A critic of the Cepher™ asks the question: "What is the Cepher Bible?" Of course, they answer their own question, and their analysis is worthy of discussion.

The reduction of the books available to the average reader of scripture from the robust selection of manuscripts generally available to scholars in the time of Mashiach was first undertaken by those following the ideology of Hillel the Elder and the subsequent rise of the Yerushalmi Talmud, which would result in the creation of Judaism in the 2nd Century at the Council of Jamnia.  It was this council who eliminated many of the scrolls and rolls available then, and landed on only 39 books, and even then, the books of Ezekiel and Daniel were on the table for exclusion by the Council. The Council of Jamnia acted in the year AD 110, at least a couple of centuries after the scrolls had been sequestered in the caves of Qumran. The Jamnia Council had opinions which were substantially different than those scribes who had sought to preserve the generally accepted scrolls within the earthen jars of Qumran.

But we see by the shapers of religion the doctrine of the Nicolaitans – to assert the authority to determine that which they can read, and that which thou shalt not read.

Unbeknownst to our critic at who has “got questions”, the first “Bible” was called the Bibliotheca (Ancient Greek: Βιβλιοθήκη) also known as the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus.  This “Bible” was a compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends, arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century A.D.  Perseus Encyclopedia, Apollodorus; Simpson, p. 1. The Bibliotheca is considered to be the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times.  Aubrey Diller, The Text History of the Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 66 (1935:296-313), pp. 296, 300.  

Although the work called Bibliotheca is dated from the 1st or 2nd Century A.D., known for short as the “bible”, the accounts of myth in the Bibliotheca have led some commentators to suggest that even its complete sections are an epitome of a lost work.  Frazer, J. G.; Apollodorus (2017-06-21). The Library of Greek Mythology.  Such a conclusion would render its creation to a period before the modern epoch.

The use of the term “Bible” to describe the collection of ancient Hebrew literature and the emerging Brit Chadasha was a cold-blooded calculation which directly attacked the popularity and supremacy of the Bibliotheca. The “Bible” was designed to be similar in its title, concepts, and epistemology, and the attack on the stature of the Bibliotheca as the dispositive text on matters theological was a shrewd replacement technique asserting Rome over Greece.  This is the primary reason the Cepher™ is not called a Bible.

The critic with questions asserts that “[t]he Cepher, sometimes referred to as the “Cepher Bible,” is a non-scholarly work that claims to restore many “missing” books, phrases, and chapters to the Bible.”  However, consider the following review of the Cepher™ by a noted scholar: 

The Cepher is the most advanced, yet the most correct to antiquity, of any collection of Biblical material available today. If a Disciple of the history of what has been considered “Bible” from 1450 BCE through the Common Era of the First Century were to compile a collection of what they would call Bible, it would include the Cepher. As a disciple and teacher of the Bible, I believe it to have been one of the greatest services to be inclusive of the writings that have shaped the faith of true believers for more than 2400 years - without the exclusions of books and proper Names that have been slanted by Councils, self-serving individuals and Societies for hundreds of years.

The Cepher is one of the greatest examples of the true history of the Bible without censure available today, and has been very helpful to me personally as a Bible Symposium Speaker, Bible Teacher and Pastor.  With a personal history of studying, translating and preserving fragments and writings of our Biblical past, both as an Associate and Assistant Curator of The Bible Museum and in academic studies in the Philosophies of Comparative Biblical Archaeology, I have desired to assemble a book such as the Cepher that included the Tanach or Jewish Bible, the Antediluvian Writings and HaYashar, the Second Temple Letters and Writings, and the Gospels, Letters and Writings of the First Century Messianic Era -including all of the material canonized and/or recognized by such ancient cultures as the Ethiopic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Ancient Messianic Fellowship of Jerusalem and Ha Galiyl.

The scholarship and literary inclusion found in the Cepher is, to my knowledge, the best available in one volume to the Disciple today. I personally recommend the Cepher for study to show oneself approved, properly dividing the Word of Truth.

Andy Tryon, Jr., Ph.D., Th.D.
Pastor Emeritus, West Valley Fellowship

We at the Cepher Publishing Group, have reserved the right to reach decisions without the benefit of pre-established filters found at “Theological Seminaries” or “Hebrew University”.  That is why the book is original and not like the other repetitive and politically corrected texts found on every bookshelf at the local Christian bookstore.

