Junilius Africanus.
Junilius Africanus.
§ 96. In Africa, the integrity of the canon does not seem to have been observed so carefully because Bishop Augustine of Hippo includes the Book of Wisdom among the books of divine authority (De praedest. sanct., bk. 1, c. 14). In addition to the fact that some people resisted Augustine, however, it is evident from Junilius Afer [or Africanus], explaining the parts of Holy Scripture to a student of Augustine, that he did not count the Book of Wisdom and the other controversial books in the canon. When he was asked why he did not include them among the divine writings, he responded: “Because the Jews received them with this distinction, as Jerome and others testify” (bk. 1, c. 2). In c. 3 he mentions that “the professors at the school of Nisibis in Mesopotamia taught that those controversial books are not canonical.”