All Doves:

One of the greatest scandals within the Christian community today is the Satanic attack on Christian Orthodoxy by the Apocrypha and other non-canonical Pseudepigraphal writings.  As I have noted in another post on the bogus book of Enoch, there are just over 1,700 spurious false writings.  We can know with a high level of confidence by the fact that not a single one of these documents contains the Signature of God's Authentication. 

God foresaw the day when Satan and his complicit minions and dupes would be attempting to peddle these writings off onto the gullible world as being canonical.  God identified "canonical" writings with the "Heptadic Design" a pattern that cannot be counterfeited by man, that being the integral built-in design of the "Heptadic Design" the use of the pattern, idea, theme, or number "seven" interwoven within the text, a number of ways that can only be ascertained by mathematical computer analysis.  Think of it from the standpoint of how the US government thwarts counterfeiters of producing "funny money" counterfeit Federal Reserve Notes.  With improved copy machines, the government has thought of about everything possible to prevent idle hands from making counterfeit currency.  Manufactures of copiers such as Xerox, and others, even have a feature that, if used to make counterfeit currency, will leave behind a tell-tail image (not visible to the human eye) on the copy paper used to copy the real thing that actually identifies the manufacturer, model serial number, as a "signature finger print".  Thus if one were foolish enough to attempt to make counterfeit $5, $10, $20, $50, or $100 bills, under super-magnification, the source of the bogus bills would be traceable right back to owner or lessee of the copier.  Since maintenance is a must for black and white or color copiers, it is a simple step to locate the source of "funny money" that is passed off at the local 7/11 or Wal-mart or RiteAide.

I did a series of posts last year on how the "Heptadic Design" has been revealed in the Gospels, not just in the  English translation, but even more amazingly in the Biblical languages, of the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Textus-Receptus as well.   Unfortunately, theologians prefer not to acknowledge the "Heptadic Design" because it did not originate with them, but rather is a product of computer and mathematical algorithms. 

The rule of faith and practice, belief and doctrine, for the body of true Christians is, and has always been, the Holy Bible.  God inspired various of His servants, through the ages, to pen the very words which God desired to reveal to man.  In fact, God's Word justifies the doctrine of "Sola Scriptura", claiming for itself and only itself the means by which to fully and effectually provide guidance to humanity:  "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works".  -(2nd Timothy 3:16-17).

Notice that Paul here wrote that the Scripture is PERFECT, that it THROUGHLY furnishes us the ability to do ALL good works.  The profitability of the Scripture is that it gives to us everything we need to know how to be save, to teach rightly, and to live and serve in the Christian life.  Nowhere does the Bible ever indicate that the traditions of men, apart from the Scriptures, are needed or approved of for teaching authoritative doctrine to God's people.  Rather, the Bible emphasizes over and over the need to look to the Scriptures themselves for this guidance:

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope".  -(Romans 15:4).

"Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way".  -(Psalm 119:128).

The traditions of men, upon which Roman Catholicism relies so heavily, are potentially rejected by the Scriptures as having any authority or efficacy above the Scriptures.:

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your forefathers..."  -(1st Peter 1:18).

"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ".  -(Colossians 2:8).

"I have more understanding than all my teachers; for thy testimonies are my mediation.  I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts".  -(Psalm 119:99-100).

And the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ attest to the impotence of human tradition which is not based upon the Word of God:

"...Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites; as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the traditions of men...."  -(Mark 7:6-8).

In fact, there are only three places in the New Testament where tradition is considered as something to be followed:  1st Corinthians 11:2; 2nd Thessalonians 3:6; and in 2nd Thessalonians 2:15, below:

"Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle."

From these three passages, it is apparent that the traditions being taught were none other than those found in the Word of God, either the preaching of the Old Testament Scripture, or from the New Testament Scripture which was then being revealed through Paul and other apostles.  This we know because there were no other sort of teaching EVER attributed to the apostles and other Biblical teachers by the Word of God itself.  In the sermons of the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul, Peter, and Stephen, we never see that taught which was not fully reliant upon the principles and written word of the Old Testament Scriptures.  Thus, there is no warrant, either Scriptural or logical, to suppose that the traditions which Paul approved of and himself taught to the Thessalonians and Corinthians were based upon anything other than the Scriptures themselves.

