= Biblical_apocrypha =

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= Biblical_apocrypha =
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Introduction
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The Biblical apocrypha () denotes the collection of ancient books,
some of which are believed by some to be of doubtful origin, thought
to have been written some time between 200 BC and 100 AD.

The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches include
some or all of the same texts within the body of their version of the
Old Testament, with Catholics terming them deuterocanonical books.
Traditional 80-book Protestant Bibles include fourteen books in an
intertestamental section between the Old Testament and New Testament
called the Apocrypha, deeming these useful for instruction, but
non-canonical. Reflecting this view, the lectionaries of the Lutheran
Churches and Anglican Communion include readings from the Apocrypha.

Acceptance
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Some of the Biblical apocrypha were in the canon accepted by the
earliest ecumenical councils.

It was in Luther's Bible of 1534 that the Apocrypha was first
published as a separate intertestamental section. The preface to the
Apocrypha in the Geneva Bible claimed that while these books "were not
received by a common consent to be read and expounded publicly in the
Church", and did not serve "to prove any point of Christian religion
save in so much as they had the consent of the other scriptures called
canonical to confirm the same", nonetheless, "as books proceeding from
godly men they were received to be read for the advancement and
furtherance of the knowledge of history and for the instruction of
godly manners." Later, during the English Civil War, the Westminster
Confession of 1647 excluded the Apocrypha from the canon and made no
recommendation of the Apocrypha above "other human writings", and this
attitude toward the Apocrypha is represented by the decision of the
British and Foreign Bible Society in the early 19th century not to
print it. Today, English Bibles with the Apocrypha are becoming more
popular again, and they are often printed as intertestamental books.

Many of these texts are considered canonical Old Testament books by
the Catholic Church, affirmed by the Council of Rome (382) and later
reaffirmed by the Council of Trent (1545-1563); and by the Eastern
Orthodox Church which are referred to as 'anagignoskomena' per the
Synod of Jerusalem (1672).

The Lutheran Churches normatively include in the Bible the Apocrypha
as an intertestamental section between the Old Testament and the New
Testament. Of the Old Testamental Apocrypha, Martin Luther said,
"These books are not held equal to the Scriptures, but are useful and
good to read" (AE 35:337). The Book of Concord, the compendium of
Evangelical Lutheran doctrine, quotes Tobit 4:10 and cites 2 Maccabees
15:14. The systematic theologian Martin Chemnitz, a leading figure in
the development of Evangelical Lutheranism, cites Sirach 38:25-26 as
helpful. Chemnitz also separates Old Testament Scripture into two
categories: canonical and apocryphal. The 'Dietrich Catechism', once
widely used in Evangelical Lutheranism, affirms that apart from the
canonical books, the Bible does contain the apocrypha.

The Anglican Communion accepts "the Apocrypha for instruction in life
and manners, but not for the establishment of doctrine (Article VI in
the Thirty-Nine Articles)", and many "lectionary readings in The Book
of Common Prayer are taken from the Apocrypha", with these lessons
being "read in the same ways as those from the Old Testament". The
first Methodist liturgical book, 'The Sunday Service of the
Methodists', employs verses from the Apocrypha, such as in the
Eucharistic liturgy. The Protestant Apocrypha contains three books (1
Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh) that are accepted by many
Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches as canonical,
but are regarded as non-canonical by the Catholic Church and are
therefore not included in modern Catholic Bibles.

, the Apocrypha are "included in the lectionaries of Anglican and
Lutheran Churches". Anabaptists use the Luther Bible, which contains
the Apocrypha as intertestamental books; Amish wedding ceremonies
include "the retelling of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the
Apocrypha". Moreover, the Revised Common Lectionary, in use by most
mainline Protestants including Methodists and Moravians, lists
readings from the Apocrypha in the liturgical calendar, although
alternate Old Testament scripture lessons are provided.

Vulgate prologues
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Jerome completed his translation of the Bible, the Latin Vulgate, in
405. The Vulgate manuscripts included prologues, in which Jerome
clearly identified certain books of the older Old Latin Old Testament
version as apocryphal - or non-canonical - even though they might be
read as scripture.

In the prologue to the books of Samuel and Kings, which is often
called the 'Prologus Galeatus', he says:

In the prologue to Ezra Jerome states that the third book and fourth
book of Ezra are apocryphal; while the two books of Ezra in the Vetus
Latina version, translating 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras of the Septuagint,
are 'variant examples' of the same Hebrew original.

In his prologue to the books of Solomon, he says:

He mentions the book of Baruch in his prologue to Jeremiah but does
not include it as 'apocrypha'; stating that "it is neither read nor
held among the Hebrews".

