1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:24,719 How do we know which books are supposed to be in the Bible and which books should not be in the Bible? 2 00:00:24,719 --> 00:00:30,320 This is a perennial question, and it's a major debate between Catholics and Protestants. 3 00:00:30,320 --> 00:00:35,680 And as you know, the Catholic Church has seven books more than the Protestant. 4 00:00:35,680 --> 00:00:40,560 It also has additions to Esther and Daniel, as we'll see in just a moment. 5 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:49,959 So we're going to look at the history of the canon and make a defense for why we include those seven books in our Catholic canon of the Bible. 6 00:00:49,959 --> 00:01:08,360 So the seven Deuterocanonical books that are in the Catholic Bible, but not in the Protestant Bible, are these Tobit, Judith, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, which is sometimes called Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, including the Letter of Jeremiah. 7 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:21,559 And then there are some wider additions to Esther and Daniel, notably in Daniel, you have the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, and the story of Bel and the Dragon. 8 00:01:21,559 --> 00:01:30,440 So these seven books are accepted by the Catholic Church and by the Orthodox Church, but they've been rejected since the 1500s by Martin Luther. 9 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:36,239 Why the discrepancy? Part of it goes back to the Jewish understanding of what the canon is. 10 00:01:36,239 --> 00:01:46,760 Josephus, writing back in the first century, says that there are 22 books in the Hebrew Bible because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. 11 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:48,760 Let's look at that Jewish arrangement. 12 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:55,440 The Hebrew Bible has, to this day, 24 books and not actually 22, like Josephus states. 13 00:01:55,440 --> 00:02:05,760 No one can really figure out what those two extra books are, but the 24 that are received today are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, no surprises there. 14 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:15,759 Joshua, Judges, Samuel, so 1st and 2nd Samuel are rendered as one book, Kings, rendered together, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. 15 00:02:15,759 --> 00:02:21,759 And then what they do is they take the 12 minor prophets and squeeze all those together into one book. 16 00:02:21,759 --> 00:02:23,759 That's how their count gets a lot lower. 17 00:02:23,759 --> 00:02:35,759 Then there are 11 books of the writings, that is the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticle of Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, 18 00:02:35,759 --> 00:02:45,759 which, as we saw in the previous video, includes Ezra and Nehemiah, and the book of Chronicles, which includes 1st and 2nd Chronicles. 19 00:02:45,759 --> 00:02:54,759 So, Josephus says 22, modern Jews say 24, and it's not quite sure which books Josephus was not including. 20 00:02:54,759 --> 00:03:01,759 Some people say he excluded Esther, or he excluded Daniel, or perhaps that Ruth was included in 2 Judges. 21 00:03:01,759 --> 00:03:05,759 We don't really know, since he doesn't leave us a list. 22 00:03:05,759 --> 00:03:16,759 What we do know is that the Dead Sea Scrolls and current discoveries reveal that there was no agreed-upon canon by the Jews as late as the 1st century. 23 00:03:16,759 --> 00:03:19,759 That's right, there was no canon. 24 00:03:19,759 --> 00:03:26,759 The only agreed part of the canon was the Torah, the first five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy. 25 00:03:26,759 --> 00:03:34,759 And to these, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Samaritans, and the Essenes, they all agreed only on those first five books. 26 00:03:34,759 --> 00:03:38,759 Most of you have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and maybe even of the Essenes. 27 00:03:38,759 --> 00:03:45,759 The Essenes were a Jewish ascetical movement, almost like a monastic movement, and they left behind many, many manuscripts. 28 00:03:45,759 --> 00:03:53,759 And in those manuscripts, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we find multiple versions of books that we recognize as deuterocanonical. 29 00:03:53,759 --> 00:03:59,759 We found multiple scripts of Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, and Baruch. 30 00:03:59,759 --> 00:04:05,759 These books of the Bible were being read before the time of Christ by the Jewish people. 31 00:04:05,759 --> 00:04:08,759 They weren't added in later by the Catholic Church. 32 00:04:08,759 --> 00:04:13,759 These were already being copied, circulated, and read in their liturgical assemblies. 33 00:04:13,759 --> 00:04:15,759 So who had the right canon? 34 00:04:15,759 --> 00:04:20,760 The short answer is, at the time of Christ, no one had the right canon. 35 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:28,760 It was up to Christ and the apostles to determine what books were in and what books were out. 36 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:33,760 And as we'll see shortly, the apostles were citing the deuterocanonical books. 37 00:04:33,760 --> 00:04:40,760 Also, it's important to notice that the apostles are citing the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. 38 00:04:40,760 --> 00:04:45,760 What's the Septuagint version? It's the Greek version of the Old Testament. 39 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:48,760 And although the apostles, when they're writing the New Testament, 40 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:53,760 sometimes are quoting the Old Testament with something that doesn't match the Septuagint, 41 00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:57,760 66 or 67 percent of the time, that's two-thirds of the time, 42 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:00,760 they're quoting directly from the Septuagint version, 43 00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:06,760 and not through a translation of the Hebrew into Greek, but the original Septuagint. 44 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:10,760 This shows us that the twelve apostles, as they were going about the world preaching, 45 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,760 when Paul was going about preaching, Peter, Andrew, 46 00:05:13,760 --> 00:05:15,760 they had to preach from the Old Testament. 47 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:17,760 They believed in the Old Testament. 48 00:05:17,760 --> 00:05:19,760 And what were they carrying with them into the world? 49 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:22,760 The Greek version, the Septuagint version. 50 00:05:22,760 --> 00:05:25,760 And that Septuagint version, guess what? 51 00:05:25,760 --> 00:05:28,760 It includes our seven books. 52 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,760 So this would explain why the apostles quote it occasionally, 53 00:05:32,760 --> 00:05:35,760 why they have it with them, and why all the early church fathers, 54 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:40,760 as we'll see in just a moment, are recognizing these books as part of the Bible. 