There is a story most people believe about the Reformation and the Bible, and it goes like this. The Church had one settled, complete Bible for fifteen centuries. Then Martin Luther came along, disliked what he read, and took a pair of scissors to Scripture, cutting out books that didn’t suit his theology. The Council…
There were many books that didn’t make the cut when it came to the Bible. And even more that never were in the running; that weren’t ever considered. In fact, even some of the books that are currently in the Bible hardly made the cut, such as Hebrews and Revelation. So why were some books…
Short answer, it’s because we learn more about the languages that compose the Bible, as well as find new manuscripts, that allow for a better translation. Long answer: One of the best books on this subject is Bruce Metzger’s The Text of the New Testament. It does get dense though. One of Metzger’s students, Bart…
The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, or the Tanach. It contains a few books now regarded as Apocryphal, which are often included in various Bible translations today. It’s important because it gives us one more early manuscript tradition to go off of. It is in Greek, so it is a bit…