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To: Uncle Chip

First, I won't allow you to cloud the issue by getting bogged down in side issues. I repeat: No author rejected the Septuagint. Several authors distinguished them as not being in the Hebrew canon, and thus unavailable for comparative translation (Origen, Jerome, etc.). Others noted that they were useless in apologetics to the Jews, since the Jews did not recognize their authenticity. And no author accepts, for instance, Esther but not Baruch.

Here's how good your chart is:
(1) it repeats the insipid canard that Jerome rejected the Septuagint's books, despite Jerome's explanation that he was representing the opinion of the Jews, and assertion that anyone who would believe he would reject them is a "fool and a slanderer." If anything, Jerome demonstrates that acceptance of the disputed books was de rigeur; even if Jerome failed to see the wisdom of the Catholic canon, he felt obliged to acknowledge the findings. (Notions he did so grudgingly are unfounded but irrelevant.)
(2) it lists Rufinus as opposing the disputed book's canonicity. It was Rufinus who accused Jerome of heresy for not having accepted them.
(3) it suggests Origen's omission of the books implies rejection; Origen (like Jerome) was preparing a translation including Hebrew, for which the disputed books were not available.
(4) the council of Laodicea's canon is commonly considered a fake; the Galatian council lists 59 rulings, making no mention of the 60th where this canon lies; In fact, a list of specifically rejected books does exist, including several apocryphal books, and it does not include any of the debated books, despite warnings that all non-canonical books must be prohibited from services. Thus, the council implicitly recognized the disputed books or (improbably) failed to recognize their significant existence.

The only author in your list which holds up is Nazanius, who was (for some reason) deposed as bishop, before being re-affirmed at the Council of Carthage, which felt the odd urge to clarify the books of the bible when it did so.

>> The chart demonstrates that acceptance of an OT canon with Deuts did not begin until Augustine and the Council of Carthage circa 397 AD. <<

It is far from exhaustive, highly inaccurate, and fails to list any author who simply refers to the Septuagint. The list of authors who cite as scripture books among the disputed list is quite vast, but these do not need to enumerate which books they accept, since they equate scripture simply with the Septuagint.


28 posted on 03/01/2007 6:13:07 AM PST by dangus
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To: dangus

Oh, and I found this aboslute clincher:

Several of those who enumerate the Hebrew canon list "22 books": 1. Genesis, 2. Exodus, 3. Leviticus, 4. Numbers, 5. Deuteronomy, 6. Ruth, 7. Samuel, 8. Kings, 9. Chronicles, 10. Esdras (Ezra/Nehemiah), 11. the 12 lesser prophets, 12. Proverbs, 13. Psalms, 14. Daniel, 15. Esther, 16. Job, 17. Canticles (Song of Songs), 18. Jeremiah/Lamentations, 19. Ezekiel, 20. Ecclesiastes, 21. Judges, 22. Joshua.

Well, guess what? Esdras (Nehemiah 14) reveals how many books there were in holy scripture, before Esdras was written. Know how many there were? 24.

Since the events described in Esdras too place before Esdras hadn't been written yet, that means we have to find three extra books.

Seperating Jeremiah into Jeremiah and Lamentations gives us one; it might be tempting to seperate Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, but such a notion hadn't occured to anyone at the time of Esdras; these books were published as single volumes, until the switch from scrolls to codices.

Well, guess how many Septuagint books had taken place at the time of Esdras? 24. (It's unclear whether the Wisdom of Solomon was; recombining Jeremiah and Lamentations allows for its inclusion in this list; it's plain that 1 & 2 Maccabees, Sirach and Tobit are much later.)


29 posted on 03/01/2007 6:13:41 AM PST by dangus
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