Has the Bible ever been more than 66 books???
This subject has been in the waves and many people who have been affected think that since some books have been taken out of the scriptures, it implies that the Bible has been compromised and has therefore lost its authority.
HAS THE BIBLE ALWAYS CONTAINED 66 BOOKS?
By Elijah Asuo Wiredu
Has the Bible always contained 66 books? Have some books been expunged from the Bible for us to get 66 books? This subject has been in the waves and many people who have been affected think that since some books have been taken out of the scriptures, it implies that the Bible has been compromised and has therefore lost its authority.
I want to state that the Bible has not been compromised in any way and it has always comprised 66 books written by more than 40 authors over more than 2,000 years.
The assembling of the Bible began with the books of the Old Testament which were originally in Hebrew. During the era of Jesus and his disciples, the Hebrew Bible had already been established as 39 books and whenever Jesus referred to the scriptures, it was one of these. Years after the church was born, people wrote a lot of books and letters-mostly about Jesus and his words. Because of the number, Christians became confused as to which books (New Testament) should be trusted." As a result, gatherings of Christian leaders such as the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and the First Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381 came with an order (to be published later) to select some books. This order resulted in 27 New Testament books. This is what St Jerome put together with the Old Testament to form one single book in AD 400 and in 1611 King James the First translated everything to English.
So books that are purported to have been taken from the Bible have practically not been part of the Bible. One can find books such as Maccabees, Tobit, and Judith (Apocryphal books) in Catholic Bibles but that does not mean the regular Bible has taken them out. They were there with other books that were not considered part of the Bible.
Not adding books to the Bible is not a secret to Christians and so, we should not consider it as something that was done secretly and those who did it do not want people to know. The Bible even mentions some books that are not in the bible. For example, in Numbers 21:14 a book is mentioned as “the book of the Wars of the Lord”. That book just like others mentioned in the Bible is not seen in the Bible.
Let me conclude that these books are not necessarily evil. In fact, some of them have very inspiring and positive stories about Christianity. But since they were not included by the leaders who were inspired by God to include them, let us consider them as not part of the Bible. Also, there was no hidden agenda to take any of them out. They just didn’t pass the test of canonization (to be discussed later).
REFERENCES
O'Neal, Sam. (2021, August 31). When Was the Bible Assembled? Retrieved from https://www.learnreligions.com/when-was-the-bible-assembled-363293
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