The Apocrypha what use does it have?

Quahom1

Quahom1

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In the official Bible of Christians, there are roughly 66 books. However there are over 60 more "books" that never made it into the biblia Christos.

What are we to make of these writings that still exist? In the most literal sense, they are "scripture", just not canonacial. They are not outwardly preached to the masses, but neither are they ignored by the scholars of the church.

They are not banned outright, but they are to be taken with a "grain of salt", according to the church. (they used to be heretical works, but that was before the laymen became as educated if not more so than the clergy, much to the bane of the church body of government).

Now the church is doing "damage control", in trying to catch up to society.

So in retrospect, what are we to make of these "dissallowed books", as old as the accepted canon that is the Bible, but not part of the same..?

Your thoughts please.

v/r

Q
 
While in some cases they have certain historical value, any claim for canonicity on the part of these writings is without any solid foundation. The evidence points to a closing of the Hebrew canon following the writing of the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi in the fifth century B.C.E. The Apocryphal writings were never included in the Jewish canon of inspired Scriptures and do not form part of it today

 
my grandmother always used the apocrypha. we dont use them at my church, but like you say, they are not ignored.

they dont really do anything for me personally, but i always say, if people dont want the 66, then add, mix match & delete whatever. it is no skin off my back.:)

i think there are many writings that are inspired by God, as in poetry, lyrics...whatever, but the 66 are the most widely accepted & i am sure there is more than enough written in them, to get us where we need to be.
 
The apocrypha is of great interest from a historical perspective - but from a theological one, the context of individual works really needs taking into account.

For example, the Shepherd of Hermas was a very popular work at least towards the fourth century, and even made it into the Codex Sinaiticus (right codex?), which is one of the earliest complete Bibles we have.

In theological terms, I'm under the impression it's an "almost there" in canonical terms, but doesn't quite make it.

In contrast, the Gospel of Barnabas is regarded as a mediaeval invention originating from Muslim Spain.

Each canonical work has a different history behind it, and a different theological purpose - some are genuine attempts to express a certain belief-set of early Christians, whereas others may be regarded as over-enthusiastic inventions.

Overall, an interesting topic - and when I next change things here, I'll make it a priority to provide some background info on each of the Apocryphal texts we host here.
 
Kindest Regards, all!

I wish my scholarship in this area were greater. Ah, so much to learn, so little mind to learn with.

I have read a few apocryphal books outside of the ones usually mentioned that I think are pretty cool, if not "valid." The fourth book of Maccabees is interesting to me. And the letter of Aristeas. I forget now which has which stories, but one has some wisdom lessons pertaining to human psychology (supposedly written BC!). The other has a story of an old priest, and a mother with her 7 sons, and their ordeal at the hands of Antiochus Epiphines (the Greek who desecrated the Temple in Maccabean times). The story of the priest and the 7 brothers is very moving and inspiring to me, more so even than Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

I would ask if these could be included in the collection here, but I suspect there may be some copyright issues. If those issues could be surmounted somehow, I would appreciate their inclusion here, I think they would make a very valuable and inspiring addition.
 
Searching for a particular apocryphical passage is what landed me at c-r.

It is quite interesting to see what was deemed spirtual texts prior to cannonization, and while we don't have access to all the books that were around during Jesus's day or the next 100 years when most of the new testament was written, there is some good reading. Some quite obvious why it didn't make the grade, others quite questionable.

If the library were opened and the council reconvened it would be quite interesting to see what made it into the book today, and what would be removed.
 
A spiritually mature man that I trust and learn from.. who speaks with wisdom and has a great love of Christ explains it like this. The Apocrypha is not believed to be written by the Spirit but is written by men who had great faith and loved the Lord. He said that we can learn from some of what is written but to not veer from the Word if they contradict what it says. Ive never read the apocrypha because I do not feel wise enough to identify all of those contradictions.. but I have seen enough to see that some of it supports the historical and spiritual truth of the Word.
 