In his prologue to Judith he mentions that "among the Hebrews, the
authority [of Judith] came into contention", but that it was "counted
in the number of Sacred Scriptures" by the First Council of Nicaea. In
his reply to Rufinus, he affirmed that he was consistent with the
choice of the church regarding which version of the deuterocanonical
portions of Daniel to use, which the Jews of his day did not include:

According to Michael Barber, although Jerome was once suspicious of
the apocrypha, he later viewed them as Scripture as shown in his
epistles. Barber cites Jerome's letter to Eustochium, in which Jerome
quotes Sirach 13:2.; elsewhere Jerome also refers to Baruch, the Story
of Susannah and Wisdom as scripture.

Apocrypha in editions of the Bible
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Apocrypha are well attested in surviving manuscripts of the Christian
Bible. (See, for example, Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex
Alexandrinus, Vulgate, and Peshitta.) After the Lutheran and Catholic
canons were defined by Luther (c. 1534) and Trent (8 April 1546)
respectively, early Protestant editions of the Bible (notably the 1545
Luther Bible in German and 1611 King James Version in English) did not
omit these books, but placed them in a separate 'Apocrypha' section in
between the Old and New Testaments to indicate their status.

Gutenberg Bible
=================
This famous edition of the Vulgate was published in 1455. Like the
manuscripts on which it was based, the Gutenberg Bible lacks a
specific Apocrypha section. Its Old Testament includes the books that
Jerome considered apocryphal and those Pope Clement VIII later moved
to the appendix. The Prayer of Manasseh is located after the Books of
Chronicles, 3 and 4 Esdras follow 2 Esdras (Nehemiah), and Prayer of
Solomon follows Ecclesiasticus.

Luther Bible
==============
Martin Luther translated the Bible into German during the early part
of the 16th century, first releasing a complete Bible in 1534. His
bible was the first major edition to have a separate section called an
apocrypha. Books and portions of books not found in the Masoretic Text
of Judaism were moved out of the body of the Old Testament to this
section. Luther placed these books between the Old and New Testaments.
For this reason, these works are sometimes known as 'inter-testamental
books'. The books 1 and 2 Esdras were omitted entirely. Luther was
making a polemical point about the canonicity of these books. As an
authority for this division, he cited Jerome, who in the early 5th
century distinguished the Hebrew Bible and Septuagint, stating that
books not found in Hebrew were not received as canonical.

Although his statement was controversial in his day, Jerome was later
titled a Doctor of the Church and his authority was also cited in the
Anglican statement in 1571 of the Thirty-nine Articles.

Luther also expressed some doubts about the canonicity of four New
Testament books, although he never called them apocrypha: the Epistle
to the Hebrews, the Epistles of James and Jude, and the Revelation to
John. He did not put them in a separately named section, but he did
move them to the end of his New Testament.

Clementine Vulgate
====================
In 1592, Pope Clement VIII published his revised edition of the
Vulgate, referred to as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate. He moved three
books not found in the canon of the Council of Trent from the Old
Testament into an appendix "lest they utterly perish" ('ne prorsus
interirent').

* Prayer of Manasseh
* 3 Esdras (1 Esdras in the King James Bible)
* 4 Esdras (2 Esdras in the King James Bible)

The protocanonical and deuterocanonical books he placed in their
traditional positions in the Old Testament.

King James Version
====================
The English-language King James Version (KJV) of 1611 placed the books
in an inter-testamental section labelled "the Books called Apocrypha".
The section contains the following:
*The Third Book of Esdras
*The Fourth Book of Esdras
*The Book of Tobias
*The Book of Judith
*The rest of the Book of Esther
*The Book of Wisdom
*Jesus the Son of Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus)
*Baruch the Prophet (Includes the Epistle of Jeremiah as chapter 6)
*The Story of Susanna
*The Song of the Three Children
*Of Bel and the Dragon
*The Prayer of Manasses
*The First Book of Maccabees
*The Second Book of Maccabees

(Included in this list are those books of the Clementine Vulgate that
were not in Luther's canon).

These are the books most frequently referred to by the casual
appellation '"the books called Apocrypha"'. These same books are also
listed in 'Article VI' of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of
England as '"the other books"'. Despite being placed in the Apocrypha,
in the table of lessons at the front of some printings of the King
James Bible, these books are included under the Old Testament.

The Bible and the Puritan revolution
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The British Puritan revolution of the 1600s brought a change in the
way many British publishers handled the apocryphal material associated
with the Bible. The Puritans used the standard of Sola Scriptura
(Scripture Alone) to determine which books would be included in the
canon. The Westminster Confession of Faith, composed during the
British Civil Wars (1642-1651), excluded the 'Apocrypha' from the
canon. The Confession provided the rationale for the exclusion: 'The
books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are
no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no
authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or
made use of, than other human writings' (1.3). Thus, Bibles printed by
English Protestants who separated from the Church of England began to
exclude these books.

Other early Bible editions
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All English translations of the Bible printed in the sixteenth century
included a section or appendix for Apocryphal books. Matthew's Bible,
published in 1537, contains all the Apocrypha of the later King James
Version in an inter-testamental section. The 1538 Myles Coverdale
Bible contained an Apocrypha that excluded Baruch and the Prayer of
Manasseh. The 1560 Geneva Bible placed the Prayer of Manasseh after 2
Chronicles; the rest of the Apocrypha were placed in an
inter-testamental section. The Douay-Rheims Bible (1582-1609) placed
the Prayer of Manasseh and 3 and 4 Esdras into an Appendix of the
second volume of the Old Testament.

In the Zürich Bible (1529-30), they are placed in an Appendix. They
include 3 Maccabees, along with 1 Esdras & 2 Esdras. The 1st
edition omitted the Prayer of Manasseh and the Rest of Esther,
although these were included in the 2nd edition. The French Bible
(1535) of Pierre Robert Olivétan placed them between the Testaments,
with the subtitle, "The volume of the apocryphal books contained in
the Vulgate translation, which we have not found in the Hebrew or
Chaldee".

In 1569 the Spanish Reina Bible, following the example of the
pre-Clementine Latin Vulgate, contained the deuterocanonical books in
its Old Testament. Following the other Protestant translations of its
day, Valera's 1602 revision of the Reina Bible moved these books into
an inter-testamental section.

Modern editions
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All King James Bibles published before 1666 included the Apocrypha,
though separately to denote them as not equal to Scripture proper, as
noted by Jerome in the Vulgate, to which he gave the name, "The
Apocrypha". In 1826, the National Bible Society of Scotland petitioned
the British and Foreign Bible Society not to print the Apocrypha,
resulting in a decision that no BFBS funds were to pay for printing
any Apocryphal books anywhere. They reasoned that not printing the
Apocrypha within the Bible would prove to be less costly to produce.
Since that time most modern editions of the Bible and reprintings of
the King James Bible omit the Apocrypha section. Modern non-Catholic
reprintings of the Clementine Vulgate commonly omit the Apocrypha
section. Many reprintings of older versions of the Bible now omit the
apocrypha and many newer translations and revisions have never
included them at all.

There are some exceptions to this trend, however. Some editions of the
Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version and the English
Standard Version of the Bible include not only the Apocrypha listed
above, but also 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151.

The American Bible Society lifted restrictions on the publication of
Bibles with the Apocrypha in 1964. The British and Foreign Bible
Society followed in 1966. The Stuttgart Vulgate (the printed edition,
not most of the on-line editions), which is published by the UBS,
contains the Clementine Apocrypha as well as the Epistle to the
Laodiceans and Psalm 151.

Brenton's edition of the Septuagint includes all of the Apocrypha
found in the King James Bible with the exception of 2 Esdras, which
was not in the Septuagint and is no longer extant in Greek. He places
them in a separate section at the end of his Old Testament, following
English tradition.

In Greek circles, however, these books are not traditionally called
'Apocrypha', but 'Anagignoskomena' (ἀναγιγνωσκόμενα), and are
integrated into the Old Testament. The Orthodox Study Bible, published
by Thomas Nelson Publishers, includes the Anagignoskomena in its Old
Testament, with the exception of 4 Maccabees. This was translated by
the Saint Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology, from the Rahlfs
Edition of the Septuagint using Brenton's English translation and the
RSV Expanded Apocrypha as their standardized text. As such, they are
included in the Old Testament with no distinction between these books
and the rest of the Old Testament. This follows the tradition of the
Eastern Orthodox Church where the Septuagint is the received version
of Old Testament scripture, considered itself inspired in agreement
with some of the Fathers, such as St Augustine, rather than the Hebrew
Masoretic Text followed by all other modern translations.

Anagignoskomena
=================
The Septuagint, the ancient and best known Greek version of the Old
Testament, contains books and additions that are not present in the
Hebrew Bible. These texts are not traditionally segregated into a
separate section, nor are they usually called apocrypha. Rather, they
are referred to as the Anagignoskomena (ἀναγιγνωσκόμενα, "things that
are read" or "profitable reading"). The anagignoskomena are Tobit,
Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira (Sirach), Baruch,
Letter of Jeremiah (in the Vulgate this is chapter 6 of Baruch),
additions to Daniel (The Prayer of Azarias, Susanna and Bel and the
Dragon), additions to Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 1
Esdras, i.e. all of the Deuterocanonical books plus 3 Maccabees and 1
Esdras.

