Changes

l. Eastern Churches, like Judaism, do not have, and have no inner need for, a uniform level of "Inspiration" of Scriptures, as Scriptures themselves did not create or define the Churches or cause them  to be distinct from other peoples or bodies. The  sense of inspiration, and belief in the nature of inspiration, is directly dependent on the actual use of Scriptures in the  formation by God in Christ Himself and in the stages of the Church being led by God. God is the real One and His deeds are indisputable, and the Scriptures testify to those deeds and His words spoken alongside the deeds. That is why, without much reflection because of having knowledge intuitively from living experience, that is, "from the inside", for Jews, the Law (Torah) is the most authoritative, rather than the Prophets and the Writings, athough all are "Tenakh" (Old Testament).There are three divisions with subtle differing authorities. The Jews were formed, in their own understanding, by the Law given to Moses, so that the Law by its more total application to living is the most authoritive practically. In worship, the Psalms are the most vital - as they are prayers, so their inspiration, that is, the sense that they are, and as they are, from God, is indisputable- but largly unconsciously so. In like manner, inspiration of Scripture for Easterners is directly related to the usage we make of it in all its modulations - and how those Scriptures are related to the primary formation - which is certainly not, as it is in Judaism, The Law, but rather, the Gospel. In this sense, it is entirely consistant, if one would wish to conceptualize it, to say that the Gospels, and especially at the time of the Gospel Reading in Church, is more inspired, and has more authority in our lives, than the Book of Leviticus. God is "more there" for those now who have had faith in the Son of God who has freed us precisely from the failures of the Law's ability save us, than He is when we turn to the Book of Leviticus which deals mainly with that Law which we have failed. This does not imply that the Leviticus has more errors than the Gospels but rather that the Gospels bear more of the message of God for those in Christ, more applicability, and more of the persuasion that God is speaking to us from the Holy Gospels. (If we did hold to "uniform inspiration", we would be counted as degraders of God's Word as, in comparison to the time we devote in various forms to the Gospels and Epistles, Christians devote hardly anything to various priestly and and sacrificial prescriptions of Leviticus.) But He is certainly more there with those in Christ, and with the words on the page, when we turn to the book of Leviticus than when we turn to "some of the phantastical portions of the Apocrypha". But the Protestant Church, generally, knows little of this "levels of inspiration" understanding. By going to the Jewish Masoretic Text, Protestantism follows the "Council" of Jamnia/Yavneh 90AD which jettisoned "levels of inspiration" by setting a canon for the purposes of both warding off Christian use of Greek Septuaginta to prove the truth of Christianity, and warding off Roman persecution because of the End of Days defiance to Rome understood to be in the "Greek apocrypha".

l. Eastern Churches, like Judaism, do not have, and have no inner need for, a uniform level of "Inspiration" of Scriptures, as Scriptures themselves did not create or define the Churches or cause them  to be distinct from other peoples or bodies. The  sense of inspiration, and belief in the nature of inspiration, is directly dependent on the actual use of Scriptures in the  formation by God in Christ Himself and in the stages of the Church being led by God. God is the real One and His deeds are indisputable, and the Scriptures testify to those deeds and His words spoken alongside the deeds. That is why, without much reflection because of having knowledge intuitively from living experience, that is, "from the inside", for Jews, the Law (Torah) is the most authoritative, rather than the Prophets and the Writings, athough all are "Tenakh" (Old Testament).There are three divisions with subtle differing authorities. The Jews were formed, in their own understanding, by the Law given to Moses, so that the Law by its more total application to living is the most authoritive practically. In worship, the Psalms are the most vital - as they are prayers, so their inspiration, that is, the sense that they are, and as they are, from God, is indisputable- but largly unconsciously so. In like manner, inspiration of Scripture for Easterners is directly related to the usage we make of it in all its modulations - and how those Scriptures are related to the primary formation - which is certainly not, as it is in Judaism, The Law, but rather, the Gospel. In this sense, it is entirely consistant, if one would wish to conceptualize it, to say that the Gospels, and especially at the time of the Gospel Reading in Church, is more inspired, and has more authority in our lives, than the Book of Leviticus. God is "more there" for those now who have had faith in the Son of God who has freed us precisely from the failures of the Law's ability save us, than He is when we turn to the Book of Leviticus which deals mainly with that Law which we have failed. This does not imply that the Leviticus has more errors than the Gospels but rather that the Gospels bear more of the message of God for those in Christ, more applicability, and more of the persuasion that God is speaking to us from the Holy Gospels. (If we did hold to "uniform inspiration", we would be counted as degraders of God's Word as, in comparison to the time we devote in various forms to the Gospels and Epistles, Christians devote hardly anything to various priestly and and sacrificial prescriptions of Leviticus.) But He is certainly more there with those in Christ, and with the words on the page, when we turn to the book of Leviticus than when we turn to "some of the phantastical portions of the Apocrypha". But the Protestant Church, generally, knows little of this "levels of inspiration" understanding. By going to the Jewish Masoretic Text, Protestantism follows the "Council" of Jamnia/Yavneh 90AD which jettisoned "levels of inspiration" by setting a canon for the purposes of both warding off Christian use of Greek Septuaginta to prove the truth of Christianity, and warding off Roman persecution because of the End of Days defiance to Rome understood to be in the "Greek apocrypha".

