So, what is canonical?

What is canonical to the bible, I mean. The word canon can be loosely described as "official". So, what is the canon bible?

As I have mentioned in my introductory post there are three different number of books in three distinct type of bibles that are of different sub-groups within the umbrella of Christianity. We have the Protestant bible (which is the most common bible today) with 66 books, the Roman Catholic Bible with 73, and the Eastern Orthodox Bible with 77. This then begs me to ask: What does the word bible mean? In Koine Greek it simply means the books. So, if there is such a huge difference  (when in reality there should be no difference at all) between the number of books, which bible is the true Word? Not one of them are truly accurate, I'm afraid.

The Roman Catholic bible was canonized by the Council of Trent in the middle of the 16th Century. The Lutheran Bible was formed in 1522 before the Council of Trent convened and "canonized" the Roman Catholic bible by none other than Martin Luther himself. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any information on the Eastern Orthodox Bible but if any kind person finds out the origin of the Eastern Orthodox bible, do let me know! The Protestant Bible stems from the Lutheran Bible as the Lutheran bible has the same number of books as the Roman Catholic bible but it reclassified a number of the books from the Old Testament into what we call the Apocrypha today. In the 19th century the Bible Society removed the Apocrypha from the continued printing of the bible as they thought that anything not divinely inspired should not be added into the bible.

As some may know, Martin Luther is one of the first few people to break away from the Roman Catholic Church as he thought that the Roman Catholic Church was corrupt with power, greed and many negative attributes. I can agree with that, but in all honesty, anything run by people, no matter how good the intentions were when the church was first founded, will eventually fall into corruption or some other temptation of sin. Some argued that Martin Luther himself was not a model man, and that he altered the bible to his preference as he didn't like some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church that reflected poorly on his sinful behaviors. Now, on a political level that may seem like a serious case but in reality if we were to judge a man based on a man's past, we should rule out all of Paul's teaching in the New Testament as well, no?

Based on what I have just written here, I hope you understand that in no way I am attacking God or His Word, but our understanding and perception of the Word. Using humanity's finite wisdom to determine what is and what isn't to be divinely inspired was not and never will be a smart move but throughout history there have been notable articles that claim to be of scriptural strength but in reality are false teachings. Some of the more notable individuals who led these beliefs are Marcion and Jospeh Smith.

To conclude, I would like to point out that in the end that human wisdom has been entered into what we consider to be the Word of God, or the bible. What we have is a copy, of a copy, of a copy that was translated by a human person from a language to another that was originally in another language that was translated from another language. I am only dealing with the more recent years of Christianity but in the future there might be time for us to dabble into other things as well.

If I have left out any details in this post by all means let me know and I will answer them to the best of my understanding but at the same time I encourage you to do your own research. We have the internet, it's a great tool. Use it. A dear friend of mine implied that she trusts the teachers of the church more than the internet but I would have to disagree. Anything that we ask pertaining religion will come from someone. So instead of asking your self to ask who in order to find your answers, ask yourself : What should I ask that will lead me to what I am looking for in the clearest way? In my next post I will discuss
the Historical evidence of the bible.