Where did the Bible come from? Why do we have these books and not, say, the Gospel of Thomas? Did the Council of Nicaea vote to determine which books made the final edition? Did the Catholic Church add seven books at the Council of Trent?
Tune in tomorrow, from 5-6 pm central, to Catholic Answers Live, hosted by Patrick Coffin. I’ll be on the show for an hour talking about the origins of the Bible, and fielding whatever questions you might have.
My understanding is that Pope St. Damasus in the late 300s declared which books were inspired and therefore part of the Canon of Scripture. He also commissioned St. Jerome to translate scripture from Hebrew and Greek into Latin. When Jerome questioned the Deuterocanonical books, because they were not in the canon that the Jews adopted around 90 A.D., Pope St. Damasus told Jerome to include the Deuterocanonical books. Of course, the Deuterocanonical books were included in the Septuagint which was the book of Jewish scripture in use in Jesus’ day, and the Deuterocanonical books are quoted liberally in the New Testament that virtually all Christians today, including Protestants, accept as the Canon of Scripture. The Deuterocanonical books were removed as part of the Protestant Reformation, but were before then always accepted universally as part of Holy Scripture.