Non Habes Quod Requiritur

NON HABES QUOD REQUIRITUR
YOU DON’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES

On Sunday, January 27, 2019, my wife wanted to attend service at the Protestant Evangelical Church in the southern part of our city. I actually am quite happy that we did attend for the message from the pulpit was appropriate and timely. My notes (with some side commentary) are provided below. The chosen Scripture passage was Hebrews 4:11-16:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=hebrews+4%3A11-16&version=RSVCE

INTRODUCTION

The message of the culture is not the message of the Gospel. It is a false message to say that you can do anything you put your mind to do for you are not God. You are not omnipotent and you cannot do it by your own power. In Genesis 41:16, when asked to interpret his dream, “Joseph answered Pharaoh, ‘It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.’”

In another respect God uses marriage to bring us to the end of ourselves because by our own effort without His help we cannot make the marriage relationship work, hence the modern divorce rate.

The message in the Epistle to the Hebrews is that Jesus as our High Priest is superior to all. And St. Paul emphasizes in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God…”

COME WHOLEHEARTEDLY TO THE FAMILY OF GOD (HEBREWS 4:11)

In Hebrews 4:11, we “strive to enter that rest.” Rest is peace with God. But the use of the word strive seems contradictory.

All are born in sin. David said in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. (This Psalm was written in repentance for the adultery with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah her husband which David had committed). God required everything from David and in like manner God requires everything from us in order to receive everything from Him. We live by Faith in Christ, NOT in self. Therefore, we must strive – be diligent and come wholeheartedly into God’s family. 2nd Corinthians 13:5 states, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” Seek out Godly counsel. Don’t bank on the supposition that you prayed a prayer. You must live the life. Examine yourself.

It is here that I am going to diverge from my notes and give a more correct explanation of what the preacher was trying to say. He denied the salvific effect of baptism, treating it as a mere ordinance of the confirmation of one’s pre-existing salvation and not as a Sacrament. I think that he was trying to say that just because you’re baptized doesn’t mean you get an automatic ticket into Heaven. That’s true by itself. I agree with that. Baptism isn’t a free ticket where I can do whatever sin I want but I remain saved just because I was baptized. So I think this is more a matter of semantics. Let me explain and tie this into what the preacher went on to say.

Jesus in Mark 16:16 says, “He who believes AND is baptized will be saved…” And 1st Peter 3:21 states, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, NOW SAVES YOU, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ….” However, James 2:17, 19 & 24 state, “So FAITH BY ITSELF, if it has no works, IS DEAD….Even the demons believe—and shudder…You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

Therefore, to be saved: (1) one must believe, AND (2) one must be baptized AND (3) one must put one’s faith and baptism into action by good works in obedience to glory of God. Salvation isn't just an event. It is a process of living.

Thus, those three Scripture passages directly support what the preacher did say, that (for example) the Jews being God’s Chosen people was insufficient for their salvation. Obedience is the authentic mark of a follower of Christ – a willingness to die to self. That’s the second part of Hebrews 4:11, “….that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

COME EXPECTANTLY TO THE WORD OF GOD (HEBREWS 4:12-13)

God loves me and I must love Him. We must come back to God’s Word to let it shape us. “For the word of God is living and active…” This is the basic nature of God’s Word. 2nd Peter 1:20-21 states, “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

God never has to make His rules better. His Word is living and God-breathed. In the same way, Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being…” Just as man became a living being by being God-breathed, so too the Word of God.

The Word of God is active. The Greek word used here is ενεργός which goes into our English word energy. The Word is at work.

The Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Ephesians 6:17 says, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Thus, the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. The written Word of God can be no less powerful than the words that Jesus Himself used to forgive sin and raise the dead.

2nd Timothy 3:14-15 states, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The Word of God teaches us and makes us wise unto salvation.

2nd 3:1-17 states, “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The Word of God equips us for every good work.

The Word of God pierces to the innermost being and cuts us surgically.

Should we read God’s Word daily? YES! We all need to be daily cut in order to be continuously conformed to God’s image. The sword of the Spirit is life-changing.

Matthew 4:4 states, “But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” This must start at childhood, for Deuteronomy 4:9 states, “Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children…” The Word of God is more important than food, clothing, housing, work, etc. You don’t have what it takes without following what the Bible says.

The preacher explained that he does expository – verse by verse – preaching in order to feed the people of God, and he cited Hebrews 5:11-14 which states:

“About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.”

