1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:22,000 ♪♪ 2 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,000 All right, welcome everyone. 3 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:26,000 Like I said, I'm glad to see people. 4 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:28,000 I was expecting three or four people to show up. 5 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:34,000 So yeah, so here's the beautiful part. 6 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,000 I've been thinking a lot about this. 7 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:38,000 That's why I wasn't sure how many people would show up. 8 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:43,000 But all of you right now, you should congratulate yourselves 9 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:52,000 because you are the hardcore biblical scholars at this conference. 10 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000 Let me explain, because when you get back to your parishes 11 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 and people ask you, what talks did you go? 12 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,000 What did you study at the conference? 13 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:10,000 You're going to say, I went and I studied the table of contents. 14 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:15,000 Now tell me, if you're not really into the Bible, right, 15 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:20,000 you would, of all the great talks, and I wish I could buy, locate, and go to some of them, 16 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,000 you picked the table of contents. 17 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,000 So good for you, and it's nice to know I'm not the only nerd in the world. 18 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:35,000 But that being said, the table of contents is incredibly important 19 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,000 because it's so foundational. 20 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:45,000 In other words, you need to know which books are the word of God and which ones aren't. 21 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,000 Because if you have books in Scripture that aren't inspired, 22 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,000 how are you going to base your theology? 23 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,000 Your theology will be way off. 24 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:58,000 Or, if your Bible's missing inspired books, 25 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,000 there's divine revelation that will also be missing. 26 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:06,000 So it's very pivotal for theology to make sure, at the ground level, 27 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:09,000 that you have all those books and only those books 28 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,000 which the Holy Spirit wished to be consigned to writing. 29 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:13,000 Amen? 30 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,000 All right, so it's also, by the way, an explosive topic 31 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,000 for those who talk to our Cypriot brethren, to Protestants, 32 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:26,000 because Protestants don't share the same view on the Old Testament canon, 33 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000 and I'll talk about that in a second as well. 34 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:34,000 So that's, for my money, I think, for Catholic Protestant apologetics, 35 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:38,000 the issue of the Old Testament canon is pivotal. 36 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:40,000 Now, I've already thrown out a term. 37 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,000 We need to start with defining terms. 38 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 So I've talked to a few people before the talk. 39 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 Some of you are not familiar with the subject. 40 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:52,000 Some of you are very advanced. 41 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,000 So please be patient. 42 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,000 I'm going to try to bring this all up to speed, okay? 43 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,000 So let's start by defining terms. 44 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:00,000 I already used the word canon. 45 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,000 And the table of contents is a good way to think of a canon. 46 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:11,000 The canon basically is the extent of inspired writings. 47 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:16,000 The extent of inspired writings. 48 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:26,000 So in a way, God makes the canon objectively by inspiring a set number of books. 49 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:32,000 So all the books that are inspired are canonical, 50 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:36,000 and any book that's not inspired is not canonical. 51 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,000 It doesn't belong in the Bible. 52 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,000 Everybody with me? Amen? 53 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:41,000 All right, very good. 54 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,000 I'm going to use the Tim Staples method of affirming propositions. 55 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:47,000 All right. 56 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:50,000 So what does it mean to be inspired? 57 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:54,000 Well, if you're going to be inspired, this is the wrong talk to go to be inspired. 58 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,000 Because when I'm going to be talking about inspiration, 59 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:01,000 I'm not talking about motivation. 60 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:07,000 I'm not talking about getting good feelings and wanting to do something good. 61 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:09,000 I'm using it in a technical sense. 62 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:11,000 So that's very important. 63 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:16,000 People get this mixed up because somebody could read Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress 64 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:22,000 or The Lord of the Rings and get inspired in their faith. 65 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:25,000 But that doesn't mean The Lord of the Rings belongs in the Bible. 66 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,000 There's a big difference between the two. 67 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,000 So when we talk about inspiration in this talk, 68 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:39,000 very simply what we mean is that the Holy Spirit is the primary author of the work. 69 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,000 So there are actually two authors in the Bible. 70 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:46,000 There is God, the Holy Spirit, who's the primary author. 71 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:52,000 So all those things and only those things the Holy Spirit wished to consign to writing 72 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,000 was consigned in Scripture. 73 00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,000 So the Holy Spirit can look at the Bible, look at every word in the Bible, 74 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,000 and say, that's mine. 75 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:07,000 At the same time, there is also the secondary author, the human author. 76 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:13,000 And the human author is inspired by the Holy Spirit to write. 77 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:17,000 And he uses all the agencies that he normally has. 78 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,000 So he relies on his own human memory. 79 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:26,000 He relies on his own literary twists and turns. 80 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:29,000 And he's an authentic author of Scripture as well. 81 00:05:29,000 --> 00:05:35,000 So the human author can look at the book that he just wrote and say, this is mine. 82 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:42,000 So Scripture is a mysterious thing because it actually has two authors who wrote everything. 83 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:46,000 And by the way, that's why when you read the books of the Bible, 84 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,000 different books sound different. 85 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:52,000 Like to me, the book of Judges sounds almost like caveman talk, 86 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,000 very blocky, primitive. 87 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,000 But if you read the book of Wisdom, it's beautiful. 88 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,000 It's wonderful. 89 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,000 Don't sound anything alike because the two different authors, human authors, 90 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,000 yet they're both the Word of God. 91 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:11,000 They're both inspired by the Holy Spirit. 92 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:15,000 All right, so let's talk a little bit about canon. 93 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,000 And then we'll jump into the fun stuff. 94 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:20,000 All right. 95 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:24,000 I'm going to make a division within the Old Testament 96 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:28,000 between proto-canonical books and deuterocanonical books. 