The Apocrypha 

So, we know how the Old and New Testaments formed.

It happened over time, but in the end, give us the Bible we know today.

Well… kinda.

Contrasting Canons

I’m a Protestant, which means my Bible contains 66 books.

But that’s not the case for every Christian.

Roman Catholics, for instance, have 73 books.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Orthodox have about 76 (generally speaking).

The BibleProject provides a helpful breakdown with this chart:

As you can see, the New Testaments are the same; but the Old is a little different.

The extra OT books in question are called the “apocrypha,” which, in Greek, means “hidden.”

They’re called that because these books weren’t part of the Hebrew Bible, having been written afterwards.

Despite not being part of the Hebrew Bible, the apocryphal books were still important. Even influencing New Testament authors like Jude (who makes a direct reference to the apocryphal book of Enoch in Jude 14-15).

This important influence is, in large part, what led many churches to adopt them as canon.

You see, the Early Church was decentralized and diverse, making it easy for different views on the apocrypha to arise.

Influential figures like Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296/8-373) didn’t consider them canon, while others, most notably Augustine of Hippo (354-430), did.

The apocryphal books eventually found their way into Jerome’s Vulgate (the Latin translation of Scripture that was foundational for much of Church history), leading to their acceptance in the Catholic canon.

Then, in the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestants challenged the apocryphal books on the grounds of their exclusion from the Hebrew Bible and their use by Catholic clergymen to justify corrupt practices.

This eventually led to the major divergence between Protestantism and Catholicism (and Eastern Orthodoxy) on the matter, leading Protestants to the 66-book Bible we have today.

What to Make of the Bible’s Formation

So, what’s the takeaway from all this?

I’d say that the creation of the Bible was quite the human process.

That’s not to say God wasn’t involved, but instead of dropping the Bible onto our laps, He chose to work through human history and experience. 

That did end up in different Old Testaments but also in a universally accepted New Testament.

And it’s from that New Testament that we get an understanding of the saving Gospel, something shared by our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters.

As Protestants, we don’t believe their additional books are inspired the same way as the others, but that doesn’t mean God can’t use them.

In fact, He has used them as evidenced by New Testament authors such as Jude!

Through it all, this much is clear - God brought together the Hebrew and Apostolic Scriptures in such a way that their synthesis resulted in the most influential book on the planet.

In this, the history of the Bible mirrors the core of Christianity:

God stepping into the messiness of human affairs and creating something salvific out of it.

Thanks for reading, and be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter