As I have noted previously, the
issue of 1 Esdras is very problematic for the purported apostolic nature
and infallibility of the April 1546 Tridentine decree on the canon of the Bible
as well as Catholic apologists who claim a pedigree for this canon from the
provincial councils of Carthage and Hippo. This has resulted in a number of
responses from Catholics such as John Betts and Gary Michuta, including an
appendix in the second edition of Michuta’s Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger. Reformed apologist Bill Webster
(who I will admit, is rather hit-and-miss in many areas) has done a good job
responding to Michuta and Betts in the following articles:
Bill
Webster Responds to Gary Michuta Part I
Bill
Webster Responds to Gary Michuta Part II
Bill
Webster Responds to Gary Michuta Part III
A
Further Response to Gary Michuta and John Betts on 1 Esdras
As Webster notes
near the end of his 3rd response to Michuta:
Clearly, when Trent enumerates the books of
the Old Testament it explicitly rejects I Esdras from the list and designates I
Esdras to be Ezra and 2 Esdras to be Nehemiah in conformity with Jerome and the
Hebrew canon. Thus, there is an irreconcilable difference between the canon promulgated
by Hippo/Carthage and that authoritatively decreed by Trent.
