Canon Of The bible

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CANON OF THE BIBLE

BASIC R.C. BELIEF The books recognized by the Roman Catholic Church as part of the Holy Scriptures form the Canon of the Bible. This includes the deutero-canonical books - Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I and II Maccabees and portions of other books (additions to Daniel and Esther). By including Lamentations with Jeremiah, there are 45 Old Testament books.

The Roman Catholic Church says she defined the Canon of the New Testament scripture.

The deutero-canonical books were included in Jerome's Latin Vulgate, but not on the same level with other scripture. The Council of Trent proclaimed that these writings were to be admitted in to the Canon of the Bible. They are called "deutero-canonical" not to imply lesser inspiration, but indicating that they were admitted to the Canon of the Bible later than the "proto-canonical" books.

These books are found in some of the later "Protestant" versions.

CHRISTIAN COMMENT These deutero-canonical books are generally called The Apocrypha. While arguing about their authenticity is not a primary issue in Roman Catholic evangelism, we have valid reasons for not accepting the apocryphal books, as follows: (1) the Palestinian Jews rejected the Apocrypha (Romans 3:2), (2) the Lord Jesus and the Apostles never quoted from the Apocrypha, (3) the Apocrypha contains some wild stories (see Tobit and Judith), (4) The Apocrypha does not claim inspiration (II Maccabees 15:38), and (5) the Apocrypha contain false prophecy (Baruch 6:2, <169>And when you are come to Babylon, you shall be there many years, and for a long time, even to seven generations<170>) and a false salvation message (Tobit 12:8,9, <169><193> It is better to give to the poor than to store up gold. Such generosity will save you from death and will wash away all your sins<170>).

Regarding Roman Catholic claims that she defined the Canon, this was completed before the end of the lst century and was recognized almost immediately by all Christians as the Word of God. This was long before the beginning of the Roman Catholic Church.

It was the Holy Spirit Who wrote scripture. The fact that a Church Council (incorrectly claimed to be a Roman Catholic Church Council) recognized the same list does not make it their legislation. (Your correctly identifying the make of a car does not establish the car's make; it was that when it was assembled.)

Comments On This Page:

There were references made to DC books posted by bibgeek on 09/05/2003 at 21:04:56 from IP# 64.252.39.177
the Jews made no distinction between the deutero-canonical books and the others, prior to the fall of Jersuslam in the year 70 AD. One of the major reason that the Jewish council reject the Deotero-canonical books is that they had to be written in Hebrw or Aramaic "the holy tongue" as so they later rejected the Deutero-canonical books most of which were available in the Greek, at that time. Later, in the 19th Century, a good part of the original Hebrew text of Ecclesiasticus was discovered in Cairo. A Hebrew text of some parts of Tobit is also available.

Actually the apostles did make references to the Deutero-canonical Books: Mt 6:14 = Ecclesiasticus 28:2, Mt 27:39 = Wisdom 2:12, Romans 1:20 = Wisdom 13:14, Hebrews 11:35 = 2 Mach 6:18, James 1:19 = Ecclesiasticus 5:11, 1Peter 1:6 = Wisdom 3:3.

book of judith posted by david burrows (rev.) on 06/23/2002 at 18:25:19 from IP# 64.229.89.201
some parts of the Apocrypha may in fact contain some edifying material but the Anglican position is, I feel, the right one. They are NOT to be used to establish doctrine. The other advantage to reading the Apocrypha is that it can give you an idea of what some of the Jews in Jesus day thought about this and that. Judith was obviously written by Jews smarting under the yoke of the Seleucids. Any Jew reading this in Jesus day might also have wished to apply the same lesson to the Romans. Interesting and useful for the understanding of the world in which Jesus And Paul, etc lived but, like I say, not to establish doctrine!!!

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