97 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:34,000 Now, this division is not any different in terms of inspiration 98 00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,000 or anything of the like. 99 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,000 It's just a way to divide. 100 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,000 Like the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings are divisions. 101 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:45,000 Or you could have the sapiential books versus the historical books. 102 00:06:45,000 --> 00:06:47,000 Just ways of categorizing things. 103 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:48,000 They're all the Word of God. 104 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,000 They're all inspired. 105 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:58,000 Now, okay, the books that are found in Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, 106 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:02,000 and Jewish Bibles, we all share these books. 107 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,000 These are the books of the proto-canon. 108 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,000 Okay, the proto-canon, proto-canonical books. 109 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:13,000 Those are books that we all share together, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, 110 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,000 the Orthodox. 111 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:18,000 There's 39 books. 112 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:23,000 Now, there are seven Old Testament books that are found in Catholic 113 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:30,000 and Orthodox Bibles, but they're not found in Protestant or Jewish Bibles. 114 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,000 These books, Catholics and Orthodox, call deuterocanonical, 115 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,000 which is just a fancy Greek term for second canon. 116 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,000 And again, for us, it's just a division within Scripture. 117 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:47,000 It doesn't have anything to do with it being less inspired or anything like that. 118 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:53,000 So if I say deuterocanonical books, I'm talking about seven Old Testament books, 119 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:55,000 and here they are again. 120 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,000 They're omitted in Jewish and Protestant Bibles. 121 00:07:57,000 --> 00:08:04,000 The books of Wisdom, Sirach, Tobit, Judith, Baruch, 1 and 2 Maccabees, 122 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:09,000 and also we have longer versions of Daniel and Esther. 123 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:14,000 So if you know somebody who's a self-styled Bible thumper, 124 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:18,000 tell them they should become Catholics so they have more Bible to thump 125 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,000 because they don't have these books. 126 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:23,000 Now, we include them because they're inspired. 127 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:27,000 Protestant and Jewish people don't include them, 128 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:32,000 at least not as part of the canon because they deny the inspiration. 129 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:36,000 They have a different term, and that's apocrypha. 130 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:39,000 Apocrypha just means hidden. 131 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,000 These are books that aren't publicly read as Scripture in the church. 132 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:46,000 And this is a really poor term. 133 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:53,000 Even Protestants admit that the deuterocanon doesn't really fit the term apocrypha. 134 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:58,000 So that's what this talk's going to be, essentially, 135 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:02,000 except I'm going to put a different spin. 136 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:08,000 I tell you, this is an interesting talk because this is applied biblical studies talk, 137 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:12,000 and I want you to be inspired in the human sense. 138 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:16,000 I want you to be willing to dive into the Word of God. 139 00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:19,000 How can you do that with a table of contents, right? 140 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:22,000 So this is what I'm aiming for. 141 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,000 Okay, now, I wrote a book. 142 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:26,000 It's called A Case for the Deuterocanon. 143 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:30,000 It's time for a cheap plug. 144 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,000 It's interesting how this book came about. 145 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:40,000 Years ago, I did a debate against one of the most prominent anti-Catholic persons out there, 146 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,000 and I'm not going to mention James White's name. 147 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:51,000 But the thesis of the debate was that the apocrypha is not Scripture. 148 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:56,000 And I went to the debate, and I agreed with the thesis as a Catholic. 149 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:01,000 I said the apocrypha is not Scripture, but the deuterocanon is not apocrypha, right? 150 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:03,000 So that was my position. 151 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:05,000 And I think it went pretty well. 152 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:07,000 It went pretty well. 153 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:14,000 Got a lot of Protestants who were interested, came up to my table afterwards with some sincere questions. 154 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:18,000 So I thought, well, you know, this is an important topic. 155 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,000 Boomerang, wouldn't it? 156 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:26,000 Gee, if that's the best they can do from Scripture, maybe this guy is the Messiah, right? 157 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:29,000 But they quote the Book of Wisdom. 158 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:31,000 So what does that imply? 159 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,000 Wisdom was considered authoritative. 160 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:40,000 It was considered Scripture, if not by all the Jews, certainly by Jesus and his disciples. 161 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,000 So you see how it works? 162 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:50,000 How these texts are used shows you that these are more than just mere human documents. 163 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Here's one that I recently discovered. 164 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:59,000 And I discovered it in, of all things, Protestant commentaries. 165 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:04,000 Like I said, why limit to quotations when you could use references? 166 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:08,000 Now, I don't know if you guys know this, but in Hebrews 11, 167 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:11,000 I'm sure you'd know that it's the great hall of faith, 168 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:14,000 where it lists all the Old Testament saints, 169 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:19,000 beginning with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, David, Jephthah, 170 00:11:19,000 --> 00:11:23,000 just goes through this whole hall of fame. 171 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:32,000 That in Hebrews 11, 35, the second half, so it's 35b, it says this, 172 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,000 And others were tortured, not accepting their release, 173 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:41,000 so that they might obtain a better resurrection. 174 00:11:41,000 --> 00:11:45,000 Who is that referencing? 175 00:11:45,000 --> 00:11:47,000 Now, here's the curious thing. 176 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,000 It gives us three clues, right? 177 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,000 Whoever's being referenced, they were tortured, 178 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:57,000 they were offered a chance to be released, 179 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:00,000 explicitly for the resurrection. 180 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,000 In other words, they refused to be released 181 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:07,000 because they knew their bodies would rise again at the end of time. 182 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,000 Now, who in the Old Testament fulfills this? 183 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:15,000 If you have a Protestant Bible, a modern one, 184 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,000 without the so-called apocrypha, 185 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:23,000 you won't find anyone who can satisfy all three of those markers. 186 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,000 There is no one in the Old Testament. 187 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:32,000 But if you have a Catholic or an Orthodox Bible, guess what? 188 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:39,000 You find this reference in 2 Maccabees 6-7, 189 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,000 where the Maccabean martyrs, 190 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:46,000 which in my next workshop we'll talk more about the Maccabean martyrs, 191 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:49,000 were tortured, refused release, 192 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:52,000 for the sake of a better resurrection. 