The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-04-02
CANONICAL BOOKS.
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Continued from Page 1.
Jews and of the Christian Church, attributes tn
Book of Proverbs to Solomon, whose name appear
at the head and in the body of the Book. In tn
third Book of Kings we read that King Solomon
! had composed three thousand parallels
Ecclesiastes means preacher, because the bool
breaches against the folly of all earthly things anC
exalts in glorious terms, the happiness of SANITY
! life. The author styles himself in the opening
Words the son of David, and King of Jerusalem
hence it is considered to be the work of Solomon
in fact, many passages have no bearing unless ap
| piled to this prince The "Canticle of Canticles
the Hebrews having no word to express the super
lative degree were wont to repeat the same wore
to give greater force to the idea. Hence the Can
ticle of Cantices" means the most excellent OF al
canticles. It is poetcal description of the love
of bridegroom for his bride 1t is cantice anc
a hymn of Joy, wherein the author, thought to be
Solomon celebrates, in fgurative sense, the happy
union of Christ and His Spouse; Union begun here
by love; to be eternal in Heaven. The Spouse OF
Christ is the Church. especially as to the hap
pies part thereof, viz,;-perfect souls, every one
of whom is His beloved but, above all others, the
immaculate and ever blessed Virgin Mother Mary
In oden times it was forbidden among the Jews
to those who were under the age of thirty years.
The Book of Wisdom has, for object, as the
name clearly indicates the science and practice OF
wisdom. Written in the person of Solomon, it con
tains his sentiments but the real author is uncer
Greek about the time of the Septuagint by holy
person filed with the literature and eloquence of
Greece, but whose name is unknown The last of
the doctrinal books of the Old Testament is that
of Ecclesiasticus, thus called from a Greek word
which signifies a preacher. The other dOctrinal
books are those of Job-the Psalms the Proverbs,
the books of Eccesiastes and that of Wisdom.
Ecclesasticus, like an excellent preacher, gives
admirable lessons of all virtues. The author was
Jesus, the son of Sirach of Jerusalem, who flour
ished about two hundred years before Christ. As
it written after the time of Esdras, it is not
in the Jewish canon The Catholic Church, di-
rected by the spirit of God, and instructed by
apostolical tradition, received it canonica and
divine. 1t was first written in Hebrew, and after
wards translated into Greek by another Jesus, the
grandson of the author, to whom indebted
for the Prologue to the Book of Ecclesasticus The
Prophetical Books comprise the four great Pro-
phets, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechel and Daniel, and
the twelve lesser prophets, JONAS Habacuc, etc.
Like the Greater the Minor Prophets sought to
strengthen the faith of the people in only God
to inspire horror of idoatry and superstition, and
to instruct the people to cherish virtue.
All the Prophets wrote in ancient Hebrew,
cept perhaps, Daniel and Baruch, who are sup
posed to have written in modern Hebrew or in
Chaldean. The first and second Book of Macha
bees, which end the Old Testament contain the his
tory of the trbulations of Gods chosen people, and
of their glorious combats against the Assyrian
kings, two centuries before the coming of Christ
Fighting under the command of the priest Matha-
thias and his sons, called the Machabees in defense
of their religion and country, they were visibly
helped by the Almighty. After several defeats they
routed the Pagans, and freed Judea from the yoke
of the stranger. Their successors degenerated.
quarrelled among themselves till the Romans found
occasion to interfere. Jerusalem and It's temple
we're besieged and pillaged thirty-seven years be-
fore Christ, by the Romans. who made Herod an
Of T1,da L.
the Jews, the Church has declared the Books of
the Machabees authentic and canonical III her two
general councils of Florence and Trent.
The historical Books of the New Testament are
the Four Gospels, and the Acts fthe Apostles
The Doctrinal Books the twenty-one Epstles,
including fourteen from the pen of st. Paul. the
Apostle of the Genties. The Prophetical Book
often called the Book of Revelations, is the Apo
calypso Of St. John. 1t was inserted in the canon
of Scripture in the year 377, by the third Council
of Carthage.
The writers of the Four Gospels are called "The
Four Evangelists." Saints Matthew and John
we're also Apostles, st. Mark was companion of
st. Peter, St. Luke accompanied ST. Paul in his
apostolic journeys. The Gospel of ST. Matthew
was written in Hebrew, for the benefit of the Jews
of Palestine. 1t shows how the prophecies of the
Old Testament were literally fulfilled in the person
of Christ Jesus, who clearly proved Himself to be
the ng-promised Messias
proves to demonstration the Divinity of Jesus
Christ, whom he proclaims and shows to be the
Son of God. st. Luke wrote for distinguished
Roman citizen named Theophilus, whom he would
instruct in the life and doctrine of our Blessed Re
deemer, st. Luke furnishes US with many details
about the life of Blessed Lady, and many para
bles not given by the other Evangelists.
ST. John was advanced in years when he wrote
his Gospel to prove against the heretics of his
time, that Jesus Christ is truly God. His beauti-
full Gospel contains the sayings of our Lord from
which His divinity is most abundantly proved.
St. Matthew wrote about the year forty of the
Christian St Mark and st. Luke some TWEEN
ty-fve years later. The Gospel of ST. John was
written about the year ninety 1t was not till the
second century that the Gospels collected into
one volume.
Our non-Cathoic brethren, reading the list of
books which the Catholic Church, having carefully
followed the tradition of ages, recognizes as Di-
vine, and which she has consequently inserted in
her canon or special catalogue, called therefore.
canonical, will several books which are not to
be found in their Bible. For instance the First