"Once people discovered how to collect the books of Scripture in a durable form, other questions arose. One had to do with which books contained true revelation important for the life of the community. We say these accepted books of Scripture are in the "canon." The word canon means "rule," and originally referred to a measuring rod. So, the books in the canon are those that measure up to some standard.
For example, numerous "sacred" books were circulating in the early centuries after Christ. Everyone wanted to tell the story of Jesus with a slightly different slant or purpose. Eventually authorities in the community had to decide which contained the authentic message of Scripture.
For a long time the canon was somewhat flexible, varying from group to group in the early Church. Irenaeus of Lyons insisted that only Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could be used. He argued what seems remarkable to us today: There could only be four Gospels because there were only four corners of the world and only four winds! The Church in Syria happily used a compilation of the four. In Rome, Church leaders used the same four Gospels, but they also included favorite writings such as the Wisdom of Solomon and the Letter of the Shepherd of Hermes.
Eventually the Church cleared up the resulting confusion and set a criterion or rule: Only books that were connected to the apostles and conformed to the emerging faith of the Church could be used. By the end of the fourth century, only 27 books had survived the test: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Book of Revelation, 13 letters attributed to Paul and eight other letters. These books are now known as the New Testament.
The earliest versions of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew. But many Jews spoke Greek and wanted to read the Scriptures in their own language. So, a couple centuries before Christ, the sacred scrolls had been translated into Greek.
Legend has it that 70 Jewish scholars went from Jerusalem to Alexandria and spent 70 months translating the texts. The resulting Greek version was called the Septuagint, which means 70. This translation also included seven books originally written in Greek: First and Second Maccabees, Judith, Baruch, Tobit, Sirach and Wisdom.
Having a Greek as well as a Hebrew version of the sacred books wasn't a problem until the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Jews were scattered from their homeland, carrying their sacred scrolls with them.
In an attempt to return some kind of order to the Jewish community, scholars gathered at Jamnia in 90 C.E. There they formed a canon of 39 books of Scripture, chosen from the Hebrew collection. This created a problem for Greek-speaking Jews living in Alexandria because they wanted to keep the Greek books that hadn't been included. Keep them they did, so two canons were still in circulation, the Jamnian (Hebrew) canon and the Alexandrian (Septuagint) canon.
The New Testament books had all been written in Greek, and early Christians also tended to rely on the Septuagint when they wanted to read the sacred Scriptures from their Jewish heritage. But by the third century, Latin replaced Greek as the common language of the Roman Empire. In the fourth century, the pope asked Saint Jerome to translate the Scriptures into Latin. Jerome went off to a little cell in Bethlehem and spent the next 25 years happily creating what came to be known as the Vulgate (meaning "the language of the people") Bible.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Latin Vulgate was used, but as Christianity spread throughout Europe, fewer and fewer people understood Latin. So scholars produced translations from the Vulgate into the language of the people around them.
In the 20th century, scholars began going back to original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts for new translations into modern languages. Today, we can find several English translations from the original texts. They are all accurate translations and the meaning is the same, but the English phrasing varies. " americancatholic.org
For example, numerous "sacred" books were circulating in the early centuries after Christ. Everyone wanted to tell the story of Jesus with a slightly different slant or purpose. Eventually authorities in the community had to decide which contained the authentic message of Scripture.
For a long time the canon was somewhat flexible, varying from group to group in the early Church. Irenaeus of Lyons insisted that only Matthew, Mark, Luke and John could be used. He argued what seems remarkable to us today: There could only be four Gospels because there were only four corners of the world and only four winds! The Church in Syria happily used a compilation of the four. In Rome, Church leaders used the same four Gospels, but they also included favorite writings such as the Wisdom of Solomon and the Letter of the Shepherd of Hermes.
Eventually the Church cleared up the resulting confusion and set a criterion or rule: Only books that were connected to the apostles and conformed to the emerging faith of the Church could be used. By the end of the fourth century, only 27 books had survived the test: the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Book of Revelation, 13 letters attributed to Paul and eight other letters. These books are now known as the New Testament.
The earliest versions of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew. But many Jews spoke Greek and wanted to read the Scriptures in their own language. So, a couple centuries before Christ, the sacred scrolls had been translated into Greek.
Legend has it that 70 Jewish scholars went from Jerusalem to Alexandria and spent 70 months translating the texts. The resulting Greek version was called the Septuagint, which means 70. This translation also included seven books originally written in Greek: First and Second Maccabees, Judith, Baruch, Tobit, Sirach and Wisdom.
Having a Greek as well as a Hebrew version of the sacred books wasn't a problem until the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Jews were scattered from their homeland, carrying their sacred scrolls with them.
In an attempt to return some kind of order to the Jewish community, scholars gathered at Jamnia in 90 C.E. There they formed a canon of 39 books of Scripture, chosen from the Hebrew collection. This created a problem for Greek-speaking Jews living in Alexandria because they wanted to keep the Greek books that hadn't been included. Keep them they did, so two canons were still in circulation, the Jamnian (Hebrew) canon and the Alexandrian (Septuagint) canon.
The New Testament books had all been written in Greek, and early Christians also tended to rely on the Septuagint when they wanted to read the sacred Scriptures from their Jewish heritage. But by the third century, Latin replaced Greek as the common language of the Roman Empire. In the fourth century, the pope asked Saint Jerome to translate the Scriptures into Latin. Jerome went off to a little cell in Bethlehem and spent the next 25 years happily creating what came to be known as the Vulgate (meaning "the language of the people") Bible.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the Latin Vulgate was used, but as Christianity spread throughout Europe, fewer and fewer people understood Latin. So scholars produced translations from the Vulgate into the language of the people around them.
In the 20th century, scholars began going back to original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts for new translations into modern languages. Today, we can find several English translations from the original texts. They are all accurate translations and the meaning is the same, but the English phrasing varies. " americancatholic.org
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