In the various illuminating posts on this thread, I have not yet
noticed one small point mentioned: early on someone referred to the
"Jewish Canon," noting that the deuterocanonical books of the Catholic
and Orthodox canon are not in this "Jewish Canon." Others pointed out
some of the complexities of this, including the Septuagint as the
source of the Orthodox and Catholic canons of the First Testament.
What was not noted, unless I missed it, is that the Septuagint or
Alexandrine Canon was also a Jewish canon, at least in some sense,
since it was made by Jews for Jews in the Hellenistic diaspora several
centuries before Christ. A century after Christ the Palestinian
Jewish canon came into existence--unless I am mistaken, as a more
formal decision of a council of Jewish leaders in Palestine; this is
the Jewish canon on which the Protestant attitude toward the
deuterocanonical/apocryphal books is based. Thus both
Orthodox/Catholic/Anglican and Protestant "Old Testament" canons are
based on "Jewish" canons, although Jewish canons of different dates,
locations, language, and degree of formal authority.
Dennis Martin
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