The
Apocrypha
There
are 66 books in the Bible. These 66 books were written by 40 authors across three
continents. God used priests such as Ezekiel
& Ezra, shepherds like Amos & David. Moses who was a prince of Egypt. God used King David and King Solomon. God included fishermen like John and Peter. God spoke through Matthew who was a tax
collector and Luke who was a doctor, etc. The Bible took a duration of 1,500
years to compose. It was originally
written in three different languages, Biblical Hebrew, Greek and some Aramaic. With all these different components,
scripture is aligned and connected so perfectly.
Have
you ever worked on a group project in school or at a job? It’s hard for even a few people to come
together and turn out a report when everyone has a different ideas and opinions. Now try that with 40 different authors who
spoke different languages, lived different ways of life. Most of them didn’t know or talk to each
other yet, their writings beautifully complement each other without
contradiction. This is because the Bible
is a Divine book, authored by God, through men.
Men did not speak their own words but the words of God (John 12:49). These books come together to form one
beautiful picture of Jesus’ enormous love for us and the high price he paid to
redeem us.
I
will explain to you why I believe the Apocrypha is not a Divinely inspired book
and should not be included with the Bible.
I do not have any issues with someone reading the Apocrypha, but I do
reject the belief the Apocrypha is the Word of God and Christian doctrine
should not arise from those books.
The Jewish people did not consider the
apocrypha to be scripture.
God gave the Jewish people
the Old Testament. They are the ones to whom
God entrusted with his Word. Romans 3:2, …First of all, the Jews
have been entrusted with the very words of God.
The Jewish Bible called
the Tanakh contained our 39 Old Testament books. There were 400 years between the Old
Testament’s last prophet of Malachi and the start of the New Testament. During this time the Apocrypha was written. The
Jewish people with whom God entrusted with his Word, knew about the Apocrypha
but they never considered it to be Divinely inspired and they rejected these
writings as scripture. It doesn’t mean the Jewish people didn’t read the books
of the Apocrypha, because evidence shows they did, but it means they did not
consider it to be the Word of God and they still don’t.
Jesus and the
writers of the New Testament did not quote the Apocrypha.
Jesus and the authors of
the New Testament referred to and quoted the Old Testament hundreds of
times giving them validity. I believe the only books from
the Old Testament that did not have someone from the New Testament refer to
them are Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. Thirty-four
of the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament were referenced in the New Testament.
One apocrypha book 2 Esdras is believed to have been
written after Jesus died and the Temple was destroyed in 70AD. Most likely the rest of the apocrypha was
written prior to Jesus. Why then, is
there not a single quote from Jesus or the writers of the New Testament from
the apocrypha when clearly, they like to quote scripture? Not one verse in
the 18 books of the Apocrypha
were referenced by anyone in the Bible. My petition to you is because not
one author from the 66 books of the Bible considered the apocrypha to be scripture.
This one quote by Jesus
covers all the Old Testament. Luke 24:44, Then he said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that
everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets
and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
For more details on why this quote covers the
whole Old Testament click HERE for a good
article.
Click HERE to see a list of New Testament Bible
verses with references to the Old Testament.
Click HERE
to see visuals of the interconnectedness of scripture.
There are no quotes from God in the apocrypha.
Jeremiah 1:9, Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the
LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
John 3:34, For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does
not give the Spirit by measure.
If God has sent them, they speak the words of God. Thousands of times in the Bible God is
directly quoted. The Catholic church has
added seven Apocrypha books into their scriptures. Not one of those books contain a single quote
from God. There are no, Thus says the
Lord, The Word of the Lord came to me saying….
Not one verse says, God said or God spoke. This is because God did not speak through the
authors of the apocrypha.
I searched the apocrypha including the books the Catholic
church has rejected and I found quotes from God only in the book of 2 Esdras. The quotes supposedly from God were given to
the prophet Ezra. Ironically, the
Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox church and the Coptic Christians don’t consider
2 Esdras to be inspired and do not include this book in their Bibles. 2 Esdras was probably written after the
destruction of the second temple, yet it’s supposed to have been written prior
to 440 BC by an unknown author. I just
wanted to let you know from my research, this was the only book that came up
with a quote from God.
The writers of
the apocrypha do not claim to be inspired by God.
The authors of the Bible were fully inspired by God. 2 Timothy 3:16,
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,
for correction, and for training in righteousness. See also 2 Samuel 23:2, Acts 1:16,
1 Corinthians 14:37
Unlike the authors of the Old and New Testament, the
authors of the apocrypha never claimed to be divinely inspired.
