In the Gospel according to St. John 7:38, Jesus is recorded as saying, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” However, this particular verse of scripture quoted by Christ is nowhere to be found written within the entire library of books which make up the Hebrew Bible, also known as the Old Testament. Now as faithful Christians know, the Lord cannot be wrong. So, the scripture that Christ quoted from in John's Gospel must have been a reference taken from a certain lost book of the Bible. Additionally, the tradition of the Orthodox Church informs us that there is also a lost book of the New Testament. For in Colossians 4:16, St. Paul makes mention of the church of the Laodiceans and gives instructions so that the epistle from Laodicea should be read in the church along with the epistle to the Colossians. Now as all students of the New Testament know, there is no epistle to the Laodiceans listed among the 27 books that comprise the corpus of the New Testament. But the fact that the epistle of Laodicea is referenced to in the New Testament, reveals that there was at least one book that didn't make it into the canon of the New Testament, just as Christ referenced a book that didn't make it into the canon of the Old Testament. It is also of great importance to realize how some Christian sects, such as the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, have more books in their Bibles (specifically within the Old Testament) than what we find in the accepted canon of the 66 books which make up the Protestant version of the Bible that has come down to us in modern times. And these specific books of the Old Testament, held sacred by the Orthodox, were eventually excluded by the Protestants who came to believe that certain books of the Old Testament were not divinely inspired and thus labeled as Apocrypha, (a word of Greek origin meaning: “hidden”). The intention of this Biblical exegesis will be to provide the truth seeker with a heightened awareness concerning the collection of books (known as the Apocrypha) which were taken out of the Holy Bible, and to discuss in thorough detail all the various versions of the Bible that have come down to us over time, and how we arrived at the accepted canon of the scriptures that we read today.
The various books which make up the Apocrypha were removed from the Bible, primarily as a result of the Protestant Reformation which occurred in the early 16th century AD. Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation, was the first to separate the Apocrypha into an inter-testamental section of the holy scriptures with his translation of the Bible into German, which was first published in 1534. The Protestant reformers, including Luther, questioned the authority of the Apocrypha and held that these books were not written under divine inspiration. Now the Authorized King James Version of the Bible published in 1611 AD did originally include the Apocrypha in its canon, but in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments. However, by the 19th century the British Foreign Bible Society, as well as other organizations, began excluding the Apocrypha from their standard printings of the King James Version. The motivating factors behind this omission may have been due to production costs and also because the books of the Apocrypha were not part of the Hebrew Bible. Even though the Apocrypha was included in the Greek Septuagint, the fact that most of the Apocrypha was not originally written in Hebrew also drove the reformers to question the authority of these books. For according to Jewish opinion the books of the Apocrypha (originally written in Greek) did not meet the requirements needed for their use in Jewish religious life and worship. Though the ancient Jewish communities of the latter Second Temple period read from the Greek Septuagint, which included the Apocrypha, these extra books of the Old Testament along with the Septuagint as a whole have been rejected by mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, beginning from late Antiquity and extending all the way up into the modern era.
Now to provide some historical background concerning the Greek Septuagint, we must first focus our attention upon Alexandria, Egypt during the 3rd century BC. For it was at this place and time where we discover how Ptolemy II Philadelphus, the Greek Pharaoh or ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, directed all the scholars and librarians of Alexandria to collect and translate the myriads of scrolls and books from all across the known world in the aspiration of possessing a copy of every book in the world to be included within the famed Library of Alexandria, which was originally established by Ptolemy I Soter, the successor of Alexander the Great. The Library of Alexandria was also attached to a lager complex known as the Mouseion, which was a center for higher learning and research. As an institution of scholarship and culture, the Library of Alexandria encouraged the exchange of ideas, fostered intellectual debates, and supported the research and development into all the various disciplines of the arts and sciences. It was at this time and place when Ptolemy II ordered the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, by employing seventy-two Jewish scholars to complete this noble task. Each one of the seventy-two scholars independently translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek and these translations, which all matched, were then compiled into what became known as the Septuagint, a Greek word meaning “seventy” or “of the seventy.” The Septuagint became a very important translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, which was widely read by the Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria as well as by other Hellenistic Jewish communities living outside the land of Judea during the first few centuries before the Christian era. It is also interesting to note that in the New Testament we find how the Apostle Paul often quotes from the Septuagint, which suggests that the majority of the early Christians must have been Greek speakers and thus were primarily familiar with the translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Greek Septuagint.
