Traditional Catholic Teaching

Appendix to Supplement A of Lesson 6

Appendix: APOCRYPHAL BOOKS

Based on “Biblical Questions – the New Testament
by Professor Rudolph Bandas. St Anthony Guild Press 1936

The term “apocryphal” is derived from the Greek ‘cipokryphos” and denotes something hidden or secret. The sacred books of the ancient pagans, which described the mysteries of religion, were called Apocrypha, because they were kept hidden in the temples, and shown only to the initiated. Again, magicians and wonder-workers forged books reputed to contain hidden heavenly secrets, and designated by the title of apocrypha.

Later on, however, the term came to denote a well-defined class ofworks withScriptural orquasi-Scripturalk pretensions, but lacking genuineness and canonicity, and composed during the last two centuries before Christ or during the early centuries of the Christian era. These books claimed divine authority, and were occasionally accepted by some as inspired, but were excluded from the Bible of the universal Church. Their number is exceedingly great. Most of them are either anonymous or pseudonymous. Some are written for edification; others for the sake of propagating false and heretical doctrines; others, finally, to satisfy a foolish curiosity concerning prominent Biblical persons. These apocryphal books are not entirely without value. To the student of the Scriptures they at times furnish interesting information concerning the customs, habits of life, religious views, and opinions of their time. They show, in particular, the higher and nobler character of the inspired books of the Bible.

The apocryphal books are divided into two classes on the basis of their subject matter and reputed authors:

1. The Old Testament apocrypha were written chiefly by Jews, though some contain interpolations by Christians. These books propose fictitious narratives about Biblical persons, or add pious exhortations and precepts to the Mosaic Law, or in the style of prophecy and in the name of some patriarch or prophet foretell the near advent of the Messianic reign. The most famous apocrypha of the Old Testament are the third and fourth books of Esdras and the prayer of Manasses — books often given as an appendix in the Latin Vulgate*(see end of Old Testament chapter for definition). Other apocryphal books of the Old Testament are:

Book of Henoch,
Assumption of Moses,
Apocalypse of Abraham,
Psalms of Solomon,
Sibylline Oracles,
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs,
Ascension of Isaias.

* (In other words, books which were believed by some of the ancients to have spirtual value but never accepted by the church as having full authenticity, i.e. were treated as apocryphal by the church.)

2. The New Testament apocrypha are usually an imitation of the genuine sacred books of the Bible. They treat at length matters either briefly mentioned in the Biblical books or omitted entirely. Their favorite themes are the infancy of our Lord or His life on earth after His resurrection. They contain many silly and foolish legends and are lacking in the simplicity and sublimity of the Biblical books. What they add to the four Gospels is made up on the whole either of crude amplifications or of legends. The portrait of our Lord in particular is a caricature of the true image which we find depicted in the canonical Gospels. The Divine Child is frequently represented as haughty, capricious, and performing miracles for purely selfish reasons. Much about Him is artificial and theatrical. Some fifty Gospels, twenty-two Acts, and many Epistles and Apocalypses of diverse Apostles are known to have existed, though many have perished. Famous among these writings is the Letter of King Abgar to our Lord. Other New Testament apocrypha are:

Gospels according to the Hebrews and according to the Egyptians;
Gospels of Peter and of Thomas; the Proto-Evangelium of James;
Acts of Peter and Paul; Apocalypses of Peter, of Paul, of Bartholomew;
Epistle of Paul and Seneca.

The Protestants often designate as “apocryphal” those books and sections which their Bibles omit from the Old Testament, namely, Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, I and II Machabees, and sections of Esther and Daniel (deuterocanonical books). Catholics object to this designation of the deuterocanonical books. These books are considered by the Church as inspired, they formed a part of the Bible of united Christendom before the Protestant Reformation, and Christian antiquity was practically unanimous in regarding them as of divine origin.

See definitions below:

Based on "A Catholic Dictionary"
Editied by Donald Attwater Macmillan Co 1958

APOCRYPHA

Books erroneously held to be inspired and to be included in the canon of Scripture, but rejected as such by the Church, such is III and IV Esdras, III and IV Maccabees, Prayer of Manasses, third Epistle to the Corinthians, the Gospel of James. Books styled “aphocrypha” in Protestant editions of the Bible are not necessarily such in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

CANON OF SCRIPTURE

The list of inspired books of the Old and New Testaments. Inclusion in the canon does not confer anything to the internal character of a book, but is only the Church’s teaching of the fact of its antecedent inspiration.

The N.T. canon is the same as that at present commonly received among non-Catholic Christians; the O.T. canon contains in addition the deutero-canonical books. These books and fragments are usually called Deuterocanonica, or of the second canon, not because their inspiration is in any way different from that of the others, but because the inspiration of the books at present in the Jewish Bible was definitely proclaimed by the Jewish authorities previous to Christ, whereas the inspiration of the Deuterocanonica, tentatively held but later rejected by the Jews, was definitely proclaimed in the Christian dispensation. The Protestant reformers, denying the infallibility of the Church, returned to the Jewish canon; the Council of Trent reaffirmed acceptance of the Christian one. Doubts expressed by individuals in certain places and periods about the canonical status of Hebrews, Apocalypse and some canonical epistles in the NT., and the Deuterocanonica in the O.T., were thus declared incompatible with Catholic faith.

DEUTERO-CANONICAL BOOKS.

Those books of the O.T. whose place in the canon was not admitted till after that of the other books. They are Tobias; Judith; Wisdom; Ecciesiasticus; Baruch; 1 and 2 Machabees; ver. 4 of chap. 10 to the end of Esther; and Daniel, ver. 24 of chap. 3 to ver. 3 of chap 4 and chaps. 13 and 14. Their authority is equal with that of the other books of the Bible and is so admitted by all the Eastern dissident churches, except that some Greek and Russian Orthodox theologians question it. Protestants have always rejected them (see AP0CRYPHA), because they are not included in the Hebrew Bible of the Jews.

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