How do Protestants feel about Apocrypha...knowing the Catholic church defined the current Bible books?

Question

Apocrypha being the hidden or lost books of the bible that were not included by the catholic church in the final copy of the Bible.

jocko...thanks for the clarification

Answer 1

Well, I'm not protestant so I can't give you that perspective.

I am atheist, and my perspective is that it is all a bunch of hogwash.

*With love in nothingness*

Answer 2

You're getting a bit mixed up there, Pastor Art The Catholic Church uses the Septuagint to determine the Canon of the Old Testament, which I'm sure you must remember predates Luther by a good 15 centuries, if not more. Most scholars agree that the Septuagint was complete by the 1st century BCE. Luther removed books from this canon and relabeled them the Apocrypha, which he first published in 1534, well before his death in 1546. Those are the books the Catholics refer to. The Council of Trent did not ratify a Canon, but *defined* it in 1546, as a response to the so-called "Reformation."

Answer 3

The 66 books which appears in our Bibles were defined long before the Roman Catholic Church was organized in about the 9th century.

Those 66 books were discussed by the students of Jesus' original Apostles, in letters and sermons where were written and distributed in the early church prior to 150 AD.

As the RCC got organized they recognized these same 66 book until 1546. In 1546 at the Council of Trent they added 7 of the book from the Apocraphe to the Canon in their attempt to make reformers such as Martin Luther sit down and shut up.

The original Apocrapha is 16 books which appeared in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures which was translated about 250 before the birth of Jesus.

According to tradition, 70 translators worked on the project and each of them came up with very same translation, word for word, so that is called the "Septuagent".

16 of the books in the Septuagent never existed in Hebrew, were never quoted by Jesus or the other Apostles. There is even internal evidence in them that they are not God's Word.

These 16 books were also reject by the Jewish ruling council prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.

We know that they cannot be God's Word since they contain direct evidence within them that there was no prophet around at the time they were written:

1 Maccabees 4:46 And laid up the stones in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, until there should come a prophet to shew what should be done with them.

1 Maccabees 9:27 So was there a great affliction in Israel, the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.

1 Maccabees 14:41 Also that the Jews and priests were well pleased that Simon should be their governor and high priest for ever, until there should arise a faithful prophet;

Pastor Art

Answer 4

The New Testament canon of the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are the same with 27 Books.

The difference in the Old Testaments actually goes back to the time before and during Christ’s life. At this time, there was no official Jewish canon of scripture.

The Jews in Egypt translated their choices of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the second century before Christ. This translation of 46 books, called the Septuagint, had wide use in the Roman world because most Jews lived far from Palestine in Greek cities. Many of these Jews spoke only Greek.

The early Christian Church was born into this world. The Church, with its bilingual Jews and more and more Greek-speaking Gentiles, used the books of the Septuagint as its Bible. Remember the early Christians were just writing the documents what would become the New Testament.

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, with increasing persecution from the Romans and competition from the fledgling Christian Church, the Jewish leaders came together and declared its official canon of Scripture, eliminating seven books from the Septuagint.

The books removed were Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom (of Solomon), Sirach, and Baruch. Parts of existing books were also removed including Psalm 151 (from Psalms), parts of the Book of Esther, Susanna (from Daniel as chapter 13), and Bel and the Dragon (from Daniel as chapter 14).

The Christian Church did not follow suit but kept all the books in the Septuagint. 46 + 27 = 73 Books total.

1500 years later, Protestants decided to keep the Catholic New Testament but change its Old Testament from the Catholic canon to the Jewish canon.

The books that were removed supported such things as
+ Prayers for the dead (Tobit 12:12; 2 Maccabees 12:39-45)
+ Purgatory (Wisdom 3:1-7)
+ Intercession of saints in heaven (2 Maccabees 15:14)
+ Intercession of angels (Tobit 12:12-15)

The books they dropped are sometimes called the Apocrypha.

Here is a Catholic Bible website: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

Really it depends on each Prostestant. I agree with Pastor Art and with jocko on this one. These books have some literary and historical value, but these were never classed as bona fide Scripture until the Roman Catholic Church declared it so at the Council of Trent. So I don't use them at all but others have the right to read or not read as they see fit.

Answer 6

The Apocrypha are the books that were included by the Roman Catholics but removed by Protestants in 1769. The Pseudepigraphical books are the ones that were not included by the Roman Catholics.

Answer 7

It was the Protestants that removed the 7 books, not the Catholics.

What I keep asking is if the Protestants hate the Catholics so much, why do they keep our canon?

Answer 8

Our church does not include them as scripture, because some of it is right, some is wrong--use your power of discernment to determine what is right. But they are interesting reading. Reading the Book of Jasher really enhanced my understanding of the old testament.

Especially poignant is the story of Pharaoh's wife trying to tempt Joseph to sleep with her--she didn't just persue him, she resorted to every means of drama, trickery and blackmail imaginable to get him to mess around with her. You would have thought that he'd eventually give in!

Also, the story of Noah's ark is especially interesting--it discusses at some length Noah trying to convince people to change their ways--for 125 years--for their sakes and b/c he loved them. What is touching here, also, is the desciption of Noah gathering the animals. It describes this act in detail.

Even if you look at the book of Jasher as a story book and nothing more, it's very interesting reading--I would recommend it.

Answer 9

The Apocrypha is not canon.

Answer 10

Most are unaware of it