Which Bible?
The Samaritan Bible has five books. The Pentateuch and nothing else.
The Jewish Bible has the Hebrew canon, fixed to a single manuscript tradition, the Masoretic Text.
The Protestant Bible has those same Old Testament books, reordered and retranslated, with the Apocrypha cut out. The 1611 King James actually included that Apocrypha.
The Catholic Bible keeps the Deuterocanon the Protestants dropped.
The Eastern Orthodox Bible adds more still, including Psalm 151 and an extra book of Esdras.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Bible runs longest of all, carrying 1 Enoch and Jubilees.
Each tradition drew its boundary in a different century, at a different council, for a different reason. There has never been one Bible.
So calling the Bible the ultimate source skips a step. Someone had to decide which books counted. Councils of men did, over centuries, and they did not agree. The source sits behind the book. It was never the book itself.
God is the ultimate source. The Bible is a witness to Him, assembled by councils.
A simple question with profound implications.
Most of us never even consider "which bible", but once that door is opened more questions arise:
• "By what authority did someone decide one book of scripture is 'canon' and another is not?"
•"Which translations are true to the original spirit of the scripture vs. translations that distort or obfuscate meaning?"
• "Which edits, additions and changes to 'canonical' scriptures over the centuries are enough to invalidate the authenticity of the book of scripture?"
• "What methods does God intend His children to use to recognize His voice when He speaks (or writes)?"
• Etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment