, 1880-10-24

Inc APOSTOLIC canon. it will be seem omitted
Ezekiel: Daniel, aud the Revelation uf John, nj
or which are now in II, and inserted judith,
!: Maccabcses. IL Maccabees, III. aaccabecs, the
Cle1ncntine Constitutions fccrtain iuws and other
teachings for ecclesiastical guidance,, all OF
which are nov not III it.
50 tar the reader has beeu considering entirely
fne Western Church Tho Canous of the Greek
church are equally singular. The Ciermon5
a9onerpt a., hhl century, ~ INCLUDES in the Old
Gus, the three books OF Mnccabees, judith, aud
Ioblt, and ia the New Testament the Epistie Of
Dacnabas. the Pastor OF Her1nas, the Acts of
Paul. and tho Revelation OF Peter, while it o1nfts
ians the EpistIe to tic Philippians. Ap'ea' and the
the Bible. The canon Of Mur7ltori fourth
century, on,its Hebrews, James. III. John, II.
s1eass do41btnsy ~ Of Peter and haf
pletons' Cycl, *Canou''J. The Alerandrian
manuscript fifth century, includes the two
eo!Ses etS nj Is Clement to the Corinthians West
st. augustine is one Of the men who really
liked the canon. He fixed 1t for the Cuthoiic
Gnu1eh, as 81 , Jerome did for the Protestant St.
list was drawn up about the year ::suD A. D., md
included III the Old Testament I'obt, Judith
aud Ecciesiasttcus. In 3a3 4. 0. a council con-
vened at Hippo, in Africa and adopted St. Nu-
gu5tfnes list intact; and in :U7 another was held
In Carthage, which adopted the Carthagfnian
catalox already referred to. st. Augustine wns
there' and was tho r1litng spirit Its decree
1t was also determined that, besides the can
onleal scriptures nothing be read in the churches
under the title Of Divine Scriptures. The can
oncal scriptureS'are these
Ietl followed tile cAtlonfcal list as we hare tito
day plus the books in the column devoted to the
Carthagit'inn list in the table aboye The reader
WI! ooserrn tho still growing tone Of authority,
inspired Sotuo writers said they were in
splred. rs we say BRYANT and Shakespeare were
inspired. but our idea Of Biblical Inspiration had
not come yet
One curious fact in connection with the use by
the Catholic Church to-day Of the npocrvnhaI
oo9ks OF the old Testament Is this: As the read-
er knows, tho ancient Jews did not believe them
to DC authoritative, and the Palestiniau Jews did
not Include them in the collection ut ali. The
and the Alexandrian Jews placed them in an ap-
pendtx. ia the Greek COLLECTIONS, at the end t,f
tnelr blnies TIE same as they used to be printed
could not read Hebrew, 80 tfsey ~ bad ID ,11 10 use
[he Greek manuscripts. and rs they saw
he he apossypan ~. books in the collection
'st.. The result was that the early Bible-msS.
srs IN the African Church put the apucryphal |
books in the nibie, because they did not know I
nein IN because be found Them there, aud the |
<Athofic Church retained them because St Au-
Jerome WIS contemporary with st Augustine. |
ut h;s canon excluded the apocryphai books Of
be Old Testament for this reason: The Hebrew
taoet consisted OF tHenty-two letters. aud |
be ancient Hebrew scholars had fancifuI b,lr |
[eep-scated belief that as the alfabet, which I
expressed all possible words, consisted Of THAR t
umber Of letters, So their sucred books, which.
hey said. contained all knowledge possible for
utnan good. ought to be of the same uum-
er; Accordingly they threw out the apocry-
nal books, and Jeruue thought the view was
am. and Klngsl, and ne rejected the same
ooks. aud this is the reason the Protestant I
oE1stlan Church does not believe in the
pocryphal books OF the Old Testament His !
st ~ns made up in this way: The Pentateuch |
as tsn called hve books, Judges and Ruth were
,lie1 ~ one Originally they we're one), l. Samuel
lngs we're called one, Jeremiah and Lamenta- !:
ons ea one, !: Chronicles and II, Chronicles one,
90 ana Nehemiah one, ana the Twelve Minor
ropheH tthe last twelve books as rhey stand !
gay tn tue Old Testameut} were called one. | !;
IL I'LL Inc others onr. It took good deal Of /