Some editions add additional books, such as Psalm 151 or the Odes
(including the Prayer of Manasseh). 2 Esdras is added as an appendix
in the Slavonic Bibles and 4 Maccabees as an appendix in Greek
editions.

Pseudepigrapha
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Technically, a pseudepigraphon is a book written in a biblical style
and ascribed to an author who did not write it. In common usage,
however, the term pseudepigrapha is often used by way of distinction
to refer to apocryphal writings that do not appear in printed editions
of the Bible, as opposed to the texts listed above. Examples include:
*'Apocalypse of Abraham'
*'Apocalypse of Moses'
*'Letter of Aristeas'
*'Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah'
*'Joseph and Aseneth'
*'Life of Adam and Eve'
*'Lives of the Prophets'
*'Ladder of Jacob'
*'Jannes and Jambres'
*'History of the Captivity in Babylon'
*'History of the Rechabites'
*'Eldad and Medad'
*'History of Joseph the Carpenter'
*'Odes of Solomon'
*'Prayer of Joseph'
*'Prayer of Jacob'
*'Vision of Ezra'

Often included among the pseudepigrapha are 3 and 4 Maccabees because
they are not traditionally found in western Bibles, although they are
in the Septuagint. Similarly, the Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees and
4 Baruch are often listed with the pseudepigrapha although they are
commonly included in Ethiopian Bibles. The Psalms of Solomon are
found in some editions of the Septuagint.

Cultural impact
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* The 'introitus', "Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let
perpetual light shine upon them", of the traditional Requiem in the
Catholic Church is loosely based on 4 Esdras 2:34-35.
* The alternative 'introitus' for Quasimodo Sunday in the Roman rite
of the Catholic Church is loosely based on 4 Esdras 2:36-37.
* The Story of Susanna is perhaps the earliest example of a courtroom
drama, and perhaps the first example of an effective forensic
cross-examination (there are no others in the Bible: except perhaps
Solomon's judgement at 1 Kings 3:25).
* Bel and the Dragon is perhaps the earliest example of a locked room
mystery.
* Shylock's reference in 'The Merchant of Venice' to "A Daniel come to
judgment; yea, a Daniel!" refers to the story of Susanna and the
elders.
* The theme of the elders surprising Susanna in her bath is a common
one in art, such as in paintings by Tintoretto and Artemisia
Gentileschi, and in Wallace Stevens' poem Peter Quince at the Clavier.
* 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men', the title of James Agee's 1941
chronicle of Alabama sharecroppers, was taken from Ecclesiasticus
44:1: "Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us."
* In his spiritual autobiography 'Grace Abounding to the Chief of
Sinners', John Bunyan recounts how God strengthened him against the
temptation to despair of his salvation by inspiring him with the
words, "Look at the generations of old and see: did any ever trust in
God, and were confounded?"

See also
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* Jewish apocrypha
* New Testament apocrypha
* Pseudepigrapha
* Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible

Further reading
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Texts
* Robert Holmes and James Parsons, 'Vet. Test. Graecum cum var.
lectionibus' (Oxford, 1798-1827)
* Henry Barclay Swete, 'Old Testament in Greek', i.-iii. (Cambridge,
1887-1894)
* Otto Fridolinus Fritzsche, 'Libri Apocryphi V. T. Graece' (1871)

Commentaries
* O. F. Fritzsche and Grimm, 'Kurzgef. exeget. Handbuch zu den Apok.
des A.T'. (Leipzig, 1851-1860)
* Edwin Cone Bissell, 'Apocrypha of the Old Testament' (Edinburgh,
1880)
* Otto Zöckler, 'Die Apokryphen des Alten Testaments' (Munchen, 1891)
* Henry Wace, 'The Apocrypha' ("Speaker's Commentary") (1888)

Introductions
* Emil Schürer, 'Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes', vol. iii. 135 sqq.,
and his article on "Apokryphen" in Herzog's 'Realencykl'. i. 622-53
*
* Metzger, Bruce M. 'An Introduction to the Apocrypha'. [Pbk. ed.].
New York: Oxford University Press, 1977, cop. 1957.

External links
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*"The Apocrypha, Bridge of the Testaments" by Robert C. Dentan
*[http://www.lcms.org/ca/www/cyclopedia/02/display.asp?t1=a&word=APOCRYPHA
"Lutheran Cyclopedia: Apocrypha" at lcms.org]
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01601a.htm "Apocrypha" in the
Catholic Encyclopaedia at newadvent.org/cathen]

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_apocrypha