Apart from the Apocrypha, most modern day Protestant Christian sects include the accepted 39 books of the Hebrew Bible as a part of their own scriptures, which they classify as the Old Testament. However, in the Jewish Masoretic Text there are a total of only 24 books listed in this authoritative Hebrew version of the Jewish Bible, which is also known as the Tanakh in Rabbinic Judaism. The reason for the greater number of books listed in the Christian canon is because at a certain point in time Christian scribes (possibly inspired by the Septuagint) divided some of the books in the Hebrew Bible into two or more parts, such as how the book of Chronicles is divided into two parts, along with the book of the Minor Prophets being divided into 12 separate books each. The compilation of the Jewish Masoretic Text took place over the course of a few centuries, beginning in the 6th century AD, through the efforts of a group of Jewish scribes and scholars called the Masoretes (taken from the Hebrew word masoreth, meaning “tradition”). Through generations of meticulous transmitting, copying, and assembling the Masoretic Text reached its most influential and definitive form in the 10th century AD with the emergence of the Aleppo Codex which is considered to be one of the most accurate and complete copies of the Masoretic Text ever produced. Along with the Leningrad Codex, written in the 11th century AD, the Aleppo Codex also serves as the primary source for modern editions and translations of the Hebrew Bible which are widely read and studied today. Now the 24 books in the Jewish Masoretic canon are divided into three sections: The Torah (Pentateuch), the Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings). However, not only were some books of the Hebrew Bible divided in the Christian version, but the order of the books listed in the Jewish Masoretic Text also differs from the order of the books listed in the Christian Old Testament. Interestingly, the order of the books in the Old Testament also differs in the Christian world. For in the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Old Testament, the books of the prophets are in a different order from what we find in the Protestant Old Testament. And, returning our attention back to the Apocrypha, it should also be noted that there are more accepted books in the Greek Orthodox Bible than that of the Roman Catholic Bible. But trumping both the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic canons is the version of the Bible held sacred by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, whose accepted canon of scripture (including both the Old and New Testaments) comprises a grand total of 84 books, the most books held canonical out of any other Christian institution.
When it comes to the accepted canon of the 27 books which comprise the Christian scriptures, that we know today as the New Testament, the history of how this canon came to be accepted as the unadulterated Word of God must first be fully understood. Now one of the earliest known canons of the New Testament was first compiled and published around the year 140 AD by the influential, yet controversial early Christian theologian Marcion of Sinope. However, Marcion's canon contained only one Gospel, which is believed to be a highly edited version of the Gospel according to St. Luke. Additionally, Marcion only included ten Pauline epistles in his canon, of which he also made considerable alterations as compared to the original text, such as removing references made to the Old Testament which he believed to be incompatible with the teachings of Christ and therefore (in his opinion) should be rejected by all faithful Christians. Though Marcion held to a form of dualism, believing that the God of the Old Testament was harsh and vengeful compared to the God of the New Testament Who was loving and merciful, he was not completely Gnostic in his theology. However, some of the Early Church Fathers such as St. Irenaeus and St. Justin Martyr denounced Marcion's teachings and branded him as a heretic, which ultimately led to his excommunication by the Church in Rome in the year 144 AD, shortly after he published his heretical Christian canon. One such book in Marcion's canon was the Epistle to the Laodiceans, an epistle previously mentioned as a lost book of the Christian scriptures. But this epistle of Laodicea, found in Marciaon's canon, is considered by the Orthodox Church to be a forgery written by Marcion himself in order to support his own personal point of view, and is not believed to be the original epistle and neither as being inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Towards the end of the 2nd century AD, before Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire, several books which make up the official canon of the New Testament scriptures were indeed accepted as the inspired Word of God by many Christian groups. However, though the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John along with some other writings were all agreed upon by the majority of Christian communities as legitimate, there was still some doubt regarding the authenticity of other Christian books in circulation that were being passed around among the various Christian communities during this period in the history of the early Church. For it wouldn't be until the year 367 AD when St. Athanasios, Bishop of Alexandria, wrote a letter (known as the “39th Festal Letter” or the “Easter Letter of Athansios”) to the various Christian churches under his jurisdiction, where he officially listed the 27 books that are now accepted as the New Testament. Yet even though St. Athanasios' list was a huge step for the canonization of the Christian scriptures, it must be known that this canon was not initially met with universal acceptance. But with the Synod of Hippo held in Hippo Regius (modern day Annaba, Algeria) in 393 AD, was confirmation made regarding all 27 books which are recognized today as the Christian New Testament. However, this decision only reached a regional audience and failed to achieve an immediate universal acceptance throughout the early Christian world. This led to the Council of Carthage in 397 AD, where several bishops met to discuss and agree upon all the books that would encompass the definitive New Testament canon. Ultimately these Christian councils held in North Africa in the late 4th century AD, collectively established the universal recognition and acceptance of the 27 books which now comprise the official canon of the New Testament.
