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Featured Term (selected at random):GELASIAN SACRAMENTARY An ancient liturgical book, written sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries, but ascribed to Pope Gelasius I (reigned 492-96). It is the oldest known Roman Missal with the feasts arranged according to the ecclesiastical year, and certainly of pre-Gregorian origin. It contains the Roman Canon in practically its present form. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Thanks to the efforts of men like Brad Harrub PhD., who warmly embrace demonstrating science as perfectly validating the Bible, my son has developed an energetic desire to study science.  Science has many men of great learning.  However, many scientists today promote theories, such as evolution, which fly in the face of already established scientific laws.  Because of such error, the theories ought to be rejected, even though men of great title or reputation believe in them.  Scientific laws are identified as laws because they do not falter, they are always true.  Many people hold the Bible to be an...

Who Decides? Unraveling the Mystery of the Old Testament Canon by Daniel Lieuwen When the Church began, there were no New Testament books. Old Testament texts alone were used as Scripture. The Old Testament used in the early Church throughout the Roman world was not the Hebrew Old Testament, but a translation of the Old Testament into Greek called the Septuagint (LXX). The LXX was translated in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the middle of the third century B.C., and was the standard Old Testament in the synagogues throughout the Hellenistic world (including Palestine) at the...

Minnesota soldiers got a chance to train with the latest and greatest in new weapons on Wednesday at Camp Ripley. It’s the M-777 canon designed to hit a target with near complete accuracy up to 15 miles away. The state of Minnesota now has 12 of the big guns and Minnesota National Guard troops had a chance to fire the weapons up. “Two million dollars for a Howitzer, you can’t put a price on a life. It’s a small price to pay, if we can keep our soldiers alive down range,” said Minnesota National Guard Capt. Steve Hall. The soldiers...

Canon was forced to halt production at some of its manufacturing plants after power failures caused by the Japan earthquake. In a statement, the company has also confirmed that around 12 employees suffered minor injuries at its lens factory in Utsunomiya. However, Canon says that buildings and factories have not suffered major damage, as it assesses the impact of the quake on production. A spokesperson for Canon Europe was not able to confirm which factories were forced to stop production. It is also not clear whether there were any British nationals among those working at the damaged plants. However, we...

Apologetics Press :: Reason & Revelation December 2003 - 23[12]:105-109 Are There Lost Books of the Bible? by A.P. Staff Q. I have heard that there are certain “lost books” mentioned in the Bible—books to which we no longer have access. Is this true? And if so, what impact does this have on the biblical text itself, or on a Christian’s faith? A. In a manner that is somewhat similar to a modern research paper, citations appear in both the Old and New Testaments. The inspired writers sometimes referred to certain works that no longer exist—a fact that has caused...

How We Got the New Testament - 2 1/2 Views (Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic) The following excerpts are pulled from the Internet. Their full articles are worth reading, if you want to understand their thought. In hopes of keeping this at a digestible meal, I've quoted the sections I found most interesting - and deleted a great deal of good reading! First, the Orthodox: taken from the Orthodox Christian Information Center. The Emergence of the New Testament Canon by Daniel F. Lieuwen Link: http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/inquirers/ntcanon_emergence.aspx ...When the church began, there were no New Testament books. Old Testament texts alone were used...

Introduction Lee Martin McDonald and James A. Sanders In the last forty years interest has been growing not only in the origins of the biblical canon but also in its development, continuing viability, and future as a fixed collection of sacred writings. Despite the stability of the various biblical canons over the last four hundred years, the twentieth century brought significantly increased interest in canon formation. Much of this interest began with the earlier works of H. E. Ryle, Alexander Souter, Heinrich Graetz,Moses Stuart, and Edward Reuss. A brief look at the variety as well as volume of recent literature...

[p.95] The following essay argues that the final fixing of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian biblical canon did not emerge until the middle to the late fourth century, even though the long process that led to the canonization of the Hebrew scriptures began in the sixth or fifth century BCE and of the New Testament scriptures in the second century CE. Pivotal in the arguments for an early dating of the Hebrew Scriptures is the lack of unequivocal evidence for the fixation of the Old Testament canon in the time before Christ but also the emergence of canonical lists...