Further, the only sort of tradition approved of in the Old Testament Scriptures is the tradition of teaching and applying the Word of God and passing it down through generational times, as shown by the example below:

"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest u.  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.  And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates".  -(Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

Thus, we see that the necessity is for us to rely upon the Holy Scriptures alone for doctrine, faith, and practice in the Christian faith.  Because of this, it then becomes important for Christians to distinguish what ARE the Holy Scriptures, and it is herein that much confusion still arises because of the falsehood propagated by apostate Christianity and by Roman Catholicism.  The primary area of confusion lies in the acceptance by many groups of the spurious "Apocrypha".   The "Apocrypha" as accepted by Roman Catholicism (often referred erroneously to as the "Deuterocanon", meaning "Second Canon", by Catholics, which consists of 12 or 14 books and portions of books which were produced during the Intertestimental period in Palestine and in Egypt.  These works are:  The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (sometimes called Sirach), Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2nd Maccabees, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, the additions to Esther, the History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and the Song of the Three Chidren.  Baruch, and the Letter (or Epistle) of Jeremiah are additions to the prophetic book of Jeremiah, and the last rhee (Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and the Three Children) are additions to the prophetic book of Daniel.

These books are not inspired writings or, for a multitude of reasons which I will explore with the reader, part of the Word of God.  Instead, they are uninspired additions which were added by Roman Catholicism so as to bolster support for certain practices for which Catholicism was coming under fire for during the early part of the Reformation.  The Roman Catholic Institution (and others as well) therefore errs by its consideration of these books as Canon, or being on a par with the Old Testament.  God's Word strongly warns against tampering with the inspired revelation of God:

"Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar".  -(Proverbs 30:6).

"For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book".  -(Revelation 22:18).

The existence of these books, in and of itself, is not necessarily wrong.  Though they are uninspired, they do contain some insights of or on truth derived from the Word of God, just as might a commentary or a devotional book.  The Apocryphal books may make for good reading provided that they (like everything else) are examined and judged to the light of the true Scriptures.  But they do not belong in the Canon of the Scriptures any more than the local telephone directory.  Furthermore, it is clear from the testimony of history that the Jews never considered them Scripture, and neither did the true Church of God of the first three centuries, or later.

However, Rome has invested a good deal of theological capital in maintaining that these books are inspired Scripture.  Claiming them as such allows Rome to bolster its profession to be the "mother of the Bible", because it so-called "fixed the canon".  Further, there are several major pillars of Roman Catholic dogma which rest upon an Apocryphal foundation, and which would be completely baseless if the Apocryphal books were rendered unusable from a doctrinal standpoint.  Thus, the purpose for this post is to examine the claims which the Roman Catholic Institution makes for the Apocrypha, and to see whether they stand up yo the test of the facts.  This official position of the Roman Catholic Institution is stated succinctly in the Catechism, whereby the extended canon is explicitly stated as having been discerned as God's Word by the Apostolic tradition of the Roman Catholic Institution.  I use the word "Institution" because the RCC is a Corporation, which means it is a secular organization, and not a true or even a genuine Church of God.  In order to protect itself in law suits, the Roman Catholic Institution is legally structured as a Corporation.

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Institution discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books.  The complete list is called the "Canon" of Scripture.  It included 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New Testament.  The Roman Catholic Old Testament included;  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastics, the Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclessiasticus), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

As I detail throughout this post series, I will endeavor to answer many common questions and arguments advanced by Roman Catholic apologists who defend the inclusion of the Apocrypha in the Bible.  Among some of these issues are:

++All of the Old Testament quotes found in the New Testament were from the Septuagint, and therefore the early Church considered the Apocrypha to be canonical since the Apocrypha also appeared in the Septuagint.  I will discuss this false reasoning and errant logic.

++The New Testament contains a number of allusions to and quotations of apocryphal works.

++The Apocrypha appears in the Septuagint, so it was considered Scripture along with the rest of the Canonical books also found in the Septuagint.  The fact not withstanding is a given but not for the reasons that we are led to believe and I will address those issues.

++The Apocrypha was considered to be Scripture by the Church from the very inception of Christianity.  The reasons are an example of Roman Catholic assumptions and errant reasoning.

++Early Christian writers uniformly held the Apocrypha to be Scripture, on the level of the true Canon.  This you will see is both misleading and an example of aberrant theology.

++The Council of Trent merely affirmed what the Church had known since the very beginning, that the Apocrypha was Scripture.  This is nonsense and ignores the Jesuit influence in the Council of Trent, which was called into existence as an effort to stop the Reformation.

The coverage of these points does not constitute the full extent of this work, but they are rather "jumping off points" into more extensive discussion on various topics of concern to the question of the canonicity of the Apocrypha.  Something that some folks and even pseudo-web sites seem to forget is the fact that there are scholars, theologians, and historians that know a lot more than these folks' dribble they attempt to pass of as information or knowledge that somehow the Church has hid intentionally away from the people.  The fact is quite the contrary, and the entire subject has been studied, debated, hashed out and rehashed out for centuries.  I will offer in a post-mortem, a comprehensive study of the Criteria of Canon or what determined whether a writing was included or excluded, and the reasons for such.  I have a four-year degree from a Christian college, and a four-year Masters of Divinity degree, a two-year Masters of Theology degree, and a two year- Masters of Apologetics degree.  My academic work has been done at three different theological seminaries.  I state that fact in order to establish my academic qualifications to speak to this topic with a level of competence.  I am who I sign off as.  It is a common first name.

