From: ba@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (B.A. Davis-Howe)
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: Re: To Murray et al (was re: Jesus did not claim.....)
Date: 10 Sep 92 16:56:17 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana

J024330@LMSC5.IS.LMSC.LOCKHEED.COM writes:

>altheimm@nextnet.csus.edu (Murray Altheim)writes in

>Message-ID: <1992Sep9.211043.10271@csus.edu>

>>I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago my trials in trying to buy a
>>decent old testament bible. I called all over town, but whenever I
>>tried to explain that I was searching for a "scholarly" bible, the
>>salesperson would rather rudely exclaim that they "did not CARRY any
>>LIBERAL bibles here, sir!" Followed by a harumph or two.

>I might suggest The New Open Bible study edition in the New American
>Standard.  It's published by Nelson publishers.  Look one over first
>to see if it suits your needs.  The NAS is a word for word translation
>from the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts.  They use the manuscripts closest
>to the autographed (original) manuscripts.  It only comes in a new and
>old testement.  If you really want to get a grasp of what is being said
>it would be best to learn some basic Hebrew, get an interliner Old Testement
>(Hebrew between the lines), and a lexicon to further assist in understand-
>ing word placement, grammar and context.  Do not acquire a Catholic bible.
>No offense to any Catholicsthat might be reading, but the Catholic version
>of the bible contains extra books known as the Apocrapha.  They are
>writings that were not canonized as part of Christian scripture.  This is
>where the concept of limbo, purgatory, and praying for the dead came from.

A couple of points here:
First, the NAS, while very literal, is also really lousy English. :(

Second, the Roman Catholic doctrines you mention are not derived from the 
Duetero-Canonical books, but from various theologians over the centuries.
Also, the Roman Catholic Church no longer holds a belief in limbo or purgatory.
The praying for the dead goes back to the united Christian Church, before the
schism of the Roman patriarchate from the rest of the Christian Church. All
of Protestant Christianity is derived from the Roman Catholic Church, not from
the rest of Christianity.

Third, the canon of the Old Testament is based on some Jewish Rabbinical 
distinctions of early in the Common Era.  They divided their writings into a
number of different levels of canonicity.  The first few levels became the 
standard of Christian Old Testaments.  The last of the accepted levels of
canonicity became Deutero-Canonical, that is "secondary canon".  This level
was distinguished by texts which were originally written in a language other
than Hebrew.  These books are considered to be part of the scriptures of all
but Protestant Christianity, but are considered to be of lesser authority.
(Actually, modern Roman Catholic bibles are missing a couple of books which
are still used by all of Eastern Christianity.)

Fourth, most Christians, both in history and today, are not Protestant.  Most
of the Christians in the world acknowledge the Deutero-Canonical books.  All
of Eastern Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Anglican Communion
all use the Deutero-Canonical books on a regular basis.  I believe that parts 
of the Lutheran Communion use them as well.  You are coming from a very narrow
viewpoint.


              Merry meet, merry part, merry meet again,
                               Br'anArthur

Queer, Peculiar, and Wyrd! :-)

******************************************************************************
Newage is hypoallergenic spirituality--
it's for people who are allergic to the word religion.
                                   --Jon Jay Obermark