193 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,000 Exactly what it's described here in 11, 35. 194 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:59,000 And guess what? Old Protestant Bibles have cross-references. 195 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:03,000 So they recognized 2 Maccabees as being used. 196 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,000 Now, I think, on the surface, 197 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:12,000 that's a good reason to suspect that they believe 2 Maccabees was inspired. 198 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:15,000 After all, you have all these biblical figures being listed. 199 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:21,000 It would be strange if they listed somebody who wasn't in the Bible. 200 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,000 So I think you have an argument there. 201 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,000 But actually, God bless anti-Catholics. 202 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:29,000 I love anti-Catholics. 203 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:33,000 Because I was challenged by an anti-Catholic on this, 204 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,000 on the New Testament use. 205 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:37,000 And that made me dig. 206 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:43,000 And I uncovered something very interesting here in Hebrews 11. 207 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:47,000 What I uncovered was a formal reference. 208 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:49,000 Now, remember back I was saying a formal reference, 209 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:52,000 like, it is written, thus saith the Lord. 210 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,000 It's actually there in Hebrews 11. 211 00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:57,000 But it's kind of hidden. 212 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:00,000 And so these Protestant scholars see it, 213 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,000 but they don't put two and two together. 214 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:07,000 Okay, so let me walk through this slowly, 215 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,000 and I'll show you what I mean. 216 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:14,000 The Hall of Faith is introduced with the words, 217 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:18,000 it is attested. 218 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,000 For by it, by faith, the men of old gained approval. 219 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:25,000 That's how it is in the New American Bible. 220 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:29,000 Other Bibles will have, like, well attested. 221 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:32,000 The Greek word is martyrio. 222 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:33,000 You don't have to memorize martyrio, 223 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:37,000 but just know that the word, by it, 224 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,000 the men of old gained approval. 225 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:42,000 Gained approval is martyrio. 226 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:45,000 Now, this is from the Word Biblical Commentary 227 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:50,000 edited by William L. Lane for Hebrews. 228 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:53,000 And what he notices, very interesting, 229 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,000 is that word martyrio, 230 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:00,000 that verb is used seven times in the Epistle of Hebrews. 231 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:01,000 And he gives you the references here, 232 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,000 so if you want to grab your cell phone, 233 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,000 take a quick shot. 234 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,000 There are all the references where that word is used. 235 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,000 And notice what he says. 236 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,000 He says, in each instance, 237 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:19,000 the reference is to the witness of the Biblical record. 238 00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,000 Oh, that's interesting. 239 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:24,000 In fact, in the Epistle of Hebrews, 240 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:28,000 he uses martyrio to introduce Old Testament quotes 241 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,000 akin to it is written, 242 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,000 only he says it is testified. 243 00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,000 You see that? 244 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:37,000 So that's a formal introduction 245 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:42,000 that's used for Scripture exclusively in Hebrews. 246 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:43,000 Okay, Gary, big deal. 247 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:46,000 So that one verse has that word. 248 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,000 What does that have to do with Hebrews 11.35b, right? 249 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:52,000 Glad you asked. 250 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:54,000 Because it's also used, that very same word, 251 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:59,000 at the end in Hebrews 11.39. 252 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,000 It says, yet all these, 253 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:04,000 all these people that were just mentioned, 254 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:07,000 approved because of their faith, 255 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,000 did not receive what God had promised. 256 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:16,000 That word approved is martyrio, the same word. 257 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:18,000 Martyrio at the beginning of the list, 258 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,000 martyrio at the end of the list. 259 00:16:21,000 --> 00:16:25,000 Okay, now, everybody with me so far? 260 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,000 Okay, because we are getting into technical waters. 261 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:30,000 Now, here's the interesting thing. 262 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:34,000 Scholars recognize that this is what's called an inclusio, 263 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,000 which is a real fancy term that you can use with your friends. 264 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:44,000 And basically an inclusio is what marks off the sections in text. 265 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:46,000 Think of it like bookends. 266 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,000 You know, if you have a bookshelf with bookends, 267 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:54,000 inclusio is two bookends that enclose the books in between. 268 00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000 Now, put this all together, 269 00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,000 which you don't find in Protestant scholarship, 270 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:07,000 what you find is all those who are listed are attested. 271 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:11,000 All those who are tested are people in the Bible. 272 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,000 Maccabees is attested. 273 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:20,000 Therefore, the Maccabean martyrs are in the author of Hebrew's Bible. 274 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,000 This is the equivalent of it is written. 275 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,000 But it's kind of hidden, though. 276 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,000 You kind of have to tease it out a little bit. 277 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:29,000 You see that? 278 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:32,000 So we know that the inspired author of Hebrews, his Bible, 279 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,000 had the Maccabean martyrs in it. 280 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,000 Amen? 281 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,000 Does that mean it's inspired scripture? 282 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,000 Yeah, it does. 283 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:44,000 And he makes no qualification between them and the others. 284 00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:46,000 Okay, moving on. 285 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:48,000 All right. 286 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:53,000 A second-line argument, the prophetic nature of the Deuterocanon. 287 00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:57,000 This one's maybe not quite as a lock. 288 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:00,000 And, by the way, there's many other instances as well. 289 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,000 If you want those, you can get the case for the Deuterocanon. 290 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,000 Also, I have a YouTube channel called the Apocrypha Apocalypse, 291 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:11,000 the worst possible title you can have for a YouTube channel 292 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,000 because no one gets it right. 293 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:16,000 Or you could just type my name in YouTube and it'll come up. 294 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:21,000 And we're doing videos where we're breaking down the issues of the Deuterocanon and stuff. 295 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,000 So if you want more, there's tons of stuff in there. 