HOW DID WE GET THE BIBLE?
STEP ONE: WRITE THE OLD TESTAMENT
TORAH (or PENTATEUCH): The first five
books of the Old Testament. Traditionally
authored by Moses.
HISTORICAL BOOKS: Told the story of Israel
from the time of Joshuas conquest of the
Promised Land to Israels war against the
Greeks in the decades prior to the coming
of Christ.
WISDOM BOOKS: These books gave in-
struction and insight regarding the pursuit
of God and human virtue.
PROPHETIC BOOKS: Writings of the Major
and Minor Prophets warning Israel to turn
away from sin and towards the LORD.
STEP FOUR: WRITE THE NEW TESTAMENT
GOSPELS: Matthew, Mark, and Luke (written
between AD 50-70); John (c. AD 90).
HISTORICAL LITERATURE: The Acts of the
Apostles was written in the 60s.
EPISTLES/LETTERS: The letters of St. Paul
were written in the 50s-60s. The Catholic
epistles were written during or after this
period.
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE: The Book of
Revelation was written in the 90s but there
is some evidence to date it to the 60s.
OTHER BOOKS: Other first century books
were read at Masses during the first centu-
ries of the Church. These included the Dida-
che, 1 Clement, Barnabas, and the Letters of
St. Ignatius.
2017 A. Joseph Lynch
STEP TWO: MAKE THESE BOOKS ACCESSIBLE
TRANSLATION: Many Jews in the first century
lived outside of the Holy Land and spoke Greek.
In order to make the Hebrew-language Bible ac-
cessible to Jews who did not speak Hebrew,
translations were made into Greek. The most im-
portant of these is known as the Septuagint.
SEPTUAGINT: Greek translation of the Hebrew
Bible made in Alexandria, Egypt. With the Septua-
gint, Greek-speaking Jews throughout the Medi-
terranean world had the Hebrew Bible in a lan-
guage they understood. Its also the translation
used by Jesus, the Apostles, and the early Church.
STEP FIVE: WHAT BOOKS TO INCLUDE?
COUNCIL OF ROME (AD 382): After nearly 300
years of reading scripture at Mass, Pope St. Da-
masus I sought to make a final Biblical Canon for
the Church and a new translation of that canon
into Latin for the Latin-speaking Christians (the
New Testament was written in Greek). In AD 382,
the Pope led a local Roman council to decide this.
CATHOLIC BIBLICAL CANON: The Council of
Rome used the canon found in the Septuagint
which Judaism after Jesus did not acceptfor its
Old Testament canon and approved the 27 books
we still use today in the New Testament.
THE VULGATE: Commissioned by the Council of
Rome, St. Jerome left Rome for Bethlehem with
assistants to translate the canonical list of books
into Latin. Their work led to the Vulgate, used by
the Church for centuries to come.
CATHOLIC ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS: Douay
Rheims (1582NT/1610OT), Jerusalem (1966),
Revised Standard: Catholic Ed. (1966used in
the English Catechism), New American Bible
(1960used at Masses in the United States).
STEP THREE: WHAT BOOKS TO INCLUDE?
CANON: A definitive list of Biblical books. Determining
what books to include in the Bible was entrusted to the
Catholic Church. While there is a full canon of all Biblical
books, we can also talk about the Old Testament canon
and later the New Testament canon. The full Biblical canon
was not complete until AD 382 (see Step Five).
OLD TESTAMENT CANON: A list of books in the Old Tes-
tament. Jews at the time of Jesus had not yet finalized
which books were canonical according to Judaism. In time
this would mean that Jews and Christians would have to
decide what Old Testament books to include in their Bi-
bles. For this reason, Jews, Protestants, and Catholics, have
different Old Testament canons.
COUNCIL OF JAMNIA: A meeting of Jewish scholars
thought to have taken place in the late 1st or early 2nd
century to finalize the Hebrew Canon. While the historicity
of this council has been questioned, the Jewish community
by the 2nd century settled on a Hebrew Canon that reject-
ed any Old Testament books not found written in Hebrew.
Some books, like I Maccabees, were rejected for this rea-
son only to be rediscovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls
in Hebrew centuries later. Protestants accepted the He-
brew canon of 39 books while Catholics kept all 46 books
of the Greek Septuagint used since Apostolic times. Both
agree on the 27 books of the New Testament.
WHAT IS THE APOCRYPHA?
APOCRYPHA: Books that, while spiritually edifying, are not
considered canonical and thus not part of sacred scripture,
the inspired Word of God.
JEWISH AND PROTESTANT APOCRYPHA: Books of
the Old Testament, accepted by Catholics, but rejected
by Jews and Protestants. Catholics call these books the
Deuterocanonical books.
CATHOLIC APOCRYPHA: The books of the Catholic
Apocrypha would include books like III Maccabees (of
O.T. times) and Barnabus (of N.T. times).