We have received – and continue to receive – criticism that we have “added to the Word of God.” There are two scriptural passages relevant to this objection:

Now therefore hearken, O Yashar’el, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which Yahuah Elohai of your fathers gives you. 2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may guard the commandments of Yahuah Elohaykem which I command you.
Devariym (Deuteronomy) 4:1-2

We see here that this scripture is making direct reference “the statutes” and “the judgments” – and that you are not to add to or diminish ought from the commandments of Yahuah Elohaykem.

If this meant that the “word” was all-inclusive, then the Nevi’im and the Ketuviym (the prophets and the writings) not to mention the Brit Chadasha (the New Testament) must be excluded. But that is not what it means – it means the commandments of Yahuah Elohaykem. And as for those who criticize the Cepher™, what have you to say about the RCC who has deleted the graven image command from these commandments? What have you to say about the Christian churches which have all but deleted the teaching to “guard my Shabbath and keep it holy”?

While we are here, let’s talk about a methodology that not only added to and diminished from the commandments and the text of Mosheh, but who altered every single word of the text.  Is there any outcry? If I told you that every word was amended, would you be alarmed?

This amendment is called the nikkudoth – the adding of vowel sounds and consequently interpretive construction of every word in scripture.  Does this concern the critics?

For I testify unto every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this cepher, If any man shall add unto these things, Elohiym shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this cepher: 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the cepher of this prophecy, Elohiym shall take away his part out of the cepher of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this cepher.
Chazon (Revelation) 22:18-19

This scripture passage is obviously discussing the prophecy of the Cepher Chizayon (Revelation). However, we note that every English text “adds to” the text of Revelation by inserting an opinion concerning the χξς found at the end of 13:18, and instead apply gematria as a “substitution” for what is actually written there.

People are quick to criticize the Cepher for “adding” books yet are completely silent about the editors who took the apocrypha from them, who took the books of Chanoch (Enoch) and Yovheliym (Jubilees) from them, when both were numerously accumulated at Qumran in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Worse yet, these same critics are deadly silent when it comes to many verses from the New Testament being deleted by the books derived from the forged Codex Sinaiticus. We won’t discuss here the effective deletion of whole books and verses by the preachers from the pulpits who simply won’t even deliver the redacted form of scripture they hold in their hands.

The scholars of the community which created the Dead Sea Scrolls saw fit to write out the book of Enoch (Cepher Chanoch) five times.  The scholars in the Ethiopic church and the Assyriac church maintained the book and did not exclude it.  The scholar called “Jude” in the “Bible” quoted directly from it, and the scholars found in the New Testament referenced it some 40 times.

The Epistle of Barnabas, young Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian all considered 1 Enoch to be Scripture.

Tertullian wrote in Concerning The Genuineness Of The Prophecy Of Enoch, “I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch [Chanoch], which has assigned this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it is not admitted into the Jewish canon either…But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise concerning the Lord [Mashiach], nothing at all must be rejected by us which pertains to us; and we read that 'every Scripture suitable for edification is divinely inspired.'…To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses a testimony in the Apostle Jude." [Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. S. Thelwall, vol. 4 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 15.

We find quite often that the largest criticism of the Cepher has to do with the conclusion regarding the transliteration of the Sacred Name.  They war against the name. So be it.

One critic claims that “the authors [of the Cepher™] have included a significant amount of material, sometimes interspersed with the biblical text, that Bible scholars have long rejected as non-canonical. Reading the Cepher, one encounters a mix of inspired and non-inspired material.”

We note here that all of the apocrypha is canonical. The criticism is mounted over the inclusion of Chanoch (Enoch) (discussed above), Yovheliym (Jubilees), Yashar (Jasher), 2 Baruch, and 3 and 4 Maccabees.

For those of you wondering what a list of books in the “bible” look like, click here for a scripture comparison chart, where you can see which books have been traditionally considered to be inspired by the likes of Coverdale, John Calvin, King James, and the Catholic Church.

We have discussed with scholarly articles and citations the reasons for including the additional texts to the Cepher™ which we do not believe any person has the right to censor simply because it does not comport to the things to which they have become accustomed.