ll. This is not only an issue of the Old Testament. it also occurs for the New Testament. But the early Church never saw this issue as an intractable  problem. That is why the various Scripture usages from different locals, some even from the same era - read: insipient "canons" - (containing the "disputable"  books - 2 Peter, 2nd 3rd John,  Jude, the Apocalpse, Letter of Hermes, Didache, etc.) never became a cause for schism. Only under Marcion, who excised Scripture to fit his faith, were varying canons aligned with schism . But this proves the point. Marcion went against the deposit of faith and so he and his canon as a way of propagating this his heresy, were found wanting. Similarly, Luther tried to get rid of the Epistle of James, that "epistle of straw", because it went against his distinctive from the Catholicism he knew all around him. But prior to that, who ever got concerned, let alone went on Schism, because the Epistle of James was considered antithetical to, or, in some sense, conflicting with the emphasis of the epistles of Paul?

ll. This is not only an issue of the Old Testament. it also occurs for the New Testament. But the early Church never saw this issue as an intractable  problem. That is why the various Scripture usages from different locals, some even from the same era - read: insipient "canons" - (containing the "disputable"  books - 2 Peter, 2nd 3rd John,  Jude, the Apocalpse, Letter of Hermes, Didache, etc.) never became a cause for schism. Only under Marcion, who excised Scripture to fit his faith, a faith seen as so at variance with the Apostolic teaching and testimony, were varying canons aligned with schism . But this proves the point. Marcion went against the deposit of faith and so he and his canon as a way of propagating this his heresy, were found wanting. Similarly, Luther tried to get rid of the Epistle of James, that "epistle of straw", because it went against his distinctive from the Catholicism he knew all around him. But prior to that, who ever got concerned, let alone went on Schism, because the Epistle of James was considered antithetical to, or, in some sense, conflicting with the emphasis of the epistles of Paul?

lll. It is important to see how criteria of "levels of inspiration" were understood by the Jewish sages at the time of Jamnia in the first centruy and shortly after. Some of the books that almost didn't make it into the canon of Scriptures: Esther - no name of God, Ecclesiastes - too philosphically pessimistic, Song of Songs- too erotic (needed to be spiritualized). One of them that almost did make it - Ecclesiasticus (ben Sirach)- probably would have been included if they had had it in its original Hebrew as did the "Dead Sea scrolls community" from the desert around Qumran. It is also instructive to note how canon defining in Judaism actually did take place. The Council of Jamnia Canon (which the Protestant Reformers went to, thus excluding the Apocrypha} considered those books only which they had before them in the Hebrew language as worthy for consideration (As it turned out, some of the non Hebrew books before their consideration, were originally Hebrew, as attested by the Dead Sea compilations. But they didn't know that.)

lll. It is important to see how criteria of "levels of inspiration" were understood by the Jewish sages at the time of Jamnia in the first centruy and shortly after. Some of the books that almost didn't make it into the canon of Scriptures: Esther - no name of God, Ecclesiastes - too philosphically pessimistic, Song of Songs- too erotic (needed to be spiritualized). One of them that almost did make it - Ecclesiasticus (ben Sirach)- probably would have been included if they had had it in its original Hebrew as did the "Dead Sea scrolls community" from the desert around Qumran. It is also instructive to note how canon defining in Judaism actually did take place. The Council of Jamnia Canon (which the Protestant Reformers went to, thus excluding the Apocrypha} considered those books only which they had before them in the Hebrew language as worthy for consideration (As it turned out, some of the non Hebrew books before their consideration, were originally Hebrew, as attested by the Dead Sea compilations. But they didn't know that.)