Appointments 

with the Almighty 

Scriptures & Extra-Biblical texts

Of books there is no end

Imagine the scenario, one page of this book per

Protestant Bible book. Instantly this book would be 66
pages long. Then add a page for every well known extra-
canonical book, and this book is now eighty pages. To
make a poor job of it we will only allow five pages for
discussion of the Mishnah and ten for the Talmud(s). We
now have ninety-five pages. Luckily for you we are not
going to do this!

It would be really easy at this point to write a

volume on this subject alone. Many books have been
written on the origins, formation and canon of the
scriptures and there is no good sense in re-inventing the
wheel, simply flick to the references at the rear to find
suitable extra study goodies.

If you’re anything like me, the genealogies of the

Bible are best read at a brisk pace and if you’re like some
of the people I know, it is to be skipped over altogether.
The preface to the Bibles we read is a lot like a genealogy.
It is there to be read when there is nothing better to read.

The origin of our Bible (particular our favourite

one) ought to be understood by those reading it, indeed
all believers ought to have a general grasp of which Bible
they read and where it came from. Sadly, very few people
in my own experience read the front matter in their

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Bibles. They do not know which manuscript(s) it is based

on, where it comes from or how it appeared. If truth be
known most Christians are not really that bothered and
this is a great shame.

So we know which books are in our Bibles, but do

we know what is left out, or even why?

What do we mean when we say extra biblical texts’?

Well, the canon of scripture as we have it now did not
really come into being until around the fourth century.8
Even when it was being debated upon there was much
disagreement over books we now take for granted. It
would make a great novel for Dan Brown! He may be
working on it already! Also, when the Church was in its
formative years, many of the New Testament writings
simply did not exist. In fact when the New Testament was
being written, even the Old Testament canon was still not
completely fixed.9 This fact often comes as somewhat of
s surprise to readers who have not studied the origins of
the canon of scripture.

Speaking in other tongues

It has been said that languages were never my

strong point. There is an old joke that a person who
speaks two languages is bi-lingual and that a person who
speaks only one is English. I have a local accent, so some
people probably think my score should be less than one.
So why do I tell you this? Whilst much of the Old
Testament was originally written in an ancient form of
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Hebrew lettering, some portions were written in Aramaic.

These two languages are closely related; in fact when you
see a modern Torah scroll or Jewish road sign, the
lettering is actually Aramaic even if the language is
Hebrew. Weird!

Language of Angels

For the early Church, especially after the age of the

Apostles, the de-facto version of the scriptures was the
Septuagint. If you are unsure what this means just keep
on reading.

Within the differing forms of Judaism today there

exists only one accepted text. It is a standard text. What
this means is, if you go into any Church, you’ll find
people who read the NIV, some who read the ESV and
some who read the NKJV. Occasionally you might meet
someone of an older generation who still reads the KJV.
Rarely, someone might possess a copy the ‘the Message’.
Fortunately, this is a rare occasion.

On entering the synagogue however, the Torah

scroll which is kept in a large box called an ark will be
taken out and read from. No matter which synagogue
you attend or visit, the only text accepted as being
completely authoritative is the Masoretic Text (MT). In
some respects this is a very good thing as it reduces the
confusion which comes from having multiple Bible
versions. But if truth is known, most Jews do not know
how to read Hebrew to an acceptable standard. Due to
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this fact, many Jewish people who are serious about their
faith will probably own a Bible at home. Within Jewish
circles, the two most popular versions are probably the
Jewish Publication Society Bible and the Artscroll series
Tanach.

Whilst having a standard text is useful, it also has

the ability to close ones eyes to modern research and
archaeology such as the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). These
scrolls are ancient, probably the oldest known texts of the
Old Testament to be found. There are some differences
between the MT and the DSS, but I would direct the
reader to the appendices at the rear if you wish to find out
more.

It’s all Greek to me!

A couple of hundred years before Jesus was born

the big political power of the day wanted a copy of the
Torah for his great library. His name was King Ptolemy
and he reigned from 283-246 bce. Tradition has it that a
collection of 70 or 72 scholars translated the Hebrew
Torah scroll into Greek. Amazingly, despite all the
scholars working separately they all produced exactly the
same text including the same deliberate error. It is a nice
tradition, though there is little real proof to substantiate
the claim. At the time of the request only the Torah was
permitted to be translated, nothing more.10 This
translation is called the Septuagint, often abbreviated
simply to LXX (Latin numbers; L=50; X=10; X=10
therefore LXX=70).11
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At first everyone thought it a good idea, but later

when copies of varying quality began to circle with the
Prophets and Writings in Greek, rifts were already
beginning between the Jewish (Christian) faith and the
Gentile section of the congregation. As the division
deepened, the finger of blame was often pointed at the
LXX. As further time passed, the LXX seriously fell out
of favour amongst Jews, but was widely received by the
now predominantly Christian (and Gentile) Church.
Even with this in mind some within the Church itself
called for the removal of spurious copies, requesting
versions from the Jews which had not been tampered
with.12

In many respects, the Septuagint is not a word for

word translation of the underlying Hebrew text, but
rather a paraphrase. There are some significant changes
between the LXX and the MT; these include sections
being in different locations, word changes and even some
verses which do not appear in the Hebrew at all. If your
Bible has footnotes in the New Testament, look for ones
which have LXX next to them and then look up the
actual reference. I think you’ll be quite surprised at some
of the differences you may encounter.

