The Canon

The Canon

Another claim of the Catholic Church is that they brought us the Bible. They have preserved it for all

these years. But what really have they preserved for all these years?

Over the years I have collected different versions of the bible. Through the years I would pull

out all these different versions of the bible and compared them side by side. Somethings did not add up.

Some had verses that did not support the verse of others. Some had verses missing that others had or

didn't have. Some words were in parenthesis and some others did not contain the parenthesis.

Through my research, I have learned that the parenthesis were added by the person who translated that particular version to help young Christians clearly understand the meaning of that verse. But some of the words in the parenthesis was not the meaning that I was receiving.

The word Bible comes from the the Latin word of biblia and the Greek word biblos meaning many books. The Bible is a collection of many books. It contains the books of the Old Testament, New Testament and some contain the Apocrypha. The word canon comes from the Greek word kanwn which means measuring rule, like a ruler used by carpenters.

These books or writings were written on scrolls and later they were all compiled together. Eventually men added the chapter numbers, verse numbers, commas, periods, parenthesis etc. Some adding text and some deleting text. Some denominations have more books while others have less books depending on if you are Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Orthodox, Coptic, etc.

The early Christian Church did not have the luxury of having them all in one place in one convenient book. They had to read each one from an individual scroll. Each scroll took a considerable amount of time to be written by hand. They were valuable and guarded as treasure.

The Catholics thought it would be nice to have all of their approved scripture in one place, The

bible and to prove that they were correct, they added the word “Holy” at the beginning. Making it seem

as that the Holy Bible was God's written instructions. They added stuff to support their doctrines and

took away stuff that did not support their teachings. It's clearly seen if you know the character of the

Bible.

Catholics did not want anyone outside the Church to be able to read it. They wanted total

control over each individual life. If you paid them, then you were alright with them, if you question

anything about the church or the “Holy” book, then they burned you at the stake, tortured you,

beheaded you, strangled you or they tortured and strangled you while being burned at the stake and

then beheaded you afterward. May God have mercy on your soul if you did not act or think the way she

wanted you too.

They wanted control in everything through government control and with Church control. They

always had the last word on matters.

How did she come to the conclusion of what books were in the Bible? There were a number of

councils of Catholic bishops that met to decide. The first major one was the Council of Laodicea, it

took place in the year of 363. This council was under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and

reflected its practices. It came up with an approved list of Old and New Testament books. This list did

not include the Old Testament Book of Enoch or New Testament Book of Revelation. These two books

were considered to be at odds with and was not considered politically correct for the Roman Empire.

One of the Bishops attending was Eusebius, he was the favorite bishop of The Roman Empire Emperor Constantine. Eusebius strongly opposed the books of Enoch and Revelation because they spoke out against the Holy Roman Empire. They were afraid that people would interpret the end time revelation that made the “City on Seven Hills” the seat of the Great Whore. Which so happens to be Rome. Seventeen years later, in 380AD, The Catholic Church became the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire.

The next three major councils were the council of Hippo in 393AD, the councils of Carthage in 397AD and 419AD. All were in agreement and accepted the recommendations of the Council of Hippo in 393AD and it was a council of three African Bishops. They compiled a list of books that would be included in the Bible as we know it today. Our modern Bible comes from only three bishops of Africa.

Before these councils, the Catholic Church had found their champion. It gave them total control over their subjects and for the governments that were under the control of the Catholic Church.

Their champion was Saul of Tarsus, also known as the Apostle Paul. Paul's writings taught people to be submissive to Church and to governmental authority. Women were not to be heard.

The Catholic Church included books of the Bible that supported Paul. If a book contradicted

Paul, it was not to be included into the canon. But Paul's writings contradicted Jesus.

The early Christians viewed Christianity a lot different than we do today. The first written

Biblical Canon came from the Ebionites. Ebionite means “The Poor Ones”.

The Ebionites came into existence soon after Jesus Resurrection. Some were probably the one's

who followed Jesus during His earthly ministry and were first hand witnesses of His teachings and

miracles. They probably had the book of Matthew and did not have the gospels of Mark, Luke and John

or the Book of Revelation.

At this point, Paul's writings were in circulation and the Ebionites knew of Paul and excluded his writings in their readings. They rejected Paul because he rejected the Law of Moses and perverted the teachings of Jesus.

They knew and accepted James the brother of Jesus and considered Paul as the anti-christ. They loved James and hated Paul.

The scriptures of the Ebionites and other early Christian groups are probably lost to time. Those deemed heretical were quickly deposed of by the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church.

In 371 before the Roman Catholic councils, Emperor Valens ordered troops to remove from private homes at Antioch (Syria) works on liberal arts and the law, not just the heretical works. Discouraged and terrorized people all over the eastern provinces of the Empire, wishing to avoid any possible suspicion, began to burn their own libraries. This grew worse under Theodosius.

Then in 435 and 438, the emperors of Rome again commanded the public burning of unauthorized books throughout the empire of Imperial Rome. Beginning with Theodosius' reign (379-395), he outlawed any religion but that of the "bishops of Rome". This was enforced by the destruction of both public and private libraries in Roman territories. If any heretical material was found, the owner suffered the death penalty under the order of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Bible as we know it today was canonized by the Catholic Church without the books the

Catholic Church deemed heretical. From her history, we know of the things she deemed heretical.

In 144 AD, Marcion (85-160) was a Bishop in the early Church and declared that the original twelve apostles were misled for mixing Judaism with the teachings of Jesus and only Paul was the only one with the true message. His canon consisted of only Paul's writings and he authored one that he included which resembled the Gospel of Luke.

Marcion also did not accept the Jewish scriptures known as the Old Testament. He claimed that the God who delivered the Hebrew scriptures was a different God than that of Jesus Father. He developed a dual-god system which did not allow for the contradictions between the teachings of Paul with that of Jesus and the God of the Old Testament.

In Marcion's mind, the Hebrew God of the Old Testament was jealous of the God that was Jesus' Father. He was later excommunicated from the Church.

Throughout history, we know that the victors write the history books to tell their side of the story. The Catholic Church just so happens to be one of those victors.