What is the Orthodox Canon? (i.e. What are the books of the Orthodox Bible?) PART II

[Esdra]

Hi all,

This is part two of this thread. As it is very old, but my answer, so i believe, is quite interesting to know, i decided to start a thread PART II.

First of all I have a list of ALL apocryphal/deuterocanonical books of the old testament on this website.

Secondly the list of all apocryphal/deuterocanonical books of the Septuagint:

**

1. Tobit
2. Judith
3. Additions to Esther
4. The Wisdom of Solomon
5. Sirach
6. Baruch
7. The Letter of Jeremiah
8. Additions to Daniel:
   [consisting of
   08.1) Azariah and the three Jews
   08.2) Susanna
   08.3) Bel and the Dragon]
9. 1 Maccabees
10. 2 Maccabees
    11) 1 Esdras (=3 Ezra)**
11. The Prayer of Manasseh
    *13) Psalm 151
12. 3 Maccabees*

15) 4 Maccabees (only as appendix in some Russian Orthodox Bibles! [Mine for instance doesn’t have it!!]

---

***16) The Book of Odes (only fragmentary)
17) The psalms of Solomon ***
These books are most interesting, because I didn’t know that they exist until I head a look in the contents of the book “The Septuagint in German” by Martin Karrer and Wolfgang Kraus (by the way the FIRST German translation of the Septuagint ever!). Also interesting is that they can’t be found in any Christian Bible, no mather whether Confession (cf. summascriptura.com).

2 Esdras (= chs 1 and 2 = 5 Ezra; chs 3-15 = 4 Ezra (=the ezra apocalypse); chs. 15 and 16 = 6 Ezra) BUT: This book is only as an *appendix in the Biblia Sacra Vulgata!!*

All books marked **RED ** are deuterocanonical books in the Russian Orthodox Church. (The canon was never really declared in the Orthodox Church so it can differ from Orthodox Church to Orthodox Church!)

I have just counted the books that are deuterocanonical/apocryphal and out of the septuagint, they are 17 books, to Hesychios. The Additions to the book Daniel have to be counted as ONE book and the Odes and Psalms of Solomon are “forgotten books” (so there are even 17 deuterocanonical/apocryphal books in the Septuagint.)

Well, we all (Catholics and Orthodox) have traditionally used the Septuagint. It was primarily taken as it was received. Some of those books were not popular reading in the early church and sets of the Septuagint could be produced without the less popular books to save on expenses. That may account for the discrepency between east and west on this point.

Orthodox don’t obsess over it, we use Catholic Bibles as well as Orthodox ones, we don’t freak out because some books are missing from the Catholic Bible.

I heard from a Jewish lecturer that the Septuagint had 15 apocryphal books in it’s collection. We might call them deuterocanonical (or maybe not), but I have yet to see a complete list of all 15 and I don’t know how they arrived at that. (I wonder if he was counting each of the three deutero-canonical fragments of Daniel as separate books? In any case, I don’t think I have ever seen fifteen, I’d like to see the list.)

This is all Old Covenant stuff anyway, it was never as controversial or as critical as the process of determining the New Testament canon, because the New Testament was indeed new, and that was why congregations didn’t know what to trust for public reading.

Michael

Greetings form Middle Europe, Austria,
Esdra

 

[Eucharisted]

The Jewish People and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible

 

[SingleMomMonica]

Hi all,

This is part two of this thread. As it is very old, but my answer, so i believe, is quite interesting to know, i decided to start a thread PART II.

First of all I have a list of ALL apocryphal/deuterocanonical books of the old testament on this website.

Secondly the list of all apocryphal/deuterocanonical books of the Septuagint:

2 Esdras (= chs 1 and 2 = 5 Ezra; chs 3-15 = 4 Ezra (=the ezra apocalypse); chs. 15 and 16 = 6 Ezra) BUT: This book is only as an appendix in the Biblia Sacra Vulgata!!

All books marked **RED ** are deuterocanonical books in the Russian Orthodox Church. (The canon was never really declared in the Orthodox Church so it can differ from Orthodox Church to Orthodox Church!)

I have just counted the books that are deuterocanonical/apocryphal and out of the septuagint, they are 17 books, to Hesychios. The Additions to the book Daniel have to be counted as ONE book and the Odes and Psalms of Solomon are “forgotten books” (so there are even 17 deuterocanonical/apocryphal books in the Septuagint.)

Greetings form Middle Europe, Austria,
Esdra

4th Macc is one of my most favorite books - I don’t understand why it’s not in the Catholic Bible - it basically goes deeper into 2nd Macc those who died for their Faith by being martyred for refusing to eat pork.

4th Macc also has some wonderful verses for people to read who are trying to overcome any addictions. They ought it use it in Church based Recovery programs for overeaters, alcoholics, fornicators/adulterors and maybe even drug users.

 

[Eucharisted]

4th Macc is one of my most favorite books - I don’t understand why it’s not in the Catholic Bible - it basically goes deeper into 2nd Macc those who died for their Faith by being martyred for refusing to eat pork.

There are 8 Maccabees total, and only 1 and 2 are in the Catholic Bible because the rest (3 to 8) were written after the Canon of the Scripture was closed.

 

[SingleMomMonica]

There are 8 Maccabees total, and only 1 and 2 are in the Catholic Bible because the rest (3 to 8) were written after the Canon of the Scripture was closed.

The Canon of Scripture was closed by the Catholic Church at the Council of Rome in 382 AD - those books were really written after that? Wow! That’s a shocker

 

[Eucharisted]

The Canon of Scripture was closed by the Catholic Church at the Council of Rome in 382 AD - those books were really written after that? Wow! That’s a shocker

That’s what I read on Wikipedia. Might be wrong, given the nature of that encyclopedia.

 

[ThurifAcolyte]

That’s what I read on Wikipedia. Might be wrong, given the nature of that encyclopedia.

But that wasn’t necessarily infallible, since it wasn’t an Ecumenical Council, though the Pope did approve the list from the African local synods. From what I’ve read, the Canon wasn’t explicitly defined and made dogmatic until Trent, though Trent merely repeated the Canon listed at the Ecumenical Council of Florence.

This is actually one thing I’ve never understood, the whole 3rd and 4th Maccabees issue and why we don’t accept them as canonical but the Orthodox do.

 

[SingleMomMonica]

But that wasn’t necessarily infallible, since it wasn’t an Ecumenical Council, though the Pope did approve the list from the African local synods. From what I’ve read, the Canon wasn’t explicitly defined and made dogmatic until Trent, though Trent merely repeated the Canon listed at the Ecumenical Council of Florence.

This is actually one thing I’ve never understood, the whole 3rd and 4th Maccabees issue and why we don’t accept them as canonical but the Orthodox do.

You’re right closed at Trent, but first voted it on or listed at the Council of Rome and then in Hippo.

My Orthodox Study Bible only has Maccs 1-3, not 4 - truly a disappointment when I bought it because I love, love, love 4th Macc almost as much as I love Sirach.