The book of Sirach says it was written from a man’s heart,
so by saying this, he’s confirming it’s not the inspired Word of God. Sirach 50:27, My name is
Jesus son of Eleazar son of Sirach, and I wrote this book to help you learn and
understand the wisdom that overflows from my heart. See also Sirach 50:47
In the prologue of Ecclesiasticus AKA Sirach, it
appears the writer is confirming this was written by the will of man. It’s too long to include the whole prologue
so here is my summary of it. A grandson
is gathering up his grandfather’s writings and putting them together. It acknowledges this was written after the
prophets. The author describes his
grandfather as well versed in reading the law and the prophets (Tanakh/Old
Testament) along with other books and has gained good judgment. His grandfather wanted to write something
himself pertaining to his learning and wisdom.
It does not say the grandfather was inspired by God to write but appears
to be his personal desire. Then it asks
you pardon them (grandsons) as they may seem to come short of some words
because they are laboring to interpret their grandfather’s writings into a
different language so they can put them in this book. No where does he say he believes his
grandfather’s writings were the Words of God.
The grandson is struggling in his own effort because he is not being led
by the Spirit to gather and translate these writings. You can google prologue of Ecclesiasticus if
you would like to read it for yourself.
2 Maccabees 15:37-38, …so
I will end my story here. If it is well written and to the point, I am
pleased; if it is poorly written and uninteresting, I have still done my best. The author is saying it may be poorly written
but would an author who is writing the words of God say that?
Other than 2 Esdras, I don’t see any acknowledgement from
the authors of the apocrypha saying their writings were Divinely inspired, in fact
it says the opposite.
The writers of the Apocrypha were not prophets.
A prophet is one who speaks for God. Deuteronomy 18:18,
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I
will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command
him. Hebrews 1:1-2, Long ago,
at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but
in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir
of all things, through whom also he created the world. See also 2 Peter 1:20-21, Luke
1:70, Romans 16:26 & Luke 24:27.
Not one of the apocrypha writers
claimed to be a prophet. 1 Maccabees 9:27,
So
there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that
prophets ceased to appear among them. 1 Maccabees 14:41, The
Jews and their priests have resolved that Simon should be their leader and high
priest forever, until a trustworthy prophet should arise. This author
is acknowledging that as of his writing prophets have ceased. See also 1 Maccabees 4:46.
The writers of the apocrypha were not prophets, never
claimed to be prophets and therefore, there are no prophecies. With the absence of prophecies in the apocrypha,
there’s no way to verify their writings to be true. One of the things that set the Bible apart
from all other religions is the large number of prophecies contained within
them. The prophecies in the Word of God
have a 100% accuracy with end time prophecies starting to come to pass.
Romans 16;26, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings
has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal
God, to bring about the obedience of faith.
Prophecies
bring about obedience of faith. Almost a
third of the Bible (27%) is prophetic.
It seems odd that if the Apocrypha was the Word of God, it would be void
of any prophetic visions.
There are
Historical inaccuracies in the Apocrypha.
Unlike the 66 books of the
Bible, there are historical inaccuracies in multiple books of the apocrypha. I’ve read articles not only stating that
there are historical inaccuracies but also geographical, chronological and
numerical errors. I looked up some of
the historical errors but have not researched the others. Even with the historical errors alone, it
would be hard for me to place my trust in a book that claims to be the Word of
God and had major mistakes in such areas.
God knows history and if these writings were inspired by God, that would
either diminish God’s omniscience or suggest he lies when he inspires the writers. My perception based on this one area alone, is
the apocrypha is not the inspired Word of God.
There are multiple
articles out there on the historical inaccuracies in the apocrypha. When you
have time, please research this topic further.
Here is a good place to start.
Click HERE for a list of historical inaccuracies in the
book of Judith.
The apocrypha
was not considered scripture by early theologians.
Protestant Christians and the Jewish faith both use the
same Old Testament. In the sixteenth
century the Catholic churches along with the Orthodox and Coptic churches started to include parts of
the apocrypha into their Bibles. None of
them consider all 18 books of the apocrypha to be divinely inspired. Each of those churches choose a different set
of books to include as scripture. The Catholic Church added 7 of the apocrypha
books to the Hebrew Bible. Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 & 2
Maccabees, plus they added some writings to Ester and Daniel. If the apocrypha is scripture, why did the
Catholic church reject 11 of the 18 books?
