Apocrypha was already completely rejected by ancient Israel

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Protestants simply removed books from the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church accuses the reformers of wanting to withhold important writings from humanity. However, ancient Israel had already been blocking the numerous Hellenistic and Gnostic writings around 2,000 years earlier.

Additional writings of the Bible

The books that were once thrown out of the Bible are currently experiencing a new hype. The “ongoing dispute” about whether the Bible should have a total of 66 or more books is flaring up again. This is often done in conjunction with the accusation that the English Bible, the King James Version (1611), is a terrible translation, full of errors and missing a whole series of books. The representatives of the Roman Catholic Church are particularly loud here. Their Catholic versions of the scripture contain so-called apocrypha.

Other voices claim that the church is the author of the Bible. However, the Roman Church is “somewhat” hypocritical in this regard. In fact, the so-called Church Fathers compiled the Bible. However, the claims almost sound as if the content was written by the Catholic institution. But it is a compilation of individual books by the prophets and apostles, packed together, so to speak, in a common folder, the Bible.

Jerome was a pioneer in the church of Rome. He particularly used the Septuagint (LXX) as a model to create the Latin Vulgate. Of all things, one might say, because the LXX is a “work of art” by 72 Hellenistic and Gnostic scribes around the year 250 BC. This work is not only packed with apocrypha, but also has some oddities (Info).

Josephus Flavius ​​already knew about the apocrypha

The Church of Rome is accusing the Protestants of unlawfully simply removing books from the Bible. However, that is simply not true in this form. The Jewish historian Josephus Flavius ​​(1st century AD) wrote in his work “Contra Apion” that the books of the Old Testament were written between Moses and the time of the Persian king Artaxerxes. That was around 400 BC, the time of the prophet Malachi. All writings after that, according to Flavius, have no divine authority whatsoever. Even ancient Israel summarily rejected the additional writings (apocrypha) because they did not come from authorized prophets.

They referred to the clear provisions of Deuteronomy 18:20-22 and Jeremiah 28:9. These confirm that prophets must have been sent by God without any doubt. Even in the Jewish Talmud it can be found in Sanhedrin 11a that after the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi the Holy Spirit left the people of Israel.

It is somewhat ironic that in one of the Apocrypha, 1 Book of Maccabees, it is complained that there is no longer a prophet in the land. All of the apocrypha and other writings were created later than 400 BC.

A concise summary

The Swiss theologian, evangelical Bible translator and exegete Roger Liebi summarized it in his book “The Bible – absolutely credible”. (Source):

• The Apocrypha themselves do not claim to be writings inspired by God.
• They also contain numerous historical, ethical and doctrinal errors.
• There is not a single case in the NT where an apocryphal book is cited as authoritative, inspired writing.
• Jesus Christ recognized the canon of the OT exactly to the extent that it was or is viewed as authoritative in Orthodox Judaism then and even today.
• Books that were not part of the canon, as explained above, were not allowed to be taken to the Temple Mount. It was also forbidden to bring apocryphal books into the temple courtyards. The Temple and its regulations forced every Jew to be clear about the exact scope of the biblical books! With the books attributed to Homer, “Iliad” and “Odyssey” in hand, to give a concrete example, no one who wanted to go to the Temple in Jerusalem would have been allowed entry by the Levitical Temple guards. In the same way, if you wanted to take one of the apocryphal books with you to the Temple Mount, you would have been turned away!

Ancient Israel had already sorted out

Even then, the forgers and Gnostics knew that their writings had no chance of ever being recognized. This would be immediately rejected by the Jews. For this reason, many Gnostics worked under a pseudonym, even known names, to give their writings more weight. This is how, for example, the Book of Enoch and the Psalms of Solomon were created. None of these writings were added to what is now the Old Testament at any time in ancient Israel.

The Book of Enoch, highlighted particularly popularly today, contains a number of statements that contradict the Bible. The statement can be found there that the Lord will come to judge the righteous (the saints). This directly contradicts what is said in Jude, which states that the Lord will come to judge the wicked. The extent of change in modern Bibles is alarming (Info).

It was only the Council of Trent that confirmed apocrypha

Another big misunderstanding is that the Church of Rome already added apocrypha to the canon in its early days. The canon was not discussed at any of the major councils. Not in Nicaea (325), not in Constantinople (381), not even in Ephesus (431). It is true that the compilation of the Bible was discussed at the Council of Hippo (397), but this council was not ecumenical, i.e. not affecting all of Christianity. It was a local event.

It was even true that only writings that were proven to be written by the apostles or by prophets who were recognized by the apostles were also recognized as part of the Bible. Everything else was strictly rejected.

The great change in the Church of Rome came (only) at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). At this time, the Roman Catholic Church equated the Apocrypha with the biblical writings. But the Church of Rome was around 2,000 years too late, says Roger Liebi in his book. They were not even in a position to examine the authors of the Apocrypha, as the ancient people of Israel had long since done.

Apocrypha rightly thrown out

Protestants are therefore right to simply throw these contradictory, Gnostic-oriented writings out of the Bible. There are therefore 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament. A total of 66 books in the Bible.

When you read the apocrypha of Enoch or Tobit, the idea comes to mind that the Church of Rome, if time and circumstances had permitted, would also have canonized “Lord of the Rings, Starwars trilogy and Alice in Wonderland.”

Not only the first choice, but the only correct choice for the Old Testament are Bibles that are based on the Masoretic Text. For the New Testament, the Textus Receptus (majority text) counts here. In practice these are (German Bibles) the Schlachter 2000, Luther 1912 and Elberfelder 1877 Bibles. In English, the King James Version (KJV, 1611) is the non plus ultra.

The last authorized verse of the Old Testament reads::

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)