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I'm not a Catholic, however was born again in a born again Catholic Church, and my first and favorite Bible — even to this day — is the Jerusalem Bible.

My only very personal and subjective and not academic or scholarly thought about the “extra” books was my reaction to these books when I devoured my Bible as an eighteen year old.

When I would read the book of Wisdom or the stuff about Susannah in Daniel or the added stuff in Esther... it just seemed like some old Hebrew guy's idea of philosophy. I tended to wander from these added books simply because they did not “feed” me as the other Scripture did.

The metaphysical implications of the Word — "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God... and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” tells us that your post is very important.

You are actually saying that these other books are, metaphysically, God Himself.

Until I scanned this article, I tended to believe that the Canonical books were because of New Testament references to them. But this does put a few books like Song of Solomon out of the running, I suppose.

I wish I had more time in my life to really investigate why the Protestant scriptures are thus. For now, I've got to take the stand I took as a teenaged new believer and just hug my tattered old, now taped and coverless Jerusalem Bible, (not the New Jerusalem, btw) and do a Thomas Jefferson and skip the added texts. They didn't feed me. They weren't “alive and active, able to cut through the secret thoughts and emotions” like the double-edged sword of the Word.

Perhaps as an add on, when Jesus took this sword of the Spirit (the Word) to counter the Devil's twisted arguments against Him in the temptation in the desert, He used traditional texts to triumph over Satan's schemes.

This is the true import of the Word of God. “To pull down strongholds, and every argument that resists the knowledge of God”. Without God's breathed inherent power of the logical truth of the Word, we cannot be apologists for Him. We cannot disentangle the lies of the Enemy off the unbelievers we minister to. This article seems to skip the work-a-day necessity of the Word.

Those are my only concerns with it. Have no anti Catholic feeling except we don't need any other intermediary but Christ to God and every Catholic I know understands that.

Sorry if sounded preachy or off topic. I'll leave with my fave Jerusalem Bible quote:

“I am a cypress ever green... All of your fruitfulness comes from Me.”

Bless you bro for the post.