there are many different bibles i don't mean different translations but different bibles
with different contents different books what exactly is the bible
well the bible is a library of books it's important to understand that the the bible
is a library of books written over a period of a thousand years or more by mostly unknown authors
today christians still disagree about which books should be in the bible now there are many
different canons of the bible a biblical canon or a canon of scripture is simply a set of books
which a particular jewish or christian religious community regards as authoritative scripture and
the english word canon comes from the greek word canon meaning rule or measuring stick
roman catholics think their bible should contain 73 books including the book of tobit the book of
job the book of judith i should say the first book of maccabees the second book of maccabees
the book of wisdom otherwise known as the wisdom of solomon and the book of sirach which is also
called ecclesiasticus protestant christians think the bible contains just 66 books and none of the
books i've just mentioned are part of their bible then there are orthodox christians you get the
russian orthodox church the greek orthodox church and so on they say the bible contains 78 books in
addition to one and two maccabees in the catholic version they have three and four maccabees
however the ethiopian orthodox church believes the bible contains 81 books the highest figure of all
and the ethiopian broader new testament canon has eight additional books in addition to the one
the canon we normally uh aware of it has the four books of cynodos the two divisions of the book of
the covenant the ethiopic clement and the ethiopic didascalia this is what they're called if you
google uh the ethiopian new testament canon you'll see all these books detailed and discussed
now if we go back in time uh to the codex sinaiticus
this is the oldest complete bible in the world and it's uh in the british library uh just
a couple of miles from where i'm sitting and it's a fourth century christian bible
and the canon there reflects probably most closely the roman catholic canon but in the new testament
we find the epistle of barnabas and portions of the shepherd of hermas
so these are two texts that no one today thinks is the word of god but uh in the fourth century
uh they were accepted as the word of god so it's not just a different but it's not just
a different bible we have today different bibles teach different christian doctrines for example
the question whether it's permissible to seek the intercession of the living for the dead and the
existence of purgatory there's an old testament book called two maccabees this is accepted by the
catholic church and the orthodox churches but not by the evangelical churches and if you look at 2
maccabees chapter 12 verse 43 onwards this speaks explicitly about the prayer of the living for
the dead and it's where the roman catholics also get the doctrine of the purgat of purgatory from
as i say this book is in the roman catholic and the orthodox bible but is rejected by protestants
and all evangelicals so when a christian tells you you must believe in the bible
you must always ask them which one there are so many they teach different things
given there is so much confusion amongst the people of the book about their scriptures and what
they actually teach what does the quran say in response to this well according to
muhammad assad's message of the quran translated and explained by muhammad assad
in verse 48 of surah number 5 it says and unto thee o prophet we have vouchsafed this divine
writ setting forth the truth confirming the truth of whatever there still remains
of earlier revelations and determining what is true therein judged then between the followers
of earlier revelation in accordance with what god has bestowed from on high and do not follow
their errant views forsaking the truth that has come unto thee so this passage seems to clearly
imply that the quran as a criterion as a quality control is to be used to discern what is true and
what is false in the scriptures of the people of the book and to confirm the truth of what remains
in those earlier revelations clearly implying corruption and change and alteration of the
original scriptures given to moses and given to jesus and so on so the quran is as a footnote here
is is described as the determinant factor in deciding what is genuine and what is false in the
earlier scriptures that's muhammad assad's note so i hope that was of interest until next time