What is the history of the canon of the Bible in terms of 66 or 73 books (Catholic vs. Protestant)?

What is the history of the canon of the Bible in terms of 66 or 73 books (Catholic vs. Protestant)?

Short Answer :

Their historic origins lie within the realm of Hellenistic Judaism, which, along with Judaism proper¹ and Samaritanism, was one of the main subdivisions of ancient Judaism.

¹ _{Itself divided into several other branches, such as Pharisees, Sadduccees, Zealots, Essenes, etc. as mentioned in both the New Testament, as well as Josephus' writings.}

Historical Context :

• The bulk of the Jewish Scriptures was penned in Hebrew, sometime between the two captivities (Egyptian and Babylonian), while the Jews were living free and unhindered in their own country.

• Later, between the Babylonian captivity and the rise of Alexander Macedon, several other religious works (Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, etc.) were added to the collection. One characteristic feature of these sacred texts is the presence of Imperial Aramaic, the official language of the (First) Persian Empire.

• Later on, the protrusion of Hellenism among the Jewish Diaspora,² following the expansion of the Macedonian Empire and its subsequent conquest of Persia, gave rise to yet another layer of pious literature, this time neither in Hebrew, nor Aramaic, but rather in Greek, the new empire's lingua franca.

• Not just that, but, under Ptolemaic rule, the (rest of the) non-Greek scriptures were also translated into this new tongue, an impressive cultural, religious, and literary endeavor, which would later come to be known as the Septuagint, from the Latin (see next bullet point) word for seventy, since, following a traditional reading of Exodus 1:5, this represents the number of Gentile nations (which, at that time, employed classical Greek as an international language of commerce and diplomacy).

• As even this ancient world superpower began to decline, and a new one started to emerge, a certain marginal and insignificant Jewish sect commenced its own small corpus of religious writ, which would later form the basis of the New Testament.³

² _{Which is also why these writings were never meaningfully embraced by Judaism proper, as practiced within the Holy Land.}

³ _{Composed in Greek, since, despite ongoing Roman supremacy, the latter was still the language of the philosophers and intelligentsia of classical antiquity.}

Main Purpose :

The main purpose or driving motivation behind these writings seems to have been the strengthening of religious piety among the aforementioned diaspora, in light of the various pagan persecutions of Greek-Roman antiquity, as well as serving as a safeguard against either syncretism, or waning lukewarm devotion to ancestral practices as prescribed in the Torah.

• Thus, all four books of the Maccabees (of which only the first two are part of the Roman Catholic canon), constitute a praise of martyrdom and resilience, in face of great and insurmountable adversity.

• Tobit, the hero of the h*m*nymous work, is portrayed as carefully observing dietary laws (first chapter), and his son's romantic affection to Sara (eighth chapter) stands in stark contrast to the orgiastic excesses and rampant debauchery prevalent in Greek-Roman paganism.

• Judith is the Hellenistic equivalent of the Hebrew Deborah and Babylonian Esther.

• The Letter of Jeremiah (sometimes part of Baruch) and Bel and the Dragon (part of the additions to Daniel) are meant as caustically satirical attacks on idolatry.

• The Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach represent Jewish responses to (and interactions with) Greek philosophy (literally, love of wisdom), depicting the Mosaic Law as the true wisdom (Sophia).

Noteworthy Differences :

• For starters, there is an obvious linguistic barrier due to Greek, unlike either Hebrew or Aramaic, being an Indo-European rather than Semitic language.

• Secondly, as already noted in the previous paragraphs, they were mainly penned by and directed at the Jewish diaspora, rather than at Jews still living within the Promised Land, which is why Masoretic tradition never regarded them as being especially relevant, and still, to this very day, does not attach any particular importance to them.

Acceptance and Rejection :

Though Christianity's founders were homeland Jews, having spent, if not most, then, at the very least, their seminal or formative years inside the Holy Land, nevertheless, their newfound faith never registered any considerable amount of followers within Israel proper (Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24, John 4:44); as such, in response to further persecutions, it eventually spread to the Hebrew Diaspora (Acts 8:1, 11:19), whose canon did comprise the books later known as apocryphal or deuterocanonical.

In the fourth century, Saint Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate from the Masoretic text, expressed certain disparaging views of the Greek Septuagint in general, which undoubtedly influenced later Reformers, themselves heirs to the Western intellectual tradition.