Within the different strands of Judaism of the early

Church era, much of the teachings of the Rabbi’s and
sages were passed on by word of mouth.13 Now everyone
knows what people think; you cannot trust oral
transmission, but consider that the New Testament

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gospels were probably not written until more than thirty

years after Jesus’ death. This oral transmission leading to
the writing of the gospels carried on and is reflected in the
writings of the post-apostolic Church Fathers. Besides
that, anyone who has served in the Armed Forces,
particularly the Navy will know that Chinese whispers
only breaks down when it is not a matter of life and
death. The scriptures are about life!14

Aramaic: its Semitic didn’t you know?

During the formative years of the Church, besides

the already written Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments,
other versions were being passed on orally. These were
called the Targums (or Targumim). These were essentially
Aramaic versions of the Old Testament in paraphrase
form with something akin to brief ‘study notes’ within the
text of the Scriptures themselves. These were finally
written down around the 3-4th century.15 We even find
allusions to the Targums in the New Testament writings,
particularly in the book of Hebrews.16 This in and of
itself should not really surprise us, as most people of
Jesus’ day, would have known the myths, legends and
traditions that filled their culture.

One canon plus another canon might lead to war!

Now after all the books of the OT had been

written, other texts were circulating such as Tobit, Esdras,
Maccabees and a number of others (see later appendices).
Whilst these books never really gained the same authority
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as the written scriptures, they were popular religious

reading material of the day and had a great impact on
both Judaism and the emerging Church.17 Some early
Church leaders went so far as to say they were almost on
par with scripture but not quite, though they were
recommended for reading and study. These texts are
referred to sometimes as deutero-canonical works, where 
deutero means second. So these were texts were viewed as a
second canon of scripture.18

From a New Testament point of view, if we

exclude the books currently in our traditional selection,
many other books were written. Some were worth the
paper they were written on, some less so. Some of these
books were popular and were actually counted as
scripture for a time, examples might include, the Didache,
Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistles of Clement. Other
texts were much more dubious.19

Lawyers and Law books

When we look at the pages of the New Testament,

we find endless legal disputes. For many years, the legal
disputes had been handled orally as well, but in the
second century, these oral rulings on how to live out the
Torah were finally placed on paper (or parchment as the
case may have been). These instructions on how to
practically live out God’s teaching were called halakhah.

During the time of Jesus and the Apostles, varying

schools of Judaism had some significant disagreements
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about how to interpret the Torah and what was, and was
not legal. These sayings later committed to writing were
known as the Mishnah, which means repetition.

Around two centuries later it was determined that

whilst the Mishnah was really good, it often did not
provide much in the way of scripture to support the legal
rulings. This led to the production of a few more works
called the Talmud. The Talmud consisted of the Mishnah
and a commentary on it called a Gemara.20 The most
popular version of the Talmud is called the Babylonian
Talmud. They are multi-volume and are expensive. To
own a full set you need an extremely sturdy bookcase and
a reinforced bank balance. Still bargains can be had on
Amazon and EBay!

The reason for explaining this material at the outset

of the book is because, when my wife and I began to want
to begin to practise a more biblically based lifestyle, the
Bible was not all that useful. Now before you throw the
book in the trash in a fit of rage, understand what we are
saying. We are most certainly not saying the Bible is
unimportant as those who know us would know this to
be untrue.

The clash of cultures

When a person resides within a particular cultural

setting and wishes to communicate something to
someone in that same culture it is very easy. There is no

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need to explain cultural influences, calendar dates or

popular concepts.

If a person from one culture wishes to

communicate something to a person from another culture
things become significantly more complex. For example,
the Bible states, Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.21 How do you
effectively communicate whiter than snow to someone who
has spent all their life living in a rainforest? Okay so this
is excessive but it drives home the point.

Likewise, the New Testament was written

principally to people who lived within, and understood
the culture, both the written words as we have them and
also the traditions to which we are on the whole no longer
privy too. In this regard, the extra-biblical and rabbinic
texts are useful in allowing us to build up and see the
colour of history rather than black and white print.

A trustworthy book

So why are we telling you all of this you might ask?

The answer is quite simple really and it is to show that the
Bible in our hands now did not just fall out of the sky,
pre-printed, pre-packed and shrink wrapped but came
about with much debate, discussion and argument.

Now there are many thousands of manuscripts of

the New Testament and not all agree, some have some
significant differences from one another, others less so.22
Scholars today take the manuscripts available and using
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academic prowess, good judgement and though they

probably will not admit it, a little bit of guess work to
compile what are called ‘critical editions’. These are often
used by Bible translators as the basis for the Bible you are
reading now. So can you trust your Bible? The answers is
a resounding yes, but try to read a few different versions
and wherever and whenever possible try and refer to
original documents. The simple act of reading more than
one translation is that it allows you to see more of the text
by seeing how people from different theological
viewpoints understand them.

Many useful resources can be downloaded freely

from the internet. Reference materials as ever are at the
back of the book.

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