Posted on 10/12/2002 3:50:49 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
The Catholic Encyclopedia offers some wise comments regarding the Books of the Old Testament here.
Wisdom, iii, 5, 6
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
I Peter, i, 6, 7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
**********
Wisdom, vii, 26, 27
For she is the refulgence of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness. And she, who is one, can do all things, and renews everything while herself perduring; And passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets.
Hebrews, i, 3
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
**********
Judith, viii, 24-25
"Therefore, my brothers, let us set an example for our kinsmen. Their lives depend on us, and the defense of the sanctuary, the temple, and the altar rests with us. Besides all this, we should be grateful to the Lord our God, for putting us to the test, as he did our forefathers.
I Corinthians, x, 9, 10
9We should not test the Lord, as some of them did--and were killed by snakes. 10And do not grumble, as some of them did--and were killed by the destroying angel.
**********
The reference in Hebrews to the story in 2 Maccabees 7 is unmistakeable especially when both passages are seen in context:
Hebrews 11
1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
2This is what the ancients were commended for.
3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.
5By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
6And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age--and Sarah herself was barren--was enabled to become a father because he[1] considered him faithful who had made the promise.
12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
16Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,
18even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring[2] will be reckoned."[3]
19Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.
20By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.
23By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.
24By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
25He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time.
26He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.
27By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.
28By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29By faith the people passed through the Red Sea[4] as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
31By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[5]
32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets,
33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,
34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
36Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
37They were stoned[6] ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated--
38the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.2 Maccabees 7 (See also 2 Maccabees 6)
1 It also happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God's law.
2 One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: "What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors."
3 At that the king, in a fury, gave orders to have pans and caldrons heated.
4 While they were being quickly heated, he commanded his executioners to cut out the tongue of the one who had spoken for the others, to scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of his brothers and his mother looked on.
5 When he was completely maimed but still breathing, the king ordered them to carry him to the fire and fry him. As a cloud of smoke spread from the pan, the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die bravely, saying such words as these:
6 "The Lord God is looking on, and he truly has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his canticle, when he protested openly with the words, 'And he will have pity on his servants.'"
7 When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, "Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?"
8 Answering in the language of his forefathers, he said, "Never!" So he too in turn suffered the same tortures as the first.
9 1 At the point of death he said: "You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying." v 10 After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands,
11 as he spoke these noble words: "It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again."
12 Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man's courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.
13 After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way.
14 When he was near death, he said, "It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life."
15 They next brought forward the fifth brother and maltreated him. Looking at the king,
16 he said: "Since you have power among men, mortal though you are, do what you please. But do not think that our nation is forsaken by God.
17 Only wait, and you will see how his great power will torment you and your descendants."
18 After him they brought the sixth brother. When he was about to die, he said: "Have no vain illusions. We suffer these things on our own account, because we have sinned against our God; that is why such astonishing things have happened to us.
19 Do not think, then, that you will go unpunished for having dared to fight against God."
20 Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord.
21 Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their forefathers with these words:
22 "I do not know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed.
23 Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man's beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law." Martyrdom of Mother and Sons
24 Antiochus, suspecting insult in her words, thought he was being ridiculed. As the youngest brother was still alive, the king appealed to him, not with mere words, but with promises on oath, to make him rich and happy if he would abandon his ancestral customs: he would make him his Friend and entrust him with high office.
25 When the youth paid no attention to him at all, the king appealed to the mother, urging her to advise her boy to save his life.
26 After he had urged her for a long time, she went through the motions of persuading her son.
27 In derision of the cruel tyrant, she leaned over close to her son and said in their native language: "Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you to your present age.
28 I beg you, child, to look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know that God did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the human race came into existence.
29 Do not be afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them."
30 She had scarcely finished speaking when the youth said: "What are you waiting for? I will not obey the king's command. I obey the command of the law given to our forefathers through Moses.
31 But you, who have contrived every kind of affliction for the Hebrews, will not escape the hands of God.
32 We, indeed, are suffering because of our sins.
33 Though our living Lord treats us harshly for a little while to correct us with chastisements, he will again be reconciled with his servants.
34 But you, wretch, vilest of all men! do not, in your insolence, concern yourself with unfounded hopes, as you raise your hand against the children of Heaven.
35 You have not yet escaped the judgment of the almighty and all-seeing God.
36 My brothers, after enduring brief pain, have drunk of never-failing life, under God's covenant, but you, by the judgment of God, shall receive just punishments for your arrogance.
37 Like my brothers, I offer up my body and my life for our ancestral laws, imploring God to show mercy soon to our nation, and by afflictions and blows to make you confess that he alone is God.
38 Through me and my brothers, may there be an end to the wrath of the Almighty that has justly fallen on our whole nation."
39 At that, the king became enraged and treated him even worse than the others, since he bitterly resented the boy's contempt.
