How many canons of Scripture are there?

[menofstjoseph]

Many of Catholics (including myself) are fond of pointing out that the Catholic Church determined and organized the canon of scripture recognized by most Protestants today. However, how many varieties of canon are there?

Do ALL of the orthodox churches follow the same canon as prescribed originally by the Catholic Church? Is there primarily just one canon with “minor” variations (73 bs 66 books) or are there versions that are vastly different? Exactly how many canons are there and how many of those derive from the same “line” as that determined from the early Church Councils?

Thanks.

 

[BenFischer]

The Orthodox aren’t that unified in terms of which books make up the OT. I think the Ethiopians have the largest Canon of all, but most Orthodox OT would correspond to the Catholic OT, adding Psalm 151,another book of Maccabees, and a couple more Ezra’s. The following link is from Wikipedia. I thought there was a better one on the web, but I can’t find it now.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon

 

[Formosus]

Many of Catholics (including myself) are fond of pointing out that the Catholic Church determined and organized the canon of scripture recognized by most Protestants today. However, how many varieties of canon are there?

Do ALL of the orthodox churches follow the same canon as prescribed originally by the Catholic Church? Is there primarily just one canon with “minor” variations (73 bs 66 books) or are there versions that are vastly different? Exactly how many canons are there and how many of those derive from the same “line” as that determined from the early Church Councils?

Thanks.

The canon of scripture in the early church was much more fluid then many Latin Catholics would be comfortable with today. The Churches of the west proclaimed one biblical canon at local councils (like that of Carthage). These local councils did not set the canon for the whole church (nor could they if they had wanted to). Really, even in the west, the Canon was just based on tradition until Trent set it in stone due to protestant opposition.

In the east though, Greek speaking Churches used a canon based off of the Septuagint. Syriac Churches had their own canon based on the Peshitta etc etc. Ultimately the Greek canon is the original “line” that the Latin canon was based of of, though Jerome’s translation was based off of the Hebrew and not the Greek texts of the OT.

As far as how many canons there are, to my knowledge there is the Greek canon, the Ethiopian canon, a Syriac canon that includes 5 extra psalms, and a slavic canon that include one extra book.

I think it is worth noting that Eastern Catholics use the same canon of scripture as their Orthodox counter parts.

 

[Protestant101]

Trent is where Roman Catholics reaffirmed their split from the Universal Church; and Trent is where they reaffirmed their evolution into the denomination of Roman Catholic. This is why they need to claim that they wrote the Bible, that only they determined canon.

 

[wardrandolph]

Trent is where Roman Catholics reaffirmed their split from the Universal Church; and Trent is where they reaffirmed their evolution into the denomination of Roman Catholic. This is why they need to claim that they wrote the Bible, that only they determined canon.

Please post referances etc.of where you get your information.Evan the original KJV had the same Canon as the Catholic Bible.Why were they taken out in the 1800’s?

 

[menofstjoseph]

Trent is where Roman Catholics reaffirmed their split from the Universal Church; and Trent is where they reaffirmed their evolution into the denomination of Roman Catholic. This is why they need to claim that they wrote the Bible, that only they determined canon.

I don’t want to derail my own thread but what the HECK are you talking about? Universal Church??? If you mean Universal = Catholic then how can Catholic Church split from itself.

If you are referring to another organization please tell me where this other entity was headquartered, who ran it, who founded it, and how their services were run and organized?

 

[Formosus]

Trent is where Roman Catholics reaffirmed their split from the Universal Church; and Trent is where they reaffirmed their evolution into the denomination of Roman Catholic. This is why they need to claim that they wrote the Bible, that only they determined canon.

The Catholic Church did write the NT and compiled the OT. Its important to understand that the Catholic Church is not just the Latin west but also the Eastern Churches as well. And note that both the Eastern and Western canon have the so called apocryphal books that the protestants removed. Further, if you read trent. It doesn’t actually condemn the easterners with their wider canons. It is directed at those who sought to remove books (Protestants).

 

[agent_grey]

There are several. The ethiopian orthodox for example have a canon of 81 books.

The primary thing to learn on this is that the belief in innerant scripture is flat out Idolatry. All you have to do is have a conversation with the broken mind of scriptural innerantist Protestant and you shall know these by there dead fruit.