Protestants and the Septuagint

Simply with this: quotation from a work does not show that work's canonical status.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-canonical_books_referenced_in_the_Bible

The way this breaks down among the ECFs is this:
The Greek Church (not the modern Eastern Orthodox) rejected the Apocrypha, and, Septuagint as inspired, in quite clear terms. Thus for example Gregory the Great:

"We are not acting irregularly, if from the books, though not Canonical, yet brought out for the edifying of the Church, we bring forward testimony. Thus Eleazar in the battle smote and brought down an elephant, but fell under the very beast that he killed. [1 Macc. 6, 46]"​

-Gregory the Great​

http://www.lectionarycentral.com/GregoryMoralia/Book19.html​

This 'protestant' Canon persisted in the Greek church for a very long time, for in 750 AD we find the following stunning words from John of Damascus:

"Observe further that there are two and twenty books of the Old Testament, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet."​

...​

"There are also the Panaretus, that is the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Wisdom of Jesus, which was published in Hebrew by the father of Sirach, and afterwards translated into Greek by his grandson, Jesus, the Son of Sirach. These are virtuous and noble, but are not counted nor were they placed in the ark."​

-John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 4.17​

​

The Latin Christianity came about much later; Tertullian is called the 'founder' of Latin Christianity. And they had a much more mixed view of the Septuagint. For example Ambrose and Augustine clearly did, in fact, seem to treat the Apocrypha and the Greek OT as more inspired than the Greeks (although they weren't consistent and sometimes reverted to the Hebrew canon).

This is perhaps the strongest basis for some of Rome's quotes regarding their view of the Canon.

Unfortunately for that view, many even among the Latin ECFs still unambiguously followed the Greeks and adhered to the Hebrew canon; the most famous example is the already-cited Jerome, the author of the Latin Vulgate (!), and, for example, other ECFs like Hilary of Poitiers:

"The Law of the Old Testament is considered as divided into twenty-two books, so as to correspond to the number of letters."​

-Hilary of Poitiers, Prologue to the Tractate on the Psalms​

 

Silently moves towards the exit before the firewood starts being collected...

 

J. I. Packer says hello.

 

Hehehe... sorry, it's nice to let off steam sometimes, especially when there are so many conflicting views and egos exploding forth at once.

Imagine what will happen when this forum grows to the size of Catholic Answers (), and we have whole parties of roving Charismatics, Calvinists, Evangelicals, and Anglo-Catholics! The smell of timber and matches will be everywhere! Hopefully we can maintain more charity in our breasts than that.

If it counts, I deeply admire the brave Huguenot leaders during the Wars of Religion, and the Dutch Calvinists who stood up to Spanish tyranny were great heroes. Imagine all that zeal and love of life over mere words in a book, yet a book written by the ineffable will of the Trinity. Praise God for such men!

 

Didn't we all agree not to refer to other groups as heretics?

 

I was joking, Gordon. We need to be able to have a bit of casual fun...

Let's use "" to indicate jokes. It works!

 

Remembrance insulted your man JC.

 

SM,
You are on a roll tonight.