Question on the Bible

[John_Taylor]

Sixth, Pope Gregory the Great rejected apocrypha (540 - 604). "… books as ’ books which though not canonical, are received for the edification of the church"

Actually, it turns out St Gregory - writing while he lived in the East (Greek speaking Constantinople) and before he was Bishop of Rome (the Latin speaking West) - refered only to 1 Maccabees as uncanonical which, if Matt1618 is correct, means that in the East this book was not read during the Churchs’ (in the East) Liturgy - which does not mean the book was not “Scripture” or not “inspired of God”…apparently “canonical” had a more narrow definition than it now does…also, many quotes from St Gregory - even from the same book from which his reference to 1 Maccabees is taken - makes many references to other “apocrypha books” as “Scripture”. Thus the assertion that “Pope” Gregory rejected “the apocrypha wholesale” is unfounded .

This is the supposed ace in the hole for anti-Deuterocanonical Protestants. We have a Roman Bishop used by Protestants to supposedly deny the Deuterocanonical books. Again, all he denied was one book’s canonical status, not its inspiration. We saw him quote from the Deuterocanonical books, and call them Scripture. He uses the phrase ‘it is written’, which is only used of Scripture, and applies that phrase numerous times to varying Deuterocanonical books. He uses those books interchangeably with the other inspired books and treats them at the same level. Thus, the Protestant apologist’s ace in the hole, a Roman Bishop, does not deny, but only affirms the Deuterocanonicals’ Scriptural status.

Matt1618
[590-604,%20A.D.]

KTF, jmt