Norman Geisler on why Deuterocanonical books are not scripture

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I like the part of the woman personified as Jerusalem.
It actually is a very beautiful book.
 
It might be just me, but it seems to be a bit in poor form to post a thread devoted to critiquing Norman Geisler’s argument on the same day as his death.
 
Q: Why are you studying those who have zero authority for making their false claims? Just because someone says something; just because they have a book published, does in no way indicate that they merit our attention. This man insults the pious Jews who wrote, copied and used these books long before Christ.

Ever see the original Wizard of Oz? “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”

Ditto.
 
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.
 
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
Interestingly that verse you just quoted comes from the same book, 2(4) Esdras 2:34-35, which is one of his arguments. It is kind of ironic the book he says has a verse denouncing prayers for the dead( which I don’t see it doing), also has a verse we use as one of the most popular prayers for the dead in liturgy.

Lol ironically the requiem prayer comes from 2(4) Esdras 2:34-35.
Therefore I say to you, O nations that hear and understand, “Wait for your shepherd; he will give you everlasting rest, because he who will come at the end of the age is close at hand. Be ready for the rewards of the kingdom, because perpetual light will shine on you forevermore.
2 Esdras 2:34‭-‬35 NRSV-CI

Eternal rest grant unto them oh Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them

I had no idea he passed. This was just a terrible coincidence.
 
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I’m just saying if it’s a Christian Era book shouldn’t we be discussing including it in the NT, not the OT?
It wouldn’t be a New Testament book because , it is Jewish in nature, as in written by a Jew( except chap 1-2 and 15-16 which many say were later Christian additions) and also it purports to be an account of Ezra, thus this wouldn’t be a New Testament writing.
 
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Wesrock:
I’m just saying if it’s a Christian Era book shouldn’t we be discussing including it in the NT, not the OT?
It wouldn’t be a New Testament book because , it is Jewish in nature, as in written by a Jew( except chap 1-2 and 15-16 which many say were later Christian additions) and also it purports to be an account of Ezra, thus this wouldn’t be a New Testament writing.
That seems to be a problem, though. If it is a Jewish work written in the Christian Era, it doesn’t seem proper to consider it scripture at all. Shouldn’t all works at this point be of Christian and of apostolic origin (in some way)?
 
There’s been arguments that a few books, I think even the book of Wisdom is said by some historians to be written later.( Even the Muratorian Fragment names Wisdom of Solomon as a New Testament book).
There’s a difference between secular historical dating and faith. Otherwise a lot of the books in the Bible could fall into this same trap.
For example, most historians say Isaiah was a tripartate work that spanned a few centuries.
It isn’t necessarily when or who wrote it but that the author was under divine inspiration while writing it.
 
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(1) Unlike most canonical books, there is no implicit or explicit claim in them for divine inspiration;
I’ve read all of the canonical books, I’ve seen no claim in any of them that they are inspired. So, I call bullchips on that one.
(2) Judaism never accepted these books as inspired. In fact, the first century Jewish historian lists the inspired books of the OT by name which excludes the Apocrypha(see Josephus, Against Apion 1.8);
Then why did they go to the trouble of translating the Septuagint? It wasn’t Christians who made that version. It was Jews.

Here’s part of the history:

A writer, who calls himself Aristeas, says that when Ptolemy Philadelphus was engaged in the formation of the Alexandrian Library, he was advised by Demetrius Phalereus to procure a translation of the sacred books of the Jews.

If they were considered “sacred”, then, in my opinion, they were considered inspired.
(3) Most of the early Church Fathers did not grant them canonical status;
Whether they did so or not, we go by what the Catholic Church Teaches.
(4) The great Catholic biblical scholar and translator of the Latin Vulgate rejected this books as part of the canon;
That has been debunked too many times. I don’t know why anyone takes this seriously. St. Jerome explained that he was simply retelling what the Jews had said to him. Not that he believed what they had said.

cont’d
 
cont’d
(5) Although Jesus cited the vast majority of the Jewish Old Testament books as inspired, he never once quoted from an one of the eleven apocryphal books as inspired;
True. But if that means that He did not consider the Deuterocanonicals inspired, then He forgot to inform the Apostles. See Deuterocanonical References in the New Testament
(6) None of the apostles or writers of the New Testament ever cited any of these eleven books as inspired;
What does that mean? Did the Apostles ever say, “Hey, only these books of the Bible are inspired”? No. But they did quote from them. See above, answer to #5.
(7) The Catholic official acceptance of these books (at Trent in 1546) was a sign of its doctrinal deterioration. For they inconsistently rejected an Apocryphal book opposed to praying for the dead (2) [4] Esdras 7:105
More bullchips. Let’s look at what this says:

105 so no one shall ever pray for another on that day, neither shall any one lay a burden on another; for then every one shall bear his own righteousness and unrighteousness."

If you read the Chapter, you will see what the words, “on that day” mean. The entire chapter is about the coming of the day of Judgment. On that day, no one shall pray for another. That day doesn’t come until the end. The mere fact that this is mentioned means that we may pray one for another and to the Saints in heaven, UNTIL THAT DAY COMES.
and yet accepted an apocryphal book in favor of praying for the dead (2 Mac. 12:45-46).
As shown, no contradiction there.
This tended to support several Catholic doctrines which were part of the corruption of Christianity which included prayers for the dead, Purgatory, the unfinished nature of the Atonement, and Indulgences.
On the contrary, these show what the pre-Christian Jews were doing.

Anyway, I hope that helps.
 
https://www.catholicbridge.com/orthodox/why-orthodox-bible-is-different-from-catholic.php
“… [why does] the Eastern Orthodox Church has several books in their bible that fail to appear in our own [Catholic]? I was simply curious to why our Church rejects these books. … Thank you so much for your wonderful site and your time for reading this! -A fellow Catholic Christian”

Eastern Orthodox Church has no universally-approved Biblical canon​

Adding some spice to the soup!😉
 
Well it’s kind of like that’s how the Church was before the Protestants made the canon such an issue. Like before, 1(3) Esdras, 2(4) Esdras, and the Prayer of Manasseh were printed in the Vulgate and noone batted an eye about it. Thus formally they weren’t part of the Canon but they were still commonly printed. Then Trent said we have to set it straight once and for all because the Protestants were rejecting books. And they did. Which is fine. The three texts were put in the appendix of the Clementine Vulgate but are omitted from the Nova Vulgate thus many Catholics now are unaware of their existence.
There was nothing wrong with them being in the Bible for historical and traditional reasons.
So really this is just another thing Protestants ruined for us.
 
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