And Revelation 20:12 states, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done.” At this point the preacher speculated that one of the books to be opened would be the Bible. The Navarre Study Bible has a note on this. That note describes only the two sets of books mentioned in Rev 20:12, and states in part the following:

“The author [of Revelation] then turns his attention to the resurrection, when all men will be judged according to their works. He describes this by using the metaphor of two books. One of these records the actions of men (as in Daniel 7:10 and other passages of the Old Testament, cf., e.g., Is 65:6; Jer 22:30). The second book contains the names of those predestined to eternal life (an idea inspired by Daniel 12:1; cf. also, e.g., Ex 32:32). This is a way of showing that man cannot attain salvation by his own efforts alone…”

At this point the preacher expounded on the evil of abortion, describing abortion as a mess and as sin. The Bible states that life begins in the womb – Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…” Pictures of baby formation at 12, 27 and 40 weeks were displayed on massive screens at the front of the Sanctuary. Psalm 139:13 states, “For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother’s womb.” However, in NY State it is now permissible to kill a baby at the moment of birth. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed such a bill into law. That is heinous and unspeakable.

God uses His Word to point out our sins. We don’t have what it takes to get saved, to live day by day.

COME CONFIDENTLY TO THE THRONE OF GOD (HEBREWS 4:14-16)

We have an Advocate – Christ Jesus – to speak on our behalf. Nothing can deliver our deepest needs but Jesus. He never failed in His temptations and He won’t fail us in ours. We are able to pray because of Jesus and we are able to receive help because of Jesus. He is the Bread of Life (John 6:22-59). He is life itself (John 14:6). John Newton once said that no one can ask too much of Jesus. Therefore, let us come confidently to the Throne of Grace.

Should we pray every day? YES! Just as we should read His Word every day.

Romans 12:3 states, “For by the grace given to me I bid everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.” This shows that we can’t do it by ourselves but only by the measure of faith that God assigns us. Therefore, why don’t we come to the Word of God, the Throne of God? Maybe we’re lost, in which case we need to repent and convert.

We cannot be with God and be separated from His Word, His Throne.

PERSONAL COMMENT

The respect that Protestant Evangelicals have for the written Word of God should be practiced by every Catholic and Orthodox person. I cannot emphasize that enough. We Catholics and Orthodox directly descended from the first century Christians gave the Bible to the world, and for us to NOT know what it says is absolutely shameful. But the Word of God isn’t just written.

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The written Word is merely a reflection of the Divine Word (Jesus Christ) Who created all of existence and became incarnate of a Virgin in order to die on a Cross for our sins; he descended into hell, rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of God the Father from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. When we are baptized, we are baptized into His Body the Church of which He the crucified and risen Lord is the Head exactly as St. Paul describes it. When we partake of the Holy Eucharist, we eat that Word as His flesh and drink His blood exactly as the Bread of Life Discourse in John chapter 6 describes it.

Reading the Bible is absolutely necessary, but the Holy Spirit through the very real power of the Sacraments makes its power alive within us. Jesus said in John 6:53-58, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”

The Eucharist – not the Bible – is the source and summit of our Faith. In fact, there was no Bible (as we know it today) before the late AD 300s when the Church at two different councils decided on what books would be in the Bible and what would not be. Before that time the only thing that Christians had were the Church, Sacred Tradition and scattered collections of Scared Books. That’s why St. Paul says in 1st Timothy 3:15, “…if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.” And in 2nd Thessalonians 2:15 he says, “So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.”

I was very pleased and blessed with the overall sermon, especially that the subject of abortion was directly and forthrightly dealt with (sadly unlike Catholic Parishes which are running scared under the priestly sex abuse scandal and lack of leadership from the current Pontiff). And I like being stimulated to think on these things. Furthermore, I have nothing but encouragement to offer this Protestant preacher. But I always go back to how the early Church Fathers in the first four centuries AD viewed Scriptures. They were the closest to the Apostles, and I would urge any preacher - Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant - to read how the Church Fathers viewed and interpreted Sacred Scripture.

