Ancient Christian Witness

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This video is so full of errors, it is pathetic. First off, the 70 Hebrew / Greek scholars only translated the Torah, Check your historian for yourself.

Secondly, Ptolemy did not desire a Tanakh in Greek so that he could read it. His kingdom was full of Jewish descendants of the Jews that left Judah for Egypt when the Babylonians captured and destoyed Jerusalem. They had assimilated and could not read their own scriptures because Greek was their language.

Thirdly, regarding New Testament references to the Apochrypha - only one NT book references the Apochrypha. In the Book of Jude Jude verse 9 is a quote from the Apocrypha book "The Assumption of Moses" and verses 14-15 reference 1 Enoch 1:9. This was enough to create a debate over whether Jude should be in the canon.

The Apochrypha and other Old Testament era writings were NEVER considered to be canon. Josephus expressly limited the Hebrew canon to the same material contained the 39 Books we know as the Old Testament. Josephus knew of other Jewish writings down to his time, but he did not regard them as having equal authority with the canonical books.

It is curious that the Apochrypha was officially canonized by the Council of Trent in the mid-1500's in the midst of the Protestant reformation over church abuses - one of the main ones being indulgences. Is it only a coincidence that 2 Mac 12:44,45
12:44 justifies indulgences (making offerings at the temple for souls of the dead): For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.
12:45 But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.

I am sorry that I cannot comment on more of the video. I could not sit through anymore factual errors knowing that those who don't know any better would be sucked in. LIke with the "DaVinci Code".

August 9, 2010 at 8:32 PM

Jnorm said...

What you are saying mostly comes from old protestant scholarship. It's pretty much outdated. What my friend David said in the video is true. You can visit his blog if you are interested in finding his resources.





ICXC NIKA

August 11, 2010 at 8:04 PM

Anonymous 2 said...

In 397, the Council of Carthage's canon included the apocrypha. Get over your obsession with Trent and learn what a real factual error is.

August 15, 2010 at 8:14 AM