Why I Am Orthodox (Part 3.1): Scripture

A Different Direction

I would like to turn now to the three subjects that have brought me to Orthodoxy and explain a bit how my perception of these three subjects have changed since I have been a Christian, namely, the Scripture, Tradition, and the Ecumenical Councils. The Orthodox love the number 3 and these are the three "legs" that kept me solid on my way to the Orthodox Church. In this article, I will focus on Scripture. 

Scripture

Yes, the Orthodox Church has more books in their Bible than the Protestants. We are not heretics, despite some conjectures, because we have "additional" books in our Bible. As it turns out, the Protestant Church has subtracted books. It was Luther that decided to use the Masoretic text instead of the Septuagint when forming his "reformed" church during the Protestant reformation (and almost the book of James). What is the Masoretic or the Septuagint text? Glad you asked!

Masoretic vs Septuagint (real quick)

There is a lot to understand here and I guess (since you read this blog) you have access to google and Wikipedia to fill in the gaps. But here it is in a nutshell, from my feeble understanding. These two text are the two different forms of the Old Testament (Septuagint in Greek, translated from the original Hebrew and the Masoretic written in Hebrew transcribed by the Jews AFTER Jesus). But what is important to understand here is that the Masoretic text was compiled after Jesus and the Septuagint was compiled before Jesus. Here are the highlights: the first Christians used the Septuagint: Jesus, St Paul, St Peter, St John, etc. Not only did the originals use the Septuagint, the Early Church Fathers used the Septuagint. The Masoretic text was compiled (arguably, for sure) in response to Christians using the standardized Septuagint. The Masoretic text (not used by the Founder and followers) was what Luther decided to use for his Old Testament because it was what the Jews were using as their standard text during his time.
At any rate, the Bible is a bit bigger in the Orthodox church, but this is because this is what the first church considered Scripture. The subtraction of the "additional" books (known by Protestant and Evangelicals as the Apocrypha)  was not the norm until Luther in the 1500s. So, as far as Scripture, the Septuagint OT is accepted with the "additions" (even though they are not additions).

Another note about the Scriptures concerns the New Testament. (This subject actually leads to our second point, which I will discuss in the next installment...Tradition). The Bible is the product of Tradition. The church did not have a Bible as we know it at it's inception. The Church did have the Septuagint (Old Testament), but not the New Testament. Only letters and other documents circulating and read in various churches. None of these had become officially the Bible as we know it and some of these letters were read publicly and used for edification and instruction that were not included in the the later accepted canonical New Testament (Clements letters, Shepherd of Hermas, Didache, etc). The Church did not have a complete New Testament for a few hundred years, not officially! The New Testament was not universally accepted until 300s AD and not made official until the 600s AD. So, was the Church "sola scriptura" (or "scripture alone") for all those years? No they were not. The Church relied on something else. The Church, in Her Tradition has given us this wonderfully beautiful collection of books we call the Bible. It is cherished by the Church, it is protected by the Church, and it is said and chanted in the Liturgies, Vespers, and Matins services in multiple languages around the world. There is more Scripture dispensed in one Divine Liturgy than in any Protestant or Evangelical service that I have ever been to on any given Sunday. The Church did not rely on Scripture alone though, but also, Tradition...  

Here is a good site to read some of the early Christian Writings
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

PS, If anyone would like to comment and/or ask questions, please feel free

Addendum:
Here is a great article on Masoretic vs Septuagint
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/02/septuagint-vs-masoretic-which-is-more.html