Why Catholic Bibles Are Bigger (14 page)

Jerome’s innovation tampered with the deposit of Faith. A
person’s own intellectual prowess, however wise or learned it may be, is not
capable of determining what is the word of God and what is not. The Church does
not make Scripture. Instead, the bride of Christ passively receives the written
word of God from Christ and his apostles as part of the original deposit of
faith. Rufinus and Origen argue that to suggest that those books which have
been received by the Church are wrong, would ultimately mean that Christ and
his apostles had failed in their duty of supplying the true and unadulterated
word of God to the churches, and that our trust in divine Providence is
misplaced.

Despite his tenacity, Jerome did bend a bit in the face of
the daunting opposition to his views. He agreed to translate a couple of
Deuterocanonical books, as he writes in his
Preface to Tobit
, “…judging
it better to displease the Pharisees, in order to grant the requests of the
bishops.”
[355]

Jerome’s sympathies lie with his rabbinical teachers, but
being a Christian, he was obliged to translate those texts accepted by the
Church. Jerome adopted other conventions of his time although they went against
his opinion on the canon.

Jerome’s Usage

According to an ancient adage, no man is an island, not even
a monk secluded in a Bethlehem monastery. Through personal contact and written
correspondences, Jerome still had to live and interact with the people around
him. On more than a few occasions, Jerome accommodates his writing style to the
conventions of a Christian world.
[356]
In this sense, Jerome becomes an involuntary witness in
favor of the Deuterocanon.
[357]
As Breen writes:

We have no wish to minimize Jerome’s opposition to the
deuterocanonical books. At times, it was pronounced and violent. But he could,
at most, only be termed a violent doubter. He never was calm and constant in
his rejection of those books. The fact that, in such strange opposition, he was
at variance with all his contemporaries, made him waver,
and we find
more quotations from Deuterocanonical Scripture in Jerome, than in any other
writer yet quoted
. Oft when opposed by his adversaries for his Scriptural
views he vented his resentment upon the books themselves. Then, when asked by a
friend, he would calmly discuss the merits of the same writings.
[358]

Jerome’s use of the Deuterocanon is mostly negative. He
calls the Deuterocanonical sections of Daniel a fable
[359]
and flatly denies that Tobit is part of the
canon,
[360]
although
elsewhere he cites it without qualification!
[361]
The Book of Baruch is omitted in his
Prologue
to Jeremiah
, “Setting at naught the rage of his calumniators.”
[362]
However, Jerome
adopts the popular convention in his
Letter to Oceanus
by quoting Baruch
as a voice made by “the trumpets of the prophets.”
[363]
Sirach is both rejected and quoted as
Scripture,
[364]
although it is formally quoted
[365]
and occasionally used without qualification.
[366]
Wisdom is also
occasionally formally quoted.
[367]
Jerome even attributes the passages from Wisdom to the Holy
Spirit.
[368]
Maccabees
is used without distinction.
[369]
Jerome at times alludes to the Deuterocanonical sections of Daniel in his
letters.
[370]
Deuterocanonical passages from Esther are likewise quoted.
[371]
Jerome prefaces a quote from Judith with
these words, “…if any one is of opinion that it should be received as
canonical....”
[372]
Elsewhere, he lists Judith as one of the virtuous women of sacred Scripture,
“Ruth et Esther et Judith tantae gloriae sunt, ut sacris voluminbus nomina
indiderint.”
[373]
Despite his vicious opposition to the Deuterocanon (especially in his
prefaces), Jerome was compelled by the consensus of his peers to use the same
books in the manner they were customarily used.