40 Thus he too died undefiled, putting all his trust in the Lord.
41 The mother was last to die, after her sons.
42 Enough has been said about the sacrificial meals and the excessive cruelties.
Go for it. You will find some. But not all. And I know for sure that you won't find the reference from Hebrews 11 to 2 Maccabees 7 in post #5.
Pinging.....
Why is it that there is no direct quote from any of these vast Apocryha in the whole NT? Surely if these were so valuable as the RCC claims, when the apostles or Jesus prefaced a remark with the words "It is written", it would have been followed with direct quotes from Sirach, Judith, Maccabees, Bel and the Dragon, or the like. But there are no direct quotes at all from these books and your indirects are a true stretch of the imagination.
And yet whole parts of the Hebrew OT are found throughout the NT, in most cases verbatim -- word for word. And yet at the time of the writing of the NT, the Hebrew of the OT had not been translated into Greek as yet, except in some isolated cases by unofficial unknowns.
The absence of direct quotes, even though these Apocrypha were originally written in the Greek language already, is a testimony against them -- and against those who still 2000 years later think that they are "inspired". If they don't know inspiration from lack of inspiration, they don't know the Word of God.
It wasn't that these books did not have things in them that were not valuable or true or in line with God's Word, but that included with truth was error -- in some cases, theological, historical, and geographical. The presence of error alongside truth made these books unacceptable to the Jews and the Christian Church, but acceptable to those who did not mind mixing truth with error in their doctrines and in their churches.
Read these again (here are some I picked at random) and then compare them to the closest passages that I could find in the Protestant OT (go to www.biblegateway.com to search for yourself):
*****
Read through all of Hebrews 11. You will then see that Chapter 11 is a recapitulation of historical events recorded in the Bible, except for "Others [women] were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection." No such events are recorded in the Pentateuch or protocanonical books. But in 2 Maccabees 6-7 we see the story of a mother who sees seven of her sons tortured. The king offers to release her sons if they will agree to disobey God. The mother urges them to be faithful and tells them that they will all be reunited in Heaven some day. Ultimately they are all put to death.
Wis. 5:17-20
He shall take his zeal for armor and he shall arm creation to requite the enemy; He shall don justice for a breastplate and shall wear sure judgment for a helmet; He shall take invincible rectitude as a shield and whet his sudden anger for a sword, And the universe shall war with him against the foolhardy.
Eph. 6:13-17
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Closest passage in the Protestant OT:
Isaiah 59:17
He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
*****
Wisdom 15:7
For truly the potter, laboriously working the soft earth, molds for our service each several article: Both the vessels that serve for clean purposes and their opposites, all alike; As to what shall be the use of each vessel of either class the worker in clay is the judge.
Rom. 9:21
Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Closest passage in the rest of the Old Testament (see search results here:
Isaiah 45:9
"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'?
*****
It's hard to imagine that the writer of Romans 1:18-25 was unfamiliar with Wisdom 13:1-10
Wis. 13:1-10
For all men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan; But either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water, or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods. Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them. Or if they were struck by their might and energy, let them from these things realize how much more powerful is he who made them. For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen. But yet, for these the blame is less; For they indeed have gone astray perhaps, though they seek God and wish to find him. For they search busily among his works, but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair. But again, not even these are pardonable. For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its LORD? But doomed are they, and in dead things are their hopes, who termed gods things made by human hands: Gold and silver, the product of art, and likenesses of beasts, or useless stone, the work of an ancient hand.
Rom 1:18-25
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
*****
Wisdom, iii, 5, 6
Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
I Peter, i, 6, 7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Closest passage in protocanonicals:
Zechariah 13:8-9 In the whole land," declares the LORD , "two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.' "
The passage in Zechariah is close but doesn't contain a parallel to:
"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials."
Although the following line from Wisdom does:
"Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed,"
Is this the best connection you can come up with between the Apocrypha and the NT?
I can pick some more at random and compare them. But the more I look, the stronger the parallels look to be between these NT passages and the passages in the Deuterocanonicals.
Regardless, if this doesn't impress you, there's also the fact that 300 of the 350 references to the Old Testament in the New Testament are from the Septuagint (rather than from the "Protestant" Palestinian OT) which generally contained the Deuterocanonical books of the Bible. (See link to Catholic Encyclopedia entry regarding the Old Testament Canon in the original post)
Why is it that there is no direct quote from any of these vast Apocryha in the whole NT?
There are no direct quotes from several books in the "Protestant" OT in the NT.
Surely if these were so valuable as the RCC claims, when the apostles or Jesus prefaced a remark with the words "It is written", it would have been followed with direct quotes from Sirach, Judith, Maccabees, Bel and the Dragon, or the like. But there are no direct quotes at all from these books and your indirects are a true stretch of the imagination.
Again, there are no direct quotes from several books in the "Protestant" OT in the NT.
