The following are all from the previous link I provided. On my shelf, I see a copy of RA Torrey’s, “What the Bible Teaches.” I might tell you that it is good for reading. That does not mean that I think it the equivalent of scripture. I would tell folks that the Maccabees are good for reading, but in the same way as Torrey is good for reading.
Augustine said “If any, even the smallest lie be admitted in the Scriptures, the whole authority of Scripture is presently invalidated and destroyed.” [Epistle xix. Tom. II. P. 14]
As Augustine states of the book of Macabees, “The Jews do not esteem this scripture as the Law and prophets, to which the Lord bears testimony as his witness.” (Contra Gaudent. Epist. Lib. II cap. 23.)
Augustine so shows this in his writings against Cresconius the grammarian: “Not without cause was the canon of the church framed with so salutary a vigilance, that certain books of the prophets and apostles should belong to it.” (Lib. 2. cap. 31); also “Let them shew us their church, not in the rumors of the Africans, but in the injunction of the Law, in the predictions of the prophets, in the songs of the Psalms; that is, in all the canonical authorities of the sacred books.” (De Unit. Eccles. C. 16.)
Augustine said “The calculation of which times is not to be found in the sacred Scriptures which are called canonical, but in others, amongst which are also the books of Maccabees.” So the RCC’s attempt to use Augustine’s quotes concerning their “sacredness” is destroyed by Augustine’s own qualification of the books as other than canonical – which he never retracted.
Maccabees praises suicide. Augustine repudiates this when he says “Nor is it in vain that nowhere in the sacred canonical scriptures do we find any precept or permission to take away our own lives.”
Augustine also argues that Christ never mentions them as his witnesses and shows them as non-canonical.
I googled up your alleged Augustine line: “The calculation of which times is not to be found in the sacred Scriptures which are called canonical, but in others, amongst which are also the books of Maccabees” and found it listed on one website only - yours. Can you find it anywhere else?
Suicide. Would you remove all books of the Bible that mentioned or praised suicide?
In the biblical record there are a number of cases of suicide. Samson pulled the temple down on himself and on the Philistines. Hithathel, one of David’s leading cabinet members, sided with Absolom in the rebellion, ended up being on the wrong side and went home and hanged himself. One of the kings, Zimmery, ruled in the northern kingdom for seven days, and burned himself to death in the palace when he realized he was on the losing side again. King Saul and his armor bearer committed suicide on the battlefield. Abimalech, in the book of Judges, committed suicide after a battle when he was seriously injured.
In most of the Old Testament cases, the suicide is the result of either a military defeat or a serious injury where someone will die in a matter of hours or at the most days, either at the hands of enemies or just by dying from the wound. And in most of these cases, the individuals choose “death with honor” rather than being tortured and mutilated. So suicide was a way to avoid that kind of shame.
In the biblical record there is no condemnation of the suicide. In two or three cases there is an indication that there was a burial: Samson, Hithathel and Saul.
In the New Testament Judas is the key figure regarding suicide. If you read the accounts in Matthew and in Acts, Judas is never condemned for suicide. He’s condemned for betraying Jesus but not the way he died and that pattern follows pretty much all the way through. In Hebrews 11, Samson is listed among those who have found God’s favor. So you’ve got this rather ambivalent attitude. They’ve killed themselves but they’re not condemned for that. Where there is any indication of a burial they are given a normal burial.
In the Jewish literature of the time between 200 Bc and AD 100 there are records of several suicides. Some of these are individuals (e.g. Razis in 2 Maccabees 14:37-46), others are of larger groups (e.g. the mother and her seven martyred sons in 4 Maccabees 8-18, the Galilean battalion that Josephus commanded., or the Zealots at Masada. In these contexts there is a recognition that life is from God and ought not to be cast away lightly. Josephus, however, argues that there are occasions where it is a greater sin to commit idolatry, incest, adultery, or murder, or allow oneself or one’s family to be taken prisoner and tortured than it is to commit suicide.
The early church, after about AD 100, developed a theology and practice of martyrdom that reflected a total disdain for physical life, and promulgated the idea that only in a martyr’s bloody death could “true discipleship” be attained and “true witness” expressed. This attitude was so widespread that at one point the Roman governor told the Christians that if they wanted to die, they should go and cast themselves over the cliff, rather than “keep troubling the magistrates to execute them”.
The appalling consequences of this “martyr theology” resulted in St. Augustine appealing to the command “Thou shalt not kill” as expressly prohibiting suicide (i.e. self-sought martyrdom), unless God had given specific “secret instructions” to an individual to perform the act. Augustine’s interpretation of this commandment is a radically new departure in both Judaism and Christianity. His attempt to develop this line of argument is without precedent in the literature, and is impossible to defend. He himself recognized the weakness of his argument by turning immediately to a series of “exceptions” and “explanations” that take any force out of his earlier defense.