10-29-2003, 10:03 PM
Paul Younan Wrote:I so wish there was a Semitic original to Revelation. I love that book.
We do consider it as a "Pious Writing", so the study of it is encouraged. It's just that there are no "readings" from it during the "liturgical cycle", or "Khudra" as we say.
I'm skeptical that this was the original position of the CoE, instead of a later convenient position of compormise (giving those books the maximum esteem possible for non-canonical works) with the other Aramaic speaking churches and Graeco-Roman Christianity. Revelation in particular was widely rejected as either inspired or apostolic at any level, *especially* in the East, and it becomes very hard to explain that if the current CoE position on the Western Five was the original. It seems even many Greek Christians in the eastern half of the Roman empire were influenced by the CoE in this matter.
Shlama, Craig