And yet whole parts of the Hebrew OT are found throughout the NT, in most cases verbatim -- word for word. And yet at the time of the writing of the NT, the Hebrew of the OT had not been translated into Greek as yet, except in some isolated cases by unofficial unknowns.
The ancient Greek Old Testament known as the Septuagint was the vehicle which conveyed these additional Scriptures into the Catholic Church. The Septuagint version was the Bible of the Greek-speaking, or Hellenist, Jews, whose intellectual and literary centre was Alexandria (see SEPTUAGINT). The oldest extant copies date from the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, and were therefore made by Christian hands; nevertheless scholars generally admit that these faithfully represent the Old Testament as it was current among the Hellenist or Alexandrian Jews in the age immediately preceding Christ. These venerable manuscripts of the Septuagint vary somewhat in their content outside the Palestinian Canon, showing that in Alexandrian-Jewish circles the number of admissible extra books was not sharply determined either by tradition or by authority. However, aside from the absence of Machabees from the Codex Vaticanus (the very oldest copy of the Greek Old Testament), all the entire manuscripts contain all the deutero writings; where the manuscript Septuagints differ from one another, with the exception noted, it is in a certain excess above the deuterocanonical books. It is a significant fact that in all these Alexandrian Bibles the traditional Hebrew order is broken up by the interspersion of the additional literature among the other books, outside the law, thus asserting for the extra writings a substantial equality of rank and privilege...It wasn't that these books did not have things in them that were not valuable or true or in line with God's Word, but that included with truth was error -- in some cases, theological, historical, and geographical. The presence of error alongside truth made these books unacceptable to the Jews and the Christian Church, but acceptable to those who did not mind mixing truth with error in their doctrines and in their churches.This factor should be considered in weighing a certain argument. A large number of Catholic authorities see a canonization of the deuteros in a supposed wholesale adoption and approval, by the Apostles, of the Greek, and therefore larger, Old Testament The argument is not without a certain force; the New Testament undoubtedly shows a preference for the Septuagint; out of the 350 texts from the Old Testament, 300 favour the language of the Greek version rather than that of the Hebrew.
Then why are most OT quotes from the Septuagint (which generally included the Deuterocanonical books)?
The reason that the NT quotation of the Textus Receptus sometimes differs from the OT is that they were often quoting it from memory and/or translating it from Hebrew into Greek at the same time. A laborious task.
The real question should be this: If they supposedly had the Septuagint with its Deuterocanonicals right in front of them, and of course those Deuterocanonicals were already in Greek, and the NT writers were familiar with them, how come there are no direct quotes and, let's be honest, nothing really close. All they had to do was copy the Greek words from one to the other -- no translation necessary. How could they have missed if they were familiar with them. YOu could understand why the NT Greek quotation of the OT Hebrew wouldn't always match, what with having to translate from the Hebrew to the Greek, but if you don't have to translate just copy -- how did they miss?
Do you know where I can send the hosts that I have accumulated for scientific analysis. I have one that is stale, crumbly, and hard as a 6 year old wheat wafer. Most Catholics believe that it qualifies as a genuine miracle because IT DIDN'T TRANSUBSTANTIATE into something else after its official consecration but still has wheat in it -- stale though it is. It's a miracle --- a consecrated host that is still only bread -- it's got to be a miracle, right?
As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. (Proverbs 26:11)
Catholic Old Testament (including deuterocanon)
Wis. 11:7
Instead of a spring, when the perennial river was troubled with impure blood as a rebuke to the decree for the slaying of infants, You gave them abundant water in an unhoped-for way, once you had shown by the thirst they then had how you punished their adversaries.
New Testament
Matt. 2:16
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.
Abridged Protestant Old Testament (excluding deuterocanon) (closest match)
Isaiah 13:16
Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.
Catholic Old Testament
Sirach 29:11
Spend your money for your brother and friend, and hide it not under a stone to perish; Dispose of your treasure as the Most High commands, for that will profit you more than the gold. Store up almsgiving in your treasure house, and it will save you from every evil;
New Testament
Matt. 6:19-20
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Abridged Protestant Old Testament
Isaiah 45:3
I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD , the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
Catholic Old Testament
Wisdom 2:16
He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father.
New Testament
John 5:18
For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Abridged Protestant Old Testament
Exodus 4:5
"This," said the LORD , "is so that they may believe that the LORD , the God of their fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-has appeared to you."
Catholic Old Testament
Wis. 13:1
For all men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan;
New Testament
Rom. 1:20
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Abridged Protestant Old Testament
Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Catholic Old Testament
Wis. 5:17-20
He shall take his zeal for armor and he shall arm creation to requite the enemy; He shall don justice for a breastplate and shall wear sure judgment for a helmet; He shall take invincible rectitude as a shield and whet his sudden anger for a sword, And the universe shall war with him against the foolhardy.
New Testament
Eph. 6:13-17 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Abridged Protestant Old Testament
Isaiah 59:17
He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
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