Apocrypha

From Conservapedia

The Apocrypha refers to books of the Bible that various religious denominations do not accept as part of the Biblical Canon—precisely which books are regarded as apocryphal varies between denominations.

1 Samaritans
2 Protestant canon
3 Council of Jamnia ? A.D. 70
4 Early Christian Bible
5 Martin Luther and the Reformation
6 Formation of Catholic Canon
7 Protestant doctrine: "these books were added to the Bible in the 4th century"
8 King James Bible and the Episcopal Church
9 Hebrew and Aramaic original texts
10 Protestant Canon of Apocrypha Books
11 Four New Testament Apocrypha Books according to Martin Luther
12 Reasons for rejecting the Apocrypha
13 Western art and theology
14 The Anagignoskomena, Apostolic Fathers, Pseudepigrapha, Gnostic writings and gospels
15 References
16 External links

Samaritans[edit]

The Samaritans, for example, accept only the Samaritan Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, as canonical and inspired: Genesis through Deuteronomy and Joshua (more precisely called the Hexateuch^[1]). All other writings are rejected by them as the uninspired works of men.

Protestant canon[edit]

The Protestant canon of 66 books was originally formulated by Martin Luther, who removed several books and texts from the Old Testament traditionally included among the 73 books of the Bible as read by the Catholic Church and separated them as "apocryphal". Some editions of the Protestant Bible feature them in a section between the Old and New Testaments as The Apocrypha (Greek, plural, "apocrypha", singular "apocryphon"). He cited the rabbinical authority of the Jews who have rejected these books as having no place in the Hebrew canon. The same rabbinical authority also rejected all of the Christian writings.

Council of Jamnia ? A.D. 70[edit]

In response to the rise of the Christian sect and the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, Jewish rabbis at the Council of Jamnia (some say there was no such council ^[2]) in A.D. 90 discussed rejecting the Septuagint which Christians were using with great effect in favor of selected Hebrew language scriptural texts, omitting certain books such as Baruch, Judith, Maccabees, Sirach, and Tobit (some of these originally written in Hebrew and/or Aramaic ^[3] which were relatively recent Jewish contributions of the 3rd through the 1st centuries before Christ) which had become part of Jewish culture. Needless to say, the Church disregarded the results of Jamnia/Javneh/Jabneh. The opinion of a Jewish council rendered after the time of Christ is not binding on the followers of Christ. If the Jews have been so entrusted with the word of God that they were therefore given the divine authority to also determine the canon of sacred scripture, then the whole New Testament is excluded from the canon of the Holy Bible because it does not meet established rabbinical criteria for what is sacred inspired scripture.

See Logical fallacy of Proof by authority: argumentum ad verecundiam ("appeal to unqualified authority")

According to the ordinary reading of the New Testament and the consensus of the majority of Christians from the 1st century to this day, the authority of the kingdom of God had been wholly taken away from the Jews in the 1st century and given to the leaders of the Gentiles and Jews in Christ long before the Council of Jamnia. Stephen the first martyr for Christ testified to the Sanhedrin this fact by the Holy Spirit:

"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." Acts 7:51-53 KJV

The Apostle Paul himself testified that the Jews are no longer the arbiters of Holy Scripture, but instead that Christian leaders are to be accounted as "the stewards of the mysteries of God". See the testimony of the following scriptures of the Bible:

2 Corinthians 3:14-16

2 Corinthians 5:18-20

1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

Historically, Jewish scholars since A.D. the 2nd–5th centuries (the Talmudists and the Masoretes) have considered the canon closed since the time of Malachi, and have not included the books and texts listed in the Protestant Apocrypha, which were written subsequent to his time.^[4] At the same time they simultaneously excluded as condemned and false the writings of the "heretics" (the minim, including Christians, called nozrim, no§rim, "Nazarenes"), and cursed Christians in a synagogue service "benediction" against them and others. Palestinian texts of the Eighteen Benedictions from the Cairo Genizah ^[5] present a text of the benediction which identifies the minim:

"For the apostates may there be no hope unless they return to Your Torah. As for the no§rim and the minim, may they perish immediately. Speedily may they be erased from the Book of Life, and may they not be registered among the righteous. Blessed are You, O Lord, Who subdues the wicked."

While other specimens of the Palestinian liturgy show slight variation, the no§rim, (usually translated “Christians”) and minim are included in the best texts of this benediction. The fact remains that the no§rim were included with apostates and heretics and the wicked in the Genizah documents.^[6] Jamnia considered 4 criteria (not found in the Bible) to determine which of the Writings - such as Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Song of Songs - should be retained for the Hebrew canon for Judaism:

the book should conform to the Torah;

it was written before the time of Ezra (circa 450 BC);

it was written in Hebrew;

and it was composed in Judah or Israel.^[7]