Dolor

Amici, Americani, Compatiotae,

This post is a followup from a previous one - Cum Res Malae Populo Bono Accidunt - earlier this week.I had the opportunity to listen to a sermon given by a Methodist minister on Job 1:1-12. Overall the sermon was rather well delivered. But I was struck by hearing the minister state that Job was one of his least favorite books because of the issue of suffering and the manner in which the Book of Job specifically and the Old Testament in general deals with it. Repeatedly the minister asked with respect to God punishing the disobedient out of His divine anger, "Is that the God we really have?" The answer is yes. Now that said, Job's suffering was clearly NOT punishment for past sins because the beginning of the first chapter in that book makes it clear that God gave Satan permission to afflict Job when Satan challenged God as to Job's faithfulness - that it was due solely to the fact that God has prospered Job. But God answers the challenge because He foreknew that in spite of affliction Job would remain loyal. Therefore, when the Protestant Pastor ascribed suffering to simple random accidents (basing that on what Rabbi Kushner concluded in his book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"), I frankly felt the explanation unsatisfying and incomplete. While things that happen to us often seem like accidents, there are no accidents with God for He knows everything from beginning to end. Nothing happens without the concurrence of His sovereign will. Sometimes we talk about being in compliance with God's perfect will, and sometimes we talk about God's permissive will, but whatever the case may be, it is God's will that gets fulfilled and we can either comply with that will in our suffering, or wail and bemoan our fate, rebelling against God. Job did the former.

Lactantius

I did some additional research into this issue, and a friend on Facebook provided me with some supplemental information. I therefore encourage the reader to study these intently in the light of the Church's 2000 years of Sacred Tradition:

Reconciling Man's Free Will with God's Sovereignty by Jim McCrea

Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence by Father Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure (1588-1657)

On the Anger of God and Of the Manner in Which the Persecuted Died by Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (4th century AD)

De Fuga in Persecutione by Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus

Tertullian

The entire manner in which the Church Fathers viewed suffering and persecution is remarkably different that the manner in which we post modern people view it. If we say that we want to return to the New Testament Church, then we must think as the men thought  who were taught by the Apostles. Here is a taste from Tertullian. Note that he discusses persecution which proceeds from God. To the extent that God permitted Satan to persecute Job, was not Job's persecution then permitted by God, and if yes, then do not the words of Tertullian below apply? See the difference between Tertullian's point of view and that of today's modern Protestant cleric (or even the typical Catholic Novus Ordo Spirit of Vatican II cleric):

Well, then, if it is evident from whom persecution proceeds, we are able at once to satisfy your doubts, and to decide from these introductory remarks alone, that men should not flee in it. For if persecution proceeds from God, in no way will it be our duty to flee from what has God as its author; a twofold reason opposing; for what proceeds from God ought not on the one hand to be avoided, and it cannot be evaded on the other. It ought not to be avoided, because it is good; for everything must be good on which God has cast His eye. And with this idea has perhaps this statement been made in Genesis, And God saw because it is good; not that He would have been ignorant of its goodness unless He had seen it, but to indicate by this expression that it was good because it was viewed by God. There are many events indeed happening by the will of God, and happening to somebody's harm. Yet for all that, a thing is therefore good because it is of God, as divine, as reasonable; for what is divine, and not reasonable and good? What is good, yet not divine? But if to the universal apprehension of mankind this seems to be the case, in judging, man's faculty of apprehension does not predetermine the nature of things, but the nature of things his power of apprehension. For every several nature is a certain definite reality, and it lays it on the perceptive power to perceive it just as it exists. Now, if that which comes from God is good indeed in its natural state (for there is nothing from God which is not good, because it is divine, and reasonable), but seems evil only to the human faculty, all will be right in regard to the former; with the latter the fault will lie. In its real nature a very good thing is chastity, and so is truth, and righteousness; and yet they are distasteful to many. Is perhaps the real nature on this account sacrificed to the sense of perception? Thus persecution in its own nature too is good, because it is a divine and reasonable appointment; but those to whom it comes as a punishment do not feel it to be pleasant. You see that as proceeding from Him, even that evil has a reasonable ground, when one in persecution is cast out of a state of salvation, just as you see that you have a reasonable ground for the good also, when one by persecution has his salvation made more secure. Unless, as it depends on the Lord, one either perishes irrationally, or is irrationally saved, he will not be able to speak of persecution as an evil, which, while it is under the direction of reason, is, even in respect of its evil, good. So, if persecution is in every way a good, because it has a natural basis, we on valid grounds lay it down, that what is good ought not to be shunned by us, because it is a sin to refuse what is good; besides that, what has been looked upon by God can no longer indeed be avoided, proceeding as it does from God, from whose will escape will not be possible. Therefore those who think that they should flee, either reproach God with doing what is evil, if they flee from persecution as an evil (for no one avoids what is good); or they count themselves stronger than God: so they think, who imagine it possible to escape when it is God's pleasure that such events should occur.