How Many Books Are in the Bible? By: Erwin W. Lutzer , M.A., LL.D. (Bio) Also available in: from The Doctrines That Divide1 Erwin W. Lutzer Even the most casual Bible student knows that there are more books in the Catholic Bible than in the one used by Protestants. Where did these differences originate? On what basis were some books selected to be in the Bible, and why were others rejected?Upon reflection, we could expect that there would be some dispute regarding these matters. After all, the Bible did not come down from heaven bound in beautiful leather and adorned...

Canon engineers are being held back from developing new sensor technology by marketing departments in a "race for megapixels", claims an employee of the Japanese photography company. (Advertisement) The employee told Tech Digest that Canon have the technology to "blow the competition away" in terms of image sensors, but are instead being asked to focus on headline figures like the number of megapixels a camera has. When asked for his opinion on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which we covered this morning, the employee said: "I am hugely disappointed because once again Canon engineers are dictated by their marketing...

ISSUE: Catholic Bibles contain seven more Old Testament (46) books than Protestant Bibles (39). Catholics refer to these seven books as the “deuterocanon”[1] (second canon), while Protestants refer to them as “apocrypha,” a term used pejoratively to describe non-canonical books. Protestants also have shorter versions of Daniel and Esther. Why are there differences?RESPONSE: Catholic Bibles contain all the books that have been traditionally accepted by Christians since Jesus’ time. Protestant Bibles contain all those books, except those rejected by the Protestant Reformers in the 1500’s. The chief reason Protestants rejected these biblical books was because they did not support Protestant...

It is often asserted by Roman Catholic apologists that Protestants must rely on their tradition in order to know which books ought to be included in the Biblical Canon. The argument says that since there is no “inspired table of contents” for the Bible, then we are forced into relying upon tradition to dictate which books belong in the Bible, and which books do not. It was the church of Rome, these apologists alledge, which determined the canon at the Councils of Hippo (393 A.D.) and Carthage (397 A.D.), and it is only due to this, that Protestants know which...

ISSUE: Catholic Bibles contain seven more Old Testament (46) books than Protestant Bibles (39). Catholics refer to these seven books as the “deuterocanon”[1] (second canon), while Protestants refer to them as “apocrypha,” a term used pejoratively to describe non-canonical books. Protestants also have shorter versions of Daniel and Esther. Why are there differences?RESPONSE: Catholic Bibles contain all the books that have been traditionally accepted by Christians since Jesus’ time. Protestant Bibles contain all those books, except those rejected by the Protestant Reformers in the 1500’s. The chief reason Protestants rejected these biblical books was because they did not support Protestant...

The inaugural issue of Christianity Today, dated October 15, 1956, featured an article by Billy Graham entitled, "Biblical Authority in Evangelism." The thrust of the article was clear – without an unhesitant "thus saith the Lord" authority in preaching and evangelism, the message lacks all authority. The only authority that matters, Dr. Graham insisted, was the authority of the Bible as the Word of God. Indeed, this confidence in biblical authority was, at least in part, the reason for the establishment of Christianity Today as the flagship journal of American evangelicalism under the editorship of Carl. F. H. Henry. Now,...

CHAPTER III THE CANON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT Even when we have come to a conclusion about the date and origin of the individual books of the New Testament, another question remains to be answered. How did the New Testament itself as a collection of writings come into being? Who collected the writings, and on what principles? What circumstances led to the fixing of a list, or canon, of authoritative books ? The historic Christian belief is that the Holy Spirit, who controlled the writing of the individual books, also controlled their selection and collection, thus continuing to fulfil our...

As an active Protestant in my mid-twenties I began to feel that I might have a vocation to become a minister. The trouble was that while I had quite definite convictions about the things that most Christians have traditionally held in common—the sort of thing C.S. Lewis termed "mere Christianity."I had had some firsthand experience with several denominations (Presbyterian, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist) and was far from certain as to which of them (if any) had an overall advantage over the others. So I began to think, study, search, and pray. Was there a true Church? If so, how was one...

Canon Can. 800 §2 states: Christ's faithful are to promote Catholic schools, doing everything possible to help in establishing and maintaining them. I never see any articles or comments that address this aspect of Canon Law. I read much that states the primacy of parental decision, and if correct, then they may indeed homeschool. But what of the obligation stated in Canon 800-2? It always seems to be an either/or proposition, and experience shows that often the noblest, most forthrightly Catholic parents turn away from local Catholic schools, creating a vaccuum. Who fills it? In the Catholic school I teach...