One of the most important questions that folks need to be able to answer on this issue of the Apocrypha is, was the Apocrypha ever considered to be part of the Jewish Scriptures?

One of the major pillars of support for the Apocrypha upon which the Catholic religion rests is the claim that, because these writings were found in the Septuagint, that this means or gives credence to the idea that these writings were considered part of the Jewish canon, and therefore should be accepted by the Christian churches as Scripture.

The question few people think of is why would should Christians look to the Jews for answers concerning the extent of the Old Testament canon?  The reason is found in the testimony of the inspired writings of Paul in the Epistle of Romans,  "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there in circumcision?  Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God".  -(Romans 3:1-2).

By the testimony of God's Word we see that the Jews had been given the responsibility and privilege of protecting, transmitting, and propagating the Scriptures, the inspired-writings given as revelation by God to man.  Hence, it is to the Jews, and to the general consensus which they had developed before the time of Jesus Christ, which we should first look.

It must be first and foremost noted that the apocryphal books were included in the Hebrew Canon, and never appeared in the Hebrew Bible.  Through a rather drawn out process, the extent of the Hebrew Canon had established during the 400-year intertestamental period.  During this period of time, the general three-fold division of the Scriptures had solidified and the 39 books of the Old Testament were reckoned among these three divisions:

    ++The Law (Torah) - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
    ++The Prophets (Neviim) - Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, (united as 1 book), 1st and 2nd Kings (also         united as 1 book), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the twelve "Minor" Prophets (united as 1 book).
    ++The Writings (Kethubim) - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesastes, Lamentations,                 Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah (united as 1 book), and 1st and 2nd Chronicles (united as 1 book).

It was by this division that the Hebrew Old Testaments were bound in the scrolls.  The apocryphal books did not appear among these Scriptures in any of the three divisions.  The reason for this is actually quite simple:  The Jews did not consider the apocryphal works to be inspired Scripture, and the testimony of Jewish authorities on this matter confirms the Jews considered the prophetic, inspiring spirit to have departed from Israel during the time of Artaxerxes, King of Persia (468-425 BC).

Josephus, speaking in a manner which indicates that his opinion was the general and prevailing one among his countrymen, said thus, "For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing  from and contradicting one another, but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all the past times: which are justly believed to be divine; and of them five belong t Moses, which contains his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death.  This interval of time was little short of three thousand years; but as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what as done in their times in thirteen books.  The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life.  It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time...."

Here, we see that Josephus relating several important pieces of information.  First, we see that a closed Canon was the prevailing view of Jews at and before his time, for he speaks of the books written after the time of Artaxerxes as being less esteemed by the Jewish forefathers.  Thus, it was not just Jews in his day (in the latter part of the 1st century AD) reacting to some supposed Christian use of the Apocrypha (which didn't come until much later, actually, and was far less prevalent than some would have us to believe) who rejected the apocryphal books.  This body of literature was also rejected as canon and held in lower esteem by Jews in the inter-testamental period long before the Christian era. 

Second, we see that Josephus confirms the departure of the prophetic spirit from Israel after the time of Artaxerxes (thus, the canon ended with Nehemiah, Ezra, Malachi, and the Chronicles, all of which were written during the period of Artaxerxes Longimanus' reign, (about 450-425 BC). 

Third, we also see that Josephus particularly ascribes divine status to the books written before or during Artaxerxes' reign, which was pointedly denied to those written after.

Josephus states that there were twenty-two books, two less than that found in the traditional Hebrew Old Testament.  This difference can be ascribed to his joining of Jeremiah with Lamentations and Ruth with Judges.  This correlates with the twenty-two book Old Testament Canon held to by most early Christian writers who even mention the subject as will be seen in my next post on this issue of "canonicity" of the Apocrypha.  The fact is that the Roman Catholic theologians have been known to play fast and loose with the truth over the centuries, is not even debated among reputable scholars and theologians. 

Advocates for the Apocrypha apparently have not read the writing of Hebrew historians of the era from which the Apocrypha seems to have been rendered to be far less in importance to the Jews than the impression they have presented or offered in their websites.

There is nothing to be gained from the delusions of the Apocrypha.  Let God be true and all men liars!

Pastor Bob