----- Original Message -----
From: "Alberto Monteiro" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 10:52 AM
Subject: Re: Bible translations Re: Tragedy in Israel


>
> Ronn Blankenship wrote:
> >
> >Those which are often called the Apocrypha.  The Catholics consider them
> >canonical, the Protestants don't.
> >
> No!!!
>
> They are called _deutero-canonical_, because they are canonical by
> 2nd order. They weren't considered canonical by the Jews, and they
> were incorporated into the Christian canon around 1500 AD
>
> Alberto Monteiro

If that is true, then why are they in the Eastern Orthadox cannon as well as
the Catholic cannon? The formation of the cannon is a very interesting
process.  As my scripture professor at St. Mary's seminary pointed out,
there were small variations in the cannon between churches that were fully
in the communion of the church up until at least 1000.  But, the general
form was there and the cannon of the Catholic church is very close to that
of the various Eastern Orthadox churches (the main difference is the 151st
psalm.(BTW, my prof was a Russian Orthadox priest).  However, there was
general agreement, following Agustine's lead up until the Westminster
confession took those books out.  Indeed, you can see that Luther included
those books in his commentary on all of scriptures.

One bit of experimental evidence that supports this is the Vulgate

http://kuhttp.cc.ukans.edu/carrie/stacks/vulgate_main.html

includes these books.

It is true that the Jewish scriptures do not include these books.  However,
that is a complicated issue.  They did at the time of Jesus...one can see
the Septuagent...

http://www.ccel.org/bible/brenton/intro.html

which is oft quoted in the Christian scriptures and, as the reference shows,
has been quoted by Jewish sources at the time. But, after the fall of
Jerusalem, the cannon was reformulated with the Greek books being expunged.

Also, one sees works in LXX that are in neither the Jewish or the Christian
cannons.  Plus, one sees quotes of non-cannonical works as cannon in the New
Testiment (this is clearest in the quote of Enoc by Jude). So, the
establishment of the cannon was really an interesting prospect, and the idea
that the reformed churches use the bible of the Apostles is really not well
based.


Dan M.

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