Is the actual Bible much larger than what we have today?

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Holly3278

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Hey everyone. I was talking to a Fundamentalist Pentecost earlier. She kept telling me that the actual Bible has had a lot of books taken out of it by people in the past and that the Bible is so big that you wouldn’t be able to carry it around. I told her that the Bible we have today is God’s Word and that everything that is supposed to be in the Bible is in an ordinary Bible that you can get at any book store. Keep in mind I am referring to the Catholic Bible which contains the Deuterocanonicals when I speak of “the Bible”.

I did mention to her that there were ancient books called “gospels” which were written by heretics such as the “Gospel of Thomas”. I told her that they contain false doctrine and therefore they were excluded from the Bible. I don’t remember exactly what she said in response to that. I think she kind of dismissed it.

The other thing I was thinking is that maybe she is referring to the Deuterocanonicals. Maybe she knows about the fact that Protestants removed from them from the Bible and so that’s what she’s referring to?

One other thing I was thinking of is that maybe she was thinking of like the Jewish Torah scrolls like they have in synagogues? Those scrolls are quite large so that might be what she was talking about. I’m really not sure.

I remember one other person who didn’t seem to have much of a background in Christianity talk about the Bible being much larger than what we have today as well.

So anyway, I summed up to her that I believe that the Bible we have today (the Catholic one with the Deuterocanonicals was implied to her I think) is the complete Bible that God wants us to have. I also told her that I disagree with her on the idea that the Bible is much larger than what we have today and that we are supposedly missing books.

So, I’m just wanting some (name removed by moderator)ut. What do you think she could be referring to? Also, how can I talk to her about this in the future? How do I explain to her that the Bible we have today is indeed the complete Bible with everything that God wants us to have in the Bible included? Also, please let me know when the canon of the Bible was finally and dogmatically determined as I feel this would be useful information. I think it was the Council of Trent but I might be wrong.
 
It sounds like to me that she is just repeating something that she might have heard or misunderstood and doesn’t really know what she is talking about. Sometimes people mix misinformation with their own misunderstandings and developments of their imaginations. That being said, there are Bibilcal codexes and collections of papyrus and scrolls that have been found, but that is not considered “A Bible” in the sense of how we understand the canon of Scripture. As for what she said about the Bible being so big that we could not carry it, that might be because of the size of an ancient collection of writings which would be much larger than what a modern book with the same amount of writings would contain.
 
The Bible was finalized in the 300’s or 400’s, around the same time as the Councils of Nicea and Constantinople. St. Jerome’s Vulgate has been the official Latin version of the Bible for the Catholic Church since he translated it during this time. The Council of Trent upheld the canon that the Catholic Church had agreed upon for centuries as canonical in the face of Martin Luther taking out the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament.
 
There are three common opinions on what is the “correct” Bible held historically by Christian groups. None of them include anything significantly larger or different than any other, although minor points of doctrine (think 2 Macc 7:28) can be affected in their Biblical basis. There are also several opinions on the variety, or lack thereof, of the authority of various parts of the canon. The agreement on NT books has been absolute since AD 400, and was nearly absolute (disregarding 2-3 John, 2 Peter, Hebrews, and Revelation) as early as AD 200-250. Note that only the OT books are disagreed upon.

Here they are, listed from smallest to largest (excluding the Mormons, who deny the Song of Solomon):
  1. The Protestant Bible (still used by many Catholics): 66 books, 39 OT and 27 NT.
    • Note that the Protestant Bible sometimes includes a section of “Apocrypha”, which includes the entire Tridentine Bible, Orthodox Bible, and one or two extra works, but considers them to be of lesser or no authority. This became a common Bible after the Reformation in the 16th century. Copies without the “Apocrypha” became common in the 19th century. The Protestant Hebrew-based canon has gained great evidence in its favour from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
  2. The Synodical/Tridentine Bible (used by Catholics): 72/3 books, 46 OT and 27 NT, plus “additions to” (the Greek versions of) Daniel and Esther. The additional books are called “deuterocanonical”, and include the books of Maccabees, Wisdom, etc.
    • This is typified by the Clementine Vulgate, and sometimes includes a section of “Apocrypha”, separate from the Apocrypha of the Protestant Bible, including such writings as 2/4 Esdras and Laodicaeans. This Bible was first mentioned in the decrees of a regional council, III Carthage, in AD 397, and was dogmatized at Trent.
  3. The Septuagint and Byzantine Text (used by Orthodox): 77 books, 49 OT and 27 NT. Includes the full Tridentine Bible plus 1/3 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees in an appendix, and sometimes Odes. The most ancient of the Bibles, which dates from three centuries before the time of Christ.
(4. The Aethiopic Bible, which is used by the African Monophysites, and includes as canonical a great deal of demonstrably post-apostolic, African-written or adapted versions of church literature, including the book of Enoch, Pseudo-Josephus, the Apostolic Canons, and a book of Church history. This version is accepted by only the Aethiopic and Eritrean Monophysite Churches, and is called the “broad canon”.)

The writings such as the Gnostic “gospels” and various philosophical fragments found at Nag Hammadi were never accepted as canonical by any group of Christians (nor were they found canonical even by the Gnostics, as they had no concept of canon).
 
Of other works, the ones that come closest are the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, and The Acts of Paul and Thecla. If the person who said the Bible would be too big to carry around, she is wrong. In addition, any reading of these books would not support a Pentacostal position. In fact, I would challenge her to read a collection of the New Testament Apocrypha and pick out a work that she would think was divinely inspired.
 
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