H
hn160
Guest
FYI. Concordia Publishing House is going to publish the Apocrypha with Lutheran Study Notes sometime this year.
- The Book of Concord, which contains the only “official” writings of the Lutheran Church, does not define the canon of the Bible anywhere. The citation to Maccabbees in the Augsburg Confession does not necessarily mandate a belief in its canonical status, but to me, it indicates that Lutherans should believe that the deuterocanonicals are much more than merely ancient books. An interesting coincidence to your observation is that I just was reading a tract from Luther written in the 1530s (more than a decade after the Reformation) about how to pray and he favorably cited Sirach.
- I can affirm Jon’s comment about asking God to listen to the prayers of the saints.