Now why would the Jewish people "leave out" sacred writings from "their" Scriptures? The Septuagint was a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament books IN ADDITION TO about fifteen other ones - most all which were already IN Greek, so no translation was necessary. The question isn't why Protestants left out books from "their" Bible, but why Roman Catholicism ADDED books to the Hebrew canon that were rejected by the Jews as Divinely-inspired? Were there "historical" writings? Sure, but that didn't mean they were automatically deemed inspired of God.
The Jewish people really didn't NEED the Roman Catholic church to "save" Hanukkah for them. This festival was celebrated by Jesus and his Jewish disciples as Festival of Lights/Feast of Dedication and had been since the second temple was rededicated. It is stated that Jesus was at the Jerusalem Temple during "the Feast of Dedication and it was winter", in John 10:22–23. The Greek term that is used is "the renewals" (Greek ta engkainia τὰ ἐγκαίνια).[21] Josephus refers to the festival as "lights." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah)
"...a group of wise leaders came together -- expanding the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, from 70 to 120 members -- with a special aim of strengthening Judaism."
Do I understand correctly that, by this account, the Great Assembly was in fact an expanded Sanhedrin?
"[At that time] Knowing how to live a Jewish life depends on knowing the commandments of the Torah and their interpretations and applications which have been passed down orally -- in short, knowing what is known as the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, both of which date back to Moses' teachings at Sinai.""It is impossible to understand the Written Torah without its Oral complement."
Was this oral tradition --- the Oral Torah --- regarded as being as authoritative as the Written Torah?
"In addition to insuring the accurate transmission of the Oral Torah..."This would obviously be of great importance. How did they do this? Did they have the Oral Torah committed to writing? Or if not, how was Oral Torah reserved?
"... the Men of the Great Assembly decided which of the multitude of Jewish holy writings should be in the Bible. Which of their writings should be preserved for future generations and which had limited applicability?As I understand it, this speak of selecting from and canonizing the writings of the past --- the writings they already had on hand ---- I don't see where it says they closed the canon to any future additions (although that's implied, because it does say that the books they approved, are still the approved books in the Jewish community to this day.) Did they explicitly close the canon at that time?
And if they did close the canon, were they implying that they knew there would be more Divine Revelation to transmit to future generations from that time forward?
Thanks for any help you can give. Short concise answers would be best for me. If it requires longer answers, please give specific links I can go to and read. Thanks again.
The Septaguint was a compilation by Jewish scholars. Now why would Jewish scholars include those books without first consulting with the Protestants? They should have waited for the superior wisdom of Jean Cauvin and Herr Zwingli.