Nullum Conloquium cum Hodierna Humanitate Saeculare

13th Century Painting
Virgin Mary Punching Satan

Amici, Americani et Compatriotae,

Father Zuhlsdorf at his blog has written an entry entitled:

Archbp. Chaput: a smaller Church of fewer believers rather than compromise orthodoxy.

In this entry is referenced two other rticles:

Philly’s Chaput welcomes idea of smaller, holier Church
Transcript: Chaput's remarks at Notre Dame University

These articles may be summarized as follows: No dialog with today's secular culture. The Blessed Virgin Mary does not dialog with Satan, for Genesis 3:15 states:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; she shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

Virgin Mary
Crushing the Serpent's Head

And Revelation 11;19 through 12:5 states:

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron...

The Church has weathered the storm of pagan Roman Emperors, barbarian invasions from the Goths and Huns and Mongols, ruthless wars of aggression and dhimmitude by Ottoman Turks and North African Moors, and persecution by the likes of Maximilian Robespierre, Otto von Bismark, Plutarco Elias Calles, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse Tung and Adolf Hitler. The Church - the Body of Christ, that male child who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron - is still here.

The Democratic Party shall not win. So-called Catholics like Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Tim Kaine, John Kerry, et alias are traitors to the Church and would do well to remember the lesson provided by Phinehas in Numbers 25:6-9:

And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Mid′ianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting. When Phin′ehas the son of Elea′zar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation, and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the inner room, and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through her body. Thus the plague was stayed from the people of Israel. Nevertheless those that died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

Origo Bibliorum Sanctorum

ORIGO BIBLIORUM SANCTORUM

Amici,

Protestors say that they believe the Bible is inerrant and that the Bible is the only authority for spiritual truth. The first part of what they say is true and correct: the Bible is without error. Yet these same protestors reject the very Church which determined what books would be in the Bible and what books would not be. The second part of what they say is false: the Bible is the only authority for spiritual truth. In point of fact, both Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church are authoritative, especially since it was on the basis of these that the Church determined what would be in the Bible and what would not be. Therefore, if someone says that he accepts the authority of the Bible, then by definition he must accept the authority of Sacred Tradition and the authority of the Church. If he rejects either of the last two, then when he says he accepts only the authority of the Bible, he is a hypocrite and a heretic.

THE CHURCH: THE PILLAR AND BULWARK OF TRUTH

St. Paul writes in 1st Timothy 3:15 the following:

“…if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”

It is the Church, NOT Sacred Scripture, which is the pillar and bulwark of the truth. Sacred Scripture records that truth but it is NOT that truth. There is a difference between a record and that which is recorded. Therefore, if it is accepted that Sacred Scripture records the truth, and if the Church according to that Scripture is the pillar and bulwark of that truth, then everyone – Protestants, Orthodox and Catholic – is obligated to give assent to the Church.

TRADITION: BOTH VERBAL AND WRITTEN ARE AUTHORITATIVE

St. Paul writes in 2nd Thessalonians 2:15 the following:

“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.”

Tradition then is authoritative and must be obeyed, whether verbal or written. To reject the authority of the Sacred Tradition of the Church is to reject Sacred Scripture which admonishes us to adhere to Tradition. Therefore, if it is accepted that Sacred Scripture records the truth, then everyone – Protestants, Orthodox and Catholic – is obligated to accept as authoritative the past 2000 years of the Church’s Sacred Tradition.

SCRIPTURE: CONTENT AT THE TIME OF CHRIST

At the time of Christ, the Scriptures held to be sacred and divine were those recorded in the Septuagint, a translation into Koine Greek of the books in the Old Testament completed by 70 scholars in Alexandria, Egypt in 132 BC. It was this translation which the writers of the New Testament quoted throughout the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles and Revelation. Therefore, it is stipulated that the books in this translated were regarded by Jesus, His disciples and St. Paul as canonical. These included the standard 66 books recognized by the protestors of the 16th century as well as 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Judith, Tobit, Baruch, Wisdom and Sirach. Yet in spite of the fact that Jesus Himself and his disciples accepted these books, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the other protestors rejected them on their own cognizance. They defied the Church and the Holy Spirit Who inspired the Church on what to accept and what to reject as canonical.

