This site might be interesting to those who are earnest seekers of the "WORD".
It is a Community Forums to brainstorm one views and maybe get a an answer to those naging qustions!
http://www.bibletruths.us/forums/showthread.php?t=166
Actually, it is misleading to think of the Jews or, say, the Coptics of HAVING a canon. At Jesus' time, there was the Law (the Torah), and the Prophets. Jesus refers to these two sets of Hebrew literature frequently. Jesus, however, also refers to "the writings" and cites them authoritatively. There was no set canon for what was included in the "writings" (Scripture in Latin, rhyma in Greek), but the Septuagint included many of them. When, after Jesus' death, the Jews felt it necessary to assert a canon, they created a hierarchy, with the Torah as most important, than the Prophets, and lastly the Khetuvim (writings), forming the TaNaKh.
By tradition, Catholic/Christians incorporated the Septuagint into their bibles without a second thought (except JErome's often misinterpreted assertion that he couldn't translate seven of the books from the Tanakh, since the Jews did not include them in the Tanakh.) Later, Luther would insist that the books not found in the Tanakh were not authentic scripture, and they began to be published as special addenda , and then not at all, in Prostestant bibles.
The Council of Trent finally asserted a Catholic canon, in response to Luther. It is true that every book in the Catholic canon had since the time of the apostles been regarded as scripture. It is not QUITE true that the Catholic canon was simply the Septuagint:
The Catholic Canon includes 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras (known to Protestants and the AmChurch as Ezra and Nehemiah.) There was a 3 Esdras, which was largely a redaction of key elements of 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras into a single book, with only a handful of verses added. The Council of Trent did not find it necessary for Catholics to defend the authenticity of 3 Esdras, since there was so little in it. And most ancient churches kept EITHER 1 and 2 Esdras OR 3 Esdras, but not both.
Also, there a 151st Psalm included in many early septuagint bibles. Catholics stuck to a holy-number counting following the Jews, and did not keep the 151st Psalm.
Likewise, there were a couple books which were popularized in the early church as part of the "Septuagint Old Testament," even though they were written after Christ. Among them were 3 Maccabees and 4 Maccabees. They are not read, to my knowledge, as part of the mass in any churches, but are often published among the Orthodox and Coptics as part of the bible. There is no theological innovation essential to them.
One must remember that the issue of canonicity is relevant only when one is asserting, or defending against, doctrines arrived at from a reading of the scriptures which is independent of Church tradition. Therefore, one must recogniize that Coptics, Orthodox, and ancient Catholics simply had no concept of "canonicity" until Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolution forced Catholics to cite scripture to counter Protestant assertions against Tradition.
Lastly, there is a final wierd issue concerning which books are canonical: Jesus himself quotes as scripture, as does Paul, certain books which were not included in the Septuagint: Namely, the books of Enoch (a.k.a 1 Enoch) and the Book of Jubilees (a.k.a. the Apocalypse of Moses). Although they were not in the Tanakh either, they were the basis for many teachings in the Talmud, the Jewish collection of wisdom published along with the Tanakh in the first century AD.
That would be me. :-)
It is a Community Forums to brainstorm one views and maybe get a an answer to those naging qustions!
It's good for every serious Christian to search for the things that have been covered up until now. What an exciting time it is to be alive and watching Bible Prophesy fulfilled before our very eyes! Thanks for the info!