HAS THE CATEGORY OF "" A JEWISH ORIGIN?

Gilles Dorival (Aix-Marseille I, CNRS, Institut Universitaire de France)

1. FROM DEUTEROCANONICAL BOOKS TO ECCLESIASTICAL BOOKS: AND BEFORE?

Often, it is said that the expression" deuterocanonical books" was created by the Fathers of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). That is not correct. But it is true that the expression was used for the first time by a theologian connected with that council, Sixtus of Siena (1520-1569) in his De divinis nominibus bib­ liothecae sanctae published in 1566.1 Sixtus was a Jew converted to Christia­ nity. He became a Franciscan, then a Dominican. In the beginning of his book, he asks the question: "what are the canonical and apocryphal Scrip­ tures and authors" (canonicae et apocryphae scripturae et scriptores quid sint). In his answer, he makes a distinction between three categories of books:

1. the canonical books of the first order, which he calls "protocanonical" (canonici primi ordinis, quos protocanonicos appellare libet); 2. the canonical books of the second order, in other words "deuterocanoni­ cal" (canonici secundi ordinis, qui olim ecclesiastici vocabantur et nunc a nobis deuterocanonici dicuntur); 3. and the "apocryphal" books, "apocryphae," the meaning of which is of two kinds, "duobus modis:" first, there are the canonical books the au­ thors of which are uncertain; secondly, there are the books the authority of which is uncertain, such as 3-4 Ezra, 3-, and others; they cannot be used either in the dogmatic field nor for public edification, but are reserved for private reading, at home, "privatim et domi."

According to Sixtus, the authority of the protocanonical books was never discussed in the Catholic Church and they have been always used in an au­ thoritative manner in dogmatic problems; he does not list these books,

1 G. Bedouelle, "Le canon de l' Ancien Testament dans la perspective du concile de Trente," in Le canon de I'Ancien Testament. Sa formation et son histoire (eds. I.-D. Kaestli and O. Wermelinger, Geneve: Labor et Fides 1984) 253-82. 2 GILLES DORIVAL except the five books of Moses and the four . He gives many more details about the deuterocanonical books: in the , those are Esther, Tobit, Judith, Baruch, , Wisdom of Solomon, Ben Sira, Prayer of Azariah, Hymn of the Three Children, , Bel, 1-2 Mac­ cabees; according to him, those books were not known during the apostolic ages by all the Church; they were read by the catechumens at the time of Athanasius, then they were used for public edification, as Rufinus tells.2 Sixtus innovates. Before him, in counciliary decrees the books he calls protocanonical and deuterocanonical were mixed together. For instance, canon 36 of the Council of Carthage (397 AD) speaks about Solomon's books, which are said to be three, four or five according to the variant rea­ dings of the manuscripts. These books are quoted between the Psalter and the Twelve Prophets. If there are only three, these are necessarily Proverbs, and , which are canonical books; but, if they are four, Wisdom, a deuterocanonical book, is included; if they are five, Wisdom and probably Ben Sira, both deuterocanonical, are included. In the same list, Tobit and Judith are quoted between Daniel and Esther. Nevertheless, the list finishes with 1-.3 Much later, in 1442, one of the decrees of the council of Florence, the Bulla unionis coptorum, quotes Tobit and Judith between Nehemiah and Esther; Wisdom and Ben Sira between Song of Songs and Isaiah; Baruch between Jeremiah and Ezekiel.4 In 1546, the Coun­ cil of Trent gives the same list.S Before the word "deuterocanonical," was there another word for saying the same thing? Sixtus' text furnishes an interesting indication: the theolo­ gian says that the books of the second order "were called in the past ecclesi­ astical, ecclesiastici, and called by us deuterocanonical." Who, in the past, has spoken about ecclesiastical books? In the days of the Council of Trent, two theologians, the Dominican Pietro Bertano and the Augustinian Girolamo Seripando, suggested that it is necessary to distinguish two categories of books. First, the authentic and canonical ones, on which our faith depends (authentici et canonici et a quibus fides nostra dependeat); secondly, the books merely canonical, which are suited to teaching and useful for reading in the churches (canonici tantum quique ad docendum idonei et ad legendum in ecclesiis utiles sunt).6 Certainly, here, the word "ecclesiastic" is not present. But in his treatise De libris sacrae scripturae (1546), the same Girolamo Seripando makes a distinction between the canonical and authentic books, the authority of

2 The beginning of Sixtus' text has been published again in Bedouelle, "Le canon," 280-82. 3 Conciliae Africae, a. 345-a. 525 (ed. C. Munier, CCSL 149, Turnhout: Brepols 1974) 43. 4 Les eoneiles reeumeniques. Les Deerets. Tome II-I : Nicee I II Latran V (ed. G. Alberigo, Paris: Cerf 1994) 1170-71. 5 Les eoneiles reeumeniques. Les Deerets. Tome II-2 : Trente II Vatican II (ed. G. Alberi­ go, Paris: Cerf 1994) 1350-53. 6 Bedouelle, "Le canon," 264-65. The text of the two theologians can be read in Societas Goerresiana, Coneilium Tridentinum (tome 5, Freiburg: Herder 1901ss.) 7, 1. 11- 14 (= Bedouelle, n. 32).