Brian,
You mentioned The Shepherd of Hermas - it's one of my favourite texts, along with the Wisdom of Solomon.
I particularly like the Shepherds' attitude problem towards Hermas, constantly referring to him as "foolish", etc. - it makes it read as though it's a genuine record of a series of visions, instead of a cobbling-together of stories, which is what many claim it to be.

The "Shepherd" of the text is the Angel of Repentence, who is Uriel, it seems to me.
 
I think the Apocrypha are fascinating, for a variety of reasons.

1. OT apocrypha help fill in the gaps between the protestant OT and the very different thinking of the NT.

2. NT apocrypha show what a tremendous variety of viewpoints there was in early Xianity.

3. Historical interest: how Xian thinking developed into what it is today. Barnabas, for instance, shows how Xian exegesis of the OT began to develop into the narrative stories of the NT gospels. (At least that's what Koester and Crossan think...)

4. There's occasionally some really interesting spiritual insights in some of it.

5. There's also some really wacky mythology in some of it.

It's really a shame that this literature isn't more well known. Kudos to the webmasters here for their contribution to making it better known!
 
Hello FriendRob,

I could'nt agree more, they are fascinating texts, and some of the imagery is worthy of the 1960s - 1 Enoch especially. :)

The "really interesting spiritual insights" sometimes take some bit of thought to realise, and i must admit that it seems to me that the texts are much more mystical - and sometimes more revealing - than the Canonical texts, maybe this is why they were deemed Apocrypha and sort-of hidden away from the masses..
This is a shame, in my opinion, and i'm quite surprised at how many Christians are aware of them - but have never actually read any.

Some of the "wacky mythology" makes Gnostic thought seem quite lucid in comparison. :D
 
Quahom1 said:
In the official Bible of Christians, there are roughly 66 books. However there are over 60 more "books" that never made it into the biblia Christos.

What are we to make of these writings that still exist? In the most literal sense, they are "scripture", just not canonacial. They are not outwardly preached to the masses, but neither are they ignored by the scholars of the church.

They are not banned outright, but they are to be taken with a "grain of salt", according to the church. (they used to be heretical works, but that was before the laymen became as educated if not more so than the clergy, much to the bane of the church body of government).

Now the church is doing "damage control", in trying to catch up to society.

So in retrospect, what are we to make of these "dissallowed books", as old as the accepted canon that is the Bible, but not part of the same..?

Your thoughts please.

v/r

Q
Click to expand...

i often ask myself, should man be allowed to keep knowledge of God to be controlled with the so called "reformation of the church"? i ask myself who are they to do that? who gave them authority to keep these books from us who are seeking God? does He not Himself say:
Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
i for one am seeking Him, 24/7, day and night i meditate on His law, with all my heart and all my soul. let Him cause the reformation of the church and not a bunch of old dudes who gave themselves authority to control knowledge. i say read as much apochrypha as possible because if you have His Spirit with you, He will notify you if what you are reading is in fact apochrypha. i read the book of Enoch and it is amazing! why they would remove it from the bible is beyond me! i mean, there are traces of the book of Enoch in the epistle of Peter and Jude even quotes from it! i mean why would these hypocrites of the reformation not allow the book of Enoch in the official bible, but yet they put epistles that have traces of it in the official bible. i smell, hypocracy. don't you?
 
i enjoy reading the book of enoch. i dont know how much was penned by enoch, or was information passed down from enoch. some churches still use it as part of their bible. im sure that there are writings of enoch that have influenced many authors of the bibles, who have paraphrased it or quoted it directly. it explains many things.
 
My understanding is there was over 300 books which were looked at..as they were used by various churches (take a look at your church library today, to see what you have as 'apocryphal texts' (anything not in the bible....)


NON-CANONICAL BOOKS​
As the church councils became the functions of the Roman Catholic Church they eventually recognized some of the non-canonical books. However, the Reformers never accepted the non-canonical books as Scripture.

COUNSEL OF TRENT – POPE PAUL III – 1545-1563
Canonized: Tobit – Ecclesiasticus – Wisdom – Judith – 1 & 2 Maccabees – Baruch – Esther (Extra) – Daniel (Extra)
These books are referred to as APOCRYPHAL BOOKS, which means hidden or secret, but the term is used in the sense of rejected, or non-canonical. There are actually masses of these books. I would like to list some of these more well-known ones.

