient canons but were generally recognized as sacred by the Jews. These are seven books, written in Greek, which today are called deuterocanonical. We see, then, that there was no “biblical silence” (an absence of Revelation) in the centuries preceding the birth of Jesus. Most Jews of that time knew that God continued to reveal himself. That was the final stage of revelation before the coming of the Messiah.

The Translation of the Seventy contains the original texts of some of the deuterocanonical books (Wisdom and 2 Maccabees) and the canonical basis of others, either in part (Esther, Daniel, and Sirach) or completely (Tobit, Judith, Baruch, and 1 Maccabees).

The Translation of the Seventy was the one used in the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles

The Alexandrian version, with the seven deuterocanonical books, spread widely and was the one generally used by the Jews in the Apostolic era. For this reason it is not surprising that this was the translation used by Christ and the writers of the New Testament. Three hundred of the 350 references to the Old Testament made in the New Testament are taken from the Alexandrian version. Therefore there is no doubt that the apostolic Church of the first century accepted the deuterocanonical books as part of its canon (books recognized as the Word of God). For example, Origen, Father of the Church (+254), stated that Christians used these books even though some Jewish leaders did not officially accept them.

At the end of the first century of the Christian era, a Jewish school, perhaps of rabbis, produced a Hebrew canon in the city of Jamnia, in Palestine. They closed the canon with the prophets Ezra (458 B.C.), Nehemiah (445 B.C.), and Malachi (433 B.C.). This canon comprised 22 to 24 books. They did not definitively reject the deuterocanonical books, but they did not include them among the canonical books. The canon recognized by the Jews was not fixed until more than a hundred years later. Even then, the “deuterocanonical” books continued to be read and respected by the Jews. Meanwhile Christians continued to recognize the Alexandrian version. Thus the two Old Testament canons arose.

The two Old Testament canons:

· The Alexandrian canon (the Translation of the Seventy into Greek, made before Christ and accepted by all Christians and many Jews, which contains the deuterocanonical books)

· The Palestinian canon (Jamnia, Hebrew translation made after Christ).

Historians place the fixing of the canons of the Alexandrian and Palestinian translations in the second century of our era. Bishop Melito of Sardis recorded the first known list of the Alexandrian canon in A.D. 170. It contained 45/46 books (the book of Lamentations was considered part of Jeremiah). The Palestinian canon contained only 39 books because it did not have the seven deuterocanonical books.

The Vulgate of Saint Jerome

The first translation of the Bible into Latin was made by Saint Jerome and was called the “Vulgate” (A.D. 383). Latin was then the common language in the Mediterranean world. Saint Jerome at first translated from the Hebrew text of the Palestinian canon. His style was more elegant and in some phrases different from the Translation of the Seventy. In addition, it lacked the deuterocanonical books because they were not in the Hebrew text. This produced a controversy among Christians. In defense of his translation, Saint Jerome wrote a letter, “Ad Pachmmachium de optimo genere interpretandi,” which is the first treatise on translation studies. For this reason he is considered the father of this discipline. There he explains, among other things, why he considered the Septuagint inaccurate. His version was finally accepted, but with the inclusion of the deuterocanonical books. That is why the Vulgate has all 46 books.

The Church establishes the canon

The controversy over which books are canonical was long, extending until the fourth century and even later. Polemics with heretics, particularly the followers of Marcion, who rejected books generally recognized by the Fathers, led the Church to define authoritatively the list of the sacred books (the canon).

The councils of the Church—the Council of Hippo in A.D. 393 and the Council of Carthage in A.D. 397 and 419, both in North Africa—confirmed the Alexandrian canon (with 46 books for the Old Testament) and also fixed the canon of the New Testament with 27 books. The letter of Pope St. Innocent I in 405 also officially lists these books. Finally, the Council of Florence (1442) definitively established the official list of the 46 books of the O.T. and the 27 of the N.T.

The canon of the New Testament was defined in the fourth century after a long and difficult process of discernment. The very name “New Testament” was not used until the second century. One of the criteria for accepting or not accepting books was that they have an apostle as author; their use, especially in the liturgy in the Apostolic Churches; and conformity with the faith of the Church. Under these criteria some gospels attributed to the Apostles (e.g., the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter) were rejected. The Gospel of Saint John and the Apocalypse were considered doubtful for a long time because of the appeal they had for sectarian and millenarian groups.

All Catholics accepted the canon of the Bible fixed by the councils mentioned, and since this canon did not become a cause of serious controversy until the sixteenth century, it was not necessary to define the canon of the Bible as an infallible truth.

The Protestant Bible is missing books

In 1534, Martin Luther translated the Bible into German and grouped the seven deuterocanonical books under the title “Apocrypha,” noting: “These are books which are not held equal to the Sacred Scriptures, and yet are useful and good to read.” Thus Protestants came to regard the deuterocanonical books as books not accepted in the canon, that is, as apocryphal books.

History shows that what Luther said is not true. Christians had always recognized these books as part of the Bible. The councils of the fourth century and later had confirmed Christian belief. Luther’s opinion was rather that of the Jews who followed the Jamnia translation. Unfortunately Luther spread his errors together with his rebellion. That is why his followers, the Protestants, lack the deuterocanonical books of the Bible:

Luther not only removed books from the Old Testament but also made changes in the New Testament.

“He [Martin Luther] had declared that a person is not justified by faith working through love, but by faith alone. He even went so far as to add the word ‘alone’ after the word ‘justified’ in his German translation of Romans 3:28, and called the Letter of James a ‘false epistle’ because James explicitly says: ‘You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.’” —Scott and Kimberly HAHN, “Rome Sweet Home,” Rialp ed., Madrid, 2000, p. 57. (Scott Hahn was a Protestant, Presbyterian minister before his conversion.)

He took the liberty of separating the books of the New Testament in the following way:

Thanks be to God, Protestants have the same books as Catholics in the New Testament because they did not accept Luther’s changes for this part of the canon.

Protestants and Evangelicals find themselves in a contradictory position: they recognize the canon established by the councils of the fourth century for the New Testament (the 27 books they have), but they do not recognize that same authority for the canon of the O.T.

It is interesting to note that the Gutenberg Bible, the first printed Bible, is the Latin Bible (Vulgate), and therefore contained the 46 books of the Alexandrian canon.

The position of the Anglican Church

According to the 39 Articles of Religion (1563) of the Church of England, the deuterocanonical books may be read for “example of life and instruction of manners,” but should not be used to “establish any doctrine” (Article VI). Consequently, the King James Version Bible (1611) printed these books between the N.T. and the O.T. But John Lightfoot (1643) criticized this order, alleging that the “wretched Apocrypha” might thus be seen as a bridge between the O.T. and the N.T. The Westminster Confession (1647) decided that these books, “not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.”

Catholic clarification of the canon

The Catholic Church, faithful to the Lord’s charge to teach the truth and refute errors, solemnly defined, at the Council of Trent in the year 1563, the canon of the Old Testament with 46 books, following the Greek translation that Christians had always used since apostolic times. It thus confirmed the perennial Christian faith and said that the deuterocanonical books must be treated “with equal devotion and reverence.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church reaffirms the complete list of the Sacred Books, including the deuterocanonical books.

This teaching of the Council of Trent was ratified by Vatican Council I and by Vatican Council II (Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum on Sacred Scripture).

The Bible is a gift of the Lord presented as a finished work through a long process brought to completion by the Holy Spirit in the Catholic Church, by whose authority the definitive canon is established.

Source: Corazones.org