Originally posted by Orthodox Catholic:
(snip)
Some editions that give the full Deuterocanonical texts differentiate between the "Russian" and "Greek" Orthodox Old Testament canons.
They invariably include the Fourth Book of the Maccabees, but say that while the Greeks don't consider it "inspired" it is still a part of Scripture (?).
There is also a point made that there is no uniformity with respect to the Old Testament Canon of the Orthodox Bible.
(snip)
Alex
May the Lord God bless you!
Yes, there are certain discrepancies regarding the canon of scripture, and then a disctinction is made
by some, but not all Fathers as to the footing of the duterocanonical books. So, it's easy to be confused, because there is not agreement about what is in, out, inspired, lesser inspired, or what.
Generally speaking, the books in dispute are 4 Maccabees, which the Russian bibles do not include at all (generally) while the Greeks include it but do not necessarily give it full "scriptural" status, and 2 Esdras (which the Russian bibles include as 2 and 3 Esdras) which the Greeks do not include (generally). There may be something else I'm missing here.
Of course, there was for many hundreds of years divergent opinion about the New Testament also. The Book of Revelation was not widely accepted in the East until very late - even as late as the fifth century in some places. Many Fathers cited the "Revelation of Peter" as canonical NT prophetic scripture, but not John's Revelation. Today, of course, there is no dispute. Although, we should also acknowledge that some of our major feast days are gleaned from NT "apocryphal" literature. The conclusion for us is that this is not a bad thing. For a Protestant, it's akin to heresy, I suppose.
So we might say that these minor discrepancies in the OT canon in the east is not a major issue, since both Esdras and Maccabees are history books. Their uneven status between the churches is to be expected, given the various lists of canonical scriptures among the Fathers. Of course, a nice pan-Orthodox ecumenical council might clear that up! But I don't think that the list of canonical OT scripture would make the top ten list!
Sorry I can't be more specific, but I think that this issue is a typically eastern one, and shouldn't rattle us too much.
Priest Thomas Soroka