Quote:
๐ช๐๐ฌ ๐ฃ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฆ๐ง๐๐ก๐ง๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐๐ ๐ข๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ง๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ข๐ ๐ข๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ?
Among the most revealing moments in the early years of the Protestant revolt is the Leipzig Debate of 1519 between Martin Luther and the Catholic theologian Johann Eck. This decisive debate exposed a deep weakness in Lutherโs new theology: it did not agree with the historic biblical canon used by the Apostles and preserved by the Church.
๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ข๐ฉ๐ณ๐ข๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐: ๐๐ก๐๐ง ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ฌ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐ฉ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐
During the debate, Johann Eck defended the Catholic doctrines of purgatory and prayers for the dead. To support his argument, he appealed directly to Scriptureโspecifically 2 Maccabees 12:43โ46, which explicitly describes prayers and sacrifices offered for the souls of the dead so they may be purified from sin.
Luther was instantly trapped.
If Maccabees is Scripture, then prayer for the dead and purgatory are biblical.
If he wanted to deny purgatory, he had to deny Maccabees.
Instead of accepting Scripture, Luther declared that Maccabees was not part of the Bibleโright there in the debateโsimply because it contradicted his new teachings. Eck immediately pointed out that Luther was rejecting 1,500 years of Christian tradition, the canon affirmed by the early Church, and the Bible as used since apostolic times.
The debate made it clear:
Eck stood on the universal Christian canon. Luther stood only on himself.
๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐จ ๐๐๐จ ๐ผ๐ก๐ฌ๐๐ฎ๐จ ๐ฝ๐๐ก๐ค๐ฃ๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐๐๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐
Ancient Jews accepted Maccabees as historical and sacred tradition
While later rabbinic Judaism narrowed its canon in the late 1st century, earlier Jewish communities:
used Maccabees,
transmitted Maccabean texts,
and celebrated the feasts recorded in it, especially Hanukkah.
Maccabees is found in the Septuagint (LXX)โthe Bible of Jesus and the Apostles
The Septuagint was the Scripture used by:
Jesus,
the Apostles,
early Christians,
and Greek-speaking Jews.
And the Septuagint contains 1 and 2 Maccabees.
Over 300 New Testament quotations match the Septuagint, not the Hebrew Masoretic text adopted later by Protestants.
Rejecting the Septuagint canon means rejecting the canon used by the first Christians.
Maccabees appears in the oldest Christian manuscripts โ Sinaiticus and Vaticanus
Two of the most ancient complete biblical manuscripts contain Maccabees:
Codex Sinaiticus (4th century) โ includes 1 Maccabees and even 4 Maccabees.
Codex Vaticanus (4th century) โ includes both 1 and 2 Maccabees.
These manuscripts are more than a millennium older than the Protestant Reformation and prove that the early universal Church accepted Maccabees.
Maccabean texts are found in Hebrew among the Dead Sea Scrolls (Qumran)
Fragments related to the Maccabean period were preserved at Qumran, proving that ancient Judaism transmitted these traditions in Hebrew before Christianity.
St. Jerome included Maccabees in the Latin Vulgate
Despite his own academic reservations, Jerome obeyed the Church and included Maccabees in the first official Christian Bible. The Vulgate became the standard Bible for more than 1,000 years.
If Maccabees is in:
the Septuagint,
the Vulgate,
Codex Sinaiticus,
Codex Vaticanus,
the Dead Sea Scrolls,
then Luther had no historical or theological basis to remove it.
๐๐๐ง๐ฎ๐ค๐ค๐๐ก ๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ โ ๐๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ญ๐๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ฅ๐
This is a powerful point Protestants cannot answer.
Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication)
The origin of Hanukkah is recorded only in Maccabees, not in the Masoretic Hebrew canon used by Protestants.
1 Maccabees 4:36โ59
2 Maccabees 10:1โ8
Jesus Himself keeps this feast in John 10:22, yet Protestants rely on a canon that removed the only biblical record of Hanukkahโs origin.
Pentecost (Feast of Weeks)
The word Pentecost appears in:
2 Maccabees 12:32
But it does not appear in the Masoretic text.
Yet Protestants preach Pentecost Sunday from a feast whose biblical background comes from a book they removed.
This alone proves that the Protestant canon is historically incomplete.
๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ ๐๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ (๐๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐ฆ๐จ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ก๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ค๐ฌ)
Luther did not stop with Maccabees. He also wanted to remove:
James โ which contradicted โfaith alone.โ
Jude โ which quotes the deuterocanonical Book of Enoch.
Hebrews โ which teaches sacrifice after Christ.
Revelation โ which he found โneither apostolic nor prophetic.โ
Lutherโs guiding principle was not tradition or scholarshipโit was agreement with his theology.
Maccabees explicitly teaches:
prayers for the dead (2 Macc 12:44)
atonement after death (2 Macc 12:45)
the resurrection of the body (2 Macc 7)
intercession of saints (2 Macc 15:12โ16)
Thus Lutherโs removal was theological, not historical.
๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ช๐ฉ๐๐๐ง ๐๐๐จ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ฃ๐ ๐ผ๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐จ
1. He had no authority to change the canon.
The biblical canon was affirmed by the Councils of Rome (382), Hippo (393), and Carthage (397).
2. He rejected the Bible used by Jesus and the Apostles.
The Apostles used the Septuagint, not the Masoretic text.
3. He contradicted the earliest Christian manuscripts.
Sinaiticus and Vaticanus include Maccabees.
4. He removed books because they contradicted his doctrines.
5. He accepted the late Jewish canon, which rejected books Christians had always held as Scripture.
The Protestant Deletion of Maccabees Was Doctrinal โ Not Historical
Why was Maccabees removed?
Because it supports Catholic teachings Protestants reject.
Purgatory
Prayers for the dead
Intercession of saints
The resurrection
Sacred tradition
Apostolic Scripture
The Septuagint canon
Feasts like Hanukkah and Pentecost
Removing the books was the only way to defend the new Protestant doctrines.
๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ฅ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง: ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐๐ฌ ๐ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐๐ซ๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก
Maccabees testifies to:
Apostolic tradition
Jewish history
Early Christian Scripture
Catholic doctrines
The canon used by Christ and His Apostles
The Leipzig Debate exposed the truth clearly:
> When Maccabees speaks, Catholic doctrine stands unshaken. When Luther rejects it, he stands alone.
Maccabees belongs to the Bible because Christโs Church preserved itโ and Protestants removed it only to deny Catholic truth.