It is often asserted by Roman Catholic apologists that Protestants must rely on their tradition in order to know which books ought to be included in the Biblical Canon. The argument says that since there is no “inspired table of contents” for the Bible, then we are forced into relying upon tradition to dictate which books belong in the Bible, and which books do not. It was the church of Rome, these apologists alledge, which determined the canon at the Councils of Hippo (393 A.D.) and Carthage (397 A.D.), and it is only due to this, that Protestants know which...

Folks, I want to add some further, yet brief reflections that I think are connected to those I did about the Holy Trinity last week (here and here). I belief there are a few connections between the process which resulted in the Trinitarian settlement in the 5th century AD, the settlement of the Canon of Scripture, and the Protestant idea of sola scriptura. First, let's define a few key terms: Sola scriptura is a Latin phrase meaning "Scripture Alone" and refers to the foundational Protestant tenets that the Bible, and the Bible alone is to be the sole rule of...

Glenn Maxwell vividly recalls the only whale-watching cruise he ever took, two years ago off Puerto Vallarta. As waves rocked the boat, he says, scores of the giant mammals leapt clear of the water. Alas, Maxwell's memories of his Mexican adventure are better than his snapshots. Knowing a photo opportunity when he saw one, the Detroit computer programmer took dozens of pictures with his $500 Olympus digital camera. But each time he pressed the button, the camera paused, the whale flopped back in the ocean, and, Maxwell says, "I only got sky or sea."

BANNED FROM THE BIBLE The Stories That Were Deleted From Biblical History When Jesus was a boy, did he kill another child? Was Mary Magdalene a prostitute -- or an apostle? Did Cain commit incest? Will there be an apocalypse or is this God's trick to scare us? The answers to these questions aren't found in the Bible as we know it, but they exist in scriptures banned when powerful leaders deemed them unacceptable for reasons both political and religious. BANNED FROM THE BIBLE reveals some of these alternative tales and examines why they were "too hot for Christianity." The...

The Old Testament CanonWho has the right canon? The canon of the Old Testament is the list of books that make up the Old Testament. Protestants and Catholics have different ideas about which books belong to the canon of the Old Testament, and the Eastern Orthodox have yet another opinion -- so one naturally is lead to ask the question, "which is right?" In this discussion I intend to focus on the Protestant/Catholic side of the debate rather than the Eastern Orthodox aspect. It is not that this isn't worth discussion, merely that so far the Protestant/Catholic aspect has...

Canon to stop making single-lens camera TOKYO - Japan's top camera maker, Canon Inc., will stop developing new single-lens reflex film cameras as more people abandon film for digital, company officials said Thursday. The Tokyo-based Canon's move followed a similar move by its closest Japanese rival, Nikon Corp., which announced earlier this year it would stop making seven of its nine film cameras and concentrate on digital models. Canon will continue making film cameras already on the market as long as their demand remains. Whether to withdraw from the film camera business will be "decided appropriately by judging the market...

Trendy "isms" are incompatible with lasting knowledge WHAT is the best way to introduce young people to literature? Is it to reveal to them the joy of reading great writing, and how themes and plots developed even centuries ago can be an anchor for their lives in the modern world? Or is it to treat every work as a "text" no better than any other, dissect them all ruthlessly and examine the entrails for political, sexual and racial bias? This debate has flared up again this week, sparked both by John Howard's comments on the "gobbledegook" taught in Australian English...

ONE of the world's leading authorities on Shakespeare's work, Harold Bloom, and the nation's pre-eminent poet, Les Murray, have declared literary study in Australia dead after learning that a prestigious Sydney school asked students to interpret Othello from Marxist, feminist and racial perspectives. "I find the question sublimely stupid," Professor Bloom, an internationally renowned literary critic, the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale and Berg Professor of English at New York University, said yesterday. "It is another indication that literary study has died in Australia." The question was an assessment task in March set for advanced English students in Year...

An encounter with a Bedouin robber in a desert valley has led to what one Israeli archaeologist described as one of the most important biblical finds from the region in half a century. Professor Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, said yesterday that the discovery of two fragments of nearly 2,000-year-old parchment scroll from the Dead Sea area gave hope to biblical and archaeological scholars, frustrated by a dearth of material unearthed in the region in recent years, that the Judean desert could yet yield further artefacts. "No more scrolls have been found in the...