Jerome also discloses a very interesting convention of the
Jews in his Prefaces to Tobit and Judith. He writes:

The Jews have excluded it [Tobit] from the list of the
Holy Scriptures
, and have reduced it to the rank of the Hagiographa
.
Now they reproach me for having translated it.
[374]

Reuss contends that “Hagiographa” here refers to the third
category of the Jewish bible (e.g. the Writings) because elsewhere Jerome had
placed the Books of Job, Psalms, Solomon, Daniel, and others in this same
category.
[375]
Jerome
makes a similar remark in his
Preface to Judith
:

The Jews place this book [Judith] among the
Hagiographa, and its authority is considered to be insufficient for settling controverted
points. But as the Council of Nicea reckoned it among the Holy Scriptures, I
have yielded to your invitation…
[376]

Even at this late date, these two Deuterocanonical books remained
among the Jewish Scripture, albeit in a diminished capacity. The dictates of
the middle of the second century onward have not yet been able to eradicate
entirely the Deuterocanon from the Jewish Scriptures. They were disparaged, but
as we will see in Protestantism hundreds of years later, they could not be
entirely removed.

Jerome’s canonical innovations were a break with the
constant usage and belief of the Christian Church.
[377]
The reaction of his contemporaries proves
this to be the case. Indeed, the splash created by Jerome’s repudiation of the
Deuterocanon has rippled throughout Western Church through the ages down to
today.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430)

Born in the North African town of Tagaste, Augustine was the
offspring of a mixed marriage. His mother Monica was a Christian and his father
was a pagan who converted to Christianity before his death. Although raised in
the Christian Faith, Augustine became a member of a heretical sect known as the
Manicheans. Through the influence of Ambrose of Milan, however, he came back to
the Faith. He later became a priest, and at the age of thirty-four, bishop of
Hippo in North Africa. Augustine quickly won notoriety for his holiness and his
keen theological mind. He is a figure revered by both Catholics and
Protestants.

Augustine was well familiar with the topic of the canon.
Heretical sects throughout history often tampered with the canon of Scripture
in order to give better support to their views.
[378]
  Both the Manicheans and the
Semi-Pelagians expressed doubts concerning the canonicity of several books in
the Old and the New Testament. Augustine addressed the issue of the canon on
many occasions, although his most detailed and systematic explanation is found
in his treatise,
On Christian Doctrine,
where he writes:

Now, in regard to the canonical Scriptures, he must
follow the judgment of the greater number of catholic churches; and among
these, of course, a high place must be given to such as have been thought
worthy to be the seat of an apostle and to receive epistles. Accordingly, among
the canonical Scriptures he will judge according to the following standard: to
prefer those that are received by all the catholic churches to those which some
do not receive. Among those, again, which are not received by all, he will
prefer such as have the sanction of the greater number and those of greater
authority, to such as are held by the smaller number and those of less
authority. If, however, he shall find that some books are held by the greater
number of churches, and others by the churches of greater authority (though
this is not a very likely thing to happen), I think that in such a case the
authority on the two sides is to be looked upon as equal.
[379]

Like Rufinus and Origen before him, Augustine understood
Church usage as the recognized indicator of canonicity. For Augustine, the
canon was established by the Apostles and handed by them to the churches via
the succession of bishops to be read as divine Scripture. Therefore, unlike
those that did not have apostolic ties, those churches that were established by
an Apostle are given special emphasis or authoritative weight.
[380]
Augustine
continues:

Now the whole canon of Scripture on which we say this
judgment is to be exercised, is contained in the following books:-Five books of
Moses, that is, Genesis, [Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Joshua;
Judges; Ruth; four books of Kings, and two of Chronicles]… The books now
mentioned are history, which contains a connected narrative of the times, and
follows the order of the events. There are other books which seem to follow no
regular order, and are connected neither with the order of the preceding books
nor with one another, such as [Job;
Tobias,
Esther;
Judith,
two books of Maccabees,
and the two of Ezra]…. Next are the Prophets, in
which there is one book of the Psalms of David; and three books of Solomon,
viz., Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. For two books, one called
Wisdom
and the other
Ecclesiasticus,
are ascribed to Solomon from a certain
resemblance of style, but the most likely opinion is that they were written by
Jesus the son of Sirach.
Still they are to be reckoned among the
prophetical books, since they have attained recognition as being authoritative.
The remainder are the books which are strictly called the Prophets…
[Hosea,
Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk Zephaniah, Haggai,
Zechariah, Malachi; then there are the four greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Daniel, Ezekiel]. The authority of the Old Testament is contained within the
limits of these forty-four books.
[381]