296 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,000 Or you could get the case. 297 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:28,000 Good stuff. 298 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,000 Okay, prophetic nature. 299 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:37,000 The Deuterocanon says things about God that I think go way beyond any mere human document. 300 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:41,000 Now, all these were written before the time of Christ. 301 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:49,000 And I think this is a good indication that since they can't learn it from nature, 302 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:53,000 and there's nothing in the protocanon, those books everybody accepts, 303 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:56,000 that could give them a clue about these things, 304 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:01,000 then it has to come from God because it's affirmed in the New Testament. 305 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:03,000 Okay? 306 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:07,000 Now, here's another snippet from the 1611 King James Bible. 307 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,000 There's other Protestant translations also have these cross-references. 308 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:13,000 This is the Hebrews 1.3. 309 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:17,000 It has a cross-reference to Wisdom 7.26, I think. 310 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:21,000 All right, either 26 or 27, I can't see. 311 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:24,000 Okay, so let's look at a couple of these really quick. 312 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:30,000 Book of Baruch 3.35-38. 313 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:37,000 Now, modern Bible translations butcher this. 314 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:38,000 They butcher this text. 315 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:42,000 So if you have a New American Bible, how many people here use the New American Bible? 316 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:46,000 Okay, if you do use it and you didn't raise your hand, I don't blame you. 317 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:52,000 Even New Revised Catholic Edition doesn't get it right. 318 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:53,000 This is from the King James. 319 00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:58,000 This is the King James Apocrypha translation. 320 00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,000 So this is actually a Protestant, but they get it right, though. 321 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,000 They get the Greek right. 322 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:03,000 It says, 323 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:11,000 This is our God, and there is none other be accounted in comparison of him. 324 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:14,000 He hath found all the ways of knowledge. 325 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,000 He has given it unto Jacob his servant, and Israel his beloved. 326 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:20,000 Now notice what it says here. 327 00:20:20,000 --> 00:20:29,000 Afterwards did he show himself upon earth and conversed with men. 328 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:31,000 Hmm. 329 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:36,000 When did God appear on earth and converse with men? 330 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,000 I thought no one could see God and live. 331 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:43,000 In fact, John says no one has ever seen God. 332 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:44,000 So he confirms. 333 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:47,000 No one's ever seen God in the Old Testament. 334 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:51,000 When did God appear on earth and converse with us? 335 00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:54,000 In Jesus Christ, right? 336 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:59,000 So here you have a prophetic, predictive prophecy 337 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,000 in a Deuterocanonical book concerning the Incarnation. 338 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:06,000 And by the way, do you think the early church fathers saw this and ran with it? 339 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:10,000 You betcha, right? 340 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:14,000 Okay, here's another one. 341 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:19,000 If anybody wants to check their eyesight, you know, you could try to do this. 342 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:23,000 This is how all my PowerPoints looked for the first ten years of ministry. 343 00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,000 I was terrible at putting it together. 344 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:29,000 The reason I have this the way it is is because it's easy to see. 345 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:36,000 This is a portion of the second chapter of the Book of Wisdom. 346 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:40,000 And you don't need to read the words. 347 00:21:40,000 --> 00:21:44,000 I did it so each line is a verse. 348 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:50,000 Now, in addition to that, whenever something in the verse is confirmed in the New Testament, 349 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,000 I give the references in yellow. 350 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,000 So you don't really have to read it. Just look at the yellow. 351 00:21:55,000 --> 00:22:02,000 Notice, like, every verse except one doesn't have a confirmation in the New Testament. 352 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:06,000 And yet it goes into amazing detail, prolonged detail, 353 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:11,000 about the persecution of the righteous one. 354 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:17,000 And notice at the end it has that text that's referenced in Matthew 27, 43. 355 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,000 It's all in that context. 356 00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:25,000 How can a document that's written purely by human ingenuity 357 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:32,000 come up with such an extended, detailed prophecy about the Messiah 358 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,000 hundreds of years before Jesus? 359 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,000 Hmm. That's interesting. 360 00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:40,000 Okay. 361 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:44,000 So again, it doesn't prove it, but it does kind of, it's a persuasion. 362 00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:49,000 It moves you in that direction that there's something more going on in wisdom 363 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,000 than just mere human wisdom. 364 00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:53,000 All right. 365 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:54,000 Next. 366 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,000 One of my favorites. 367 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,000 Sorry, didn't mean to blow the ears out. 368 00:22:58,000 --> 00:22:59,000 All right. 369 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:04,000 Now, Wisdom 7, one of my favorite chapters in the book of Wisdom, 370 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:10,000 probably my favorite chapter in the whole Bible, in the Old Testament. 371 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:16,000 It's talking about the relationship of God's wisdom to himself. 372 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:17,000 Okay? 373 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,000 Very interesting. 374 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:20,000 And again, in the next workshop, 375 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:24,000 I'm going to explain how that fits in with salvation history. 376 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:26,000 But in it, it describes wisdom. 377 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:33,000 It says, for she, that's wisdom, is the refulgence of eternal light. 378 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:36,000 The reason it has she is linguistic. 379 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,000 Sophia in Greek is wisdom. 380 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,000 And Sophia is a feminine noun. 381 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:43,000 So you can't say he. 382 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:44,000 You have to say she. 383 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,000 Don't let that mix you up because it's just linguistics. 384 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,000 It doesn't mean feminine per se. 385 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:57,000 So God's wisdom is the refulgence of eternal light. 386 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,000 That is the relationship of those two. 387 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:01,000 What's refulgence? 388 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:02,000 It's a weird word. 389 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:03,000 Very rare in English. 390 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,000 We don't use it a lot. 391 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:09,000 King James renders it, I think, very well as brightness. 392 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,000 That the wisdom of God is the brightness of eternal light. 393 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,000 Okay? 394 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,000 And it's a rare word in English. 395 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,000 It's a rare word in Greek. 396 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,000 The word there is apagesma. 397 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:25,000 Apagesma. 