Did AI Just End the Catholic vs Protestant Bible Debate?

📚 Want to check the sources for yourself? Here are some of the books used in this debate (Amazon links):
"The Canon of Scripture" by F. F. Bruce - amzn.to/4vn3Y8J
"Against Apion" by Flavius Josephus – amzn.to/4dQYuNr
"Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger" by Gary Michuta - amzn.to/4vj2NHo
"The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity"by Edmon L. Gallagher and John D. Meade - amzn.to/3OrhYxw
"Invitation to the Septuagint" by Karen H. Jobes and Moisés Silva - amzn.to/4mv13qv
"The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism" by Roger T. Beckwith - amzn.to/3OmZMFh
"The Formation of the Jewish Canon" by Timothy H. Lim - amzn.to/4dHfnKl
"Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation" by Jerry L. Walls - amzn.to/425qUMk
"The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon" by Lee Martin McDonald - amzn.to/48NeQD9

👇 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THIS DEBATE
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
✅ Early Church Use or Jewish Boundaries: If early Christians widely read Wisdom, Sirach, Tobit, Judith, and Maccabees, does that show these books belonged in Scripture — or only that they were valued and useful?
✅ Reception or Canon: If books can shape Christian worship and theology for centuries, does that make them Scripture — or can a church read a book without placing it on the same level as Isaiah, Psalms, and Genesis?
✅ Florence or Trent: Did the Catholic Church clearly settle this question long before Luther, or did Trent finally close a dispute that had remained open for centuries?
✅ Doctrine or Evidence: Were these books rejected because they were never fully canonical — or because they supported doctrines the Reformers wanted to challenge?

👇 ROUNDS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Round 1 — The Historical Question
Did the early church inherit a broader Bible through the Septuagint, or do Josephus, Philo, Melito, Athanasius, and Jerome point to a narrower canon closer to the Protestant Old Testament?

Round 2 — What Standard Should Christians Use?
Should Christians follow widespread church reception, or should they prioritize the earliest and most secure evidence for what counted as Scripture? What do Sirach’s own prologue, 1 Maccabees, Florence, and Trent actually prove?

Round 3 — Doctrinal Stakes and the Final Question
Did the Reformers downgrade these books because they supported doctrines like prayer for the dead and purgatory, or were they recovering a long-standing distinction inside the Catholic tradition itself?

👇 CHAPTERS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
0:00 — Did Catholics Add 7 Books to the Bible or Did Protestants Remove Them?

━━━ ROUND 1: THE HISTORICAL QUESTION ━━━
0:28 — The Septuagint and the Bible Early Christians Read
2:32 — Josephus, Philo, and the 22-Book Jewish Canon
5:03 — Church Fathers, Councils, and the Dead Sea Scrolls
6:15 — Qumran Was a Library, Not a Canon
7:48 — Melito’s “Wisdom” and Why Church Reception Matters
9:23 — “It Is Written,” Silence, and Why These Books Were Questioned
10:56 — Judith and Tobit: Do Historical Problems Disqualify Them?
12:45 — Judith’s Literary Mode and Why These Books Stayed Disputed
14:14 — Round 1 Judges

━━━ ROUND 2: WHAT STANDARD SHOULD CHRISTIANS USE? ━━━
14:51 — Sirach, 1 Maccabees, and the Prophetic Problem
16:12 — Florence Before Luther: Why the Timeline Matters
17:18 — Was Florence Binding — or Mostly Diplomatic?
18:18 — Church Use, Sirach’s Prologue, and Prophetic Silence
19:15 — The Hebrew Canon: Gradual, Early, and Still Narrower?
20:24 — Was the Jewish Canon Defined Against Christianity?
21:35 — Round 2 Judges

━━━ ROUND 3: DOCTRINAL STAKES AND THE FINAL QUESTION ━━━
22:18 — Prayer for the Dead, Purgatory, and the Apocrypha
23:38 — Cajetan: The Catholic Cardinal Who Agreed with the Reformers?
25:12 — Does One Scholar Outweigh the Church?
26:22 — Trent’s Anathema: Consensus or Open Dispute?
27:36 — Did Trent Clarify Tradition — or Close a Crisis?
28:42 — Why Early Protestants Still Printed the Apocrypha
30:05 — Final Scores: Which Side Won?

👇 PATREONS & YOUTUBE MEMBERS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Thank you! Luis Knell, Adam Brevnin, Tanya Parker, Sky78, Benjy Patrick, Hassam Patel, CrackerMac7, Anonthemon, Alexander S, BlackT, Karl Brown, Slendr9997, Preston Shaw, Corie B, Todd Savage, Brent Kingsley, Sean Goit, OilersFan97