Hello, Everyone,

Are those books/passages which are found in Eastern (i.e., Byzantine and Oriental) canons but not in the Western one, included in Eastern Catholic Bibles? If yes - are they considered to be fully canonical (Divinely inspired and infailable) or merely appendices? Are there any official (approved by the Vatican) statements on this matter?

Hi BACK! Welcome to the forum.

I will leave it to others to answer your question

OnMyWay: I know several people with "Orthodox Study Bibles", but what each church uses liturgically is almost always a subset of the generally accepted Latin canon. Likewise, even post V II, the Latins still don't use ALL of their canon liturgically.

Q1: Are those books/passages which are found in Eastern (i.e., Byzantine and Oriental) canons but not in the Western one, included in Eastern Catholic Bibles?

A1: I am unaware of any specifically “Eastern Catholic Bibles” but the answer would (should) be “yes”.


Q2: If yes - are they considered to be fully canonical (Divinely inspired and infallible) or merely appendices? Are there any official (approved by the Vatican) statements on this matter?

A2: The Vatican has probably never ruled on them as no one has ever challenged the legitimacy of these books. The general principle of authority in Scripture would follow. The Gospels outrank everything else, then the rest of the New Testament, then the Old Testament. The books that the Eastern Church has that the West does not have in the Canon of Scripture would rank below everything else. Canonical, but lower than the rest.

Those who want to investigate this subject should look into the following three books by Bruce M. Metzger, who until his recent death was considered the doyen of American biblical scholars:

The New Testament: Its Background, Growth and Content (3rd ed.)

The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration (3rd ed)

The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development and Significance

All are in print and available through Amazon or Borders.

Shlomo,

Those Churches that follow the Antiochene-Edessan Tradition use the Pesitta as our offical Bible.

Fush BaShlomo,
Yuhannon

I received an e-mail from a friend in Toronto who tells me that he has in his possession a Ukrainian language Orthodox Bible with the additional six OT books (Psalm 151 etc.) which carries the Imprimaturs of both the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic and Ukrainian Roman Catholic primates.

Thanks for all your answers.



How many NT books does it have?

Shlomo,

We have all 27 books of the New Testament. The Church of the East and the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church have only 22 books.

Fush BaShlomo,
Yuhannon