OLD TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA – 15 books
1 & 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, The Rest of Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah, The Song of the Three Holy Children, The History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Prayer of Manasses, 1 & 2 Maccabees.
While some of these are valuable for historical reasons, they were never considered canonical by the Jews and they are never quoted in the New Testament.

NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA – 16 books
The teachings of the Twelve Apostles, The Epistle of Barnabas, The First Epistle of Clement, the Second Epistle of Clement, The Shepherd of Hermas, The Apocalypse of Peter, the Acts of Paul, including Paul and Thecla, The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, The Seven Epistles of Ignatius, The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, The Protevangelium of James, The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, The Gospel of Nicodemus, The Gospel of the Savior’s Infancy, and the History of Joseph the Carpenter.

PSEUDEPIGRAPHICAL BOOKS (false writings)
These books are sometimes referred to as the WIDER APOCRYPHA or as APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE and were written from 200 BC to 200 AD.

OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS

APOCALIPTIC BOOKS: The Book of Enoch, The Secrets of Enoch, The Apocalypse of Baruch, The Rest of the Words of Baruch, The Assumption of Moses, The Prophecy of Jeremiah, The Ascension of Isaiah, The Apocalypse of Elijah, The Sibylline Oracles, The Apocalypse of Esdras, The Apocalypse of Zephaniah.

LEGENDARY BOOKS: The Testament of Adam, The Book of Jubilees, The Testaments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Testament of Job, The Testament of Solomon, The Life of Asenath, The Penitence of Jannes and Jambres, The Apocalypse of Abraham.

BOOKS OF TEACHING: Magical Books of Moses, The Story of Achiacharus, cup-bearer to Esarhaddon, King of Persia.

POETICAL BOOKS: Psalms of Solomon and Additional to the Psalter.

NEW TESTAMENT BOOKS
In this area some make two categories of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical because they are spurious (fakes or forgeries). The following list is of this nature:

Seven gospels of Andrew, Bartholomew, Barnabas, Matthias, Thomas, Peter, and Philip. Eight Acts of John, Paul, Peter, Andrew, Thomas, Matthias, Philip and Thaddaeus. Four Apocalypses of Peter, Paul, Thomas, John and the Epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans.

The Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal books have been published in popular editions under such titles as The Lost Books of the Bible and The Forgotten Books of Eden.

This information about the non-canonical books is quoted from A Dispensational Theology by Charles F. Baker.
 
LeoSalinas22 said:
i often ask myself, should man be allowed to keep knowledge of God to be controlled with the so called "reformation of the church"? i ask myself who are they to do that? who gave them authority to keep these books from us who are seeking God? does He not Himself say:
Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
i for one am seeking Him, 24/7, day and night i meditate on His law, with all my heart and all my soul. let Him cause the reformation of the church and not a bunch of old dudes who gave themselves authority to control knowledge. i say read as much apochrypha as possible because if you have His Spirit with you, He will notify you if what you are reading is in fact apochrypha. i read the book of Enoch and it is amazing! why they would remove it from the bible is beyond me! i mean, there are traces of the book of Enoch in the epistle of Peter and Jude even quotes from it! i mean why would these hypocrites of the reformation not allow the book of Enoch in the official bible, but yet they put epistles that have traces of it in the official bible. i smell, hypocracy. don't you?
Click to expand...

Wow! I'm impressed! As far as I am concerned, the only way to know if something is right or wrong, is to read other in order to compare. Doesn't make we want to run out and believe the "Divinci Code" either.

And yes, I do believe strongly the the fathers who put the "Official Bible" together at the first counsel, were indeed hypocrits. And so was Luther in the 16th century. And so were the latest and greatest authors of the modern versions of Biblia Christos. But, despite human intervention, I think the truth still comes out, incorruptable.

But then that is me.

v/r

Joshua
 
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