Now during the late 4th century in Rome, around the same time that the New Testament canon was being universally accepted in North Africa, did Pope Damasus I commission St. Jerome to translate the entire Bible (both Old and New Testaments) into a common form of Latin. And this version of the Bible, translated into the Latin vernacular, would later be known and referred to as the Latin Vulgate. Though the type of the Latin language used in this translation was originally intended to be more understandable to the general population, as opposed to other Latin versions of the Bible, it was not uniformly written in the same dialect of the Latin spoken by the common people. For the Latin of the Vulgate, referred to as “Vulgar Latin,” possessed a loftier literary style as compared to everyday spoken Latin. Now the term “Vulgar” used to describe this type of Latin does not mean crude, but rather refers to a broader form of Latin which developed over time among the various people groups who lived within the vast territories of the Roman Empire. So it was that St. Jerome began his translation around the year 382, and taking time to revise and refine his work, he finally completed it around the year 405. Jerome translated the Old Testament directly from the original Hebrew and spent a great amount of time in the Holy Land, such as in the city of Bethlehem, where he studied Hebrew and consulted with Jewish scholars in order to ensure that his translation was as accurate as possible. It should also be noted however, that Jerome did consult the Greek Septuagint when at times the Hebrew text was too difficult to accurately translate and interpret. St. Jerome also translated the Old Testament Apocrypha and included these books (along with the translation of the New Testament from the original Greek) in his final version of the Latin Bible. Thus the Latin Vulgate became the standard version of the Holy Bible which has been used by the Roman Catholic Church for centuries, and has served as an important element in the historical and liturgical heritage of the Western Church.
When it comes to the books that make up the Old Testament the earliest and the oldest surviving copies that exist today have been pulled from an ancient and vast library, famously known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are dated to have been written from about the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd looking for a lost goat in the Judean Desert, near the ancient Jewish settlement of Qumran. As the story goes the shepherd came upon a cave overlooking the Dead Sea and threw a rock inside and heard what sounded like pottery breaking. He then went in and discovered several clay jars with scrolls inside wrapped in animal skins. The Bedouins then sold some of the scrolls to an antiquities dealer in Bethlehem, who in turn sold them to some Jewish scholars. Word of this discovery lead to an expedition of academics and archaeologists from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who surveyed and excavated the areas around the Dead Sea beginning in 1949 up until 1956. During this time a total of 11 caves were discovered which all together contained over 800 scrolls that were written primarily in Hebrew, with a good amount written in Aramaic, and some also written in Greek. All the books of the Old Testament were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls except for the book of Esther. Along with the canonical Old Testament scrolls found, several Apocryphal books were also discovered. Now the most revealing element surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls, are the different versions of the same books within the Old Testament scriptures that were discovered among the cache of scrolls in the Dead Sea Scroll library. For example, there were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls different versions of the Law of Moses, primarily the book of Deuteronomy. Additionally, seven differing versions of the book of Isaiah were also found which do indeed fulfill the teachings of Jesus that He uttered to a couple of His disciplines on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection. For the prophecy that Christ quotes from in the Gospel of St. Luke, stating how the Christ ought to have suffered and to enter into His glory, is not found written anywhere in our Old Testament, but it is found in at least one version of the prophecy of the book of Isaiah within the Dead Sea Scroll collection.
