All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Tim. 3:16-17 (NKJV)
The Apocrypha includes those books contained in the Greek Old Testament but not found in the Hebrew Bible, yet Earle E. Ellis notes: “No two Septuagint codices contain the same apocrypha, and no uniform Septuagint ‘Bible’ was ever the subject of discussion in the patristic church. In view of these facts the Septuagint codices appear to have been originally intended more as service books than as a defined and normative canon of Scripture.”
[The Old Testament in Early Christianity [WUNT 1.54; Tubingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1991), 34-35.]
HT: Michael Bird
I know we have had this conversation before; and I have read your treatise on the subject
But what is your view on the Epistle of Barnabas as it is found in the Codex Sinaiticus…? (not sure if it is in the Codex Vaticanus)
As you well know the Sinaiticus is the #2 (arguably) Text for scripture next to the Vaticanus…
Would that lend weight to the Epistle of Barnabas’ validity…?
Barnabas 5:1 “For on this account the Lord endured to give his flesh unto corruption, that we might be sanctified by the remission of sins, which is by the sprinkling of his blood.”
http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=60&chapter=5&lid=en&side=r&zoomSlider=0
Is this not a true saying in our ears…? I dunno I think we should give it a chance…
“When you read the Bible, you must think that ‘here and now God is speaking with me’.â€- Dietrich Bonhoeffer