Antithesis.
Antithesis.
§ 223. Bellarmine (De verbo Dei, bk. 1) struggles to support the canonical authority of this book. This could seem strange to anyone because it so graphically depicts the idolatry that is practiced in the papacy in the cult of images and that is closely related to the idolatry of the heathen (Baruch 6:3). Bellarmine brings out the testimonies of the fathers who cite this book “under the name of Jeremiah,” the decree of the Council of Trent, the reading in the Church taken from Baruch, etc.
What one must respond to these insignificant reasons is clear from the preceding. Archbishop Proclus of Constantinople (Serm. de fide ad Armenios, p. 27) adduces a passage from Baruch 3:37 under the name of a prophetic oracle: “Our God recently appeared on the earth and dwelt with men.” This he applies to the incarnation of the Word. A bare quotation, however, does not gain canonical authority for any book, otherwise 3 and 4 Ezra would also be canonical books, which Bellarmine denies. The Greek words in the Book of Baruch can be referred to that which immediately precedes, namely, to wisdom, that “she appeared on the earth and dwelt with men.” Some press the argument that in 2 Maccabees 2:4 something is quoted from the last chapter of Baruch. But because 2 Maccabees is itself apocryphal, how can one prove canonical authority for any book from it?