Christian Resources
The Bible translations in various languages can be seen at the Bible Gateway. Since only the 'canonical' books are listed here, there is a need to know the 'non-canonical' books, many of which, once upon a time in Church History enjoyed canonicity. This, of course, is reflected in the number of books 'received' by various Churches such as Catholic, Protestant, Ethiopic and Syrian.
Bruce Metzger in The Canon Of The New Testament concludes after studying the Apostolic Fathers that:
For early Jewish Christians the Bible consisted of the Old Testament and some Jewish apocryphal literature. Along with this written authority went traditions, chiefly oral, of sayings attributed to Jesus. On the other hand, authors who belonged to the 'Hellenistic Wing' of the Church refer more frequently to writings that later came to be included in the New Testament. At the same time, however, they very rarely regarded such documents as 'Scripture'. [pp. 72]
Hence this makes the study of evolution of the Canon of the Bible, as we have today, all the more important. This study also needs to be coupled with the testimony of Church Fathers and historians concerning the Canon of the Bible.
Below are listed various 'apocryphal' books (depends upon the Church, strictly speaking!) and the works of various early Christians.
OLD TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA | OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA | |
|
© Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.