What Are The Apocrypha?

Have you heard or read about the Apocrypha? What are the Apocrypha and should they be included in the Bible?

What is the Apocrypha?

By definition, the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical are so-called biblically related writings that are not considered part of the canon of Scripture and have never been widely accepted as “God-breathed” or of divine origin by the vast majority of biblical scholars. Most Protestant Bible and Jewish scholars do not except any of these books as being fully inspired by God and accepted as part of the canon of the 66 books of Scripture that presently make up the Bible as we know it and are not considered to be part of either the Old Testament or the New Testament. They may contain some biblical facts or historical accounts but they have never been accepted by most of Christianity and Judaism as being fully inspired and divinely attributed to God. The Apocrypha books were never a part of or even included in the Latin Vulgate or the Septuagint at any time in history. Some might conclude that the Apocrypha books are inspiring but they are obviously not inspired by God because most of these books have uncertain origins and many have doubts about the authorship or the authenticity of these books.

The Books of the Apocrypha

The books of the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical consist of; 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Manasseh, 1 Maccabee, and 2 Maccabees. The largest issue with these books is that they contain a great deal of error in them and that presents a danger that some of these teachings or accounts contained in them might be thought of as factual or as being representative of God’s Word, which they clearly are not. The word Apocrypha means “hidden, spurious or esoteric.” The very Greek word “Apocrypha” means “hidden away” and I believe they should have stayed hidden. All we need is all that has already have been revealed in the 66 books of the Bible. The main things are the plain things (e.g. John 3:16; John 3:36; Acts 4:12). In the early church period these books went through a lengthy process of examination and were deemed as unfit to be part of the canon of the Bible because of the highly questionable accuracy. The final decision was that they were considered heretical and not God-breathed. Some Apocrypha books that a few wanted to include in the New Testament were the Epistle of Barnabas and the Letter to the Laodiceans but these “books” clashed with biblical doctrine contained in the 27 books of the New Testament that we have now.

The Lost Gospel of Judas

The 66 books of the Bible contain no doctrinal error, which cannot be said of the Old Testament or the New Testament Apocrypha. The lost Gospel of Judas, which only recently surfaced, contains heretical teachings that are completely contrary to the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In one place Judas claims that he was instructed to betray Christ and such outrageous claims that Judas was only obeying Jesus command to betray Him with a kiss and also, Jesus supposedly married Mary Magdalene and even had children by her. The problem with that is that there is no secular or early church historical evidence to support these claims. This false gospel account goes on to say that the only way that women could be destined to go to heaven was if they first become a male lion. How ridiculous can you get!? Some of the spurious claims presented in The Da Vinci Code use this false gospel and other heretical teachings to say that these are “facts.” The problem here is that Dan Brown’s book is listed as fiction although I did find three facts that are true in this book; London is in England, Paris is in France, and Rome is in Italy.

Are there Lost Books of Bible?

The problem with the “lost books” of the Bible is that they are forgeries and have never been accepted as canonical or scriptural. They are recent in origin and cannot be traced back to the 1st century church. They were not really lost…they were introduced hundreds of years later and were concoctions or figments of the author’s imaginations. Bible scholars and really, most Christians would read the Secrets of Enoch, the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan, Psalms of Solomon 4, and alleged gospels by Philipp, the Apocalypse of Peter, and the Gospel of Mary and would easily discern that these are not consisted with the 66 books of the Bible. They would clearly not fit in contextually and doctrinally.

Conclusion

Satan is obviously behind these frauds and he is attempting to instill doubt about the veracity of the Bible as we have it now. This shouldn’t surprise us because it is “no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14) which is why Paul warned “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse” (Gal 1:8) because “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Blind Chance or Intelligent Design available on Amazon.