How I Became Mrs. Watts ✓

How I Became Mrs. Watts (21)

CHAPTER 21

I was so devastated by what Andrew said that I couldn't even tell you if Ethan spoke to me after his class. If he did, I entirely ignored him, which I'm sure would not make him very happy.

When I got back to my dorm that night, I cried my heart out. I didn't understand Andrew. Why was he doing this to me? I thought. There was just one good thing about this situation: I knew Andrew liked me now. I could live with that, if Andrew still liked me. I did not like our current situation. It hurt that I had been rejected like that. Why had he done that? Did he not like me enough to be his girlfriend? Maybe he was still getting over Charlotte? I had way too many questions and I couldn't answer any of them. I decided it was time for me to sleep.

I went to all my classes that week in zombie mode. I was going through the motions, and I'm not sure I gained any information from the classes. Friday finally came. I debated whether or not to go to the class. I finally decided to go, because it would hurt my grade if I didn't. I also wanted to see Andrew, to see if he was as hurt as I was, but I would never admit that to anyone.

I walked to the class and got there one minute early. I definitely didn't want to be alone with Andrew, so I stood outside the door and waited for the rest of the class. I counted out the seconds and I got 2 minutes and 45 seconds when the first person walked in. How did I not notice that everyone else was always late? I wondered.

I followed everyone else and quietly took the only seat available: mine. I didn't make eye contact with anyone, especially not Andrew. I kept my head buried in my notes as the class started. “Good morning,” Andrew said. He sounded just fine, like nothing happened, or at least nothing that affected him. I allowed myself a quick glance at him. He looked fine too, more than fine, he looked amazing. I snapped out of my thoughts as I noticed that his mouth was moving, but I had missed the words.

“Could you repeat that?” I asked. My voice shocked me, I sounded normal too. Unless you were there, you couldn't tell that I had been crying earlier.

He barely recognized my presence as he answered, “I said today's class is on the topic of the so called 'added books to the Bible.'”

“Thank you,” I said. I might as well be the bigger person and be polite. Well, that, and I was still madly in love with him, so I couldn't be mean to him if I tried.

He nodded slightly and continued, “So what books do Catholic Bibles have but Protestant Bibles don't?”

Someone answered, “Tobit, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Judith, and parts of Esther and Daniel.”

“Exactly right. We call these books deuterocanonical. Protestants insist on calling them the Apocrypha, which comes from a Greek word meaning 'hidden' and implies inauthenticity in normal usage.

“By the time of Jesus, there were a few translations of the Old Testament. The one most commonly used and studied by Jesus and His apostles was called the Septuagint, which was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture. It contained every book that the Catholic Bible still has.

“The Jews went to just accepting the first five books of the Bible around the year 90. The Christians at that time kept the same Bible they had been using but they added the New Testament now.

“Christianity left it with this version of the Bible until Martin Luther came along trying to prove his 'faith alone' doctrine. He went so far as to take out the books of the Bible that went against his point.

“What actually happened was when Luther translated the Bible into German, he took those seven disputed books and put them in an appendix at the end. He did the same with Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation in the New Testament. All of those books contain passages that dispute Luther's concept of faith, as well as support certain Catholic teachings he said were wrong, like 2 Maccabees chapter 12, verses 41 through 45, which support the belief of Purgatory.

“He and later Reformers supported removing the books because they said that if the Jews had no use for them, neither did they. They missed the fact that they Jews did have a use for them until the year 90.

“So, in conclusion, Catholics have used the same Bible for about two thousand years. The Catholic Bible is rooted in the Septuagint, the version of the Bible used by many Jews in the ancient world–including Jesus, the apostles, and the early Christian Church. The Protestant Bible is the result of sixteenth-century reformers removing books from the Bible that didn't fit their theological agenda. In other words, Catholics use the Bible that Jesus used. Protestants use the Bible that Martin Luther thought they should use.”1

That was the end of the class and I was glad. It was kind of tiring to see Andrew and to sit in this class. It was much easier going through the motions but it was impossible to do that in this class.

I went home and took a nap. It wasn't a very long nap, but I felt like I could sleep for the rest of my life and I would be okay. That was probably the only way I could ever be okay, especially with seeing Andrew here all the time.

1Prove It! Church, chapter six