398 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:29,000 In the entire Greek Bible, Old and New Testament, 399 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:33,000 apagesma is used twice. 400 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,000 Once in the old. 401 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,000 Once in the new. 402 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:41,000 Once in Wisdom 7:26. 403 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,000 The other in Hebrews 1:3. 404 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,000 That cross-reference that we saw at the beginning. 405 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,000 So Protestants saw this connection. 406 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,000 The exact same Greek word. 407 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,000 Hebrews is talking about, interesting enough, 408 00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:00,000 the relationship of the son to the father. 409 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,000 And how does he describe that relationship? 410 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:08,000 The son is the brightness of his glory. 411 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,000 The very imprint of his being. 412 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:18,000 So the son is related to the father as brightness is to glory and wisdom. 413 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,000 Its brightness is to eternal light. 414 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,000 It doesn't seem very profound at first. 415 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,000 But when you go through church history, 416 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:33,000 it's very, very, very important. 417 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,000 Why? Because there was a heresy called Arianism. 418 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,000 The Arians believed that the son, before the incarnation, 419 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:43,000 was created by the father. 420 00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:47,000 So there was a time where the son was not. 421 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000 And then the father created the son, and then the son was. 422 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,000 And since he's a creature like us, 423 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:57,000 he's not of the same substance or nature. 424 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:03,000 He's like the father in nature, but he's not the same as the father. 425 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,000 Okay? Everybody follow me on that? 426 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000 Well, if you don't, maybe this will make it clear. 427 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:13,000 So the early church fathers, when they're combating this heresy, 428 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,000 about a Trinitarian doctrine, this is what they came up with. 429 00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:20,000 Now, all right. 430 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,000 So the eternal light and brightness. 431 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,000 Now, when you think of eternal light, think of the sun or a flame. 432 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:29,000 Flame's probably better, right? 433 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:34,000 They didn't have light bulbs back in 2nd century BC. 434 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,000 So a flame, okay? 435 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:42,000 All right. A flame gives off brightness. 436 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:47,000 Now, there's some interesting things you could deduce from that, okay? 437 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:54,000 For example, if the sun is like the brightness to God's fire, if you will, 438 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:58,000 then let me ask you a question about fire and light. 439 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:03,000 Does the brightness of the fire generate the fire, 440 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:08,000 or does the fire generate the brightness? 441 00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,000 The fire generates the brightness. 442 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:15,000 Plug it into Wisdom 7 and Hebrews 1, guess what? 443 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,000 That means the father generates the son. 444 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:21,000 The son does not generate the father. 445 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:23,000 Interesting. 446 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,000 How about this? 447 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:33,000 Can fire exist without brightness? 448 00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000 Can you have a fire that doesn't give off any brightness whatsoever? 449 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:40,000 Think about it. It's kind of weird. A black flame? 450 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:44,000 I mean, I don't even know how that would look, right? 451 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:47,000 No. Brightness is generated by the fire, 452 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,000 and so if you don't have a fire, you don't have brightness, 453 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,000 but if you have a fire, you have brightness. 454 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000 So what does this mean in terms of the father and the son? 455 00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,000 If you have the father, you have the son. 456 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:05,000 In other words, the son is co-eternal with the father, 457 00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:08,000 because it's the eternal light that exists. 458 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,000 You have the eternal brightness that exists. 459 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:12,000 You see that? 460 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,000 So this idea that the father created the son in time 461 00:28:17,000 --> 00:28:21,000 goes completely against this analogy. 462 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:26,000 Also, the son is consubstantial with the father. 463 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:30,000 Since everything that comes from God is God, 464 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,000 and the brightness comes from the fire, 465 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:37,000 that means that the son is God. 466 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:41,000 And all that from a single verse, right? 467 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:45,000 In fact, I love this little quote from Augustine. 468 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:47,000 Talking about the Arians, he says, 469 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,000 Give me then here a fire without brightness, 470 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:53,000 and I believe you that the father ever was without the son. 471 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:56,000 There's a great challenge to give Jehovah witnesses. 472 00:28:56,000 --> 00:28:57,000 They come to your door and say, 473 00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,000 Yeah, show me a fire that doesn't get brightness, 474 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:04,000 and I'll show you, because basically they believe the son is created. 475 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:05,000 Okay. 476 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,000 Now, this might sound familiar to you. 477 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:10,000 Why? 478 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,000 Because how many people here have ever been at Mass? 479 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:15,000 Okay. 480 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:17,000 That was a safe question. 481 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:21,000 How many people here have recited the creed at Mass? 482 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,000 Okay, thank you. 483 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,000 Do you remember this? 484 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,000 God from God, light from light, 485 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,000 true God from true God, 486 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,000 begotten, not made, 487 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,000 consubstantial with the father. 488 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:38,000 You ever wonder where light from light came from? 489 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:41,000 It actually comes from Wisdom 7. 490 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,000 It's the brightness of the eternal light. 491 00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,000 The early fathers used this to hammer the Arians 492 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:49,000 and help develop Trinitarian doctrine. 493 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,000 Now, let me ask you a question. 494 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,000 If Wisdom is just a mere human book, 495 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,000 how in the world did the author know about the Trinity 496 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:02,000 and the exact relationship of the son to the father? 497 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:06,000 If not, the Holy Spirit inspired that. 498 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,000 So I like that. 499 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:09,000 I love the Book of Wisdom. 500 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:10,000 I could go on and on. 501 00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:12,000 All right. 