Like, I daresay, most of us, I do not do original research in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. I have to rely on others more ancient or more learned.
To simplify the matter, I think you end up having to rely on one of these two authorities for the OT canon, either
My view? That to take the word of those who rejected Christ (the 1st-2nd century Pharisaical rabbis) over the Septuagint used by the Apostles (1st century) and the canon confirmed by the Damasian List (383 AD) and at Hippo and Carthage (393 and 397) by Christian synods, is not reasonable for a Christian.
Christ had stingingly condemned the Pharisees seven-fold (Matthew 23), the number"7" signifying in the Bible a complete and total condemnation. The post-Second Temple Pharisees took up the banner of those who had rejected Christ. I would hesitate to use the canon the post-Temple Pharisaic rabbis developed when they were right in the midst of the bitterest anti-Christian polemic.
Jerome, who spent many years in Palestine and who had engaged Rabbis to teach him the Hebrew language, at first rejected the Deuteros because they were not recognized as canonical by the Rabbis. He was finally converted to the view that he ought to accept them because they had been accepted and received by the Christian Churches. Augustine of Hippo also declared without qualification that one is to "prefer those that are received by all Catholic Churches to those which some of them do not receive."
One reason rabbinical Judaism (from Jamnia or wherever they had study-centers) decided to cut the deuterocanon, seems to be that they did not possess an extant copy in Hebrew, which was one of their key criteria. They were struggling to assert Hebrew as the sole Jewish liturgical language, and to delegitimize the Christians, who, like the writers of the NT, overwhelmingly used the (Greek) Septuagint.
That Jesus and the Apostles used the Septuagint, would itself have been a count against it from the Judaizers' point of view. Incidentally, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, it was learned that the Deuterocanonical books were, in fact, in written form in Hebrew during the period from about 200 B.C. to 68 A.D.
(I thought that was an real eye-opener when I read that in Jaroslav Pelikan's Biblical research and realized the implications.)
Doctrine comes from the Apostles, and was given to the Church before a word of the NT was ever written. My argument is not that the decision about the Deuterocanonicals was made by one man (Pope Damasus, 383) or by one or two or three church synods or councils (Hippo, Carthage, Nicaea) --- though that sure helps. My argument is that those canons themselves were derived from what the local churches had received as Scripture and were using.
Here's the key: It was not theory. It was practice. |
That has never been made clear to me, though I've searched high and low. Can you name the 16th / 17th century King, council, synod, or editorial board which had the authority to reject the criterion of "earliest Christian practice"?
And if you can give me that actual name or those names, I have this further question. For Scripture to be inerrant, the selection of the books, 1,000+ years later, would have had to be inerrant. Who made this particular 16th century man, or that particular editorial board, and them alone, inerrant? I'm here to learn.
No, I don't think we need "rely" on them. We can surely take their advice but to "rely" on them is foundation for error as we have seen many fall for. We know that Paul had to correct error in his day. We know that most of the "churches" by AD90 had allowed error to creep in and where warned by Christ.
>>My argument is that those canons themselves were derived from what the local churches had received as Scripture and were using.<<
Risky at best. As we see in Revelation, the "chances" of you being on the right track is only one in seven. That's only a 14% chance of being correct. There is no assurance that those second century "churches" or even the "church" leadership were correct as we know error and false teaching was already present in the first century. To invoke second century or later and "rely" on it without comparison to what the apostles taught is worthless for those seeking truth.
>>Here's the key: It was not theory. It was practice.<<
As we have seen in the message to the seven churches in Revelation, "practice" in even the churches of the later part of the first century was no assurance of correctness.
You argue for the inclusion of books that have proven errors. You want "inerrant" yet care not whether whether or not those books have errors within them. You invoke first century churches yet ignore that 86% of the churches even in the last part of the first century were rife with error. I for one am not impressed with your "arguments".
Paul commended the Bereans for "searching the scriptures daily" and said anyone who taught what they did not to be considered accursed. On those two counts alone the Catholic "arguement" is left wanting.
