Martin Luther and missing OT Books

[Cath_ChavaBeLLa]

was martin luther mentally unstable since he became a monk or after he was excommunicated? did the Church give him a fair hearing? In other words, he should have reformed the Church and not broken away, my history teacher says the Church gave him that chance but took it back and replaced it with an anathema. She makes it sound like it was the Church’s fault there was a Reformation.

And were the seven missing books from the Protestant Bibles lost or taken out? When the Jews got together after Christ to get their OT together did they purposefully leave out the seven or just couldn’t find records in Hebrew **so **they left them out? How many of the seven books do the Dead Sea Scrolls back up? (have in the original Hebrew)?
Thank you for your time

 

[DeFide]

Cath ChavaBeLLa:

was martin luther mentally unstable since he became a monk or after he was excommunicated? did the Church give him a fair hearing? In other words, he should have reformed the Church and not broken away, my history teacher says the Church gave him that chance but took it back and replaced it with an anathema. She makes it sound like it was the Church’s fault there was a Reformation.

And were the seven missing books from the Protestant Bibles lost or taken out? When the Jews got together after Christ to get their OT together did they purposefully leave out the seven or just couldn’t find records in Hebrew **so **they left them out? How many of the seven books do the Dead Sea Scrolls back up? (have in the original Hebrew)?
Thank you for your time

I’m not sure of the timeline of when he became a monk, or exactly how psychologically troubled Luther was, but this article on the deuterocanonicals may be of interest to you:

geocities.com/thecatholicconvert/deuterocanonicals.html

I have info that Sirach, Tobit, and Baruch were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, but I’m unsure of how complete any given book was. I would not base your defense of the deuterocanonicals on the Dead Sea Scrolls, as there are much stronger avenues (as if the authority of Christ’s Church wasn’t enough)

 

[slinky1882]

Cath ChavaBeLLa:

was martin luther mentally unstable since he became a monk or after he was excommunicated? did the Church give him a fair hearing? In other words, he should have reformed the Church and not broken away, my history teacher says the Church gave him that chance but took it back and replaced it with an anathema. She makes it sound like it was the Church’s fault there was a Reformation.

And were the seven missing books from the Protestant Bibles lost or taken out? When the Jews got together after Christ to get their OT together did they purposefully leave out the seven or just couldn’t find records in Hebrew **so **they left them out? How many of the seven books do the Dead Sea Scrolls back up? (have in the original Hebrew)?
Thank you for your time

Martin Luther MAY have been unstable and a short booklet I always recommend that has been reprinted recently is Karl Adams “Roots of the Reformation”. The book is very fair and balanced on abuses and the unfortunate outcome. Luther was given a hearing at the Diet of Worms at the request of certain German princes. Whether, how “fair” it was is a matter of debate especially since Martin Luther instigated the Pope and the Emperor of the time.

The 7 books were removed from the Canon and I have heard that the Protestants accepted a canon from the Jewish “Council of Jamnia” (sp???) As far as I can tell, the “Council of Jamnia” idea was more of a school than council lead by Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai that included only the OT books written in Hebrew. Aramaic was the common language of the Jewsih people in Palestine at the time of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD led further to Hebrew becoming a sacred language divorced from the people. The Church has used the Septuagint that was a Greek Tranlsation from the Hebrew works at Alexandria around 300-280 BC. This is evidenced by the fact that most of the OT quotes in the New Testament come from the Septuagint (as many as 300 or so out of 350).

Were there men at fault within the Church, yes. But was the Church (and here I probably disagree with your teacher as I am speaking from the POV that the Church is Divinely commissioned.) as the instituted by Christ at fault, no. You should ask you teacher if he or she has read any of Martin Luther’s thoughts on the behaviour of those who had left the Church espcially around some rebellions that occured after his teachings in certain sections of Germany. It may be a very enlightening experience. Thanks and God Bless.

 

[Catholicious]

According to Fr. Mitch Pacwa on his show about the Dead Sea Scrolls on Catholic Answers Live on 9/7/2000, the Deuterocanonical Books found as fragments in the Dead Sea Scrolls include: Tobit, Sirach and 1 Maccabees. They found fragments of every OT Book in Hebrew except for Esther, and a nearly complete scroll of Isaiah.

In regards to Martin Luther and the Reformation, here he is what he later said about it:

“I never approved of a schism, nor will I approve of it for all eternity . . . That the Roman Church is more honored by God than all others is not to be doubted . . . It is not by separating from the Church that we can make her better.” [Martin Luther - Letter to Pope Leo X, January 6, 1519]
**
*"Who would have wanted to begin preaching, had we known beforehand that so much disaster, riotousness, scandal, sacrilege, ingratitude , and wickedness were to follow. But now . . . we have to pay for it." [Martin Luther - Works, Erlangen, 50,74; in 1538]

“I have well nigh given up all hope for Germany, for . . . wickedness and roguery are reigning everywhere . . . and added to all else contempt of the Word.” [Martin Luther - Letter to Anton Lauterbach, November 1541]*