www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Scripture and Patristic Writings How are the Maccabees divided by ECs

I have noticed over the years while online that the Maccabees are separated into two books by Western Catholics, but that some Eastern Christian Churches have a 3 Maccabees-and some, I think, even a 4 Maccabees.

How are they divided up within the Old Testament?

Cyril,

Wishing I was as firm in faith as the Maccabeans.

The Greek Christian Old Testament (Septuagint) contains 4 Maccabean Books that Christ and the Apostles quoted.

Western scholarship has had a bias toward the Hebrew Jewish Old Testament since the time of Saint Jerome under the false assumption that the Hebrew text is older or better than the Greek.

The Latin Church officially dropped 3 & 4 Maccabees at the Western Council of Trent as a sort of compromise effort toward the Protestants. 3 & 4 appears to be in a different style and authorship than 1 & 2.

The Latin Church has stated that it does not view the variation of Scripture Canon as any road-block to unity. Some Orthodox say that it is a problem.

I personally believe that we need a larger Canon, or some type of Sub-Cannon in order to set the context of the Scripture in order to avoid protestant-style errors. For example, it is nearly impossible to understand the concept of the Son of Man without reading the Book of Enoch � which is directly quoted in the New Testament and also a part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Scripture.

Actually the 3rd and 4rd Maccabees never become part of Western church Canon, and it was not dropped because of compromise with the Protestants.

See the canon of Council of Rome, Carthago, and Gelasian Decree if you don't believe it. They all mention only 2 books of Maccabees.

http://www.tertullian.org/decretum_eng.htm

Perhaps instead of �dropped�, I should have said officially decided not to add 3 & 4 to the canon?

There was some Eastern participation at the later Western Councils and the OT canon was an ongoing subject of debate. Also, some considered 1 & 2 to be only one book perhaps explaining why 3 is sometimes included, but not 4.

Please note that I did not say that it was a �compromise with the Protestants�. It was �sort of an effort at compromise�. In the debate at Trent, it was well known that Protestants would never accept an apparent Eastern �expansion� of the canon. 3 & 4 became a kind of throw-away issue to apparently demonstrate the reasonableness of keeping 1 & 2. Some at the council favored the Protestant view -- the East was marginalized.

Remember that this was at the beginning of modern style scholarship and the West was at an intellectual low point. Both the Latin Catholics and Protestants had very misguided assumptions that took until the Vatican II era to get back on track with a preference for a more ancient and Eastern approach...

Dear Friends,

As I understand it, the Eastern Churches accept three books of the Maccabees, but consider the fourth book as a deuterocanonical - correct?

The Ethiopian canon has both the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees in their "narrow" canon of the Old Testament.

They have a much expanded "wider canon" of the Old Testament.

They also include the 8 books of the Apostolic Constitutions in their New Testament as canonical scripture.

Alex

Cyril, this is a question with a long history. Even the various Byzantine versions of the OT are not in agreement. The Slavonic (Russian) bible only has III Maccabees, and the Greek includes III Maccabees and IV Maccabees is included as an appendix.
Deacon Diak

Alex makes a good point about the Ethiopians - as they have several more books in their Bible than even the Greek version.

This is why I bought the New Oxford Annotated Bible (RSV) with the Apocrypha Expanded Edition.

I have more references and choices to my base collection of many...

james

ps: there is a difference of verse numbers in the Book of Daniel RSV vs the Douay, Jerusalem etc..

Dear Friends,

FYI, the Kyivan Ukrainian Orthodox Bible now has the Imprimatur of the UGCC Primate, His Blazhenitude Lubomyr Husar!

This includes 3rd Maccabees etc.

If anyone is impressed, please say so . . .

Alex

Alex,

The Ukrainian people's faith impress me, but I fear it will not help me to read a single verse in the Bible, even 'Jesus wept.'

Cyril,

Wishing he was a better linguist and looking for scrolls to eat