Cardinal Cajetan on the Apocrypha

Discussion in 'Sacred Scripture' started by Old Christendom, Apr 11, 2013.

  1. Old Christendom

    Old Christendom Well-Known Member

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    Cardinal Cajetan, "Commentary on All the Authentic Historical Books of the Old Testament" (dedicated to Pope Clement VII ), 1532 AD:

    "Here we close our commentaries on the historical books of the Old Testament. For the rest (that is, Judith, Tobit, and the books of Maccabees) are counted by St Jerome out of the canonical books, and are placed amongst the Apocrypha, along with Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, as is plain from the Prologus Galeatus. Nor be thou disturbed, like a raw scholar, if thou shouldest find anywhere, either in the sacred councils or the sacred doctors, these books reckoned as canonical. For the words as well of councils as of doctors are to be reduced to the correction of Jerome. Now, according to his judgment, in the epistle to the bishops Chromatius and Heliodorus, these books (and any other like books in the canon of the Bible) are not canonical, that is, not in the nature of a rule for confirming matters of faith. Yet, they may be called canonical, that is, in the nature of a rule for the edification of the faithful, as being received and authorised in the canon of the Bible for that purpose. By the help of this distinction thou mayest see thy way clearly through that which Augustine says, and what is written in the provincial council of Carthage."

    This is just to show that the common Roman Catholic accusation against Protestants "taking away" books from Scripture is completely unfounded. Before Trent "infallibly" defined the OT canon, Christians were not obliged to accept the Apocrypha as Scriptural. Cardinal Cajetan's example is just one amongst many.
     
    PointyHairedCalvinist and Mercy like this.