And what the followers of Rome PRACTICE does NOT line up with what it preaches!
I will take you at your word that you are here to learn.
You should acknowledge that the canon was STILL in flux up to Trent and beyond. The Reformers were standing upon the shoulders of many ancient fathers who rejected the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals as inspired/God-breathed Scripture. Usage of these books in the early church for encouragement, edification, even in liturgies, isn't what is denied nor argued, it is the inclusion of them as equal to divinely-inspired Scriptures that is rejected and WAS rejected by Jerome and many others long before the Reformation. You can read here Did Jerome Change His Mind About the Apocrypha, and learn that:
Shea not only claims that Jerome accepted them, but that he strenuously defended them. A word used to intrigue the reader, but there is no evidence that he defended them, let alone strenuously. Furthermore, from the citation above, he states that Jerome followed the judgment of the churches, which Shea translates as the synods of Hippo and Carthage, but he is mistaken. Contextually, the judgment of the churches refers to Theodotions translation of Daniel which the churches were using instead of the Septuagint version. To add to this, he couldnt have followed Carthage considering they met 17 years after Jerome penned the above. Both Hippo and Carthage were regional councils, didnt speak for the entire church, thus it wasnt mandated that Jerome submit to their decisions. Yet, it was Theodotions version Jerome refers to when he mentions the judgment of the churches and not their decision on canon:
The issue was Theodotions (a known heretic) translation of Daniel which was being used by the churches. The translation was faulty, wasnt based on the Septuagint, and condemned by the right judgment of the churches, but the reader can see that this in no way applies to the decision on canon made at the local councils of Hippo and Carthage.
Jerome goes on to say that he is merely stating Jewish opinion against these books. Although this was the view he espoused, he was not the originator, and it put him in the uncomfortable position of arguing with the Jews on this. J.N.D. Kelly expounds:
He was further riled by the fact that the churches followed the translation of a known heretic instead of a Christian such as himself. As an aside, Shea wrongfully associates Pope Damasus as being in agreement with the alleged decision at Hippo and Carthage, but Damasus died in 384 A.D, nine years before Hippo (393) and thirteen years before Carthage (397).
Shea continues with the usual RC apologetic misrepresentations against Martin Luther, naming him as the culprit who excluded the deuterocanonicals (Jim Swan did a wonderful job of putting the proper perspective on Luther and the canon here) Yet, Ive always found this to be odd reasoning considering the Roman Catholic canon wasnt decided until Trent. Cardinal Cajetan (the same one who opposed Luther) and Cardinal Ximenes, both contemporaries of the era, wrote against the canonicity of these books as well. Further, there was opposition within Trent regarding these books, spearheaded by the group led by Giralamo Cardinal Seripando (for more information on this, read Hubert Jedins Cardinal Seripando, Papal Legate at Trent). The mere fact that there was opposition at Trent substantiates that no canon was in effect where the judgment of the churches would authoritatively bind the Catholic to the decision at Hippo and Carthage.