[For those who may not know: the "chancellor" is the bishop's attorney. --sionnsar] Canon Law, civil law and the Episcopal Church are six words that one hears with increasing frequency, often spoken in the same breath. But you had better bring along your favorite brand of Listerine. Bishops, especially revisionist ones, don't talk publicly or return calls unless they have first talked to their chancellors. Frank Griswold, ECUSA's presiding bishop barely says a word unless he has consulted David Booth Beers his personal chancellor, with lesser purple transgressors handled by Bishop Clayton Matthews his pit bull for in flagrante bishops....

(The Roanoke Times article is at the end of Fr. Thompson's letter. Scroll down to read it first, please.) Dear Mr. Lowe, In reply to your article in the Roanoke Times, May 8, "Does the press accurately cover religion?", I offer the following comments. In the article, you asked eight questions. In order, they are, "Who speaks for religious folks?". "Who is heard?". "What's a reporter to do?". "What kind of job are the media doing in covering moral values?". "Do reporters talk to too many conservatives?" [or] "Too many liberals?". "Is there a media conspiracy to subvert moral values?"...

I BIT MY TONGUE AND RESISTED the urge to fire off an angry email. Reading through an on-line discussion board for budding Catholic apologists like myself, I had come across a message written more with an excess of zeal than with a correct understanding of canon law. Granted, the offending message was written with the best of intentions, and I also admired the offending author as a competent biblical apologist when it came to defending the Catholic faith against Protestant challenges. Nevertheless, this apologist’s competency with the Bible didn’t extend to the Code of Canon Law. And the question had...

Oh, just wondering, since the Code of Canon Law changed, and automatic excommunication is not longer the case for physically assaulting a priest, I am wondering if anyone has done any research on the new Code of Canon Law, the laity, the episcopate and questions of excommunication regarding the laity 'assaulting' the episcopate not only in physical terms but also in other arenas....Any insight (or speculation) welcome.

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Code: ZE03100504Date: 2003-10-053 Missionaries Canonized by John Paul IIIncluding 2 Founders of Missionary CongregationsVATICAN CITY, OCT. 5, 2003 (Zenit.org).- In a two-hour-plus Mass, John Paul II canonized three missionaries of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Addressing the 30,000 pilgrims gathered today in St. Peter's Square, the Pope said the new saints remind us that "every Christian is sent on a mission, but to be genuine witnesses of Christ it is necessary to seek holiness constantly." One of the new saints, Italian Daniel Comboni (1831-1881), was the first bishop of central Africa....

<p>Consumers revolt over the cost of inkjet cartridges, even as printer prices plummet.</p> <p>At $22 per quarter-ounce, a Hewlett-Packard color ink-jet cartridge is more expensive, by weight, than imported Russian caviar.</p> <p>Observing such high prices, Connecticut research consultant Zel Dolinsky wants to know the reasons for them. "How come, with printer prices falling, ink prices are still so outrageous?" Dolinsky asks. "I'm appalled."</p>

Is your canon on the loose?Until now I have given only light support to a fannish effort intended to establish a canon for Tolkien discussions. Not the canon, mind you, or the ultimate canon, or the final canon, or even the best canon. Merely a canon. My light support has consisted of granting permission to people to mention the project on The Tolkien and Inklings Forum (formerly The White Council).The real canonical discussion was started over at The Barrowdowns Web site, but it seems (as of this writing) to have stalled. And I think I can understand why it stalled....

How Many Books Are In The Old Testament? How Can One Know For Sure?(Popes and Councils Proved To Be In Error) Examine the Old Testament listing of books in a Catholic, and a Protestant Bible, and you will normally find a discrepancy. You will find several more books in the Catholic Old Testament than in the Protestant Bible, the Protestant counting 39 and the Catholic counting some 46 or 47 books. The extra books in the Catholic Bible are referred to as the Apocryphal, or Deuterocanonical books, by Protestants and Catholic respectively. Apocrypha means "hidden", and Deuterocanonical means "second...

The Formation Of The Canon Of The New Testament by B. B. Warfield [ B. B. Warfield (1851-1921) was the last great theologian of the conservative Presbyterians at Princeton Theological Seminary. His activity as a theologian coincided with the period when higher-critical views of Scripture and evolutionary conceptions of religion were replacing evangelical convictions in most of America's major institutions of higher learning. Warfield distinguished himself as a scholarly defender of Augustinian Calvinism, supernatural Christianity, and the inspiration of the Bible. The following article was originally published in 1892 (the year of C. H. Spurgeon's death) by the American Sunday...