Looking for resource

MJ. Smith
MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 55,539
edited November 2024 in English Forum

I just read in Wikipedia:

"However, Jubilees is considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Jews in Ethiopia, where it is known as the Book of Division (Ge'ez: Mets'hafe Kufale)."

"Mäṣḥafä Kedus (Holy Scriptures) is the name for the religious literature. The language of the writings is Ge'ez. The holiest book is the Orit (from Aramaic "Oraita" - "Torah") which consists of the Five Books of Moses and the books Joshua, Judges and Ruth. The rest of the Bible has secondary importance. The Book of Lamentations is not part of the canon.

Deuterocanonical books that also make up part of the canon are Sirach, Judith, Esdras 1 and 2, Meqabyan, Jubilees, Baruch 1 and 4, Tobit, Enoch and the testaments of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

I had not known that there were/are multiple Jewish canons. Can anyone point me to other instances or relevant information? A search of my entire Logos library yields no results ... if you could even find me appropriate search terms to find something within Logos, I'd be forever grateful.

Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

Comments

  • Room4more
    Room4more Member Posts: 1,730 ✭✭✭

    What exactly are u looking for, Deuterocanonical Books? or the the Ge'ez language script? Not really sure...... http://www.logos.com/products/search?q=Deuterocanonical+Books

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  • Jean Wilson
    Jean Wilson Member Posts: 5 ✭✭

    A couple of suggestions you might want to delve into:

    1. About Ancient Judaism : New Visions and Views (Michael E. Stone, 2011, Eerdmans, LLS:ANCJUDVISVIEW     ANCJUDVISVIEW.logos4)
    2. The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and its background in Early Judaism (Roger Beckwith, 1985, SPCK  LLS:OTCANONNTCH   OTCANONNTCH.logos4)

    What we normally understand as the Jewish canon was what was established as such and kept at the Temple in Jerusalem.  There were a number of peoples who adhered to the concept of one God and the more ancient of the scriptures who did not necessarily consider the Second Temple as the sole authority and whose canon was not the same.  Similarly many of these other sects and peoples were not recognized as Jews by the second Temple authorities.

    Try a search on Judaism Canon and see what hits you get.... [:)]

  • Room4more
    Room4more Member Posts: 1,730 ✭✭✭

    MJ, You are aware that the Deuterocanonical books are also called the Apocrypha?

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  • Gary O'Neal
    Gary O'Neal Member Posts: 584 ✭✭

    A couple of things which turned up--only one in my Logos library from a search of (other, different) WITHIN 2 WORDS "jewish canon"

    Bush, Fredric W. Vol. 9, Ruth, Esther. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998.

    In his Introduction, Bush discusses the canonization of Ruth and  mentions some of the process of canonization in general, making mention of some of the differences. He also points to a number of different resources.


    It isn't in Logos, but you can read part of this on Google which may give you further information:
    Philip R. Davies, "Canon, Canonizing, and Canonical Criticism: Approaches to Jewish Canonizing," in Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998).

    http://books.google.com/books?id=wjcOaNfz-HIC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

     

    One source which a number of people mentioned, was Benjamin D. Sommer, "Unity and Plurality in Jewish Canon." Here's a screenshot of a footnote which points to it along with a number of other sources which may prove helpful.

    image
    Jeffery Stackert, Rewriting the Torah: Literary Revision in Deuteronomy and the Holiness Legislation (Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2007), 214n8.

     

    EDIT: Just came across this pdf of a chapter by Philip Davies -- Loose Canons: Reflections on the formation of the Hebrew Bible -- jbburnett.com/resources/davies_loosecanons.pdf

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  • Ken McGuire
    Ken McGuire Member Posts: 2,075 ✭✭✭

    MJ. Smith said:

    I had not known that there were/are multiple Jewish canons. Can anyone point me to other instances or relevant information? A search of my entire Logos library yields no results ... if you could even find me appropriate search terms to find something within Logos, I'd be forever grateful.

    I remembered that some have found a difference between the Palestinian Canon and the Alexandrian one.  Did a quick google search on "alexandrian palestinian canon" and came up with the following: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03267a.htm from the Catholic Encyclopedia.  I have also seen criticism of this...

    Not an expert by any means, but I suppose it has to do with dating and integrity of the Septuagint.  I looked up the article on the Septuagint in the Anchor Bible Dictionary and a quick scan doesn't find any specific info on this, but does give an overview of the problems with regards to textual tradition of the LXX, which would be relevant.

    I suppose you could go through all of Philo and try to see what texts exactly he views as canonical, but this isn't my chief interest.

    SDG,

    Ken McGuire

    The Gospel is not ... a "new law," on the contrary, ... a "new life." - William Julius Mann

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  • MJ. Smith
    MJ. Smith MVP Posts: 55,539

    Thank you all - I've now got some research to do.[Y]

    Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 33,290

    Hi MJ

    Do you have ISBE (Revised Edition)?

    If so the article at logosres:isbe;hw=Canon_of_the_OT could be interesting

    Graham

  • Philana Crouch
    Philana Crouch Member Posts: 2,151 ✭✭✭

    Also if you have the Apocrypha and Pseudipigrapha by Charlesworth each book should have a pretty lengthy introduction, I would imagine they would include a discussion on that book's relationship to the various canons.

  • Philana Crouch
    Philana Crouch Member Posts: 2,151 ✭✭✭

    MJ,

    I totally misspelled things in my previous post.

    If you have:

    The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English

    Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols.)

    They should each have lengthy introductions that discuss the specific book’s relationship to a specific canon. If you don’t have any of these in your library post back. I can create a shared note from Evernote that’s easy to access to the needed intros in these resources (I have both).

    I have to thank you for posting about this because when I searched for apocrypha at www.Logos.com to look up the info for the above resources I unexpectedly found a pre-pub for my seminary Greek textbook, written by my professor.

    Read Greek in 30 Days or Less: New Testament, Old Testament, Apocrypha, Philo, Church Fathers by W. Larry Richards

    I have long wanted it in my Logos library, his approach is very easy to use to actually learn Greek.