Quote:
Originally Posted by Patricia
The Catholics and some Anglicans give certain Apocryphal books a semi-authorised status. They are compatible with the rest of the Bible, so should not be disregarded, but do not have the same status as the official canonical books. Hence the King James version Apocrypha.
There are a number of other texts, like the heaps of Gnostic gospels which were either never considered, or were definitively rejected from the canon. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene falls into this latter category.
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When the Canon was determined in the 4th century the new testament was determined to be the 27 books we now have in the Bible. However, at that the time old testament was simply taken as it existed. Canon was not established for it and it was based on the Septuagint version of the old testament. What is now called the apocrypha was part of this version. The Jewish canon had already expunged these books by the end of the first century.
During the protestant reformation most Protestants chose to use the Jewish canon at the source of the old testament but preserved the names and book order that was already in use (The Jewish Bible has some differences). The Catholics changed their Bible and moved the Apocrypha to its own section and gave it the status that Patricia mentioned at this time.
Dale