502 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:14,000 Third line of argument, 503 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:18,000 the early church fathers. 504 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,000 Yeah, this is very interesting. 505 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,000 See, what I'm trying to get at is this. 506 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:28,000 What Catholics and Protestants agree with is 507 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,000 that there's only one person who infallibly 508 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,000 and with absolute certainty knew the canon of Scripture, 509 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:36,000 and that is God. 510 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:39,000 So Jesus Christ, God incarnate, 511 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:41,000 knows the canon infallibly. 512 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:42,000 Amen? 513 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,000 Yeah, Protestants would say amen to that. 514 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,000 Now, Jesus, knowing the true canon of Scripture, 515 00:30:48,000 --> 00:30:51,000 would have shared that with his disciples 516 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:53,000 because after all, they're his disciples. 517 00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,000 He's training them. 518 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:56,000 Amen? 519 00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:00,000 So Jesus wouldn't use a pseudepigraphical work 520 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,000 like Janice and Jambres or something like that. 521 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,000 He'd use Scripture. 522 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,000 And it would have been the apostle's duty 523 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:09,000 to hand on that collection to the early church 524 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:13,000 because in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, 525 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,000 Jesus says go and teach everything that I've told you. 526 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,000 And that would include the canon. 527 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:20,000 Amen? 528 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:22,000 So if we could determine what the early church 529 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,000 received from Jesus and his apostles, 530 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:26,000 that sacred Scripture, 531 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,000 we know the true and infallible canon. 532 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:32,000 That's how I use the case for the deuterocanon. 533 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:36,000 So the early church fathers come into play. 534 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,000 But before we do that, I want to show you this. 535 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,000 Okay, this is from 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17. 536 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,000 And it's one of those few passages in Scripture 537 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:47,000 that speak directly to inspiration of Scripture. 538 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:48,000 It says, 539 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,000 All Scripture is inspired by God, 540 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,000 and it's useful for teaching, 541 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,000 for refutation, for correction, 542 00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:56,000 for training in righteousness, 543 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,000 so that the one who belongs to God 544 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:02,000 may be competent, equipped for every good work. 545 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:07,000 Notice it has two things that it says about Scripture. 546 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,000 First, all Scripture is inspired. 547 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,000 Second, since the Holy Spirit inspires these writings, 548 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,000 they're authoritative. 549 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,000 You can use these writings to do teaching, 550 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:23,000 refutation, correction, training in righteousness. 551 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:24,000 Why? 552 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,000 Because they have divine authority. 553 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:27,000 All right? 554 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:29,000 So those two things. 555 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:34,000 Now, I'm a nerd when it comes to deuterocanonical stuff. 556 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:36,000 And I read all sorts of... 557 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:41,000 I even read old English newspapers with op-ed pieces. 558 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:47,000 One time I was reading one from 1903. 559 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:49,000 I forgot what paper it was. 560 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,000 But they're beautiful because 561 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,000 Catholicism is still very much... 562 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:56,000 It's a lot of anti-Catholicism in England at that time. 563 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000 And so whenever they'd have an anti-Catholic article, 564 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,000 usually you'd have a very well-educated priest 565 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:04,000 who would write a counter to it. 566 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,000 So there's actually some little nuggets in there. 567 00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:10,000 And I was reading one of the articles, 568 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,000 and this priest said, 569 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,000 How can these books not be inspired Scripture 570 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:17,000 since the early church fathers 571 00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:21,000 used them to confirm doctrine? 572 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:22,000 Now, that was a shock. 573 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,000 I never heard that before. 574 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:28,000 The early church used the deuterocanon to confirm doctrine? 575 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:31,000 So he gave 11 examples of where it's used, 576 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,000 like we saw with Wisdom 726, 577 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:36,000 where it's used for the Trinity. 578 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:39,000 There's other examples as well. 579 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:41,000 So me, I'm thinking, 580 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,000 Okay, that was 19-oh-whatever. 581 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:47,000 I'm sure I could probably find 582 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:50,000 12 or 13 other instances. 583 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,000 Maybe 14, you know, 584 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,000 that we've discovered work since then. 585 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:56,000 There's probably 14, 15. 586 00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,000 So I decided I'm going to go through 587 00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:01,000 the early church fathers, 588 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,000 and I'm going to look for those two things. 589 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,000 So for Class A, if I find anything 590 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:08,000 where in the early church, 591 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,000 when an early church father quotes the deuterocanon 592 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:12,000 with something like, 593 00:34:12,000 --> 00:34:14,000 Scripture says, 594 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:15,000 thus saith the Lord, 595 00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:16,000 the Son says, 596 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,000 the Holy Spirit says, 597 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:19,000 any formal introduction, 598 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:21,000 that's Class A. 599 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:22,000 Just like Paul says, 600 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,000 all Scripture is inspired by God. 601 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:26,000 And then for the other quotes, 602 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,000 if it ever confirmed doctrine, 603 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,000 like this priest says, 604 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:33,000 I'll put it in the Class B citations 605 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:35,000 where they use it to confirm doctrine. 606 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:36,000 Okay? 607 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:37,000 And this is important 608 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,000 because this is the whole reason 609 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,000 why Protestantism rejected these books. 610 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,000 Martin Luther in 15, 611 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,000 I believe it's 19, 612 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:47,000 yeah, 1519, 613 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,000 in a debate over purgatory, 614 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:54,000 refused to admit 2 Maccabees into debate. 