Continuing on the topic of the Old Testament it has been suggested that the books which make up the Hebrew Bible were first compiled (at least in a partial form) when the Jews found themselves in exile in Babylon, after the destruction of the first Temple in the 6th century BC. The Jewish scribes compiled the religious writings they had brought with them from Judah, such as the books of the law and combined them with the books that were written during their exile, to at least partially form what we known today as the Old Testament of the Holy Bible. But it wouldn't be until after the destruction of the second Temple in 70 AD, when a fixed canon of the holy scriptures for the Jewish people would be established. For towards the end of the first century AD, did Jewish rabbis and scholars assemble at the Synod of Jamnia, also known as the Council of Yavne in Palestine, in order to decide which books in religious circulation were in fact the inspired word of God. During this council, the rabbis engaged in a debate in order to discern which books were authoritative, and they also reasoned together to better decide which books should be excluded. These decisions would go on to solidify the authenticity of the books that are currently accepted in Judaism as the unadulterated word of God, and would also go on to provide the Christian world with an additional set of scriptures to be included along with the accepted books of the New Testament canon. However, some modern day scholars hold that the Judaic canon of scriptures evolved over time and were not decided in just one council, thus making the Synod of Jamnia a concocted story and not a genuine historical event as held in scholarly opinion. For example, citing the later development of how the Jewish Masoretic Text was transcribed over the period of a few centuries strengthens this hypothesis. So, while it is commonly believed among certain rabbis that the council of Jamnia provided the definitive version of the Jewish Biblical canon, the specific details surrounding this council are still a subject of debate among scholars even up to the present day.
Returning to the history of the Church, we see that in the 3rd century AD, a very influential Christian theologian and scholar named Origen made many significant contributions towards the development of early Christianity. However, some of his ideas were controversial and these teachings were debated by Christian scholars during his lifetime and even continued to be the subject of criticism in the centuries following his death. Yet overall Origen's impact on Christian thought is not to be underestimated. Known for his extensive knowledge of the Hebrew Bible, Origen would go on to compile a comprehensive edition to the Old Testament scriptures, which may in fact be his best work of research. And this Biblical document put together by Origen is known as the Hexapla. Origen presented this translation with multiple versions of the Hebrew Scriptures side by side with other Greek translations which were then divided into six columns altogether, hence the name “Hexapla,” which means “sixfold.” The six Biblical versions in the Hexapla included: the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, a Greek transliteration of Hebrew into Greek, Aquila's Greek translation, Symmachus' Greek translation, The Greek Septuagint, and Theodotion's Greek translation. Origen's intention on presenting these various translations side by side was to revise the Greek Bible, and to provide scholars with a useful tool to better aid them in their study of all the variations between the different versions of the Hebrew Bible and to compare and contrast all these differences in the hopes of producing the most accurate translation of the Hebrew scriptures into the Greek language. Origen also believed that even the errors and mis-translations of the Bible were still inspired, for he felt that there must have been a reason why God allowed these various “mistakes” in His sacred Word. Origen ultimately donated his Hexapla to the municipal library of Caesarea in Palestine where it was frequently referenced up until the Muslim invasions of the 7th century AD, when the library was burned down and Origen's Hexapla was lost.
Along with the scriptures of the Old Testament (which were originally written in Hebrew) which were in turn later translated into Greek, the scriptures of the New Testament (which were originally written in Greek) would go on to be translated into many other languages once the religion of Christianity was introduced into other parts of the world. One such version of the original Greek Christian scriptures that was translated into a foreign tongue, is known as the Syriac Peshitta. The Peshitta (a word meaning “simple” or “clear”) is believed to have been translated somewhere between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD in the Syriac language, which is a dialect similar to that of Aramaic. The translation of the Peshitta was most likely transcribed by scholars who were fluent in both Greek and Hebrew, with the aim of providing a reliable and straightforward translation of the Bible into the Syriac language. In addition to the translation of the New Testament scriptures, the Peshitta translation also contains a translation of the books of the Old Testament into Syriac. However, when compared to other versions of the Bible, the Peshitta is quite unique. For example, the Peshitta version of the New Testament does not include the books of 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation. Additionally, the Peshitta also excludes the story of the woman caught in adultery, as found in the 8th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John in the original Greek text. But by looking past these omissions it should also be noted that the Syriac Peshitta has over the centuries well served the various Syriac speaking Christian communities, such as the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Chaldean Catholic Church. The Peshitta is considered as the authoritative version of the Bible for these Middle Eastern Christian communities, where it is often used in their liturgical worship services, and where it also serves as a valuable resource for private and communal Bible study.
