Board index ‹ Assorted Bible Questions

[AdamLW]

The Apocrypha is a topic that Roman Catholics and Christians debate over.

I have heard many different reasons why it is omitted from the Bible including:

1.)Not one of the apocryphal books is written in the Hebrew language (the Old Testament was written in Hebrew). All Apocryphal books are in Greek, except one which is extant only in Latin.
2.)It teaches immoral practices, such as lying, suicide, assasination and magical incantation
3.) Apocrypha includes doctrines in variance with the Bible
4.)Apocrypha contains fabulous statements which not only contradict the "canonical" scriptures but themselves
5.) I was told once that many wise men decided it to not be apart of the Bible

... but I am curious to hear why you say.

I don't know enough about the Apocrypha to know what language it was originally written in, so that's more of a question than a statement.
And because I am not well versed with the Apocrypha, I can not state with certainty that 2-4 are accurate.
The fifth reason I'm certainly not sold on. I find much wisdom comes from the moment that you've been foolish before, so how can I trust men to impart wise decisions onto a book that is God breathed?

[jimwalton]

It's my understanding that the Apocrypha did not meet the standards of Scripture, such as historically accurate, so they weren't included. It's generally thought (by Protestants) that their content was too questionable, their authorship too questionable, and their content contradicting Scripture that they weren't included. The Catholic Church didn't include them officially until 1546, the year of Martin Luther's death. It's my understanding that they were voted in, at least in part, as a reaction to the Reformation. I'll see what else I can find out.

[Bob the Kangaroo]

The Apocrypha, also referred to as Deuterocanonical books, were written during the Intertestamental Period, a period of time when God specifically said that He would not speak to His people (Amos 8:11), and are included in Roman Catholic Bibles but not in those used by most Protestants. These books were never recognized as Scripture by the Jews of Palestine, and there is no evidence that they were used by Jesus and His disciples. The Jews in Alexandria used them, however, and included them in their translation of the Old Testament into Greek, called the Septuagint. When Jerome translated the Bible into Latin in the early 5th century, he did not include the Apocrypha because those books were not in the original Hebrew Old Testament. Augustine, however, argued that they should be included because the apostles quoted from the Septuagint and the Septuagint contained the Apocrypha. The Catholic Church eventually adopted Augustine's position in the 16th century at the Council of Trent, while Protestants rejected the Apocrypha as lacking divine authority. In fact, considerable disagreement existed among Catholics on the subject prior to the Reformation, but when Protestants openly rejected the Apocrypha, the Council of Trent (1545-1563) responded by incorporating it officially into the Catholic canon.