Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
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4 thoughts on “This Week’s Fathers Question”
Interesting that the protestant versions omit parts of Esther and Daniel. Are there any books in the Catholic canon that are actually part of larger non-inspired books?
I guess you could say that the selection of the protestant canon lacked Wisdom.
The Hebrew book of Esther lacks mention of God’s action in the events recounted. The parts added in the Septuagint contain interpolations that explain God’s action in Esther’s story.
The orthodox Jews explain that the lack of mention of Divine action show that God is acting, even when he is not mentioned, nor when God’s actions might not seem obvious.
A Jewish professor, raised as an orthodox Jew once assured me that Jews do recognize the Deutercanonical books, but the Jewish understanding of inspiration is a bit different. The professor told me that for an orthodox Jew, the authority of the texts depends on the degree to which the text contains Divine utterances. Orthodox Jews hold that God dictated the Pentateuch to Moses on Mt. Sinai, so every bit of those books is a Divine utterance. The other books are authoritative to the degree they contain revelations directly from God.
A friend of mine introduces the question of the Canon, and more importantly who has the authority to decide its contents, by asking to look at the Bible of his interlocutor. After carefully checking the Contents page he then says “your copy of the Bible has some pages missing”.
If someone quotes (2 Tim 3:16)
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, …” (NIV)
as proof of the primacy of Scripture over Tradition, or for Sola Scriptura, or as a self-referential proof of Scripture,
they should be reminded that when 2 Tim was written, most of what we now call the ‘New Testament’ had not yet been written. The ‘scripture’ the author literally refers to is what Christians now call the ‘Old Testament’.
Moreover, St Paul quotes from the Septuagint as his Scripture (Bible). This is evidence that St Paul accepted the Septuagint canon of the Old Testament ie he was closer to the Catholic and Orthodox canons of the OT that the 39 books of the Protestant canon.
2 Tim 3:16 seems to acknowledge Septuagint (ie Catholic and Orthodox) canons as being “God-breathed” and more “than other human writings”.
Daniel,
In addition to what you have stated, Jews do view the Pentateuch as God-breahed, notice in the NT how Jesus refers to the OT to the Pharisees and Saducees: “the Law and the Prophets”. The Jews view the Law and the Prophets as “primary” Scripture, hence the Talmud (the written oral traditions of the Jews) is based on primarily the Law and then the Prophets. The books of wisdom (like Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Baruch and Sirach), and the history books (Ruth, Samuel, Chronicles, Kings, Esther, and Maccabees) are all “peripheral” Scripture. In short, when seeking to prove, or demonstrate some sort of theological point, an Orthodox or Conservative Jew will resort first and foremost to the Law, then the Prophets, which trump the books of wisdom and history.
Interesting that the protestant versions omit parts of Esther and Daniel. Are there any books in the Catholic canon that are actually part of larger non-inspired books?
I guess you could say that the selection of the protestant canon lacked Wisdom.
The Hebrew book of Esther lacks mention of God’s action in the events recounted. The parts added in the Septuagint contain interpolations that explain God’s action in Esther’s story.
The orthodox Jews explain that the lack of mention of Divine action show that God is acting, even when he is not mentioned, nor when God’s actions might not seem obvious.
A Jewish professor, raised as an orthodox Jew once assured me that Jews do recognize the Deutercanonical books, but the Jewish understanding of inspiration is a bit different. The professor told me that for an orthodox Jew, the authority of the texts depends on the degree to which the text contains Divine utterances. Orthodox Jews hold that God dictated the Pentateuch to Moses on Mt. Sinai, so every bit of those books is a Divine utterance. The other books are authoritative to the degree they contain revelations directly from God.
A friend of mine introduces the question of the Canon, and more importantly who has the authority to decide its contents, by asking to look at the Bible of his interlocutor. After carefully checking the Contents page he then says “your copy of the Bible has some pages missing”.
If someone quotes (2 Tim 3:16)
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, …” (NIV)
as proof of the primacy of Scripture over Tradition, or for Sola Scriptura, or as a self-referential proof of Scripture,
they should be reminded that when 2 Tim was written, most of what we now call the ‘New Testament’ had not yet been written. The ‘scripture’ the author literally refers to is what Christians now call the ‘Old Testament’.
Moreover, St Paul quotes from the Septuagint as his Scripture (Bible). This is evidence that St Paul accepted the Septuagint canon of the Old Testament ie he was closer to the Catholic and Orthodox canons of the OT that the 39 books of the Protestant canon.
2 Tim 3:16 seems to acknowledge Septuagint (ie Catholic and Orthodox) canons as being “God-breathed” and more “than other human writings”.
Daniel,
In addition to what you have stated, Jews do view the Pentateuch as God-breahed, notice in the NT how Jesus refers to the OT to the Pharisees and Saducees: “the Law and the Prophets”. The Jews view the Law and the Prophets as “primary” Scripture, hence the Talmud (the written oral traditions of the Jews) is based on primarily the Law and then the Prophets. The books of wisdom (like Psalms, Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Baruch and Sirach), and the history books (Ruth, Samuel, Chronicles, Kings, Esther, and Maccabees) are all “peripheral” Scripture. In short, when seeking to prove, or demonstrate some sort of theological point, an Orthodox or Conservative Jew will resort first and foremost to the Law, then the Prophets, which trump the books of wisdom and history.