01-15-2008, 12:16 PM
Paul Younan Wrote:Not my position, that of hundreds of millions of believers spanning almost 2 thousand years. I was born into this. I could have easily been born Catholic and wonder why you don't believe Maccabees is scripture, or I could have been born Ethiopian and wonder why you don't accept Didascalia, Clement or the book of Enoch as inspired.
I guess people forget that unlike Judaism or Islam, there's never been a definitive, universally-declared and agreed upon set of books in the Christian canon of scripture.
Cannonicity and divine inspiration is not the same thing. Cannonicity is an official (note political) process where a council of men (as opposed to the Holy Spirit) decide what is God's word and what is not. Divine inspiration on the other hand is solely a matter of faith. It doesn't matter how many mss, or how much historical evidence is presented to you, in the end you need faith to believe that it's the original word of God.
In regards to the Western 5, I pass no judgment on the COE for not connonizing these books, in fact I admire them for being cautious and not being quick to set things in stone - that is wisdom! There's no harm in waiting until you feel you have infallible approval from the Almighty when it comes to change. With regard to the W5 the COE feel that they haven't as of yet, so there's no need to citicize them for "playing it safe".
Which books I accept to be inspired and therefore "cannonized" is my choice based on my faith in their authenticity. Personally speaking, I accept the W5 as inspired yet I believe that Esther should take it's rightful place in the Talmud. Even though Esther is accepted in every OT cannon, I don't believe it's inspired, and I don't believe it belongs in the Bible. My reasons:
1. Not once is God ever mentioned in that book, and we all know that the Septuagint version has addtional verses, which were added later by Alexandrian Jews.
2. Prayer is not mentioned either, though fasting is. Some argue that prayer and fasting usually go together, so Esther must've prayed to God when she fasted. But it's just as easy to argue that Esther simply saw fasting as a good luck charm.
3. Esther is not quoted to or alluded to in the NT (including the W5) as far as I can tell.
4. I cannot find any reference in the NT to the Jews in 1st centurary Israel celebrating Purim, while John 10 does record them celebrating Hanukkah - "the feast of dedication" (of Maccabees fame).
5. Every cannonical OT book was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls except for Esther, this suggests (but doesn't neccessarily prove) that Esther wasn't always considered connical by Jews (at least not Palestininan Jews).
6. The feast of Purim is not one of the Torah feasts instigated by The Master, of course neither is Hanukka, but at least God is honoured during Hanukka. Purim on the other hand is about celebrating the victory fo man and (often) getting wasted, not what I would call a godly celebration.