I believe the early church (believers)
We're still waiting for some authoritative, pan-Christian, ecumenical ruling before 300 that officially/formally stated: "One of the books with 'Maccabees' in the moniker is hereby declared to be the inerrant, canonical, divinely-inscripturated words of God." Not some obscure regional/diocese synod or council but a pan-Christian ecumenical authorative statement. Don't parrot the mythology of the RCC invented in the 16th Century about the Council of Hippo or Carthage - they were not ecumenical or binding, they were very obscure (and still largely unknown) tiny meetings of western dioceses focused on the lectionary and they determined nothing, not even for that diocese.
Since you have nothing official for all Christianity ... since as we all know NONE of the Seven Ecumenical Councils dealt with this issue.... you have NOTHING to support your claim of what "early Christianity" DID or did not do in this regard. Now, you can claim that all Christians believed something... but you've offered NOTHING to support that, either. Can you list for us at least 5 (just 5) five Christians before the year 100 AD who clearly stated that they (in their own personal, fallible, individual OPINION) embrace one of the books with "Maccabees" in the moniker as the inerrant, canonical, divinely-inscripturated words of God? I'm ONLY asking for 5 - not every Christian. NOT if they read any such book (because people read lots of books), not if they regard such as good history (because there are millions of good history books), not if they quoted from the book (because Christians quote from MANY books - most you don't accept) but stated that in their own personal, individual, fairly-worthless opinion, one of those books is CANONICAL. I don't think you can find even one, not one. And thus we will learn your claim is.... well.... like most of your claims.
and you believe the Jews (unbelievers).
Was it you that gave a mysterious, unidentified, personal website ran by JEWS as your primary source? Demanding we believe those Jews?
You don’t have any primary sources from before the time of Christ, where a Jewish person claimed that Maccabees is “just history” and not holy scripture.
And you don't have even ONE unbelieving Jewish person (whom you insist we cannot believe anyway) who states that in their own fairly-worthless personal opinion, one of the books with "Maccabees" in the moniker is CANONICAL Scripture. 4
And you don't have even ONE believing Christian before 100 AD (or even 300 !!!) who shares their own fairly-worthless personal opinion of the same.
What you have is a mysterious, unidentified personal website of JEWS that evidently agrees with you, but you insist we don't accept what Jews say as true. And few accept that a personal website in the year 2021 is a primary source from the First Century.
When the King James Bible was published in 1611, it included Maccabees within its pages.
NOT as Scripture! The Anglican Church, in it's totally unque canon, has two distinctive levels - Scripture and Apocrypha, the later being good for reading and inspiration, but not normative... a distinctively LOWER level. Luther did much the same thing, although with fewer books. It's a question of STATUS.... for the Anglican Church, there is much emphasis on this distinction (which of course you must evade).
To the point: WHERE (at long, long last) is your proof that Jews (including my friend David) celebrate an event
because all Jews have always accepted one of the Maccabee books as CANON, as the inerrant and divinely-inscripturated words of God equal to the Five Books of Moses? Where is your proof of that?
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