How Did We Get the Bible? A SCHOLAR EXPLAINS THE HISTORY AND CANONIZATION OF THE BIBLE WE HAVE TODAY?IN TERMS GOD SOVEREIGNLY ARRANGED to get us the Bible tha we have today. But just as we that alway recognize His plan in the details of our lives until He fulfills it, many Chri istians over the centuries struggle also to discern leading egarding the Bible. While they agreed on most books, they debated whether so books belonged in the non?the list of its accepted books. Eventu Christians together discerned ually which books should be included and which books should not be. Even today, of course, Catholics and Protestants agree on every book that belongs in the Bible. Fortunately, we can start this examination of which particular books made it into the Bible by looking at Jesus Himself. When the Lord quoted from the Psalms or Deuteronomy or Isaiah, He knew that His hearers recognized these books as Scripture also. Despite disagreement on some details, Judeans and Galileans accepted for the most part the same Hebrew Bible that Jesus did. Later rabbis clearly accepted our Old Testament; the firstcentury historian Josephus held a view at least very close to this. So did the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls, though they may have accepted a few additional books, such as Enoch. Greek, Latin and Hebrew Scriptures What complicated matters was that the Greek translations of Scripture often circulated outside the Holy Land with books that we consider part of the Apocrypha?those books not accepted as part of the canon. Although the writers of the New Testament may sometimes allude to this material, they apply Scripture formulas?such CHARISMA January 2011 a i a a co SHUTTERSTOCK/ALPHASPIRIT HISTORY OF THE BIBLE