Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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PROTOCANONCIAL

A term applied to those books of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, whose inspired character had never been questioned, e.g, by any Church Father. But the expression is misleading because it was not the Church Fathers but the Church's magisterium under the Pope that was divinely authorized to decide on the canonicity of the Scriptures.