again, a lot of assertions, but no facts to back them up.
there must have been a great hue and cry when the “apocrypha” was added to the canon and i am sure the “true” Christians would have rejected such a move. please provide evidence of when the “apocrypha” was added to the canon by the eastern church and what controversy ensued when this happened.
why is it so hard to admit the obvious, the first 66 book Bible appeared on the world scene in the 16th century. even the original King James Bible did not have 66 books!
The earliest Councils that declared Canon were before 400 and included the Deuterocanonicals. The East was well represented and constituted the majority of bishops, actually. There did not seem to be reluctance to accept them. The site I referenced was quite explicit regarding the Eastern Fathers’ use of them.
olofob - the Catholic church did not call the apocrypha part of the canon until Trent. Until that time they were considered were permitted to be read in the churches for the purposes of edification but were never considered authoritative for establishing doctrine.
thus it was a 66 book canon even before trent - the apocrypha was just recommended reading.