(See Pentateuch; Samaritans.). The Armenians have one apocryphal letter to the Corinthians and two from the same. (Revue Biblique, 1903, 226 sqq.) This book of the law was practically identical with Deuteronomy, and its recognition or canonization consisted in the solemn pact entered into by Josias and the people of Juda, described in IV Kings, xxiii. The final process of this Canons development had been twofold: positive, in the permanent consecration of several writings which had long hovered on the line between canonical and apocryphal; and negative, by the definite elimination of certain privileged apocrypha that had enjoyed here and there a canonical or quasi-canonical standing. Only later was the infallible Voice to come, and then it was to declare that the Canon of the Synagogue, though unadulterated indeed, was incomplete. The Greek kanon means primarily a reed, or measuring-rod; by a natural figure it was employed by ancient writers both profane and religious to denote a rule or standard. The Catholic writers Nickes, Movers, Danko, and more recently Kaulen and Mullen, have advocated the view that originally the Palestinian Canon must have included all the deuterocanonicals, and so stood down to the time of the Apostles (Kaulen, c. 100 B.C. This book contains only the *public* versions of the Gardnerian and Alexandrian Books of Shadows. That the Gospel and Epistles were the written Word of God, was fully realized as soon as the fixed collections were formed; but to seize the relation of this new treasure to the old was possible only when the faithful acquired a better knowledge of the faith. It is an incontestable fact that the sacredness of certain parts of the Palestinian Bible (Esther, Ecclesiastes, Canticle of Canticles) was disputed by some rabbis as late as the second century of the Christian Era (Mishna, Yadaim, III, 5; Babylonian Talmud, Megilla, fol. The result of this tendency among the Greeks was that about the beginning of the twelfth century they possessed a canon identical with that of the Latins, except that it took in the apocryphal III Machabees. Torah, Nebiim, Ketubim. The order of books follows that of the Bull of Eugenius IV (Council of Florence), except that Acts was moved from a place before Apocalypse to its present position, and Hebrews put at the end of St. Pauls Epistles. Presbyterians and Calvinists in general, especially since the Westminster Synod of 1648, have been the most uncompromising enemies of any recognition, and owing to their influence the British and Foreign Bible Society decided in 1826 to refuse to distribute Bibles containing the Apocrypha. Tradition, having no creative power like revelation, had taken the place of it; and it could not ward off the senility of Judaism; for its creations are but feeble echoes of prophetic utterances, weak imitations of poetic inspiration or of fresh wisdom. An analysis of Jeromes expressions on the deuterocanonicals, in various letters and prefaces, yields the following results: first, he strongly doubted their inspiration; secondly, the fact that he occasionally quotes them, and translated some of them as a concession to ecclesiastical tradition, is an involuntary testimony on his part to the high standing these writings enjoyed in the Church at large, and to the strength of the practical tradition which prescribed their reading in public worship. The truth of these remarks is evident from a comparison of two books, exemplifying Alexandrian and Palestinian Judaism respectively. The whole Biblical Canon therefore consists of the canons of the Old and New Testaments. Cardinal Cajetan had approvingly quoted an unfavorable comment of St. Jerome regarding Mark, xvi, 9-20; Erasmus had rejected the section on the Adulterous Woman as unauthentic. How many books in catholic bible However differing as to dates, the critics are assured that the distinction between the Hagiographa and the Prophetic Canon was one essentially chronological. The 24 Books of Judaism are equivalent to the 39 Books common to all Christian Old Testaments, for Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah were each divided into two parts in the Christian canons, and the one Book of the Twelve Prophets was split into twelve books, one for each prophet. The 59th (or 60th) canon of the provincial Council of Laodicea (the authenticity of which however is contested) gives a catalogue of the Scriptures entirely in accord with the ideas of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The sixth-century Biblical MS. known as the Codex Claromontanus contains a catalogue to which both Harnack and Zahn assign an Alexandrian origin, about contemporary with Origen. St. Augustine seems to theoretically recognize degrees of inspiration; in practice he employs protos and deuteros without any discrimination whatsoever. These number seven books: Tobias (Tobit), Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, I and II Machabees, and three documents added to protocanonical books, viz., the supplement to Esther, from x, 