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What is the Apocrypha?
It is a collection of writings from Biblical times that, for one reason or another, were not included in the Canon of scripture. The Canon contains writings considered inspired by God and included in the Bible. Most Protestant churches use the accepted Canon of Jewish scripture, the 39 books of the Old Testament, plus the 27 books of the New Testament. Most standard Bibles include those 66 books, from Genesis to Malachi and from Matthew to Revelation.
The Hebrew Canon was established in 90 AD. After Jerusalem had been sacked by the Romans in 70 AD, there was another Diaspora of Jewish people all over the world. Since their spiritual center, the Temple in Jerusalem, was no longer in existence the Jewish community needed a reliable and authoritative Bible to refer to. There was a large and active Jewish community in Alexandria, Egypt and it was there that the Canon was established and finally closed.
There were other writings circulating, in Alexandria especially, which were being widely read. These later writings never made it into the Canon for two reasons. One is that the large Jerusalem population was not familiar with them. The other reason is that a more conservative Canon had a greater chance of keeping the worldwide community of the Jewish faith united under only one authorized Scripture.
The Christian Bible was originally translated from the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Jewish scriptures. Jews had rendered this Greek translation necessary due to the increasing use of the Greek language in everyday life. In fact, many of the faithful could no longer read Hebrew. Aramaic and Greek had replaced the Hebrew language. Many books of the Apocrypha were in the Septuagint and became part of the Catholic scriptures. They were dropped from the King James Version in 1796.
The following books and collections of sayings are considered Apocryphal. Some of them are in the Catholic Bible and some are accepted by the Eastern Orthodox Churches. None are part of the Hebrew Canon.
Tobit
Judith
The Greek version of Esther
The Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach
Baruch
The Letter of Jeremiah
The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews
Susanna
Bel and the Dragon
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
1 Esdras
The Prayer of Manasseh
2 Esdras
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
Psalm 151
The council of Trent in 1546 established many of these books in the Catholic Bible (except the Prayer of Manasseh, 1 and 2 Esdras, 3 & 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151). Protocanonical books are those books accepted as inspired from the beginning. Deuterocanonicals are these writings of the Apocrypha whose inspiration was recognized later.
What is the significance of the Apocrypha?
For Christians and Jews, these books represent a continuation of sacred writings in the Jewish community up until Christ came. They paint a picture of the cultural and religious mindset in Judaism before the appearance of Christianity. They set the scene for the coming of Jesus and help the reader to relate to the social and religious context Jesus found in Israel.
Malachi was written in approximately 450 BC. Scholars have established that Daniel was probably the last book of the Hebrew Canon to be written. The Book of Daniel is dated to about 167 BC. This is a significant historical gap leading up to the New Testament. Malachi and Daniel were in a world dominated by the Persians. When Jesus arrived, the Roman Empire was in control of the Holy Land. The working language of the known world in Jesus’ day was Greek. The Pharisees and Sadducees, objects of Jesus’ criticism, came into being as Religious influences between Daniel’s writing and Jesus’ ministry.
In the fourth century AD Christians started to question the authenticity and inspiration of writings and letters in the Septuagint. Pope Damasus hired a biblical scholar, Jerome, who placed these apocryphal works under a separate heading in his original translation. It was only in 1546 that the Council of Trent officially accepted these books for the Roman Catholic Church. Eastern Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Churches accept different combinations of these books as scripture.
Martin Luther did not accept these books as inspired although he did consider them worth reading. The original King James translation of 1611 became the Authorized Version of the English speaking world. In 1615, George Abbott, one of the KJV translators, issued a directive that all Bibles bound and sold had to include the Apocrypha. It is difficult to come by today unless you specifically look for it in a Catholic Bible or request a separate publication of the Apocrypha.
Sources:
http://www2.imagine.com/economy1/apocrypha.htm
Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha, American Bible Society, 1992
William Neil’s One Volume Bible Commentary, Hodder & Stoughton, 1962
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