Old Testament Canon
Have you ever wondered why the Catholic Bible has 7 more books than non-Catholic Bibles? This collection, called the Deuterocanonical books (or 2nd Canon), includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch and 1 & 2 Maccabees, as well as portions of Esther and Daniel.
Not long after the destruction of Jerusalem (circa 70 A.D.), a group of Rabbis asked permission from the Roman authorities to hold a council at Jabneh (or Jamnia). One of the things discussed was use of the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) by early Christians. The name, "Septuagint", is derived from the number of scholars (70) who translated the Hebrew texts into Greek.
At this gathering, they decided to throw out 7 books (and portions of Esther and Daniel) that they felt were uninspired. They provided a new Greek translation because the early Christians were converting the Jews using the Septuagint, which was compiled some 200 years before the birth of Christ. It can be clearly illustrated that Jesus himself studied and quoted from these books.
The fact is that many passages in the New Testament are directly correlated to these 7 books from the Septuagint. Some examples include: Matt. 27:42/Wis. 2:18-20, Luke 24:4/2 Macc. 3:26, John 10:22/1Macc 4:36 & 52-59, Rom. 11:33/Judith 8:14, 1 Cor. 10:20/4:7 and 1 Pet. 1:6-7/Wis. 3:5-6.
According to historical sources, the rabbinical gathering at Jabneh was not even an "official" council with binding authority to make such a decision.
The Church doesn’t hold to this post-Christ, post-temple canon because the mantle of authority under the New Covenant had been passed from Judaism to Christianity. The old wine and wineskin (Judaism) was now replaced by new wine (the Gospel) and new wineskins (the Church).
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