Although some books of the Old Testament were discussed in Judea at the Pharisaic Council of Jamnia in A.D. 90, the canon itself was not a topic of consideration and this group in fact had no decision-making power. Historically, Jewish scholars since the 2nd century have considered the canon closed since the time of Malachi, and have not included the books of the Protestant Apocrypha, which were written subsequent to his time.^[4] The Jews as arbiters of the Old Testament canon have excluded everything Christian. The Masoretic Text does not include the Apocrypha. The earliest manuscripts of the whole Christian Bible (Greek Bible) include the Apocrypha.^[8]

Early Christian Bible[edit]

The oldest extant manuscripts of the entire Christian Bible are written in Greek, the language of the apostles and the early Christian Church, representing the text of the Holy Bible as it was before the time of Jerome's 5th century Vulgate translation of the scriptures into Latin. They are the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Sinaiticus, and the Codex Alexandrinus. They demonstrate that all of the books and parts of books that have been separated and designated as Apocrypha since the 16th century were included as integral parts of the whole Bible as handed down from the time of the apostles without any distinction or difference, as sacred scripture.

See especially the following three sources:

Codex Vaticanus (orthodoxwiki.org)
THE CODEX SINAITICUS, T. S. PATTIE. 1977 pdf (bl.uk/eblj)
THE CODEX ALEXANDRINUS AND THE ALEXANDRIAN GREEK TYPES, J. H. BOWMAN. 1998 pdf (bl.uk/eblj)

The response that there is no manuscript evidence predating the 4th century that the Apocrypha were included in the Greek Bible, and therefore no actual proof that the early Christian church ever accepted them as inspired sacred scriptures, is an example of an argument from silence. See Deuterocanonicals.

Martin Luther and the Reformation[edit]

Martin Luther and the leaders of the Reformation cite as authoritative and determinative the canon of the Hebrew Bible as defined by rabbinical authorities who excluded and condemned as false the entire New Testament scriptures and Jesus as the Messiah ^[9] because "unto them were committed the oracles of God." (see Romans 3:2). This presents a problem. If the Jews have been so entrusted with the word of God that they had therefore been given the divine authority to determine the canon of sacred scripture, as Luther and the Reformation Protestants maintain, then the whole New Testament is excluded from the canon of the holy Bible because it does not meet established rabbinical criteria for what is sacred inspired scripture.

Formation of Catholic Canon[edit]

The Catholic definitive final canon of 73 books was retained "as read by the Church" by the Council of Trent. When Constantine first made Christianity a legal religion in the Roman Empire in the early 300s, he called together leading Christians from the East and West parts of the empire to iron out the principles of Christianity, including cementing the canon. The entire canonical text was identified by Pope Damasus I and the Synod of Rome (382).^[10] Subsequent councils such as the Council of Hippo (393) and the Third Council of Carthage (397), dealt with minor questions of authenticity, affirming the canon of Damasus and the Synod of Rome, and set forth the first-ever listing of all 27 books of the New Testament together, with 46 books of the Old Testament, a canon of 73 books of the Bible, which quickly gained acceptance and remained unchanged for 1200 years. Jerome (Prologus Galeatus c. 420) listed the books rejected by the Jews as "apocryphal" but himself quoted them as if they were scripture.^[11] The canon of Damasus, and the Synods of Rome, Hippo and Carthage, was reaffirmed at the Council of Florence of the (briefly reunited) Church of the east and west in 1442.^[12] The Catholic Bible includes the 27 books of the New Testament and 46 Old Testament books "with all their parts" from the ancient Septuagint as used by the apostles and the early Christian church and included in Jerome's Vulgate translation as part of the Old Testament, and accepts those books as scripture.

—Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. The Fourth Session. Celebrated on the eighth day of the month of April, in the year 1546. English translation by James Waterworth (London, 1848)

Protestant doctrine: "these books were added to the Bible in the 4th century"[edit]

Protestant doctrine constantly affirms that the apocryphal books were added to the Bible in the 4th century by the Catholic Church because they contain texts which support traditional Catholic and Orthodox teaching and practice, such as the intercession of saints and prayers for the dead, and the performance of good works and almsgiving as a means of deliverance from death and purging of every sin (see The Great Heresies, External links below). Since the Apocrypha were already in the Septuagint Old Testament from before the time of the apostles, and have been an integral part of the Greek Bible as read in the ancient Church and preserved by Eastern Orthodoxy from the 1st century to this day, it is difficult to see how they had been "added". Eastern Church leaders rejected the proposed Protestant canon of 66 books in the Bible.^[13]

Protestant doctrine also points out that none of the Apocrypha are quoted in the New Testament, presenting this fact as an additional indication that the New Testament writers did not regard them as inspired scripture. Jesus and the New Testament writers quote from all Old Testament Books except Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. This does not mean they are not inspired, and they are accepted by Protestants as canonical scriptures of the Holy Bible.

The books of the Bible rejected by Protestant doctrine as Apocrypha are accepted as divinely inspired by the majority of Christian believers in the United States and throughout the world.^[14]^[15]

See Septuagint: Existence of the Septuagint before the Third Century.

