Sunday, May 31, 2020

Augustine Quoting 1 Esdras as Canon Scripture in The City of God

Interestingly, Augustine, in The City of God Book 18 Chapter 36, quotes 1 Esdras (in some Catholic circles, III Esdras; alt. Esdras A) as canonical scripture:

 

After these three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, during the same period of the liberation of the people from the Babylonian servitude Esdras also wrote, who is historical rather than prophetical, as is also the book called Esther, which is found to relate, for the praise of God, events not far from those times; unless, perhaps, Esdras is to be understood as prophesying of Christ in that passage where, on a question having arisen among certain young men as to what is the strongest thing, when one had said kings, another wine, the third women, who for the most part rule kings, yet that same third youth demonstrated that the truth is victorious over all. For by consulting the Gospel we learn that Christ is the Truth. From this time, when the temple was rebuilt, down to the time of Aristobulus, the Jews had not kings but princes; and the reckoning of their dates is found, not in the Holy Scriptures which are called canonical, but in others, among which are also the books of the Maccabees. These are held as canonical, not by the Jews, but by the Church, on account of the extreme and wonderful sufferings of certain martyrs, who, before Christ had come in the flesh, contended for the law of God even unto death, and endured most grievous and horrible evils.

 

On the issue of Esdras and the canon dogmatised at the fourth session of the Council of Trent (April 1546), see:

 

 1 Esdras and the Canon of the Council of Trent 


Edmon L. Gallagher and John D. Meade on "Esdras"


The Freestanding Books of the Apocrypha and Early Christian Lists of the Old Testament



For a Roman Catholic response, see:


Gary Michuta on Trent and the Book of Esdras