eastern orthodoxs what is the official Bible of the orthodox church?
since some people told me an orthodox can use the Catholic Bible because they have the same books as the orthodox churches use but what bible do the orthodox churches use in the liturgy?
it's the same roman catholic canon of the OT with orthodox churches?
the orthodox bible doesn't have the letters of john and the book of revelations?
I'm not sure which ones are approved, but I'd guess that the King James Version isn't one of them. I would think the Catholic versions would be fine since they have all the original books.
Fireball... the Orthodox churches are Catholic Churches.... they use the Eastern rite as opposed to the western rites used by the Roman Catholic Church. They would use a Catholic Bible.... I would guess a translation of the original Latin Vulgate, but most certainly NOT the King James.
The Orthodox bible is from the Septuagint. It includes in addition to the Catholic books two more books of Maccabees (3 & 4), Odes of Solomon, and 1 Esdras. It divides the book of Baruch into "Baruch" and the "Letter of Jeremiah". Remarkably, it EXCLUDES from the NT 2 and 3 John, 2 Peter, and Revelations.
Most interesting of all (and outside the question!) the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has a few additional books in its canon: Jubilees, Book of Enoch, 4 Baruch along with three books of Meqabyan that are unique to their canon.
Oh, and the Aramaic Peshitta translation claims the original language of the NT was Aramaic and has a magnificent odd translation on line supervised by Dr George Lamsa.
Here is a PDF Orthodox version for download: http://www.orthodoxanswers.org/eob/download.asp
The KJV, sadly for Fireball, is a latter day Protestant translation. Better luck next question!
So much misinformation already posted! Hope I can clear some things up.
Orthodox Churches are *not Eastern Rite Catholics. Eastern Rite Catholics are *former Orthodox churches that united with Rome, leaving Orthodoxy as they did so. Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics are not in communion. Orthodox Christians *may not* take communion in an Eastern Rite Catholic or Roman Catholic church, no matter how many times catholics say that. To do so is to leave Orthodoxy.
Orthodoxy's official Old Testament is the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and includes the deuterocanonical (slightly different term than as used by RC) books that were in use at the time of Christ. The New Testament is the Greek as received from the early church, including all 27 books common to all Christians. The Latin Vulgate is not used by the Orthodox.
"The Eastern Orthodox Church officially uses the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament which was translated from the original Hebrew language into Greek in the third century B.C. The Septuagint of the Orthodox Church contains all the Canonical Books and the Anaginoskoinena Books "worthy to be read" (called Apocrypha in the English Versions). For the New Testament, the original Greek text is used by the Greek Church, while the other Orthodox Churches have translated the Bible into their own native languages from the original Greek, with the Slavonic translation the oldest. The Orthodox Church has not, as yet, translated the Bible into English and so has no official English translation. In the meantime, the Orthodox are temporarily using both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version." [1]
The OT canon of the Orthodox is slightly larger (49 books) than that used by RC (46) or Protestants (39), since in addition to the books of the Apocrypha, the books of 3 Macabees and 1 Esdras are included, while Baruch is separated from Jeremiah. The books are kept in their historic locations, and are not collected into a separate section. Some Orthodox also print Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasses, 4 Macabees, and 2 Esdras as books of value.
Why the difference? The East favors a few more books than Rome, largely by historical accident, one might say. Some of the books were not available in the west. The Protestants favor a few less, since they don't agree with their doctrines.
The Orthodox have more books in its canon than the Catholic Church. So while a Catholic Bible is better than a Protestant Bible, it's still not up to par.
On the same note, while the Orthodox and the Catholics and Protestants all use the same New Testament, the Orthodox use a different Old Testament. The Old Testament the Orthodox use is based off Greek manuscripts which were in use during the time of Jesus, instead of the Hebrew manuscripts that Catholics and Protestants use. Though the Old Testament was originally written primarily in Hebrew, the authoritative Hebrew manuscripts are actually nearly a millennium newer than the Greek manuscripts. Evidence shows that the Greek manuscripts, though a translation of the original, are actually more accurate to the original texts.
eastern orthodoxs what is the official Bible of the orthodox church?