King James Bible and the Episcopal Church[edit]

For some time the King James Bible contained those books which Protestant Reformers deemed apocryphal in a separate section, "Apocrypha", between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Episcopal Church includes the books of the Apocrypha in the cycle of scripture readings in its services, but holds that the apocryphal books are useful for study and edification, but not for doctrine. Most Protestant churches do not use the Apocrypha as scripture at all, and they are not included in standard published editions of Protestant Bibles.

Hebrew and Aramaic original texts[edit]

Most Protestant Christians are unaware that numerous quotations in the New Testament are from the Septuagint Old Testament containing the Apocrypha.^[16] Those who do comparative studies of Old Testament texts quoted in the New Testament have frequently been puzzled by the sometimes obvious discrepancies they have noticed, in particular the quotation cited in Hebrews 1:6 "And let all the angels of God worship him", a text not found anywhere in the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Tanakh, but is found in the Septuagint in Deuteronomy 32:43, and which some scholars have proposed as a possibly inexact, rough parallel paraphrase of Psalm 97:7.^[17] Protestant doctrine has traditionally affirmed that the books of the Apocrypha were not originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, presenting this as an additional indication that they cannot be regarded as sacred inspired scripture.

However, Biblical researchers in the 20th and 21st centuries have also discovered that most of the Apocrypha, except the Book of Wisdom (originally written in Greek?), were in fact originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic (Syriac) prior to the Christian era.^[18]^[3] The New Testament quotes from all of the Old Testament Books except Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, and the New Testament books themselves were originally written in Greek.^[19] This does not mean they are not inspired.

See Septuagint: Table of LXX quotes and allusions in the New Testament.

Protestant Canon of Apocrypha Books[edit]

Books apocryphal to the Protestant canon include (titles as listed in Bibles printed in 1881):

I Esdras
II Esdras
Baruch
- Epistle of Jeremiah is sometimes included with the Book of Baruch as chapter 6
Tobit
Judith
The Wisdom of Solomon
The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or, Ecclesiasticus
The Prayer of Manasses, king of Judah, when he was holden captive in Babylon
The rest of the Chapters of the book of Esther, which are found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldee
(chapters 10:4–16:1-24)
The Song of the Three Holy Children"Which followeth in the third Chapter of Daniel after this place—fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. That which followeth is not in the Hebrew, to wit, and they walked.... unto these words, Then Nebuchadnezzar... verse 24."
(62 verses)
The History of Susanna "set apart from the Beginning of Daniel, because it is not in the Hebrew, as neither the Narration of Bel and the Dragon"
The History of the Destruction of Bel and the Dragon, cut off from the end of Daniel
First Book of the Maccabees
Second Book of the Maccabees

Four New Testament Apocrypha Books according to Martin Luther[edit]

Martin Luther pronounced as "apocryphal" these books of the New Testament:^[20]

Hebrews
James "an epistle of straw"
Jude
Revelation

He removed these 4 from the New Testament and placed them in an appendix to the New Testament of his German Bible as not equal to the inspired scriptures, classing them separately as apocryphal along with the 7 books he had removed from the Old Testament and segregated as The Apocrypha. Later, he revised his opinion of them and included them among the New Testament books as "useful", but continued to exclude from the Old Testament the 7 remaining books and parts of other books he had originally removed as "apocryphal".

Reasons for rejecting the Apocrypha[edit]

See Dispute on Canonicity: reasons for rejecting the Apocrypha (Daniel)

See Dispute on Canonicity: reasons for rejecting the Apocrypha (Esther)

Western art and theology[edit]

Western art and theology continued to make reference to Apocryphal subjects long after they were deemed apocryphal. For example:

the story of Judith and Holophernes was a popular subject for painters
Handel wrote an opera, Judas Maccabeus based on the books of Maccabees
the four cardinal virtues are taken from a verse in the book of Wisdom
the archangel Raphael is known from the book of Tobit.

The Anagignoskomena, Apostolic Fathers, Pseudepigrapha, Gnostic writings and gospels[edit]

There are also a number of books which are not included in the Catholic Bible, the Anagignoskomena,, which are part of the Orthodox canon: 1 Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, 3 Maccabees, and the appended 4 Maccabees. The Protestant canon of Apocrypha omits in silence Psalm 151 and 3rd and 4th Maccabees, perhaps because these were not part of the Vulgate. They were never part of the Apocrypha of the King James Bible.

Other apocryphal works are called "pseudepigrapha". These include, for example, the Book of Enoch and the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs from the Old Testament period.

In the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, many of these are included along with other works in the canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, a total Biblical canon of 81 books. See Biblical Canon.

The "Apostolic Fathers" include the Didache and the Epistles of Ignatius and the Shepherd of Hermas from the early 2nd century.

The later Gnostic writings and gospels such as the Gospel of Thomas, found hidden in the abandoned monastery library at Nag Hammadi in Egypt, were written after the New Testament period. These books were of disputed status in the early Church as to whether they were scriptural or not, and were not included by the regional Third Council of Carthage and by the later General Council of Trent in the list of canonical scriptures. The Early Church fathers were concerned only with books relevant to the Christian faith, books which concerned salvation and growing in the Lord, following the oral tradition of the apostles (2 Thessalonians 2:15).