Evangelical Christians believe that the Bible contains 66 separate books; 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. These are the only books that are considered divinely inspired and make up the canon of Scripture that mainline Protestant read today. However, the Catholic Church back in 1546, at the Council of Trent, added a group of Jewish writing to the Bible called the “Apocrypha.”
Just what is the Apocrypha? The Apocrypha is a collection of books written during the four-hundred-year period between the completion of the Old Testament writings and the beginning of the New Testament’s events. Over the years different scholars have included different apocryphal books in their Bible translations. Most of these lists include the following books: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Manasseh, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees.
While these apocryphal books contain some useful information I would like to share eight reasons why they clearly were rejected by the early Christian church and do not belong in the canon of Scripture. In today’s devotion I will share three reasons and in tomorrow’s devotion I will list five more reasons.
Reason 1 – Jesus and the NT writers never quoted from the Apocrypha
While Jesus and the apostles cite the Old Testament literally several hundred times they never quote from any of the apocryphal books that are accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. While Jesus refers to many of the Old Testament books as Scripture, He never refers to any of the apocryphal books as Scripture. Paul and the other apostles also quoted the Old Testament many times too, but none of them quote the Apocrypha or describe it as Scripture.
Reason 2 – There are no predictive prophecies in the books of the Apocrypha
One of the best reasons that we know the Scriptures are divinely inspired is the amazing amount of fulfilled prophecies they contain. As I have shared in a previous devotion there is no religion extant in the world today with one viable, believable, or verifiable prophecy except Christianity. The Quran, the Book of Mormon, the Hindu Vedas, and all the other sacred religious writings boast no fulfilled prophecies in them. When we examine the record of the Apocrypha we find that there isn’t a single fulfilled prophecy among its books.
Reason 3 – The Apocrypha contains many unscriptural doctrines
Of all the reasons that the Apocrypha is not divinely inspired the fact that its books contain doctrine that are clearly non-biblical is perhaps the greatest. Three examples of how apocryphal doctrine contradicts the clear teachings of the Bible are the practice of prayer for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:41-46), the doctrine of purgatory, and the teaching that salvation is available through good works and alms giving. (Tobit 4:11, 12:9). This reason alone would disqualify the Apocrypha from being elevated to Scripture.