300 years before Christ was born, the Hebrew bible, which Christians consider the Old Testament, was translated into Koine Greek. The title of this translation was called the Septuagint. It is this translation that was used by the Paul, the Apostles, and the early church. It is still in use by the Orthodox Church today, however, sadly, it is rejected by most modern Christians in favor of the Masoretic text.
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The quote above is from an article written by an Orthodox apologist.
When I was a Protestant, I just accepted the narrative I had learned. Yes, I had been taught the Protestant version of the history of the canon of Scripture. I never questioned it seriously.
Why is it important to establish the fact that the Old Testament of the early Church was the Septuagint?
That translation contains the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible. Protestants reject those books as inspired Scripture. They follow the lead of Martin Luther who did a translation of the Bible into vernacular German.
He removed those 7 books from the Old Testament and put them in the back of his Bible. All Protestants have followed his lead. In fact, Protestant Bibles have gone even farther. Those books have now been removed entirely.
In effect, Martin Luther became the authority for the Protestant canon of Scripture. He decided to go with the Hebrew Masoretic text. That version did not contain the Deuterocanonical books. That settled it for Protestantism. Everyone else followed his lead.
Check out the history of what is called the Masoretic text. Check out the history of the Jewish canon of Scripture. You might be surprised to find out when they decided on their canon and when the Masoretic text was finally compiled.
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