Question for Catholics: When in Greece....?

[mmmcounts]

The EOC and RCC each base their OT canon on the Septuagint.

They come up with a different number of books, though. There's three books in the Orthodox canon (plus Ps. 151) that aren't in the Catholic canon.

This has to do with how different Scripture-related traditions developed in different parts of the world before the concept of a canon had been invented.

Broadly speaking, two major traditions coalesced in Europe. The tradition of the East (that of the Hellenistic world, starting in Greece) and that of the West (where Rome eventually asserted itself).

The Septuagint is a Greek translation. Made in Greece. By Hellenistic people for Hellenistic people who spoke Greek in that part of the world.

Here's what I don't get. It seems like you're able to trust these people to make the Septuagint and give it to you, but you can't trust them to know how many books comprise the whole of what they made. Is that how it works?

Can any Catholic give me one good reason to view the Greek canon of the Greek Septuagint as anything but the most reliable source on this matter?

You know what they say about Rome. When you're there, you do as the Romans do. Well, if you're talking about the Greek Old Testament, you're in Greece. Why don't you do as the Greeks do when you're in Greece?

 

[MrPolo]

Actually, the Orthodox 1672 synod agrees with the shorter Alexandrian Canon, and even Orthodox know this and point to varying canons within Orthodoxy, such as a different Russian Orthodox canon. Also, depending on which manuscript you examine (like Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, Alexandrian), sometimes there are different books in with the Septuagint not accepted by the Catholic Church, such as 3 and 4 Maccabees. So the issue for both West and East is one of discernment through the bishops.