Some thoughts about the canon of the Old Testament.

[Josiah]

Jude does quote from a non-canonical book. That's a fact. Maybe the author of Jude thought it was canonical and maybe he thought the quote was apt and didn't care if it came from a canonical source or not. Nevertheless the church is (and always was) competent to decide the canon of the bible for itself so it did and the church chose more books than 66. That's a fact.

Again, to quote FROM a book is entirely unrelated to declaring that book to be the canonical inspired written word of God. Again, if my pastor next Sunday quotes from an article in the newspaper, it would be silly to conclude that THEREFORE, BY THAT, the Sunday, March 18 edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune is a part of the canonical bible, viewed by Christians as the written, inspired and canonical Word of God. Friend, that's just an incredible leap. If your pastor in a sermon quotes from Shakespeare, friend, do you actually believe he is added another book to the unique Catholic tome? Come on.... it's an absurd point, you too realize, I'm sure.

There is NO verse anywhere in the Bible that refers to another book as Scripture. The closest we have to that is 2 Peter 3:15 but it doesn't actually happen there, either.



- Josiah

 

[MoreCoffee]

Again, to quote FROM a book is entirely unrelated to declaring that book to be the canonical inspired written word of God. Again, if my pastor next Sunday quotes from an article in the newspaper, it would be silly to conclude that THEREFORE, BY THAT, the Sunday, March 18 edition of the San Diego Union-Tribune is a part of the canonical bible, viewed by Christians as the written, inspired and canonical Word of God. Friend, that's just an incredible leap. If your pastor in a sermon quotes from Shakespeare, friend, do you actually believe he is added another book to the unique Catholic tome? Come on.... it's an absurd point, you too realize, I'm sure.

There is NO verse anywhere in the Bible that refers to another book as Scripture. The closest we have to that is 2 Peter 3:15 but it doesn't actually happen there, either.



- Josiah

It would be very foolish to conclude that something your pastor quoted in a sermon was inspired. After all your pastor is not an apostle of Jesus Christ, nor is he an inspired author of holy scripture, nor is his sermon part of holy scripture. Yet Jude is an apostle of Jesus Christ, he is an inspired author of holy scripture, and his letter is a part of holy scripture. These are some significant differences between your pastor's sermons and the letter of Jude that the comparison in your post failed to notice.

 

[Josiah]

You ASSUME that if a book is QUOTED, ergo such MUST mandate that the book is thereby made a part of the Bible, regarded as the divinely inspired, canonical, written word of God. It's just a silly assumption - one you call "very foolish." I agree.

 

[MoreCoffee]

You ASSUME that if a book is QUOTED, ergo such MUST mandate that the book is thereby made a part of the Bible ...

I do not make such an absurd assumption. Take a look at my posts and see if you can find it.

 

[MoreCoffee]

All the books of the Hebrew Old Testament are cited in the New except Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon, Ezra, and Nehemiah. The absence of any explicit quote from the deuterocanonical writings does not prove that they were regarded as inferior to protocanonical books in the eyes of New Testament authors. The deuterocanonical literature as well as the wisdom literature mentioned above was unsuited to their purposes. The negative argument drawn from the non-citation of the deuterocanonicals in the New Testament is especially minimized by the indirect use made of them by the new Testament authors. This takes the form of allusions and reminiscences, and shows unquestionably that the new testament authors were acquainted with the deuterocanonicals, regarded them as at least respectable sources, and wrote more or less under the influence of those books. A comparison of Hebrews 11 and 2Maccabees 4 and 7 reveals unmistakable references in Hebrews to the heroism of the martyrs glorified in the 2Maccabees. There are close affinities of thought, and in some cases also of language, between 1 Peter 1:6-7, and Wisdom 3:5-6; Hebrews 1:3, and Wisdom 7:26-27; 1 Corinthians 10:9-10, and Judith 8:24-25; 1 Corinthians 6:13, and Ecclesiasticus 36:20.