4, to the end, the Canticle of the Three Youths (Song of the Three Children) in Daniel, iii, and the stories of Susanna and the Elders and Bel and the Dragon, forming the closing chapters of the Catholic version of that book. A very important witness is the document known as Mommsens Canon, a MS. of the tenth century, but whose original has been ascertained to date from West Africa about the year 360. In one passage he refers to the sacred books of the Therapeutae, a fanatical sect of Jews in Egypt, as "laws, oracles of prophets, hymns and other books by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfected,"(82) but this presents little information as to the canon of the Egyptian Jews generally; for it is precarious argumentation to say with Herbst that they prove a twofold canon. THE JEWISH ALEXANDRIAN CANON THEORY AND ITS REVISIONS. Neitherand this is remarkablein the proceedings is there manifest any serious doubt of the canonicity of the disputed writings. Alexandrian Manifesto - Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn Wiki The Council of Florence therefore taught the inspiration of all the Scriptures, but did not formally pass on their eanonicity. These authors (some of whom treat the matter more speculatively than historically) admit that Apostolicity is a positive and partial touchstone of inspiration, but emphatically deny that it was exclusive, in the sense that all non-Apostolic works were by that very fact barred from the sacred Canon of the N. T. They hold to doctrinal tradition as the true criterion. The Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach has not the doctrine of immortality. The Monophysites, Nestorians, Jacobites, Armenians, and Copts, while concerning themselves little with the Canon, admit the complete catalogue and several apocrypha besides. While the influence of Athanasius on the Canon of the O. T. was negative and exclusive (seesupra), in that of the N. T. it was trenchantly constructive. This factor should be considered in weighing a certain argument. With its text went Jeromes prefaces disparaging the deuterocanonicals, and under the influence of his authority the West began to distrust these and to show the first symptoms of a current hostile to their canonicity. Its ancient version, the Vetus Latina (less correctly the Itala), had admitted all the O. T. Scriptures. Death is there an eternal sleep, and retribution takes place in this life. Consciously or unconsciously they were preparing Judaism in some degree to be the religion of humanity. They are both available online, for free. In this stage of the historical development of the Canon of the N. T. we encounter for the first time a consciousness, reflected in certain ecclesiastical writers, of the differences between the sacred collections in divers sections of Christendom. The books of the second and third divisions have been redistributed and arranged according to. The Jews divide the books of the Tanakh into three distinct groups: Torah (the Law), Neviim (the Prophets), and Ketuvim (the writings or wisdom). In total, 39 books are numbered in the Old Testament in the Protestant version, 46 books in the Catholic Church version, and 51 books in the Orthodox Church version. Corrections? In the mind of the Tridentine Fathers they had been virtually canonized, by the decree of Florence, and the same Fathers felt especially bound by the action of the preceding ecumenical synod. For the O. T. its catalogue reads as follows: The five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), Josue, Judges, Ruth, the four books of Kings, two of Paralipomenon, the first and second of Esdras (which latter is called Nehemias), Tobias, Judith, Esther, Job, the Davidic Psalter (in number one hundred and fifty Psalms), Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Isaias, Jeremias, with Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, the twelve minor Prophets (Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggeus, Zacharias, Malachias), two books of Machabees, the first and second. But evidence will presently be given that from days touching on those of the last Apostles there were two well defined bodies of sacred writings of the N. T., which constituted the firm, irreducible, universal minimum, and the nucleus of its complete Canon: these were the Four Gospels, as the Church now has them, and thirteen Epistles of St. PaultheEvangeliumand theApostolicum. The terms protocanonical and deuterocanonical, of frequent usage among Catholic theologians and exegetes, require a word of caution. The threefold division of the canon, indicating three stages in its formation, has continued. St. Justin Martyr (130-63) in his Apology refers to certain memoirs of the Apostles, which are called gospels, and which are read in Christian assemblies together with the writings of the Prophets. It has already been intimated that there is a smaller, or incomplete, and a larger, or complete, Old Testament. Authors and Standards of Canonicity among the Jews: Though the O. T. reveals