They included the first two books of Maccabees but rejected the third
and fourth book of Maccabees. I searched
for a while and could not figure out why more than half of the books in the
apocrypha were rejected while others were considered divinely inspire.
In my research this is what I have found out. When the Hebrew scriptures (Tanakh) were
translated into Greek (Septuagint) other non-biblical books were translated
along with the scriptures. The books of
the apocrypha were among those translated.
At that time, it was well known that the apocrypha weren’t considered scripture. In the year 382 the Bible was translated from
the original Hebrew into Latin by Jerome.
He translated the apocrypha into Latin due to the Pope's request, but
made it known this was not part of the original Tanakh and it was not to be considered
scripture. When Martin Luther translated
the Septuagint into Latin, he also notated the apocrypha was not
scripture. These were well educated men
who knew the languages and both stated the apocrypha should not be considered
scripture.
The information in this next paragraph such as the
translation information and dates are from BlueLetterBible.Org. The article is titled How has the Old
Testament Apocrypha been placed in bible translations. Click HERE for
that article. Here is my quick summary
of it.
The Wycliffe Bible was translated in 1395 did not consider
the Apocrypha to be scripture. Matthew
Coverdale translated the Bible to English in 1535. He kept the Apocrypha separate and notated it
was not scripture. In the fifth addition
published in 1541 Coverdale's introduction to the apocrypha that stated the
books were not scripture was removed by the Catholic church. The 1560 Geneva Bible translated by the
Puritans also did not consider the Apocrypha to be scriptural. The King James version was translated in
1611. Some of the KJV Bibles did not
have the Apocrypha and some did. Bibles
that were printed with the apocrypha had a disclaimer on it. It stated those books were not considered
scripture. From this point on the Roman Catholic church continued to print the
Bible with the apocrypha and no longer included the disclaimer. The Protestant versions of the Bible stopped including
the apocrypha all together.
The Apocrypha vs
the Bible.
Based on all the reasons above I would be confident to say,
the Apocrypha is not scripture. Let’s
take one more step and look at direct quotes from the apocrypha and see if they
align with scripture. God is not going
to contradict his own word. He is the
same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). 1 Corinthians
14:33, For God is not a God of confusion...
·
Apocrypha – Sirach 5:6, Don't think that his
mercy is so great that he will forgive your sins no matter how many they are.
·
Bible – Numbers 14:18 & Psalm 145:8 says the Lord is great in mercy. Mark and John say all our sins are
forgiven. Mark 3:28, “Truly, I say to you, ALL
sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they
utter. 1 John 1:7, …the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from ALL sin. See also Isaiah 43:25, Micah 7:19, Matthew
12:31, 1 John 1:9 & Ephesians 2:4.
·
Apocrypha – I’m color coding the quote from Sirach with
its corresponding match in the Bible to make it easier to view the comparison. Sirach 12:3-5, No good ever comes to a
person who gives comfort to the wicked; it is not a righteous act. Give to religious people,
but don't
help sinners. Do good to humble people,
but don't give anything to those who are not
devout. Don't give them food, or
they will use your kindness against you.
·
Bible -
Luke 6:30, Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your
goods do not demand them back. Luke 6:27, “But I say to you who hear,
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Proverbs 25:21, If your enemy
is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give
him water to drink. See also Matthew
5:43-47.
·
Apocrypha - Sirach 3:3,
Those who honor their father
atone for sins.
·
Bible - Leviticus 17:11, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it
for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the
blood that makes atonement by the life.
·
Apocrypha
v In Sirach 3:15, the Apocrypha says your kindness
will melt away sins.
v Sirach
3:30, Money given to the poor brings forgiveness
for sins, just as water puts out a
fire.
v Tobit
12:9,
because giving to the poor saves you from death and washes away every sin… See also Tobit 4:10-11
·
Bible
Your kindness and giving to the poor will NOT wash away your sins. Here is what the Bible says about giving to the poor and having your sins washed.
v The Bible says when you give to the poor
you will have rewards, treasures in heaven and blessings from
the Lord. Matthew 6:2-4, Luke 6:38, Luke 18;22, Proverbs 3:9-10, etc.
See also Proverbs 19:17. If
someone is saved they will receive rewards for their good deeds done on earth,
but good deeds don’t save us or cleanse us of sins.
v
Only the blood of Jesus washes away every
sin of ours. 1 John 1:7, …the blood of Jesus his
Son cleanses us from all sin. Revelation
1:5, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the
dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. See also Revelation 7:14.
