THE CHURCH RECOGNIZES THE ALEXANDRINE CANON

From the earliest times, the Christian Church recognized the Jewish canon of the Greek - Roman tradition, or Alexandrine canon, as being the true Bible. Jesus Himself quoted from this Bible, and not until the Reformation was this canon seriously challenged.

These seven disputed books are also called the deuterocanonical books, while the rest of the books of the Old Testament comprise the protocanonical books. By protocanonical books is meant the “books of the first canon, “books of the Old Testament accepted by both Christians and Jews. The deuterocanonical books. “books of the second canon,” are those seven books found only in the Catholic canon.

Luther rejected the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament. At one time he also eliminated Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse from the New Testament, but later Protestants reinserted them. Today the Catholic and Protestant New Testament books are identical.