Why Were Certain Books Of The Septuagint Plus Rejected?
In addition, the decision at Trent has many problems. Rather than accepting the entire fourteen or fifteen books of the Septuagint plus as Holy Scripture they rejected First and Second Esdras (which they call Third and Fourth Esdras) and the Prayer of Manasseh. It is interesting to note that Second Esdras, or Fourth Esdras in Roman Catholic reckoning, contains a strong objection against prayers for the dead – one of the important doctrines practiced by the Roman Catholic Church at that time. Second Esdras also limits the Old Testament canon to twenty-four books. This of course, would exclude the Apocrypha. It must also be noted that at the Council of Trent there seems to have been no Hebrew scholars and only a few good Greek scholars. 19. There Are Other Books, Apart From Scripture, Found Among The Dead Sea Scrolls Most scholars believe that the people who lived at the place near the Dead Sea, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, were the Essenes. Although they were rivals of mainstr
