Hi Adrian, thanks for putting together this piece to set the scene for your bible study group (which I’m excited about!). As a Baby Christian, there’s sooo much context I need to try to absorb and read/hear about several times over to even begin to feel I can start to understand God through his word. This brief history is really helpful for people like me! 🫶🏼
Thank you so much for doing this study and explaining so well. I grew up protestant and as an adult I have had so many questions, confusion and doubt about the Bible. So this is much needed for me. Will you explain what criteria the Catholic & Orthodox used to determine if a book was canonical or what that really means?
The early church fathers weren't so black-and-white about what was "canonical" or not - that kind of strict thinking was introduced during the Reformation in the 16th century. Early on there were just a lot of books with various levels of importance that were all good to read, for different reasons - and were largely only accessible to clergy and scholars. There were certainly arguments/discussions between theologians on what was of the most importance. Scripture is considered "God-breathed" - written by men, guided by the Holy Spirit - so the argument about what is canonical is about which books were truly dictated by God/the Holy Spirit. What was "canonical" evolved with each tradition - Catholics determine it officially with ecumenical councils, which they didn't even officially do until they had to in response to the Reformation (though historically they had been using the 73 book version). The Orthodox church differs still today between traditions in how many books are included, and they tend to include the most, depending on how relevant it is to their part of the world. The Ethiopian Bible that includes the most books includes books on the development of the early church in Ethiopia, for example - and I don't think we can say that's not "God-breathed" scripture, but we CAN say it's not necessarily relevant to other parts of the Christian world.
This is so interesting!! I'm finishing my second read through of my Bible & just found out that the Catholic Bible has more books. 🤯 I'm looking forward to following along with the reading plan!!
My question is, are there salvation differences between the Catholics/Protestants? Or is salvation still based off of belief in Jesus Christ as our savior?
Both believe that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, but there are differences in how they see that play out in terms of faith, works, and the sacraments. Whereas Protestants believe in salvation by faith alone, and that good works follow as a natural result of faith and God's grace, Catholics believe salvation is a process that begins with faith and grace and continues as that person lives out faith through good works, obedience to God, and participation in the sacraments (like baptism).
Hey Adrian- just curious as your article on Bible history didn’t mention it- do you believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God? I didn’t see any mention of the fact that the Bible was written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the article either. Could you clarify your belief on this? Thank you!
Hi Kristin — I do! I could have said a lot more in this article but honestly I’m trying to keep this a bit more neutral/historical with my specific beliefs sequestered to comments and chat. While obviously each translation of the Bible has its bias based on the committee overseeing the translation, and men are fallible, I do believe the content of the Bible is generally guided and protected by the Holy Spirit. The Dead Sea Scrolls seem to prove this — the 2,000 year old manuscripts from the Bible uncovered in the Qumran caves in 1947 show “unusual” consistency with the texts we had at the time (before their discovery, the oldest texts were the 10th century Masoretic texts). This means that there has been very little editing over the centuries, even though the books have often been edited, transcribed, and printed by various interpretations/beliefs, even including Freemasons with a vested interest in making more significant changes.
Hi Adrian, thanks for putting together this piece to set the scene for your bible study group (which I’m excited about!). As a Baby Christian, there’s sooo much context I need to try to absorb and read/hear about several times over to even begin to feel I can start to understand God through his word. This brief history is really helpful for people like me! 🫶🏼
Thank you so much for doing this study and explaining so well. I grew up protestant and as an adult I have had so many questions, confusion and doubt about the Bible. So this is much needed for me. Will you explain what criteria the Catholic & Orthodox used to determine if a book was canonical or what that really means?
The early church fathers weren't so black-and-white about what was "canonical" or not - that kind of strict thinking was introduced during the Reformation in the 16th century. Early on there were just a lot of books with various levels of importance that were all good to read, for different reasons - and were largely only accessible to clergy and scholars. There were certainly arguments/discussions between theologians on what was of the most importance. Scripture is considered "God-breathed" - written by men, guided by the Holy Spirit - so the argument about what is canonical is about which books were truly dictated by God/the Holy Spirit. What was "canonical" evolved with each tradition - Catholics determine it officially with ecumenical councils, which they didn't even officially do until they had to in response to the Reformation (though historically they had been using the 73 book version). The Orthodox church differs still today between traditions in how many books are included, and they tend to include the most, depending on how relevant it is to their part of the world. The Ethiopian Bible that includes the most books includes books on the development of the early church in Ethiopia, for example - and I don't think we can say that's not "God-breathed" scripture, but we CAN say it's not necessarily relevant to other parts of the Christian world.
This is so interesting!! I'm finishing my second read through of my Bible & just found out that the Catholic Bible has more books. 🤯 I'm looking forward to following along with the reading plan!!
My question is, are there salvation differences between the Catholics/Protestants? Or is salvation still based off of belief in Jesus Christ as our savior?
Both believe that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, but there are differences in how they see that play out in terms of faith, works, and the sacraments. Whereas Protestants believe in salvation by faith alone, and that good works follow as a natural result of faith and God's grace, Catholics believe salvation is a process that begins with faith and grace and continues as that person lives out faith through good works, obedience to God, and participation in the sacraments (like baptism).
Hey Adrian- just curious as your article on Bible history didn’t mention it- do you believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God? I didn’t see any mention of the fact that the Bible was written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the article either. Could you clarify your belief on this? Thank you!
Hi Kristin — I do! I could have said a lot more in this article but honestly I’m trying to keep this a bit more neutral/historical with my specific beliefs sequestered to comments and chat. While obviously each translation of the Bible has its bias based on the committee overseeing the translation, and men are fallible, I do believe the content of the Bible is generally guided and protected by the Holy Spirit. The Dead Sea Scrolls seem to prove this — the 2,000 year old manuscripts from the Bible uncovered in the Qumran caves in 1947 show “unusual” consistency with the texts we had at the time (before their discovery, the oldest texts were the 10th century Masoretic texts). This means that there has been very little editing over the centuries, even though the books have often been edited, transcribed, and printed by various interpretations/beliefs, even including Freemasons with a vested interest in making more significant changes.