I have been looking at some different sites and doing my own research regarding the modern day bible. It becomes appearent that the Catholic church had a huge say in what cannons were adopted and the ones which were not. Does anyone know where I can get a bible that would include the original texts that the Jews considered to be sacred? I understand that it may include such books as macabees, etc. Thanks.
Where to find the "complete" bible
by sinis 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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NeonMadman
Actually, the Bible that was considered sacred by the Jews contains essentially the same books as the Protestant Bible. The Maccabees, which you mention, are in fact accepted by the RCC, but are considered non-canonical by Protestants and Jews (though 1 Maccabees is generally regarded as historically reliable). You can buy Jewish Bibles today such as the JPS and Tanakh versions, from many bookstores or amazon.com. As far as books regarded as apocryphal by Protestants and Jews, but accepted by the RCC, just find a Catholic Bible like the New American Bible or the New Jerusalem Bible.
If you are looking for books that are not regarded as canonical by anyone, like Gnostic texts and Jewish pseudepigrapha, there are a couple of volumes that I have found useful as "samplers". One is The Other Bible by Willis Barnstone, another is Lost Scriptures by Bart Ehrman. Also useful, though more dated and given to King James-style language is The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden, by Frank Crane. I hasten to point out that, while it may be commercially feasable to advertise the works in these books as "lost books of the Bible," the vast majority were never considered canonical by anyone. They are merely early Christian and Jewish works (along with a mix of other philosophies, such as Gnosticism) that were written in ancient times. They are not "lost books of the Bible" in any real sense, but many are of interest historically and culturally.
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the_classicist
I have been looking at some different sites and doing my own research regarding the modern day bible. It becomes appearent that the Catholic church had a huge say in what cannons were adopted and the ones which were not. Does anyone know where I can get a bible that would include the original texts that the Jews considered to be sacred? I understand that it may include such books as macabees, etc. Thanks.
The Jews, at least the Pharisees, did not close the canon until 90 A.D. at the so-called "Council" of Jamnia. This forms the modern Protestant canon. The Hellenistic Jews had a much wider canon and it was more fluid. Other Jewish sects only accepted the Pentateuch. In the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, we see books in Hebrew that the Protestants consider apocryphal, such as Tobit among other things. Since there are many different sects, it's impossible to say what the Jewish religion, as a whole, considered sacred. The early Christians considered the Septuagint to be an almost inspired translation and they accepted most of the books in it: of course, there were some small differences between East and West, since the East accepts 3 Maccabees and Psalm 151 among other things. It must be said, though, that the Early Christians never followed the rulings on the canon in Jamnia. The Bible I would recommend is the Revised Standard Version -- With Apocrypha. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195283481/qid=1124744094/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-4774557-7759103?v=glance&s=books
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Hellrider
Here`s more:
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googlemagoogle
narkissos has posted two very good links. they helped me a lot when i researched the origins of the different canons.
one thing that's really confusing when comming from the JWs, is that the bible is not a book. as in ONE book. it's a lot of books. take them all apart. one of the biggest mistakes - or power tools? - ever made was compiling them into one bound book.
however, as you already know there are different canons. the jewish, the protestant (old testament is the same as the jewish canon), the roman catholic, the orthodox, the syrian orthodox, the ethiopian orthodox, the septuagint...
the septuagint is one of the most interesting translations. because it's actually pre-canonical and included books like maccabees and henoch. those are still present in the ethiopian orthodox canon.
early christians had a huge amount of sacred texts. the need for a canon and orthodoxy raised with the hunger for power to control the religion. it's not possible to control so many different paths as christianity was back then - i think even today we don't have as many sects as back then. -
rebel8
I have seen some "lost books" on Amazon.com in the past. I found them by using gnostic as a keyword. Haven't read any, so I can't vouch for them.
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googlemagoogle
gnostic literature is only a part of the "lost books" (mostly found in nag hammadi).
"apocrypha" would be a good keyword for the search engines too. or "deuterocanonica".