St. Scripture Studies Week 2

Resources used for this class: Where we got the Bible by Bishop Henry Graham (1909)

Why Catholic Bibles are bigger? The Case for the Deutero-Canon By Gary Michuta

How did we get the Bible?

Was there only one set of OT scriptures in 1st century Palestine?

Read Acts 23.8 “the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection nor angels, nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three.” Why?

Sadducees- only acknowledge the Torah/Pentateuch

Pharisees acknowledge Torah + Prophets+ Historical.

In the year 282-250 BC, the Greek king of Alexandria, Ptolemy (mentioned in 1Maccabees 1.18), recruited 72 Hebrew scholars (6 from each tribe) to translate the Hebrew scripture into Greek known as the Septuagint. (Letter of Aristeas). These scriptures included the books of Tobit, Sirach, 1+2 Maccabees, Judith, Wisdom and Baruch.

In 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumram) were discovered. A society known as the Essenes also had a set of scriptures similar to the Septuagint, except they excluded Esther.

Canonical books also found in Qumran: Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Tobit, Baruch Non-Canonical Books found: Book of , Book of Enoch, Words of the , Testament of

There were several sets of accepted scriptures within Judaism. (Pharisees, Sadducees, Sanhedrin, Hellenists and Essenes.

Sadducees/Sanhedrin-Torah Pharisees- Tanach Hellenists- Septuagint Essenes-Dead Sea Scrolls

Between the Resurrection of Jesus until the actual of scripture, several lists were proposed through several ecclesiastical writers. (Iraneus, Origen).

Books were read in church that did not make it into the Bible (Clement of , , the Didache)

While books that were canonized were highly disputed (Revelation, Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2&3rd John, Jude)

Irenaeus of Lyon (150-175 AD) and Tertullian (175-200 AD) exclude the book of Philemon, 2 Peter, 3 John, and Jude.

Tertullian considered the Book of Enoch “inspired” But they include the Epistles by Clement of Rome and the Shepherd of Hermes.

Moratorium Fragments dated 175 AD excludes James and Hebrews, but includes the Apocalypse of Peter

Origen (180-230 AD) excludes 2 Peter and Revelation

1 Corinthians 5.9 “I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people”

2 Thessalonians 2.2 “not to be quickly shaken in mind or excited, either by spirit or by word, or by letter purporting to be from us”

Development of the Hebrew Canon

Palestinian scriptures- Council of Jamnia (100 AD) Rabbi Akiva (50-132 AD) - Only scriptures written in Hebrew could be “inspired” and thereby excludes the New Testament books. - Revelation ceased after - The books of Sirach, 1&2 Maccabees, Baruch, Tobit, Judith and Wisdom “do not defile the hand”. In 367 AD, St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, proposes a list of 73 inspired books

In 382, Damascus convened the Synod of Rome. This was the first mention of a fully canonized set of scriptures by the Church.

In 393, the Council of Hippo solidified the canonization of scripture by Pope Damascus.

In 397, the Council of Carthage re-certified the canon which included 73 books.

In 402, Pope Innocent 1 writes down all 73 books of the Bible. The same 73 books in our Catholic Bible

What happened? Why so many versions of the Bible? - what occurred during the Reformation of 1517 - Why were books removed? - When were the books totally removed? - The Gutenberg Bible - Deuterocanonical vs. apocrypha

How do we justify the deutero-canon: 1) John 10.22 vs. 1 Maccabees 4.56-59 2) Hebrews 11.5 vs. Genesis 5.24 (LXX) 3) Hebrews 11.35 vs. 2Maccabees 7 4) Matthew 22.23-33 vs. Tobit 3.8 5) Matthew 27.43-44 vs. Wisdom 2.17-21 6) Acts 7.14 vs. Exodus 1.4 90 % of New Testament references to the Old Testament come from the Septuagint

So how do we know we have a Catholic Bible? 1) verifying the number of books 2) checking the imprimatur 3) the book says “Catholic Bible”

Next Class September 12th

Genesis 1-2 Trinity, Creation