55 00:05:40,760 --> 00:05:41,760 Let's take a look at that. 56 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,760 The first fact is that the New Testament refers to the deuterocanonical books. 57 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:50,760 In the notes of this video, I will include about 70 examples, 58 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:55,760 70 cross-references between the Deuteros and the New Testament. 59 00:05:55,760 --> 00:05:59,760 Secondly, St. Clement of Rome, he is mentioned in the New Testament. 60 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:01,760 He is the fourth bishop of Rome. 61 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:03,760 We Catholics note him as the fourth pope. 62 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:09,760 He cites the Book of Wisdom as canonical in his letter, 1 Clement. 63 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:12,760 You can find that at 1 Clement 27, verse 5. 64 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,760 Also, the early Christian document, perhaps the oldest Christian document, 65 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:18,760 not in the Bible, is the Didache. 66 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:24,760 And the Didache cites Sirach 431 as scripture. 67 00:06:24,760 --> 00:06:28,760 St. Polycart, around the year 135, 68 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:33,760 so we're talking about about 100 years after the death of Christ, 69 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,760 maybe 60 years after the death of the chief apostles, 70 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:43,760 he cites Tobit two times, Tobit 410 and Tobit 129, 71 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:46,760 in one of his epistles to the Christians in Philippi. 72 00:06:46,760 --> 00:06:51,760 Bishop Melito of Sardis, around the year 177, 73 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:55,760 he states that Jews and Christians of his time period, 74 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:57,760 not just Christians, but Jews, 75 00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:02,760 considered the Book of Wisdom as canonical, as part of the Bible. 76 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:04,760 That's 177. 77 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:09,760 St. Irenaeus, he is in Lyon, which is modern-day France. 78 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:14,760 In the year 180, he quotes the wider version of Daniel, 79 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:17,760 that is, the parts that have extra portions. 80 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,760 He's quoting that as scripture, so he's using the Septuagint version, 81 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:24,760 and he sees the Daniel, the Catholic Daniel, which has more verses in it, 82 00:07:24,760 --> 00:07:26,760 as the authoritative one. 83 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,760 Origen of Alexandria, the year 240, 84 00:07:29,760 --> 00:07:35,760 he includes in his canon Baruch and refers to 1st and 2nd Maccabees. 85 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:39,760 St. Augustine, we're getting a little bit later here, but around the year 397, 86 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:46,760 he includes the two Book of Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, 87 00:07:46,760 --> 00:07:49,760 and Ecclesiasticus as canonical books. 88 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:52,760 The big one that you need to know is the year 382. 89 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:58,760 In the year 382, the Pope, Pope Damasus, called a council in Rome, 90 00:07:58,760 --> 00:07:59,760 and there was lots of questions. 91 00:07:59,760 --> 00:08:00,760 What's in and what's out? 92 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:01,760 It wasn't just Old Testament books. 93 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:03,760 It was also New Testament books. 94 00:08:03,760 --> 00:08:07,760 Like, hey, is the Gospel of Philip part of the New Testament? 95 00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,760 And Pope Damasus and that council in the year 382 96 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:16,760 is the first time formally that the Church ever defined what is the canon. 97 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,760 And that canon is the exact canon that we Catholics use today, 98 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:24,760 and it included those seven deuterocanonical books. 99 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:31,760 So 382 is the first time any Christian defined the New Testament and the Old Testament. 100 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:34,760 It was Pope Damasus, and it happened in 382. 101 00:08:34,760 --> 00:08:38,760 After that, there were a number of councils that affirmed the same canon 102 00:08:38,760 --> 00:08:42,760 and the deuterocanonicals as had happened in Rome in 382. 103 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:48,760 The Council of Hippo in 392 and the Councils of Carthage in 397 and 417. 104 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:52,760 And then much later, the Council of Florence in 1442 105 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:59,760 and the Council of Trent in 1546 also established the exact same canon. 106 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:02,760 So your takeaway from this video is, look, 107 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:06,760 the Jews were reading the deuterocanonical books before the time of Christ. 108 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:08,760 They are reading them during this time of Christ. 109 00:09:08,760 --> 00:09:14,760 The apostles refer to them, and the early church fathers and Pope Damasus 110 00:09:14,760 --> 00:09:19,760 affirm this Catholic canon, the one that we are still using in this very year. 111 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:26,760 So you can be confident that these seven books do belong to the Old Testament. 112 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:29,760 They are part of the Bible, and I hope you can use some of the facts 113 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:32,760 and some of the information in the show notes below this video 114 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:34,760 when you have a Protestant friend say, 115 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:36,760 why do you have extra books? 116 00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:39,760 You can go to these resources and explain it to them in full. 117 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:41,760 Thanks for being a member of the St. Thomas Institute. 118 00:09:41,760 --> 00:09:44,760 We'll see you in lessons to come. God bless.