no formal notion of inspiration, the later Jews at least must have possessed the idea (cf. The Greek translation commonly called the Septuagint contains some later productions which the Palestinian Jews did not adopt, not only from their aversion to Greek literature generally, but also from the recent origin of the books, perhaps also their want of prophetic sanction. Overpassing Jewish particularism, it often approaches Christianity in doctrine and spirit, so that some(80) have even assumed a Christian origin for it. Describing the origin of St. Marks Gospel, he speaks of Hebrew (Aramaic) Logia, or Sayings of Christ, composed by St. Matthew, which there is reason to believe formed the basis of the canonical Gospel of that name, though the greater part of Catholic writers identify them with the Gospel. It seems that their canon contained more books than the limited canon which existed in Palestine. ), which speaks of the Law, and the Prophets, and the others that have followed them. Both of these were handed down by the Jews; the former by the Palestinian, the latter by the Alexandrian, or Hellenist, Jews; in consequence, this large topic must be subdivided: The Jewish Bible of today is composed of three divisions, whose titles combined form the current Hebrew name for the complete Scriptures of Judaism: Hat-Torah, Nebiim, wa-Krthubim, i. e. The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. In the end these portions were received, like the deuterocanonical books, without the slightest distinction. Epistle of Saint Jude. Your email address will not be published. The West began to realize that the ancient Apostolic Churches of Jerusalem and Antioch, indeed the whole Orient, for more than two centuries had acknowledged Hebrews and James as inspired writings of Apostles, while the venerable Alexandrian Church, supported by the prestige of Athanasius, and the powerful Patriarchate of Constantinople, with the scholarship of Eusebius behind its judgment, had canonized all the disputed Epistles. Josephus, indeed, gives another, based on the nature of the separate books, not on MSS. In several ancient Latin MSS. Contents 1 Names 2 Composition 2.1 Jewish legend 2.2 History 2.3 Language It is said, indeed, that Philo neither mentions nor quotes the Greek additions; but neither does he quote several canonical books. The Vatican Council took occasion of a recent error on inspiration to remove any lingering shadow of uncertainty on this head; it formally ratified the action of Trent and explicitly defined the Divine inspiration of all the books with their parts. Consciously or unconsciously they were preparing Judaism in some degree to be the religion of humanity. the list of the books of the Bible genuinely inspired by the Holy Spirit : the 46 books of the OT and 27 of the NT. As for Protestantism, the Anglicans and Calvinists always kept the entire N. T. But for over a century the followers of Luther excluded Hebrews, James, Jude, and Apocalypse, and even went further than their master by rejecting the three remaining deuterocanonicals, II Peter, II and III John. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church , Catholic ecclesiology professes the Catholic Church to be the sole Church of Christ i.e., the one true church defined as one, holy, catholic , and apostolic in the Four Marks of the Church in the Nicene Creed. Theology Chapter 3- Surveying the Books of the Bible The first was the Palestine canon which is identical to the Protestant Old Testament. II Timothy, iii, 16; II Peter, i, 21). Influenced, doubtless, by the Alexandrian-Jewish usage of acknowledging in practice the extra writings as sacred while theoretically holding to the narrower Canon of Palestine, his catalogue of the O. T. Scriptures contains only the protocanonical books, though it follows the order of the Septuagint. They employ Matthew, Luke, and John. Jewish tradition, as illustrated by the already cited Josephus, Baba Bathra, and pseudo-Esdras data, points to authority as the final arbiter of what was Scriptural and what not. Why Does the Roman Catholic Church Accept the Books of the Old Epistle to the Hebrews, those of St. James and Jude, the Second of St. Peter, the Second and Third of John, that of St. Jude, and the Apocalypse; also a few portions of books. The magisterial statement of Irenseus may be corroborated by the very ancient catalogue known as the Muratorian Canon, and St. Hippolytus, representing Roman tradition; by Tertullian in Africa, by Clement in Alexandria; the works of the Gnostic Valentinus, and the Syrian Tatians Diatessaron, a blending together of the Evangelists writings, presuppose the authority enjoyed by the fourfold Gospel towards the middle of the second century. The first was the Palestine canon which is identical to the Protestant Old Testament . 71-72. In fact, for the earliest Christians the Gospel of Christ, in the wide sense above noted, was not to be classified with, because transcending, the O. T. 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