www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Orthodox Scriptures for Roman Catholic converts?

Dear Fr. David,

I am in awe of the scope of your knowledge concerning the Greek translation of the current
Divine Liturgy. Admittedly, this is all "over
my head" - and my question to you should be a
welcome relief from the tough theological questions you usually address.

Here goes. I was raised in a Protestant home
(United Methodist) and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1994. In RCIA, I learned of the
differences between the King James Version of
The Bible that I grew up with - and the Catholic
Bible which included the "Apocrypha" - books removed from Protestant Bibles.

I am now seriously contemplating a move from the Roman Rite to the Byzantine Catholic Church.
My question is: Do I continue with the Revised Standard Version of The Bible (The Catholic Edition, published by Ignatius Press) OR is there
a Byzantine Bible with Greek and Oriental books
missing from my current Bible? I feel pretty silly
asking this question - but someone once said the
only stupid question is the one you're afraid to ask?

God Bless you Father!

Kimberly Kateri Garcia

Hi!

I know you addressed this question to Fr David, so I hope you don't mind an unsolicited response.

I assume you have attended or are attending OLPH Byzantine Catholic Church there in town.

As to Sacred Scripture, your RSV Catholic Edition is fine. What is used for the Epistle and Gospel lessons are pericopes from the New American Bible (NAB). There is an Orthodox Study Bible on the market which contains the NT and Psalms with study notes from the Orthodox tradition. The New King James translation is used. If you'd like more help I'm sure Fr Chris Zugger or seminarian Michael O'Loughlin would be more than happy to help you.

John Montalvo

Kimberley,

Christ is in our midst!

The Othodox churches accept as canonical some additional books not in the Roman scriptural canon: I & 2 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, 3 Maccabees and Psalm 151. The first three should be found in any Bible translation containing the Apocrypha, while the latter two are found primarily in the (republished) RSV and NRSV translations.

Since the Roman canon was defined at the Council of Trent, before most(?) Eastern Catholic groups returned to communion with Rome, I don't know for sure to what extent Eastern Catholics are bound by this - a good question for other posters or a priest to answer. The only one of these books I have encoutered in Orthodox liturgy is the Prayer of Manasseh. It is also contained in "Byzantine Daily Worship," a Melkite Catholic prayer book blessed by the Melkite Patriarch, which makes me think that the extra books are appropriate for Eastern Catholics. Fortunately, it possible to buy a separate Apocrypha containing these extra books and continue to use the RSV-CE (exactly what I did when I began looking Eastward).

Peter

Dear Peter,

Our Studite Monks of the Ukrainian Catholic Church has published a Psalter where they do include Psalm 151 at the end.

There is no reason why the full Orthodox canon of the Old Testament cannot be read and used by Eastern Catholics.

The Ethiopian Church includes the 8 Books of the Apostolic Constitutions as part of its New Testament and includes the books of the Jubilees and Enoch in its "narrow canon" of the Old Testament.

The Celts included the Book of Hermas and the Book of the Apostles' Creed in their New Testament until the Synod of Whitby in the seventh century.

There are examples of how other Particular Churches used local canons of scripture as well.

Alex