Bible Discussion Thread

Tell me why the King James Bible consists of the included books only. In other words, why are there different versions? Roman Catholic, Protestant, Greek...?

The King James Bible is a Protestant Bible brought out of the Protestant Reformation. It was written in the English Language. Prior to the 1611 King James Bible the Holy Scriptures were written and hand copied in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. One thing that the Reformation achieved was, through the invention of the printing press, the Bible was printed in the languages of the common people throughout Europe, thanks in large part to Martin Luther who translated the New Testament into the German Language. A lot of the reason why there are so many different versions of the Bible was political. The Catholic Church controlled religion and the average person did not have access to the Latin Vulgate Bible and hence the Church dictated what people knew about Salvation. Once the Bible was translated into the common language of the people the Church lost a lot of control over the masses. People began to read and think out their own Salvation apart from the Pope and the Catholic Church.

Hi Brian, the KJV is not a "Protestant Bible brought out of the Protestant Reformation." That characterization suggests bias and that wouldn't be a fair assumption and charactization for 2 reasons:

1. The KJV is an accurate Bible transation. It has nothing to do with divisions or sects of Christianity. The translation is transparent and the word by word careful translation can be verified by anyone.

2. The KJV is read not just by protestants, but catholics, mormons, and other faiths.

It sounds like the real question posed is since the KJV Bible is accurate, why do some groups such as catholics alter it and add/remove books from their Bibles. For that you'd have to ask the catholics. Secondly, such Bibles are not KJV. The KJV is the one in this site and many others across the web and they have the same books, so you won't find variations as suggested by the question other than the apocrypha. The old testament was written in Hebrew and new testament in greek, so I don't understand the original question about greek having different books. God bless.

Both of you missed the first part of the question. Why does the King James Bible (or whatever you choose to call it) consist of the books therein? Why were the 4 books of the Maccabees left out? Or all of the books of the Catholic Bible left out of the Protestant Bible? This is what I meant by different versions.

It will be easier for you to Google this question. As you guessed it's a tedious answer; because people are involved.

I'm here to view and make comment on scripture. I enjoy it. It's not a job.

Back on the red Link Page, there are some explanation of the KJV Bible.

That is a different question then. You would need to research the origins of the Bible and the Bible canon. Even biased wikipedia articles can shed light on this and give a general overview. You then asked why books were 'left out'. The question could be phrased as why Catholics added books. You could also research the dead sea scrolls. Also research the apocrypha. Link

If I could interject something. The reason why certain books were left out for instance: the new Testament. The only scripture allowed was letters written by people who actually walked with Christ such as the disciples. Paul is the exception because he was the one converted by Christ himself. Paul also saw heaven although he was too humble to even discuss what he saw, or brag about it. Not like people today who claim they have been there and write books and go on speaking tours. If they could not actually confirm the period it was written, or that this person actually was with Jesus, they did not allow it to become part of the "Canon" This way, the Bible would be kept pure from false doctrine. Interesting to note, Paul's writings actually make up about half of the New Testament.

Thank you!