Which Bible?

It continues to amaze me that there are those that cling to a singular view of all things biblical.  If it is not in the King James Bible exactly the way he had it translated, it is a fake, a forgery, or an insidious plot by Satan to corrupt the minds of men.  

All of the excluded books from the 4^th through 19^th century, of course, are controversial to some, but authenticity is an individual decision.  Anything else is, in any case, intellectual censorship. 

It is also interesting to note that the first books of the New Testament were not written until 40 years after the crucifixion, therefore written by scribes who were at best, toddlers at the time of the crucifixion with only word-of-mouth stories to relegate to papyrus. The following books were written after that. Three hundred years later, a political convention (Diet of Wourms) made political decisions as to what should, or should not be included in the Bible to ensure that the Church of the day maintained absolute religious and political power over the population.

For anyone who claims that the Christian Bible they hold so dearly in their hands is THE Bible, it had better be written in Greek, Hebrew, or Armenian and contain ALL of be books of both the old and new testaments. For example, the four Gospels of Mary of Bethany refer to the marriage of Emmanuel (Jesus) to Mary of Bethany, (Magdalene), at Kefr-Kenna and the subsequent birth of their son Sirach, which flies in the face of the Catholic belief of a life-long bachelor and childless Jesus.

There are over 500 books that have been associated with the Bible either through archaeological research or historical documentation.  This does not include any books believed to be written after the corruption of doctrine by the Universal Church established by the Emperor Constantine in the Fourth Century AD.

More than 60 English-language versions are available. We can divide them into three broad types: word-for-word, meaning-to-meaning (also called thought-for-thought) and paraphrased. Usually a particular Bible version will explain, on its introductory pages, which approach was used in preparing it – some include the apocrypha, many do not. The term "apocrypha" comes from a Greek word meaning "hidden" or "secret" and the books were originally considered by the early church as too exalted to be available to the general public. As time progressed, the exalted nature of the books was lost and the books were deemed by some as false. Between the Book of Malachi and Matthew there is a gap of approximately 450 years. It is these books that fill that gap and, in the time of Christ, these books formed part of the Septuagint Greek Bible that was in circulation at that time.

What is missing from most Bibles, and our understanding of it, is what happened in that 450-year gap. Prophets were still writing and reflecting on life in the Holy Land right up until the Romans destroyed the temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The world that Jesus entered in 4 BC is not the world that Daniel and Malachi experienced. One of the values of these books is how they reflect the mindset of Judaism and a Roman world that the New Testament writers faced. Malachi and Daniel leave us in Persia; Matthew brings us into a Roman world. 

The Apocrypha bridges that gap and gently nudges us into the reality of Roman Palestine. It was only in the fourth century AD that Christians first started to question the “canonicity” of the works, although most survived to be included in the King James translation of the Bible in 1611.

Unknown to almost all of the over two billion people who claim the Bible as their spiritual foundation is that there are several books and two sections missing from all but a few modern versions of that Bible. Perhaps one of the best kept secrets of the modern Protestant church is that the Bible used by that church is not the original King James Bible. That translation, completed in 1611, and the Bibles published for the use of the clergy and the church members until 1885, contained 80 books. Although attempts to remove the books of the Apocrypha from the Bible began immediately after the King James translation was completed, they remained in the Bible until the end of the 19th Century. There is no doubt that the books of the Apocrypha were controversial, but it cannot be denied they were included in the original King James Bible.

The concept of the Protestant Church about the Apocrypha is virtually non-existent, with the general understanding that only the Catholic Church uses it. One would be hard-pressed to find any members of the clergy even aware that these books were ever included in the King James Bible. There are 155,683 words and over 5,700 verses contained in 168 chapters now missing from the King James translation of the Bible due to the exclusion of the Apocrypha. Although this only happened just over a hundred years ago, their existence as fully accepted scripture is virtually unknown.

The Apocrypha in the original King James Bible (1611 – 1885):

1st Esdras

2nd Esdras

Tobit

Judith

Add to Esther

The Wisdom of Solomon

Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Jesus Son Sirach

Baruch

Letter of Jeremiah

Prayer of Azariah or Song of the Three Young Men

Susanna

Bel and the Dragon

Prayer of Manasseh

1st Macabees

2nd Macabees

The Apocrypha in the Douay Rheims Bible:

1st Esdras

2nd Esdras

Tobias

Judith

Wisdom of Solomon

Ecclisiasticus (The Wisdom of Jesus' Son Sirach)

Baruch

Abdias

Micheas (This is the book of Micah)

Aggeus (This is the book of Haggai)

1st Macabees

2nd Macabees

These Apocrypha books are missing from in the Douay Rheims Bible:

Addition to Esther

Letter of Jeremiah

Prayer of Azariah or Song of the Three Young Men

Susanna

Bel and the Dragon

Prayer of Manasseh