ü We are saved by grace, through faith and NOT
by works (John 6:28-29, Romans 11:6). Please
read my article called the Dangers of Working for your Salvation. Click HERE to read it.
·
Apocrypha – Sirach 42:14, A
man's wickedness is better than a woman's goodness; women bring shame and
disgrace.
·
Bible – Compare that to what the Bible says about a woman in Proverbs 31. She is more precious than
jewels and is to be praised.
·
Apocrypha – The apocrypha promotes witchcraft! Tobit
6:5-8 & Tobit 6:15-17.
·
Bible – The Bible says anyone who does these
things are detestable. Deuteronomy 18:9–12, …do not let your
people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage
in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call
forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable
to the LORD…
·
Apocrypha – Deceit is encouraged in Judith
9:13
·
Bible – Those who practice deceit will not dwell in God’s house per Psalm 101:7, 1 Peter 2:1 & 1 Peter
3:10.
· Apocrypha – Sirach 7:36, Remembering you will die, will keep you from sinning.
·
Bible – Keeping God’s word in your heart, will
keep you from sinning Psalm 119:11.
This is only a sample of the contradictions. Verses from the Apocrypha have also contributed to the Catholic church’s false belief of purgatory such as 2 Maccabees 12:44-45. I will address the topic of purgatory in a different article.
Why did the
Catholic church add the Apocrypha to the Bible?
The apocrypha contains Biblical
contradictions and historical inaccuracies among other discrepancies. There’s evidence to support these writings are
not inspired by God? Unlike the Bible they
do not contain any prophecies to give the author or their writings any
validity. The Jewish people did not
consider the Apocrypha to be scripture.
The early church fathers did not consider the Apocrypha to be
scripture. The Catholic church rejected
the apocrypha as scripture for over one hundred and fifty decades. With all that said, what changed?
It wasn’t until the year
1546 at the counsel of Trent that the apocrypha was added to the Word of God by
the Catholic Church. The apocrypha was added
in response to the reformation. The
reformation started when a Catholic monk/priest from Germany who was also a
professor of theology named Martin Luther, claimed that the Catholic Church was
teaching doctrines that were not scriptural.
Father Luther rejected the belief you can purchase the forgiveness of
sins through indulgences or almsgiving.
He felt this teaching was hindering people from repenting of their sins.
Martin Luther believed salvation was a free gift from God, received by those
who believed in Jesus. He pinned what is known as the 95 Theses on the door of
a church. He listed out what he believed
were false teachings and problems within the Catholic church.
These are some points that
he made in his theses.
·
#24, The
multitude is misled by the promise of a paid penalty.
·
#27, They preach vanity who say that the soul flies out of Purgatory as
soon as the money thrown into the chest rattles.
·
#32, On the way to eternal damnation are they and their teachers, who
believe that they are sure of their salvation through indulgences.
·
#79, He who says that the cross with the Pope’s arms, solemnly set on
high, has as much power as the Cross of Christ, blasphemes God.
·
#84, What is this new holiness of God and the Pope that, for money’s
sake, they permit the wicked and the enemy of God to save a pious soul,
faithful to God, and yet will not save that pious and beloved soul without
payment…
· Martin Luther says the church curses, disgraces, and excommunicates
those who speak out against or does damage to the trafficking of indulgences
and pardons but Father Luther is saying those who are on guard against these
teachings are blessed. #71-75. https://www.gotquestions.org/95-theses.html
By the time Martin Luther
was a Priest, the Catholic church strayed from solid Biblical teachings. The apocrypha had writings that supported some
of the church’s false doctrines. By adding
the apocrypha as scripture, it gave the Catholic church’s teachings some
validity in the eyes of the public.
The Bible is clear not to
add or subtract from scripture. Proverbs 30:5-6, Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who
take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be
found a liar. See also
Revelation 22:18-19, Deuteronomy 4:3-4, & 12:32
The Bible was written by God’s people who were prophets and quoted God directly. Prophecies including the coming Messiah all came to pass with 100% accuracy. Jesus and the writers of the New Testament confirmed scripture by citing most of the Old Testament as such. All 66 books beautifully complement each other without contradiction. If you stick to the original books of the Bible, then you won’t be led astray into false doctrines. 2 Peter 2:1, But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
A recommended article - Were the Apocrypha books accepted as canon before the Council of Trent?
