In today’s devotion I will share five more reasons why the Apocrypha was rejected by the early Christian church and does not belong in the canon of Scripture.
Reason 4 – The Apocrypha contains many historical and geographical errors
In the Book of Judith (Judith 1:1-11) we read that Nebuchadnezzar is called the king of Assyria several times. This is a contradiction of secular as well as biblical history since the Bible says he was the king of Babylon. In (Wisdom of Solomon 11:17) we read that God created the world out of formless matter. This clearly goes against the biblical account where creation is spoken into existence from nothing by the word of God. (Genesis 1:1, Hebrews 11:3). One other example concerns the age of Tobit. According to the Apocrypha he was alive both in 722 B.C., the year the Assyrians conquered Israel, and in 931 B.C., when Jeroboam revolted against Judah. That would make Tobit at least 209 years old. However, according to the Apocrypha he died at the age of 158.
Scholars have long known that the books of Tobit and Judith abound in geographical, historical, and chronological mistakes and for this reason are disqualified as divinely inspired.
Reason 5 – The Apocrypha never claims to be the inspired Word of God
According to Charlie Campbell, “Unlike the Old Testament books that over and over say things, like ‘thus says the Lord’ or ‘the word of the LORD came unto him’ the Apocrypha never says anything like this. Since that is the case, it seems unwise to call the authors of the Apocrypha ‘prophets’ or ‘spokespersons of God,’ when that is something that they themselves did not claim to be.”1
Reason 6 – The Apocrypha was never accepted as inspired by the Jewish people
Again, Charlie Campbell, shares: “The Jewish people—and the leading Jewish teachers of that era—recognized that this collection of Jewish writings did not belong in the Hebrew Bible. The first century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, tells us in his writings that the Hebrew Bible was composed of the same books that make up our Old Testament today. Philo, an Alexandrian Jewish teacher, who lived from 20 B.C. to A.D. 40 quoted the Old Testament numerous times from virtually every Old Testament book. And he never once quotes from the Apocrypha.”2
Reason 7 – The canon was closed already
Connor Salter comments here: “While scholars debate when exactly the Jews considered the Old Testament to be closed, there’s consensus that they believed at some juncture prophecy stopped, and the apocryphal books were written after that period. For example, when Jewish historian Josephus talks about the Hebrew Bible in Against Apion, he says ‘Although such long ages have now passed, no one has ventured neither to add, or to remove, or to alter a syllable.’ Neither he nor his contemporaries include apocryphal books in their lists or descriptions of the Old Testament canon. For them, the Apocrypha were interesting books, but not divinely inspired.”3
Reason 8 – It took the Catholic Church 1,500 years to declare the Apocrypha authoritative and inspired
The reason they waited until the Council of Trent in 1546 to officially add the Apocrypha to their Bible was in response to the Protestant Reformation. Men like Martin Luther were exposing the fact that the Catholic Church was using the Apocrypha, and not the 66 books of the Bible, to support many of their beliefs. So, to solve this issue they simply declared the Apocryphal books to be on the same par as the 66 canonical books.
As a result of these reasons Evangelical Christians must reject the Apocrypha as divinely inspired. However, just because the Apocrypha is not on the same plane as Scripture it can have some value. It can provide us with some good historical information which may help us understand our New Testament better; especially during the 400 year period between the Old and New Testament. While Christians should definitely not use the Apocrypha for their daily devotions, reading these books can help us learn what is harmful in them as well as what is helpful. I leave the choice up to you.
1 Catholicism: An Examination & Biblical Response (alwaysbeready.com)
2 Catholicism: An Examination & Biblical Response (alwaysbeready.com)
3 What Are the Apocryphal Books and Do They Belong in the Bible? (christianity.com)