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Omar_Gatskill
Guest
Which is correct?
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Hesychios
Guest
Canon of the Old Testament scripture?
Why to you equate divine Truth with the canon of Old Testament scripture?
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Matthew_Holford
Guest
What canon? Canon of the Bible; Canon of the Mass; Canon Law. Although, I suspect the first.
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KenChute
Guest
RC is always correct. Plain and simple.
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ByzCathCantor
Guest
Could you kindly then explain the existence of two Codes of Canons in the Catholic Church?
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Nine_Two
Guest
I assume by the use of the term “Word of God” that you mean the Old Testament.
In which case you’re incorrect. The Catholic Church has one, the Orthodox Church has several variations.
The differing books are all less important non-doctrinal books. They have been added to some Canons because they are seen as teaching valuable lessons.
We do not have a protestant view of scripture as the single most important thing, so this distinction is not a big deal.
In which case you’re incorrect. The Catholic Church has one, the Orthodox Church has several variations.
The differing books are all less important non-doctrinal books. They have been added to some Canons because they are seen as teaching valuable lessons.
We do not have a protestant view of scripture as the single most important thing, so this distinction is not a big deal.
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Jim_Dandy
Guest
How do you know the Bible (which I assume is the canon you are referring to) is the Word of God? Nobody’s Bible makes that claim about itself. So why do you?
The original canon was discerned by the undivided Catholic Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, at the end of the fourth century. The Protestants subtracted from it. The Orthodox added to it.
That should answer your question.
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dcointin
Guest
Both are 
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dcointin
Guest
The Orthodox use the canon of the Septuagint, which predates Christianity and certainly the 4th century. It’s the translation that was most widely used in the Christian world, and most often quoted by the apostles.
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Julia_Mae
Guest
Thanks for explaining. Is there a link to the list of books online? Or an article speaking about it? Also, is this the original Greek that was retained? Was it translated at some point?
And, am I correct in assuming the NT books are the same?
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Nine_Two
Guest
I’ve found comparison lists before. I can’t find one now, but they are out there.
The Septuagent is in Greek but it has been translated into a number of different languages.
And yes, all the books of the NT are the same.
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Hesychios
Guest
It is important to realize that the Septuagint is a small library. It was translated into Greek by and for the Jewish people.
It’s a fascinating story. The Jewish people migrated out of the Palestine region in every direction beginning with the Babylonian captivity and throughout the Persian empire days, but mostly in the period of the Greek empires after Alexander the Great.
Of those who settled on the Greek controlled ‘Hellenized’ nations (like Syria and Egypt) they eventually learned to use everyday Greek (like in north America and Australia, the Jews … and the rest of us learned to use English, elsewhere Spanish) and it became their dominant language. Greek was the commonly understood tongue around the eastern Mediterranean. and in 1st century Roman times there were more Jews outside of Palestine than in it. The Jewish people in the areas of Palestine had learned to use Aramaic, and the Jewish people outside of Palestine but still in the empire mostly used Greek. Hebrew was used very little, although it was needed in the temple.
In the period of about two centuries before Christ about seventy Jewish scholars were employed in the task of translating the Tanakh (Torah, Prophets and Writings) which is to Christians the Old Testament. This began to circulate all over the Mediterranean lands as each local synagog secured a set for it’s own use.
So that is what the Christian churches used, copies of the Greek Septuagint that the Jews had been using for two hundred years. We all inherited it. (The fact is, there were Jewish communities outside of the Roman empire, like in India, Abyssinia and Persia, and I would not assume that they used Greek, but for Mediterranean Jews that would certainly be the case.)
But it is really a collection, they were seldom bound together in those days, they were individual works. It doesn’t take much imagination to see that the synagogs of some towns (or neighborhoods) might not have a copy of everything. This situation carried over into the Christian [Catholic-Orthodox] community.
So it isn’t like the church picked these books, so much as we inherited the use of them from the active Jewish communities our predecessors came from.
As my brother said above, the New Testament matches.
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Jim_Dandy
Guest
The undivided Catholic Church canonized those writings of the Septuagint that she inherited from Jesus and the Apostles and 27 of her own writings.
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Jim_Dandy
Guest
Two Codes of Canons? Where can we find them?
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ByzCathCantor
Guest
The original post to which I was referring has been “edited” out of existence from this thread, but since you asked, there is the Code of Canon Law applicable to the Latin Church and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.
Code of Canon Law
vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM
Code of Canons of the
vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19901018_index-codex-can-eccl-orient_lt.html#*
Peace!
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Julia_Mae
Guest
Yes, I knew that, but thanks for the post, I’m sure many did not. There’s a great book about the history of the Bible, just as a book, and it does include a bit about non-European history, but not nearly enough. And, of course, all the Scripture was scrolls, individual writings.
I also know there is a fairly new Orthodox study bible out I have been wishing for but it is a bit pricey, of course.
I’m not sure we really have a very firm grasp of all the books of the Septuagint, since different synagogues could have different numbers of scrolls. From what I’ve read, it wasn’t like they had a canon until about the same time the Christians did and then we adopted it.
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Hesychios
Guest
It is worth noting that the Orthodox do not use either.
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EnglishTeacher
Guest
I would assume that the Eastern Catholics adhere to the same Old Testament canon as the Latin Church; is that correct?
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Cavaradossi
Guest
Why should they? Why should a Syriac Catholic, for example, be forced to use the Latin custom, when the Peshitta was used before the Latin Vulgate even existed?
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Julia_Mae
Guest
But that wasn’t the question. Most of us in the Roman/Latin whatever Church don’t know much about the way things work elsewhere, so we ask. No one is talking about what anyone should do, just wondering what people do, in fact, do.
So, is there a list online somepolace that misght have the Canons of Scripture of the various Catholic Churches? That would be very helpful and interesting.
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