Protestant Canon However, in the 16th century, Martin Luther argued that many of the received texts of the New Testament lacked the authority of the Gospels, and therefore proposed removing a number of books from the New Testament, including Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation.
The Confession provided the rationale for the exclusion: 'The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the 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' (1.3).
What are they? A: There are seven books in the Catholic Bible - Baruch, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach, Tobit and Wisdom - that are not included in the Protestant version of the Old Testament. These books are referred to as the deuterocanonical books.
It differs from the 1546 Roman Catholic canon of the Council of Trent in that it rejects the deuterocanonical books and questions the seven New Testament books, called "Luther's Antilegomena", four of which are still ordered last in German-language Luther Bibles to this day.
One possible reason for Jewish rejection of the book might be the textual nature of several early sections of the book that make use of material from the Torah; for example, 1 En 1 is a midrash of Deuteronomy 33.
Who wrote the Book of Enoch? The true authorship of the Book of Enoch is unknown, but it is believed to be the work of a number of different authors over hundreds of years, with each portion having been added separately. Traditionally, however, it is attributed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of the biblical Noah.
This book contains: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, The Book of Tobit, The Book of Susanna, Additions to Esther, The Book of Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, The Epistle of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah, Bel and the Dragon, Prayer of Manasses, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Gospel of ...
In Judaism
Speculated reasons for its exclusion include the possible lateness of its composition, possible Greek origin, apparent support of the Hasmonean dynasty (to which the early rabbinate was opposed), and perhaps the brash and seductive character of Judith herself.
They reasoned that by not printing the secondary material of Apocrypha within the Bible, the scriptures would prove to be less costly to produce. Haldane and William Thorpe began a general campaign in 1821, against all Bibles with the Apocrypha and their printing with funds raised from British sources.
This book is known as the 15 apocrypha books of the Bible, they were removed from the Bible by the Protestant Church in the 1800's. These books are as true today, as they were in the 1800's, before being omitted from the Bible.
Bibles used by Catholics differ in the number and order of books from those typically found in bibles used by Protestants, as Catholic bibles retain in their canon seven books that are regarded as non-canonical in Protestantism (though regarding them as non-canonical, many Protestant Bibles traditionally include these ...
There are several levels of dubiety within the general concept of apocryphal works in Judeo-Christian biblical writings. Apocrypha per se are outside the canon, not considered divinely inspired but regarded as worthy of study by the faithful. Pseudepigrapha are spurious works ostensibly written by a biblical figure.
One issue that split Protestants and Catholics during the Reformation was disagreement over whether Christians attain salvation in heaven through faith in God alone, or through a combination of faith and good works.
The Gospel of Mary is an early Christian text deemed unorthodox by the men who shaped the nascent Catholic church, was excluded from the canon, and was subsequently erased from the history of Christianity along with most narratives that demonstrated women's contributions to the early Christian movement.
Philip Schaff says that "the council of Hippo in 393, and the third (according to another reckoning the sixth) council of Carthage in 397, under the influence of Augustine, who attended both, fixed the catholic canon of the Holy Scriptures, including the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, ...
The Protestant Apocrypha contains three books (1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh) that are accepted by many Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches as canonical, but are regarded as non-canonical by the Catholic Church and are therefore not included in modern Catholic Bibles.
The Eastern Orthodox Church also accepted the Apocrypha (Deuterocanon) as divinely inspired texts and canonical with the Old Testament. The Orthodox tradition includes the same list of books as the Catholic Church along with these below, which are considered canonical only by the Orthodox Church: 3rd Maccabees.
The Differences
In short, Catholics have 46 books, while Protestants have 39. Thus, Catholics have seven more books and also some additions within shared books: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus / Sirach / Ben Sira, 1–2 Maccabees, Baruch, and the additions to Daniel and Esther.
The name Maccabee is often used as a synonym for the entire Hasmonean dynasty, but the Maccabees proper were Judas Maccabeus and his four brothers. The name Maccabee was a personal epithet of Judah, and the later generations were not his direct descendants.
The author of 1 Maccabees is anonymous and unknown. He wrote in the post-independence Hasmonean kingdom, probably during the reign of High Priest John Hyrcanus (reigned ~134–104 BC), with a few scholars suggesting that early in the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (reigned 103–76 BC) is also a possibility.
We lost the book! Like all of our ancient books, the Book of Maccabees was originally written in Hebrew but over the years — because of persecution, exiles and book burnings — the Hebrew version was lost, and the text only survived in a translation made into Greek called the Septuagint.
By far, the largest canon of all is found in the Ethiopic Church, whose Bible totals 81 books.
The Complete 54-Book Apocrypha includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, 1–4 Baruch, 1–4 Maccabees, Apocryphal Esther, Apocryphal Psalms, Apocryphal Daniel (including Azariah, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon), 1–2 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Jubilees, 1–3 Enoch, Book of Giants (from ...
The book of Enoch was widely known by early Christians until the fourth century AD, when it was banned by the Church authorities and virtually disappeared. It describes how Enoch walked with the Archangels who took him up to Heaven and revealed to him the secrets of the universe and the future of mankind.