In addition to the various Apocryphal books of the Old Testament, which are considered as uninspired by certain Jewish and Christian groups, there were also in the early days of Christianity a set of esoteric “Gospels” floating around among the various Christian communities that were vehemently rejected as heretical by mainstream Christian Orthodoxy. And these heretical Christian writings are known as “The Gnostic Gospels.” The Gnostics were a group of early Christian mystics who believed that by acquiring a special type of knowledge, spiritual liberation and salvation would be achieved. For the term “Gnostic” comes from the Greek word “gnosis,” meaning “knowledge.” Gnosticism incorporated Christian theology along with various other religious and philosophical traditions and also held dualistic beliefs. For example, the Gnostics believed in a supreme benevolent God, but also believed in a lesser malevolent God known as the Demiurge. The Gnostics in turn sought to unite themselves to the supreme God through the secret spiritual knowledge of gnosis. Now the term “Gnostic Gospel” refers to the collection of ancient Christian texts that were discovered in 1945 by an Arab peasant who was digging for fertilizer in Nag Hammadi, a small town located in Upper Egypt. Similar to what the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (by a Bedouin shepherd) did for a better understanding of Jewish tradition before Christ, so too did the Gnostic Gospels (discovered by an Arab peasant) go on to shed much light on the alternative perspectives on the teachings of Jesus Christ which existed in the first few centuries after Christ. However, since the Gnostic Gospels presented a spiritual alternative which stood in conflict with the accepted writings of the New Testament, the early Christian authorities excluded these texts from the official teachings of the Church.
Now as we have already explained, some books were removed from the Protestant canon of the Holy Bible and the collection of these questionable texts are labeled as the Apocrypha. But in addition to the Apocrypha there are other books labeled as Pseudepigrapha, a term which signifies how certain books have been attributed to a particular author, when in fact the claimed author is not the true author. One such example of the various works of the Pseudepigrapha, is the Book of Enoch. The Book of Enoch, also known as I Enoch, is an ancient apocalyptic religious text whose authorship has traditionally been attributed to the Antediluvian patriarch Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. However, modern scholars hold that the Book of Enoch was originally written by Jewish scribes somewhere between 300 – 200 BC. The Book of Enoch contains questionable material such as fallen angels mating with human women, which has led both Jewish and Christian institutions to regard it as non-canonical or uninspired. However, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does accept the Book of Enoch as inspired and includes I Enoch as well as II Enoch in their Biblical canon. Going further, even though several copies of 1 Enoch were preserved among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the entirety of the Book of Enoch only survives in the Ethiopic liturgical language of Ge'ez. It is also of importance to note how the Book of Enoch is quoted in the New Testament. For in the Epistle of St. Jude 1:14-15, a quote is taken nearly verbatim from I Enoch 1:9. This quotation of the Book of Enoch in the Christian scriptures leads me to believe that Enoch himself may have indeed authored at least some parts of the book attributed to him, but not the entire manuscript all together, yet again this is only speculation.
Continuing in the Epistle of St. Jude do we come across a verse referencing an event taken from the story of the prophet Moses which is no where to be found in the Torah, nor the rest of the Old Testament, and not even among the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament. And this mysterious quote concerning Moses reads as follows: “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” (Jude 1:9). Since this particular scripture quotation is not taken from any of the books comprising the accepted Biblical canon, including the books of the Apocrypha, this scriptural anomaly has led some modern scholars, and even some ancient writers, to conclude that St. Jude must have been referencing a 1st century apocryphal text known as the “Assumption of Moses.” The Assumption of Moses, also known as the Testament of Moses, contains the alleged secret prophecies which Moses revealed to Joshua shortly before Moses died, making this final speech by Moses to serve as his last will and testament. Believed to have been originally written in Hebrew, the only surviving copy of the Assumption of Moses is a 6th century Latin translation from a Greek text. However this manuscript is incomplete, and the rest of the text has been lost. Additionally, since the quote by Jude concerning Moses is not even found among the various surviving fragments that make up the text of the Assumption of Moses, then Jude's quote may have been taken from parts of the missing text. Due to the fact that the text of the Assumption of Moses is incomplete, and also missing certain sections, we cannot prove for certain that St. Jude quoted from this document. It would however make sense if Jude did quote from the Assumption of Moses, when considering how there is no verse in the Old Testament which Jude could have drawn from. Also, since St. Jude quotes from another extra-Biblical source, namely the Book of Enoch, then this could support the notion that Jude was indeed quoting from the Assumption of Moses, or at least another apocryphal text which lays outside of the accepted scriptures.
