re deuterocanonicals esp sirach ddavis cass ma bull com dave davis writes ii the deuterocanonicals are not in the canon because they are not quoted by the nt authors that is not quite accurate otherwise we would have the book of enoch in the canon as dave noted one can say that the apocrypha are not quoted by christ dave also writes iii the deuterocanonicals are not in the canon because they teach doctrines contrary to the uncontroverted parts of the canon then i answer these is a logically invalid a priori besides we are talking about ot texts which in many parts are superceded by the nt in the xtian view would not this same principle exclude ecclesiastes this principle cannot be consistently applied i have to reject your argument here the spirit speaks with one voice and he does not contradict himself the ultimate test of canonicity is whether the words are inspired by the spirit i e god breathed it is a test which is more guided by faith than by reason or logic the early church decided that the apocrypha did not meet this test even though some books such as the wisdom of ben sirach have their uses for example the lutheran hymn now thank we all our god quotes a passage from this book the deutero canonical books were added much later in the church s history they do not have the same spiritual quality as the rest of scripture i do not believe the church that added these books was guided by the spirit in so doing and that is where this sort of discussion ultimately ends david h wagner a confessional lutheran now thank we all our god with heart and hands and voices who wondrous things hath done in whom his world rejoices who from our mother s arms hath blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love and still is our today nun danket alle gott v martin rinckart compare ben sirach