615 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,000 The Johann Eck cited 2 Maccabees 616 00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,000 as proof of purgatory. 617 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:00,000 And here's what Luther says. 618 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:01,000 He says, 619 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:02,000 there's no proof of purgatory 620 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:05,000 in any portion of sacred Scripture 621 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:08,000 which can be entered into argument 622 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:10,000 and serve as proof. 623 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:11,000 Says, 624 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:12,000 for the book of Maccabees 625 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:13,000 not being in the canon 626 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,000 is of weight with the faithful, 627 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:18,000 but avails nothing against the obstinate. 628 00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:21,000 So Luther says, 629 00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:23,000 hold on, Johann Eck. 630 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,000 You can't cite 2 Maccabees for purgatory. 631 00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:28,000 That can't be entered into debate. 632 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:29,000 Why? 633 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:30,000 Because it's not canonical. 634 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,000 It's not inspired. 635 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,000 Okay? 636 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,000 So did the early church agree with Luther? 637 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:40,000 Or was Luther following the early church? 638 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:41,000 It's funny. 639 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,000 Protestants say he's just following the early church. 640 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,000 Catholics say the opposite. 641 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:46,000 It's a historical question. 642 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:47,000 We could look it up and find out. 643 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,000 So I started diving into the early church fathers. 644 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:53,000 By the way, 645 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:54,000 in my book, 646 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,000 Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger, 647 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,000 I actually found three instances 648 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:00,000 where Martin Luther, 649 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:03,000 in a theological debate, 650 00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:08,000 uses the Deuterocanon as proof text for debate. 651 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:10,000 All of them before 1519, 652 00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,000 his debate against Johann Eck. 653 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,000 From that point on, 654 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:17,000 he no longer uses them. 655 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,000 And Protestants no longer use them. 656 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,000 So I found a flip-flop for Luther. 657 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:23,000 All right. 658 00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:24,000 So anyway, 659 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:25,000 I look at there and I'm thinking, 660 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,000 okay, I could probably find 15 or 16. 661 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:29,000 That'd be really impressive. 662 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:30,000 So I looked. 663 00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,000 I only looked at the early church fathers 664 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,000 from the time of Christ, 665 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,000 the apostolic fathers, 666 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:39,000 all the way to the 4th century, 667 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:42,000 up to the end of the 4th century. 668 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:47,000 And guess what I found? 669 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,000 What would you say? 670 00:36:49,000 --> 00:36:51,000 20? 671 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:52,000 30? 672 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:54,000 Raise your hand if you think that's reasonable. 673 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:56,000 About 20 or 30 references. 674 00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:57,000 40? 675 00:36:57,000 --> 00:36:59,000 50? 676 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:00,000 60? 677 00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:01,000 70? 678 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,000 100? 679 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,000 100? 680 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,000 I found 209 instances 681 00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,000 in 109 sources from 33 fathers 682 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:16,000 that explicitly quoted the Deuterocanon 683 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:20,000 as inspired scripture. 684 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:21,000 Let that sink in. 685 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:25,000 209 times in the surviving documents 686 00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:26,000 from the early church, 687 00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:29,000 just for the first 400 or 500 years, 688 00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:30,000 you have those. 689 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,000 And here's a quote from Athanasius, 690 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:33,000 where you can see an example 691 00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:34,000 of where he uses it, 692 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,000 saying it's the Holy Spirit says, 693 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:40,000 and he quotes Sirach. 694 00:37:40,000 --> 00:37:41,000 Okay. 695 00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:44,000 How about confirming doctrine? 696 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:45,000 Like I said, I thought, 697 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:48,000 wow, this is probably about 15, right? 698 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:51,000 I found 236 instances 699 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:58,000 in 130 sources from 39 fathers. 700 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:00,000 Wow. 701 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:02,000 I didn't expect that. 702 00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:04,000 And in the case for the Deuterocanon, 703 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:06,000 I actually give you all the citations. 704 00:38:06,000 --> 00:38:07,000 You can look it up for yourself, 705 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:08,000 determine for yourself 706 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:09,000 whether or not they fit in. 707 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:11,000 By the way, since then, 708 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:14,000 I found probably another 20 or 30. 709 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,000 So I'm going to update my book one day, 710 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:20,000 and the number is going to be a lot higher. 711 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:22,000 So they confirm it's inspired by God, 712 00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:24,000 and it can be used for teaching, 713 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:26,000 refutation, training, and righteousness. 714 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:29,000 Now I thought, okay, turnabout's fair play. 715 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,000 I'm going to specifically look at times 716 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:35,000 where the early church fathers denied 717 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:40,000 that the book reference is not inspired. 718 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:41,000 So I went out of my way, 719 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,000 and I tried to do an even more thorough search 720 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,000 of anyone who denied the authority of them. 721 00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,000 And I also looked at any time 722 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:52,000 an early church father in any way 723 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:57,000 qualifies its use of the Deuterocanon. 724 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:00,000 In any way, including like Augustine, 725 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,000 where he says the Jews don't use this book, 726 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:04,000 but we do, and he believes they're canonical. 727 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,000 But I put him in this list anyway 728 00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:09,000 just because he qualified it in some sense. 729 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,000 So this is what I found. 730 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:14,000 Five instances and five sources 731 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,000 from two early church fathers, 732 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:19,000 Julius Africanus and Jerome. 