I recently learned that the protestants (Martin Luther) removed six books from the bible back during the reformation. I went out and purchased a catholic bible, but now I feel my original bible (NWT) is incomplete.

I never knew that purgatory was in the bible. I suppose it's one of those things you don't find out when you grow up Lutheran.

Hmm.

So, the debate starts at this: What kind of authority did Martin Luther think he had to remove the books of the bible? Even if they didn't support his ideas...does any man really have the right to alter the word of God?

When you look at the Bible, over history various books have been removed and disgarded. This is due to the fact that the "learned men" believe that us commoners are too dumb to be able to figure out what is important and what we should believe.

Just look at our voting system and the Electoral College. This was set up because those that wrote the rules for our government were so hung up on their own intelligence that they believed that the common man was to dumb to vote for themselves. Same thing with religion.

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"Philosophy is a walk on a slippery rock
Religion is a smile on a dog."

So the removal of the 6 books and parts of others was just the "dumbing down" of the Bible?

Interesting thought.

You must remember that there never was a "Bible", it evolved as a series of disparate writings, edited expanded on over centuries.

The earliest "Bible", as modern people would understand the term, was the Septuagint, a translation of what is, substantially, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox version of the Old Testament, which dates to the Second Century before the common era, if memory serves. It represents the books commonly accepted as inspired by the Jews of the Diaspora, who had become unfamiliar with Hebrew and Aramaic, and who spoke Greek.

The masoretic text, that is used by Jewish people, dates from the end of the First Century of the Common Era, as was selected on the basis that the books in it existed in Hebrew scrolls. Aramaic texts were not accepted. As a result several boooks, and several sections of books, were excluded, compared to the Septuagint.

Luther decided to follow the Jewish model, I would say, at a gues, on the basis that since the Hebrew Bible is a Jewish document, one should follow the choices of the Jews. It's more than possible he wanted to exclude books he found uncongenial to some of his points, as well.

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Grassaf, Eolas

There are also many other books which didn't make it to the Hebrew and Christian bibles!

That is my thought on the removal of parts of any book...and it isn't just the Apocrypha, but other related texts too.

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"Philosophy is a walk on a slippery rock
Religion is a smile on a dog."

Is this thread dead? I'm new here but this thread caught my eye so I registered to reply
I too bought a bible with the apocrypha, the 1611 version of KJ. Bit of a hard read as it's in old english but pretty interesting. It made me look a bit more and wonder where is Enoch and Jasher and a few other writings that are mentioned in the KJV but not included.

Same here, I have the book of Enoch on the computer somewhere, not sure where...I wish I had a paper copy of it.

Welcome to the forum, melybee. Looking forward to getting to know you.

You brought the thread back to life.

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