Another ancient document that was not included in the canon of the New Testament, yet at the same time sheds much light on the early formation of the Christian religion, is called the “Didache”, also known as “The Teachings of The Twelve Apostles.” Although a relatively brief text, the Didache is believed to have been written around the mid-1st century AD, and served as a guide book for the early Christian priesthood on how to perform the Divine Liturgy. It also functioned as an instruction manual for Christian laity on certain things that a believer should do and other things which were forbidden to do, and ultimately ends with a chapter devoted to end times prophecy. Previously known only in fragmentary copies, the entire Didache was re-discovered by a Greek Orthodox Metropolitan in a monastery in Constantinople in 1873, and has gone on to help modern Christians to become better acquainted with the life of the ancient Church. The origins of the Didache can be traced to a Christian group made up of ethnic Jews who's main focus was on the teachings of Jesus as opposed to the legalism of the law of Moses. Along with the various maxims of what to do and what not to do, the Didache's prime legal structure centers around the golden rule, namely: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Additionally, since this 1st century Christian document lists instructions on how to perform the various Christian sacraments, such as baptism and holy communion, the Didache indeed serves as a historical element which upholds the legitimacy of the traditions exercised by the Orthodox Church that have been passed down throughout the centuries dating all the way back to the time of Christ Himself.
Shifting our attention back to the Old Testament do we come across an alarming anomaly when comparing the various translations from the original Hebrew into Greek and then later on into English. For when placing the Greek Septuagint along side the King James Bible, it is undeniable how the verses in the last chapter of the book of the prophet Malachi are not in the same order in these two separate versions of the Bible. Though the verses themselves have not been added to, nor has anything been taken away, yet the order in which these specific verses are recorded is different. For example, in the English King James Version of the Bible all six verses of the fourth chapter of Malachi are in order, beginning with verse one on through to verse six. However, in the Greek Septuagint the verses in Malachi chapter four start off from verse one and then on to verse three, but then following verse three the text jumps to verse five followed by verse six, and then continues with verse four ending the chapter after verse six. Though these verses are in a different order the translation between the two is congruent, but the fact remains that somehow somewhere these verses were indeed tampered with. The good new for us Bible believers is that there is no contradiction in the text, even though the order of the verses in Malachi chapter six were rearranged. Also, to the best of my knowledge this is the only place in all of the Septuagint where such a thing like this occurs, so this shouldn't shatter one's faith in the Bible as being the inspired word of God. What it does mean is that somethings do indeed get lost in translation, no matter how much we try to preserve the original meaning of the language of a root text.
In conclusion it is my sincere hope that everything presented in this condensed overview of the history of how all the various ancient scrolls and manuscripts, which were ultimately compiled into the vast and inspired library of books that we know today as the Holy Bible, has enlightened the reader with a better understanding concerning all the various versions and translations of the Bible that have come down to us over the centuries. It was also my intent to present this work to serve as a reference point for the serious Bible student who is interested in the history behind the accepted canon of the holy scriptures, and to guide them with an historical backdrop as they study the theology of both the Old and New Testaments. That being said I must confess that there is indeed much more to say concerning these subjects, which was not covered in this particular study, but again my desire is that what has been presented will inspire the student to do their own private research. So one could say that this presentation has functioned as a primer into the history of how we acquired the 66 books of the Bible that we read today, and hopefully it may even serve as an introduction that explains how some books were taken out of the Bible, and how others books were totally rejected all together and never even made it into the accepted canon held by the Greek Orthodox Church in the first place. In the final analysis of what has been covered in this brief Biblical exegesis, it is evident that a further study of the history of the Bible is indeed required for one to possess a clearer understanding of the Christian Faith and all the prophecies of the Old Testament, which were fulfilled in the New Testament. For in order to rightly divide the word of truth, one must study to show themselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15).
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