spunkets:
Incorrect, reading in the Liturgy was the Higest Prayer of the Church and as the old Latin saying goes, “Lex Orandi Lex Credendi” which despite my Latin spelling is translated to mean “the Law of Prayer dictates the Law of Creed” and vice versa.
1) Reading of the Sacred Scriptures in Church was 1 of the 2 key points of canonicity and despite St. Jerome’s views, the 7 Deuterocanonicals where used in shaping Doctrine and defending the orthodox Tradition from heretics as starting with the Didache in the late 1st century and St. Clement of Rome, the 4th Bishop of Rome and moving thru the 2nd-3rd century writers, St. Irenaues, St. Polycarp, ST. Justin Martyr St. Hippolytus, St. Cyprian of Carthage all cited from the Deuterocanonicals in the Doctrinal disputes between the orthodox Catholics and the various Gnostic and other heretical sects.
The Protestants don't believe the Catholic doctrine. As far as these books of the Apocrypha go, I do not believe they are a part of the OT, because they do not appear in the Hebrew and never did.
"St. Irenaues, St. Polycarp, ST. Justin Martyr St. Hippolytus, St. Cyprian of Carthage all cited from the Deuterocanonicals in the Doctrinal disputes between the orthodox Catholics and the various Gnostic and other heretical sects."
Wonderful. Nevertheless, the NT begins with the Gospels, not some books that were never in the OT.