The same thought is expressed more succinctly in his
Apology
Against Faustus the Manichean
, in which Augustine writes:

…if you acknowledge the supreme authority of
Scripture, you should recognize that authority which from the time of Christ
Himself, through the ministry of His apostles, and through a regular succession
of bishops in the seats of the apostles, has been preserved to our own day
throughout the whole world, with a reputation known to all.”
[382]

The Church does not
make
or
construct
the
canon. Instead, it authoritatively passes on what the Apostles prescribed to be
read publicly in the Church as divine Scripture. By this practice, the Church
makes manifest which books were entrusted to it by the apostles.
[383]
  Therefore,
for Augustine, the canon of Scripture is a verifiable, historical, and
definable entity.

Augustine was fully aware that the Jews held to a more
constricted Old Testament canon; but unlike Jerome, he did not adopt that
Jewish canon. Instead, he accepted the Deuterocanon as inspired Scripture and
frequently used them as such in his writings.

For example, Augustine quotes the Book of Wisdom as one of
the “…many passages of holy Scripture.”
[384]
Its words are that of “a prophet.”
[385]
It is used as a
proof text along with the Psalms.
[386]
Augustine states that Wisdom contains a prophecy about what
will happen on Judgment Day.
[387]
In his book
The City of God
, Augustine writes:

But let those readers excuse us who knew them all
before;
and let them not complain about those perhaps stronger proofs
which they know or think I have passed by
. After him Solomon his son reigned
over the same whole people…He [Solomon] also is found to have prophesied in his
books, of which three are received as of canonical authority, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. But it has been customary to ascribe to
Solomon other two, of which one is called
Wisdom, the other Ecclesiasticus
,
on account of some resemblance of style, -but the more learned have no doubt
that they are not his
; yet of old the Church, especially the Western,
received them into authority,-
in the one of which, called the Wisdom of
Solomon,
the passion of Christ is
most openly prophesied…
.
But
in Ecclesiasticus the future faith of the nations is predicted in this manner:
“Have
mercy upon us, O God, Ruler of all, and send Thy fear upon all the nations:
lift up Thine hand over the strange nations, and let them see Thy power. As
Thou wast sanctified in us before them, so be Thou sanctified in them before
us, and let them acknowledge Thee, according as we also have acknowledged Thee;
for there is not a God beside Thee, O Lord
.
”
We see
this prophecy
in the form of a wish and prayer fulfilled through Jesus
Christ
. But the things which are not written in the canon of the Jews
cannot be quoted against their contradictions with so great validity
..
.
[388]

Elsewhere, Augustine used the book of Wisdom as an authority
while arguing against the heretical Semi-Pelagians; when they objected, he
responded thusly:  

[T]he judgment of the book of Wisdom ought not to be
repudiated, since for so long a course of years that book has deserved to be
read in the Church of Christ from the station of the readers of the Church of
Christ, and to be heard by all Christians, from bishops downwards, even to the
lowest lay believers, penitents, and catechumens,
with the
veneration paid to divine authority
. For assuredly, if, from those who have
been before me in commenting on the divine Scriptures, I should bring forward a
defense of this judgment, which we are now called upon to defend more carefully
and copiously than usual against the new error of the Pelagians…But if any wish
to be instructed in the opinions of those who have handled the subject, it
behoves them to prefer to all commentators the book of Wisdom, where it is
read, “He was taken away, that wickedness should not alter his understanding;”
because illustrious commentators,
even in the times nearest to the apostles
,
preferred it to themselves, seeing that when they made use of it for a
testimony
they believed that they were making use of nothing but a divine
testimony
; and certainly it appears that the most blessed Cyprian, in order
to commend the advantage of an earlier death, contended that those who end this
life, wherein sin is possible, are taken away from the risks of sins… And the
book of Wisdom, which for such a series of years has deserved to be read in
Christ’s Church, and in which this is read, ought not to suffer injustice
because
it withstands those who are mistaken
on behalf of men’s merit…
[389]