St. Jerome’s maxim above, continues to be true today as it was in the third and fourth centuries. The Second Vatican Council included it in its Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum paragraph 25) and the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes it in its section on Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church (paragraph 133).
The central issue is the Old Testament Canon or books. The Catholic canon is taken from the Septuagint (Greek version) which contained the full canon as attested to by a number of ancient documents and Councils. The Protestants use the version that was translated and compiled at the Jewish Council of Jamnia sometime between 90-100 A.D. The Council was convened due to the Christians using the Septuagint to proselytize the Jews. Additional, they adopted a “canonical authenticity” rule that said that only books written in Israel and in Hebrew could be admitted. Oddly enough, the Hebrew liturgical language at the time was Greek. A little know fact is that the Council was composed of Pharisees and Sadducees – though the Sadducees had the majority vote. In addition to the text not being deemed “canonical” due to language and location, all the text omitted contain text that address the resurrection of the body. As you know, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body. Modern findings seem to indicate this was more of the reason for Jamnia excluding the texts. Just a post script, the King James version of Scripture contained a full canon until 1863.
The central issue is the Old Testament Canon or books. The Catholic canon is taken from the Septuagint (Greek version) which contained the full canon as attested to by a number of ancient documents and Councils. The Protestants use the version that was translated and compiled at the Jewish Council of Jamnia sometime between 90-100 A.D. The Council was convened due to the Christians using the Septuagint to proselytize the Jews. Additional, they adopted a “canonical authenticity” rule that said that only books written in Israel and in Hebrew could be admitted. Oddly enough, the Hebrew liturgical language at the time was Greek. A little know fact is that the Council was composed of Pharisees and Sadducees – though the Sadducees had the majority vote. In addition to the text not being deemed “canonical” due to language and location, all the text omitted contain text that address the resurrection of the body. As you know, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body. Modern findings seem to indicate this was more of the reason for Jamnia excluding the texts. Just a post script, the King James version of Scripture contained a full canon until 1863.
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