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<blockquote data-quote="Rhialto" data-source="post: 331347" data-attributes="member: 630">What is today the Catholic Bible was hammered out (and I mean that almost literally) during the Nicean Council, than finalized by St. Jerome, with various revisions happening over the years.&nbsp; It consists of the Protestant Old and New Testaments, and a group of 14 or so books called the Apocrypha.&nbsp; Classically these are the books of Judith, Tobit, Maccabees 1 and 2, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and various additions to Esther, and Daniel (all of which were declared canonical by the Roman Catholic Church during the reformation), as well as the First book of Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, and the rarely seen anti-apcolypse Esdras 2.&nbsp; Eastern Orthodox churches had as well the 3rd and 4th books of Maccabees, and the 151st Psalm.Now the reasons why these books were left out of the Protestant Bible (or rather, the several Protestant Bibles...) is a rather tangled story.&nbsp; You see, none of these books are found in the Jewish Torah, and so many scholars (St. Jerome among the first of them) considered them of dubious theological value.&nbsp; Many strict Protestants will tell you that the apocryphal books are full of all sorts of evil, perverted things.&nbsp; And they are, to be blunt, talking out their wazoos.&nbsp; The Apocryphal books are found in various copies of the Greek Septuagint, a work written by Greek Jews for easy reading.&nbsp; They aren't&nbsp; full of vile secret Satanic messages--the Greek version of Esther is actually MORE pius than the Hebraic version, which mentions God a record number of times in the Bible--zero.&nbsp; So what difference would this make for the PCs?&nbsp; Very little.&nbsp; The Apocrypha includes some interesting stories, but there's not much groundbreaking theology in it (with maybe the exception of the 2nd book of Esdras, which never got spread around very much as the result).&nbsp; They back the standard virtues--loyalty to God, faith and good clean living.&nbsp; Now, if your PCs are say Coptic Christians from Ethiopia, things get interesting...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rhialto, post: 331347, member: 630"] What is today the Catholic Bible was hammered out (and I mean that almost literally) during the Nicean Council, than finalized by St. Jerome, with various revisions happening over the years. It consists of the Protestant Old and New Testaments, and a group of 14 or so books called the Apocrypha. Classically these are the books of Judith, Tobit, Maccabees 1 and 2, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and various additions to Esther, and Daniel (all of which were declared canonical by the Roman Catholic Church during the reformation), as well as the First book of Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, and the rarely seen anti-apcolypse Esdras 2. Eastern Orthodox churches had as well the 3rd and 4th books of Maccabees, and the 151st Psalm. Now the reasons why these books were left out of the Protestant Bible (or rather, the several Protestant Bibles...) is a rather tangled story. You see, none of these books are found in the Jewish Torah, and so many scholars (St. Jerome among the first of them) considered them of dubious theological value. Many strict Protestants will tell you that the apocryphal books are full of all sorts of evil, perverted things. And they are, to be blunt, talking out their wazoos. The Apocryphal books are found in various copies of the Greek Septuagint, a work written by Greek Jews for easy reading. They aren't full of vile secret Satanic messages--the Greek version of Esther is actually MORE pius than the Hebraic version, which mentions God a record number of times in the Bible--zero. So what difference would this make for the PCs? Very little. The Apocrypha includes some interesting stories, but there's not much groundbreaking theology in it (with maybe the exception of the 2nd book of Esdras, which never got spread around very much as the result). They back the standard virtues--loyalty to God, faith and good clean living. Now, if your PCs are say Coptic Christians from Ethiopia, things get interesting... [/QUOTE]

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