Shea reiterates his error here:
Again, Shea is embellishing Jeromes statements regarding the judgment of the churches to mean something that it isnt. As Ive already shown, contextually, Jerome is saying something else entirely. Yet, Shea isnt the only one who tries to make Jerome pro-deuteros. Some Catholic apologists play more loosely with Jeromes words. An apologist who calls himself Matt1618 asserts in his internet article Did Some Church Fathers Reject the Deuterocanonicals as Scripture (found here: http://matt1618.freeyellow.com/deut.html) that Jerome did indeed show an acceptance of these books because he never denied them inspiration and he called them Scripture in his later writings. This is merely reading between the lines in an attempt to find something more favorable to his position. He states:
I dont know how Matt1618 would define this denial, but all this amounts to wishful thinking. To put it simply, what Jerome states in his prefaces and commentaries amounts to a denial of their inspiration as well as their canonicity. To put it plainly, if Jerome states that a book isnt canonical it is only because Jerome doesnt believe it is inspired. Scripture is God-breathed and men wrote as they were inspired of God. Inspired books are in the canon because they came from the very mouth of God. It defeats the purpose of the canon if some God-breathed Scriptures are included and others arent. If a book is not in the canon, it is because it is not inspired. In essence, Matt1618 is implying that Jerome didnt see inspiration as the criterion for inclusion into the canon and that a book can be inspired and Scripture and, for whatever reasons, be outside of the canon. In his commentary on Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, Jerome states:
According to Jerome, these books are ecclesiastical, capable of spiritual teaching, but cannot be used for supporting church doctrine. This begs the question: Since when is known Scripture not to be used for supporting doctrine? Even Scripture itself attests:
Furthermore, Jerome, emphatically states in his preface to the books of Samuel and Kings:
In his preface to the Daniel he states:
Four things are to be noted here. The first being that the additions werent in the Hebrew Scriptures; secondly, that Jerome calls Bel and the Dragon a fable; thirdly, that they were appended to his Vulgate; and fourthly, that they were marked with an obelus which is a critical symbol used in ancient manuscripts to mark a questionable passage. Nothing here reveals any indication that Jerome held, at least, the additions to be inspired Scripture.
Again, to Jerome, the extra books were not to give authority to the doctrines of the Church and they are not in the canon. Attempting to draw skepticism by claiming that he didnt call them uninspired is leading the reader at best. Sure, they have some ecclesiastical value within them, but a book doesnt need to be inspired or canonical to have ecclesiastical value. Although there are other passages from his writings that I can cite, I believe these suffice in showing that Jerome did not believe the Apocryphal books were inspired.
RC apologists, those who argue this way, are merely using sophistry to recreate Jerome and place him on the side of the Deuterocanonicals, but the evidence really doesnt give them much to stand on. I guess this is due to the fact that Jerome is one of the Doctors of the Church and he happened to disagree that these books were inspired Scripture. It is a source of embarrassment to them so they attempt to salvage whatever they can and find themselves reading between the lines of his writings in a futile attempt to win him back. There is no record showing that Jerome had a change of heart regarding these books and the very fact that scholarly clergymen, such as the aforementioned Cardinals, used Jeromes position as a catalyst for their own disagreements with these books shows an understanding that he never wavered, never changed his position. But some RC apologists choose to blind themselves from the facts.
In conclusion, Augustine, who was a contemporary of Jerome, advocated the Apocryphal books and used his weighty suffrage to influence the African synods (Hippo and Carthage), but his appeal to them was strictly emotional and, as evidenced in the City of God, he used folklore to gain acceptance of these books. Regarding canon issues and languages, it was Jerome who was the canon scholar and not Augustine. In their correspondence on the issue of the Latin translation (dated 404 AD), Jerome chides Augustine for misunderstanding the nuances of his translations (see here: http://www.bible-researcher.com/vulgate2.html). Augustine chose not to side with Jerome, but continued to push the Septuagint over the Hebrew, even though the Septuagint itself was translated into Greek from the Hebrew. Augustines adherence to the LXX was based on the story of the Seventy which were the 72 Jewish translators who translated the Hebrew into the Greek language. Augustine tells the story of how these men worked separately in cells and when they compared their manuscripts, they were uniform in every detail, word for word. Jerome calls the story of the cells fables and made up, but Augustine claimed that because they worked under the same Spirit, they were led in this endeavor, thus proving the LXX to be of God. What Augustine either didnt understand or ignored is that the Seventy only translated the first 5 books of Moses, the Pentateuch. In the website The Septuagint Online states:
Only the Pentateuch was translated by the Seventy and Augustine truly had no clear reasoning in accepting the Septuagint and the books not found in the Hebrew text. It would seem he influenced men through the use of quaint myths or hearsay, but as for Jerome he was resolute and never changed his mind, never follow a decision made by the councils influenced by Augustine and, most obviously, he never felt the need to. Jerome denied both the inspiration and the canonicity of the added books and no amount of historical revision will change the facts.