733 00:39:19,000 --> 00:39:21,000 That's it. 734 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,000 In the class B negative qualification, 735 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,000 I found 15 instances and 11 sources 736 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:30,000 from five early church fathers. 737 00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:34,000 Okay, so do you see when you compare them, 738 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,000 there is no comparison, right? 739 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:40,000 In fact, Jerome sticks out like a sore thumb. 740 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,000 In fact, he is the first father that we have 741 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:45,000 that called the Deuterocanon 742 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:49,000 what Protestants call it today, apocrypha. 743 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000 And he did it because he was operating 744 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:54,000 under a faulty understanding 745 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,000 of the transmission of the Old Testament text. 746 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:00,000 You see, in Jerome's day, 747 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:05,000 and this is in like the 380s, 390s, early 400s, 748 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:08,000 there were several different Greek translations 749 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:09,000 of the Old Testament, 750 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,000 but there was only one Hebrew translation. 751 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:16,000 And Jerome thought, since there's only one, 752 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:17,000 these Greek translations are probably 753 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:20,000 loose translations of the Hebrew. 754 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,000 So whatever's in the Hebrew text, 755 00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:25,000 that's the original. 756 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,000 That's Hebrew truth. 757 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,000 Anything that's not in the Hebrew text, 758 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:32,000 that's added on later. 759 00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:36,000 And the early church met in council 760 00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:41,000 and reaffirmed the ancient canon of the church. 761 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,000 That's those North African councils 762 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,000 from the fourth century. 763 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:48,000 Hippo, Carthage, right? 764 00:40:48,000 --> 00:40:51,000 Pope Innocent I and so on. 765 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:54,000 They said, Jerome, you're a Bible scholar, 766 00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:55,000 you know more than we do 767 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,000 because he actually knew Aramaic and Hebrew. 768 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:01,000 You're entitled to your opinion as a scholar, 769 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,000 but we the church say 770 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:06,000 we've always used these books as inspired scripture. 771 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:07,000 You're wrong. 772 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:10,000 These are the canonical books. 773 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,000 Now here's a very interesting part. 774 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,000 All the church could go on 775 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:19,000 was sacred tradition to say, Jerome, you're wrong. 776 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,000 We can't demonstrate you're wrong. 777 00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:23,000 Maybe Hebrew verite is true, 778 00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,000 Hebrew truth is true. 779 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,000 Can't do anything about it. 780 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,000 But sacred tradition says you're wrong. 781 00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:32,000 Guess what? 782 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,000 Something interesting happens in the 1940s. 783 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,000 What's one of the greatest biblical discoveries 784 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,000 of our time? 785 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,000 Dead Sea Scrolls. 786 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,000 We find the Dead Sea Scrolls, 787 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,000 which include manuscripts from second century B.C. 788 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:51,000 to the end of the first century A.D. 789 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:52,000 And guess what? 790 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,000 We find out that there wasn't just one Hebrew text 791 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:56,000 in circulation, 792 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,000 there were several Hebrew texts in circulation 793 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,000 in the first century. 794 00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:04,000 It was only, we learned through other sources, 795 00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,000 it's only after the time of Christ 796 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:08,000 around the second Christian century 797 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:11,000 that the rabbi selected one Hebrew text 798 00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:13,000 to be their authoritative text. 799 00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:15,000 All the other ones disappeared 800 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:19,000 except for those that were in the jars in Qumran. 801 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:22,000 So the church couldn't prove Jerome was wrong 802 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:24,000 in the fourth century. 803 00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:28,000 Today, we can demonstrate he definitely is wrong. 804 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:32,000 The Hebrew text doesn't have a direct line to the original. 805 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,000 And so we can prove Jerome was wrong. 806 00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:39,000 Now here's the thing 807 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:41,000 that a lot of people don't realize 808 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:42,000 is that the early reformers, 809 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:45,000 like Martin Luther, Calvin, 810 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:48,000 guess which early father they appealed to? 811 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:50,000 Jerome. 812 00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:52,000 They appealed to Jerome. 813 00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,000 They said Jerome said these aren't canonical, 814 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,000 therefore they can't be used in debate, 815 00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:58,000 they're not scripture. 816 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:01,000 But now Jerome has been proven wrong. 817 00:43:01,000 --> 00:43:04,000 So the historical case in Protestantism 818 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,000 for the smaller canon without these books 819 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:08,000 is resting in thin air. 820 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:12,000 There is no foundation in the early church. 821 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:13,000 None. 822 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:15,000 And look at the figures. 823 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:18,000 The figures speak for themselves. 824 00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:21,000 All right, so now that I put everybody to sleep. 825 00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:23,000 And by the way, I recommend my book 826 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:26,000 if anybody has insomnia. 827 00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:30,000 Experts say that three out of five people 828 00:43:30,000 --> 00:43:34,000 experience drowsiness during the first paragraph of my books. 829 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:37,000 So I highly recommend that you check it out. 830 00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:39,000 In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. 831 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:40,000 Amen. 832 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:42,000 Dear Lord, thank you so much 833 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:45,000 for bringing us together to study your word. 834 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,000 Thank you for the Deuterocanon 835 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:49,000 and all of scripture 836 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,000 that discloses the wisdom, 837 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,000 your Son, to us. 838 00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:56,000 And we ask that you continue to bless us 839 00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:58,000 throughout this conference 840 00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:00,000 and give us safe travel home. 841 00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:02,000 And we ask this in the name of the Father, 842 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:04,000 and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 843 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:08,000 Amen.