DEUTEROCANONICAL
BOOKS
INTRODUCTION
TO THE COPTIC ORTHODOX
By
Dr. Murad
Kamel
PROLOGUE,
Some
of the Christians gave the word Apocrypha to the following books that have been
omitted from the Protestant publications of the Holy Bible. They are, in order:
1- Tobias
2- Judith
3- sequel of
Esther
4- the wisdom (Wisdom
of Solomon)
5- Wisdom of
Joshua son of Sirach
6- Baroukh
7- sequel of
the Book of Daniel
8- Macabees
first and second
9- (and Psalm
151,
following Psalm 150 in the Greek Bible).
Calling these books
"Apocrypha" is a misnomer because the word "Apocrypha"
means "concealed, hidden" (intended for books that contain
superstitions, and nonsense contrary to Christian morals and which were not
accepted by the church as part of the Bible).
But the Books of our issue
are not doubtful books rather ones considered authentic by both the Orthodox
and Catholic churches and known as the Deuterocanonical Books
"DEYTEROKANONIKA".
In this regard it is worth
mentioning that the Old Testament Books are categorized into two main sections:
E The first section is the first Canonical Books "PROTOKANONA".
E The second section is the Second Canonical Books "DEYTEROKANONIKA".
The first books
were collated by Ezra the Priest, as mentioned in the Book of Macabees (Ch
Neither Ezra nor Nehemiah
made mention of the second group (DEYTEPOKANONIKA) as part of the first group,
the reason being the books only appeared after Ezra's death who collated the
first group.
Because these
books, referred to above, were collated after Ezra's death, the early Christian
church considered them as authentic -second canonical books as previously stated- the traditional Christian churched recognized them
throughout the ages.
Based on the recognized
categorization, the Books of the Old Testament
(after adding to them the second canonical books "Deuterocanonia') are
divided as follows:
1- TORAH: It comprises the five
books of Moses that are called in Coptic and Greek "NOMOTHETIKA".
2- PROPHETIC
BOOKS: "NEBEIM"
in Coptic and Greek it is called "IROCHTIKA", these are divided into
two sections: early prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings and the latter
prophets: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve junior prophets. All these were collated in a book titled
after the group of prophets as stated in the Acts of the Apostles (Ch13: 15)
3- HISTORIC BOOKS: "KETEBEIM" in
Coptic and Greek it is called "ICTORIKA" (Hagiographies) these are
divided into two sections: Major holy historic books: Psalms,
Job and Proverbs. The Minor holy historic books are:
Ecclesiastics, Song of
Songs, Lamentations. Followed by this
division come the books of Daniel, Esther, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. These books were also called the Law of Moses
and the Prophets and the Psalms as stated in the Gospel of Luke (Ch 24:24).
4- DIDACTIC BOOKS: These are the second
canonical books referred to; they are called "DIDAKTIKA" in both
Coptic and Greek.
PROOF OF
AUTHENTICITY OF THE
DEUTEROCANONICA:
FIRST - The council of (Hippo)
held in 393 AD decided its authenticity as part of the other books,
SECOND -Fathers of the second and
third generations like Clement of Alexandria, Oregan, Dionisius of Alexandria
and Cyprian, also fathers of the fourth generation as Basil, Gregory of Nizisi,
Chrisosotom; all of them made equal references in the
books they wrote to the
protocananica and the deuterocanonica books.
We must not forget that although Abe Athanasius the Apostolic mentioned
in his Paschal message in 365 AD that the number of books was 22 the same as
the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabets, but he make it clear that those
books were useful in teaching the catechumens and in his writings he quoted
verses from them.
THIRD - When a discussion arose
regarding the authenticity of these books during the early centuries of
Christianity, it was unanimously agreed that with regard to its benefit it ought
to be read in church services. They were
called “ANALILNOCKOMENA" which means the books that must be read on the
Deuterocanonica, this opinion continued up to
the era of reform in Europe.
It is also worth mentioning
that some of the church people adhered to the Books of the Old testament which
were found under Hebrewism because they were influenced by the position of the
Jews of Palestine who had their version without the rest of the books and they
found it futile to quote any version of the deuterocanonica as a proof or
theory to defeat the allegations of Jews in dogmatic discussions with them, and
for this reason
they did not include them in
the protocanonica. As to those fathers
who made no mention of these books with the protocanonica, they were expressing
an individual opinion only
and they made it clear that
church organizations did not approve of this opinion; at any rate individual
opinion is not taken into consideration against the unanimity of the general
churches regarding the authenticity of these books.
FOURTH - These books were included
in the canonical books in the Apostolic Canons, this was proved by sheik
El-Safie Bin El-Assal in his Book "The Collection of Canons"
(Chapter Two).
FIFTH - The traditional churches
(the Egyptian, the Byzantine, the Roman, and the rest of the traditional
churches) accepted these books as part of the first books. The Catholic Church determined the
authenticity of these books at the Trente Council in 1546 AD, as also previously
determined by Hippo Council and St Augustine, this Council announced that
whoever does not accept the books referred to, and whoever does not recognize
their authenticity (as they were read in the Catholic church and were, The
"Volgata" version)
would be
ex-communicated. During the Reform
Period, these books became part and parcel of the Catholic belief.
The Greek Church considers
them authentic. When the Protestants
discussed these books with the Greek Church, the Patriarch of Jerusalem,
Dcusathus held a meeting in 1682 A. D. and issued a resolution saying "We
consider these books authentic and believe that they are part of the Bible
because we received them from the holy church since older times". The church of Antioch abode by the point of
view of the first church concerning the validity of these books.
SIXTH - These books were found in
the Septuagint version that was a translation of Hebrew to Greek under the
reign of Patmus II at Alexandria in 282.
It was translated by 72 Jewish Scholar Rabbis, which indicates that they
entered these books with the other books giving them the same status.
If one reads the most
ancient copies of the Septuagint i.e. the three copies of the famous
manuscripts written in the fourth century after Christ: Sinaite, Alexandria,
Vatican; one will find these books included.
They were also found in the Coptic version, all dialects, which is
considered the oldest translation after the Septuagint; although only sections
of it were found which were published by foreign scholars, these books were
also found in the old Latin
version.
SEVENTH - In John's Gospel (Ch.
10:22) Christ the Lord mentioned the Feast of Dedication- this Feast was not
mentioned in the Bible in the Protocanonica while it was proved in the Book of
Maccabees that Judas Maccabeus was the first to initiate this feast when he
purified the temple of the profanities of the gentiles and renewed the
altar. This is a clear evidence that the
Jews received the commemoration of this feast from
this
Book.