SCRIPTURE: DETERMINED BY THE CHURCH

The content of the New Testament was written by the Apostles in the 1st century AD, but there was a lot of controversy over what was canonical and what was not canonical in the first 400 years of the Church. Some noteworthy and salutary books like the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, and the letters of Clement, were highly regarded and read as Scripture in some of the local Churches. Others, like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas, were Gnostic and clearly heretical; these were rejected outright. And still others such as the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of St. Jude and the Book of Revelation, while regarded as canonical today, were not always accepted by every local Church in the first few centuries after Christ. So how and when did the Church Universal (i.e., Catholic) – the undivided Church of East (Orthodox) and West (Roman) – decide on which books would be accepted as canonical and which would not be? The Church did in the late 4th century AD what She had done to decide the problem of Judaizers in 1st century AD as recorded in Acts 15:6-29. She held a Council of the Bishops and Presbyters (i.e., Priests). Actually, she held two councils: one at Rome in AD 382 and another at Carthage in AD 397. The relevant text of the proceedings of these Councils is reproduced below. The reader must bear in mind, however, that the names given to the books of the Old Testament in this text are their Greek versions given in the Septuagint vice their original Hebrew or Aramaic versions to which the Protestants default in their publications. That is because Jesus and His Apostles, and hence the early Church used the Septuagint.

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF ROME IN AD 382 ON SACRED SCRIPTURE

It is likewise decreed: Now, indeed, we must treat of the divine Scriptures: what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she must shun.

The list of the Old Testament begins: Genesis, one book; Exodus, one book: Leviticus, one book; Numbers, one book; Deuteronomy, one book; Jesus Nave, one book [Joshua]; of Judges, one book; Ruth, one book; of Kings, four books [1st & 2nd Samuel and 1st & 2nd Kings]; Paralipomenon, two books [1st & 2nd Chronicles]; One Hundred and Fifty Psalms, one book; of Solomon, three books: Proverbs, one book; Ecclesiastes, one book; Canticle of Canticles, one book; likewise, Wisdom, one book; Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), one book; Likewise, the list of the Prophets: Isaiah, one book; Jeremias, one book; along with Cinoth, that is, his Lamentations; Ezechiel, one book; Daniel, one book; Osee [Hosea], one book; Amos, one book; Micheas, one book; Joel, one book; Abdias, one book; Jonas, one book; Nahum, one book; Habacuc, one book; Sophonias [Zephaniah], one book; Aggeus [Haggai], one book; Zacharias, one book; Malachias, one book. Likewise, the list of histories: Job, one book; Tobias, one book; Esdras, two books [Ezra and Nehemiah]; Esther, one book; Judith, one book; of Maccabees, two books.

Likewise, the list of the Scriptures of the New and Eternal Testament, which the holy and Catholic Church receives: of the Gospels, one book according to Matthew, one book according to Mark, one book according to Luke, one book according to John.

The Epistles of the Apostle Paul, fourteen in number: one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Ephesians, two to the Thessalonians, one to the Galatians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to Timothy, one to Titus one to Philemon, one to the Hebrews.

Likewise, one book of the Apocalypse of John. And the Acts of the Apostles, one book.

Likewise, the canonical Epistles, seven in number: of the Apostle Peter, two Epistles; of the Apostle James, one Epistle; of the Apostle John, one Epistle; of the other John, a Presbyter, two Epistles; of the Apostle Jude the Zealot, one Epistle.

Thus concludes the canon of the New Testament.

Likewise it is decreed: After the announcement of all of these prophetic and evangelic or as well as apostolic writings which we have listed above as Scriptures, on which, by the grace of God, the Catholic Church is founded, we have considered that it ought to be announced that although all the Catholic Churches spread abroad through the world comprise but one bridal chamber of Christ, nevertheless, the holy Roman Church has been placed at the forefront not by the conciliar decisions of other Churches, but has received the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior, who says: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it; and I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you shall have bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall have loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE IN AD 397

It was also determined that besides the Canonical Scriptures nothing be read in the Church under the title of divine Scriptures. The Canonical Scriptures are these: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings [1st & 2nd Samuel, and 1st and 2nd Kings], two books of Paraleipomena [1st & 2nd Chronicles], Job, the Psalter, five books of Solomon, the books of the twelve prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel, Daniel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, two books of Esdras [Ezra and Nehemiah], two books of the Maccabees. Of the New Testament: four books of the Gospels, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, one epistle of the same [writer] to the Hebrews, two Epistles of the Apostle Peter, three of John, one of James, one of Jude, one book of the Apocalypse of John. Let this be made known also to our brother and fellow-priest Boniface, or to other bishops of those parts, for the purpose of confirming that Canon, because we have received from our fathers that those books must be read in the Church. Let it also be allowed that the Passions of Martyrs be read when their festivals are kept.