Canonized means that set of writings earlier church authorities determined to be doctrinally accurate and doctrinally consistent and therefore doctrinally sound. It is these set of writings that earlier church authorities determined are to be used as the basis for church preaching and teaching and therefore faith and practice.
The Holy Bible of which I speak is that collection of books canonized as the generally and commonly accepted Old and New Testaments consisting of the following books:
Old Testament:
Books of the Law (5): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Books of History (13): Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st Samuel, 2nd Samuel, 1st Kings, 2nd Kings, 1st Chronicles, 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, Job
Books of Wisdom/Poetry (4): Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
Books of the Major Prophets (5): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel
Books of the Minor Prophets (12): Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
Catholic Bible Variation: Catholic Bible is same as above except as follows:
Song of Solomon is called Song of Songs
Old Testament contains seven (7) additional books as follows:
Tobit (aka book of Tobias) and Judith – listed after Nehemiah
1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees – listed after Ester
Wisdom and Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) – listed after Song of Songs
Baruch – listed after Lamentations
An example of an inconsistency between the apocrapha books and the KJV is illustrated in Tobit 6 where Tobit is said to be told by an angel that the heart and liver cut out of a fish “can be burned and used to chase away a demon or an evil spirit that is tormenting someone. The attacks will stop immediately, and the person will never be troubled again.” Such things are considered forbidden magic, sorcery or witchcraft in the KJV.
New Testament (Non-Catholic and Catholic):
The Gospels (4): Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
The Book of the Early Church (1): Acts
The Epistles of Paul (13): Romans, 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians, 1st Thessalonians, 2nd Thessalonians, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon,
The General Epistles (8): Hebrews, James, 1st Peter, 2nd Peter, 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John, Jude
Revelation (1)
Thus, the non-Catholic Bible contains 39 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books for a total of 66 books. The Catholic Bible contains 46 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books for a total of 73 books. Note that the non-Catholic and Catholic New Testament contain the same books in name and number. So then although they differ in the Old Testament they are the same in the biblical account of the New Covenant which is most important.
The original King James Version (KJV) of 1611 contained the core 66 books plus the seven (7) Catholic additional books plus eight (8) other books: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Additions to Ester, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Azariah, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and Prayer of Manasseh.
In the original KJV these fifteen (15) books are said to have been sandwiched between or included as an addendum the Old and New Testament. Regardless of placement they were identified as distinct from the other books. These 15-books were called the Apocrypha where Apocrypha means hidden. This was done because the KJV translators did not consider these books to be of the same doctrinal value of the other books; yet, they had historical value and were therefore retained as they were good to read.
Over time, the non-Catholics dropped all of these books from its printed Bible, perhaps as a matter of print convenience by publishers, and handling convenience by everday people since the Apocrypha books were/are viewed not as essential for doctrine but rather supplementary to the core 66 books. But removal from publishers print of the KJV bible does not mean they were removed from the (official) KJV as an addendum. With the advent of the smart phone and Internet, perhaps neither is problematic now.
The Catholic dropped the latter eight but retained the former seven and consider them as valuable as the core 66 books and includes them not as an addendum but seemingly as an integral part of the Bible equivalent in authority to the other 66 books which is a digression from the original King James Version treatment of these books as being less authoritative than the other books. So either the early Catholic Church was not the author of the King James Version or the early Catholic Church had a different view of these books than the modern day Catholic Church. In any case the Catholic Church has clearly gone astray in a number of areas to include seemingly claiming that its oral tradition outweighs the written scriptures. which is why the Protestant Revolution occurred. It is spiritual warfare and spiritual warfare is present with respect to all faiths/religions/persons due to sin and spiritual immaturity in various areas in all persons. Only Jesus Christ was perfect.
In at least one version of a historical Catholic Bible, 1 Esdras was said to be the same as Ezra and 2 Esdras as Nehemiah. However, 1 Esdras and the KJV Ezra do not contain the same information. For example, in the Apocrypha 1 Esdras Chapter 1 contains 58 verses whereas the KJV Ezra contains only 11 verses in Chapter 1. Both the latter day Catholic and KJV Bibles now seem to contain the same Ezra verses in number and content .
There are some additional writings that have been found. These like the Apocrypha are to be considered truth only to the extent they are consistent with the core 66.
These additional writings include the book of Enoch. Jude 1:14 references a prophecy of Enoch. But Jude does not say the prophecy is contained in a book by Enoch. Therefore, one should not conclude from the passage that Jude was validating what is known as the book of Enoch. In fact, the scriptures do not refer to a book of Enoch. Some say what is known as the book of Enoch could not have been written by the Enoch mentioned in Hebrews 11 since the book of Enoch mentions Noah and Enoch lived and was translated before Noah was born.
Conclusions
I conclude with the following:
I wish the KJV translators had pointed out at least one scripture in each of the Apocrypha books they found problematic and why. I wish there was a record of that in the preface or somewhere in the KJV.
I question the validity of the Catholic Bible having the book of Tobit so I don’t think their Bible should have any of the Apocrypha to be authentic as the core 66. Certainly not Tobit. However, I have not read all of the Apocrypha or the core 66. In addition to Tobit I question Wisdom 2:10-13 which the Catholic Bible contains.
Nevertheless I ask the following question:
Have anyone found any righteous doctrine or principle in any of the Apocrypha books that they believe not to be in the core 66?
If not, the Apocrypha seems to be at best duplicate and at worse not Holy Spirit inspired.
References.
See http://www.catholic-bible.org/ for a discussion of Catholic and Protestant Bibles difference.
Also see http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Apocrypha-Books/ for a listing of the original KJV Apocrypha books.
Original 1611 King James Version with Apocrypha Books
Also see http://www.drbo.org/index.htm for discussion of the Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible which was used largely by the Catholics prior to the New American Standard Bible. The New American Standard is now the official Catholic Bible at lease in the US and is available at http://www.usccb.org/bible/.
For more info see The Apocrypha and Book of Jasher
For my article on the Bible and its translations in more detail see Of the Bible
