about apocryphal books? anyone?

Question

why are these books not considered as inspired by God by the non-catholic churches?

Answer 1

The books of the Apochrypha: Judith, Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, The Wisdom of Solomon, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, etc, were not accepted by the Jewish community in the Holy Land. They were supplemental texts that were used solely by Jews living in places like Alexandria, Egypt, and Damascus, Syria, etc.

Because these books were never recognized as being "canonical" (which is to say, "True") by the Jewish hierarchy in the Temple and Synagogues of Judea and Israel, they were never accepted by the Protestants as having divine sanction.

The Roman Catholic Church's position was always that scripture was more based on traditional usage; and since the Jews of the diaspora felt these books were useful, the Catholic church embraced them.

Answer 2

I like the Apocrypha. And I'm not a Roman Catholic.

Tobit was great. Judith was full of historical errors. But Esdras was incredible. I found so many great prophcies in it that I am impressed with.

In those books, the ones that I have read so far, were people who had faith, and talked about God just the same way a Christian would. Like Tobit, for instance.

In Judith there was an advisor that told the king that the men of Israel could not be defeated unless the made God angry. If they were good with their God, where was nothing that the great army could do to win.

There is a great part of the evangelical church that frowns on ANY use of the Apocrypha. They will say that it is not inspired, yet I always have to be the one to question them! lol

I can look and find reasons for trusting God in them, and I also note that the Roman Catholics took out a part of Esdras that plainly denies Purgatory, something that is not readily know amongst Catholics or Protestants.

Bottom line, they are brought up to refer to them in all prejudice. Believing that they have no part of the Bible. I think that they are partially right that they do not need them. Yet I believe that they throw the baby out with the bathwater. They so miss certain things that they could use to know God better than they do.

I would recommend the Oxford Bible with Apocrypha.

Thanks for reminding me that I have to finish reading it. ( :

Answer 3

What about the books that present an Arian conception of the nature Jesus' being? these books were left out of the Bible because the do not support the Athanasian conception of the trinity. The Bible is just that--a collection of books.

Answer 4

Basically, they are full of historical errors, and they contradict other parts of scripture. Jesus, while on earth, quoted from nearly every book of the Old Testament, but never from the Apocrypha.

smarty pants: The bishops that attended the Council of Nicea were given Bibles that contained the 66 books we now have. Contrary to what the DiVinci code says, the Council of Nicea was called to pick which books would be in the Bible, but called to debate the Divinity of Christ.

Answer 5

The Puritans removed them in the 1600's because they felt they were not necessarily inspired by God. It seems that they don't agree with the rest of the Canonized Bible.
I Cr 13;8a
12-12-6

Answer 6

Well, the Book of Enoch proves the existence of giants.

Answer 7

Have you ever read the book of Tobit. It makes the rest of the bible look like the honest sober truth. Tobit has Genies, witches, magic and every other fantasy plot device.

Answer 8

Their messages would not give churches absolute authority. I highly recommend checking them out--those who ignore those scriptures miss a lot of Christianity's true message.

Answer 9

These writings are very interesting. I recommend you read them yourself and then YOU decide why they were not included by the council of Nicea....