Originally posted by the Bear:
why aren't they in the Protestant bibles?
what i was told was :
(the gist of it, could not remember word for word)
At Jesus' time, the books of the old testament (or the Laws and the Prophets) was already well established and recognised (canonised). The orignal old testament was written in hebrew. However as the majority of the Jews then could not understand old hebrew, scholars translated the hebrew text into greek, so that it can be understood by the Jews. The translated greek version was call the septeugint (not sure spelling) as it was legended that 70+ scholars was involved in the translation.
The original hebrew old testament does not contain the apocrypha, however the septeugint included these additional books. When the protestants broke away from the roman catholic church, the protestant Bible's old testament was "derived"/translated from the hebrew version, whereas the Catholic church uses the greek septeugint. Hence the disparity in content.
but as mentioned,
"And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners: but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine"
http://www.kirkdale113.freeserve.co.uk/39.htmi.e. it's ok to read them
could somebody double-checked what i wrote?
