The Bible (Old and New Testaments) is a wonderful library of the writings of prophets and apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Written from a number of locations over a period spanning hundreds of years, it relates the history of some of the interactions people have had with the one God. It also reflects the various cultures in which those people lived. Which books are included in the Old Testament and in the New Testament was not determined by the dominating authority of some council of religious officials. Rather, over a long period of time, consensus grew among Jews (for the Old Testament) and Christians (for the New Testament) that certain books were obviously inspired Scripture and others were not. The gatherings of leaders only recognized this consensus.
Studying similar writings of Christians and Jews of the early centuries—some prior to and some following their biblical counterparts—helps us to understand the history and culture of Bible times, as well gain insights into the religious environment of the day.
Apocryphal (“hidden”) and pseudepigraphal (“false author”) literature were written as vehicles for expressing religious ideas, some orthodox and some heretical. The author claimed in a pseudepigraphical work is nearly always some biblical character, either a famous saint or some obscure person who “rubbed elbows” with such a saint. No one should assume that a non-biblical book was written by a person mentioned in the Bible, even if it bears that person’s name.
The Old Testament Apocrypha contains writings from the period between the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New (about 300 BCE to 100 CE). They follow the same genra found in the Old Testament, including history, prophecy, poetry, and wisdom literature. Because these books are found in the Septuagint (an early Greek translation of the Old Testament), some Christian groups, such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches (Greek, Russian, Armenian, etc.), accept a number of these books as inspired, forming what they call the “Deuteroncanonical Books.”
These books include: Tobit, Judith, The Additions to Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon (also called The Book of Wisdom), Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach or The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach), Baruch, The Letter of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and First and Second Maccabees. Three other books that appear in the Septuagint, namely First Esdras (also called Third Esdras), Second Esdras (also called Fourth Esdras), and The Prayer of Manasseh, they do not accept as being even deuterocanonical.
The apocryphal gospels tell fictional stories about Jesus’ life and ministry, sometimes in an attempt to fill in the gaps we find in the canonical gospels (like what Jesus did from age 12 to 30). Apocryphal “Acts” do the same thing for the apostles on whom the spotlight in Luke’s Acts does not fall. There are also apocryphal epistles and apocalypses. Much of the pseudepigraphical Christian literature are oriented toward Gnosticism, a blend of Greek philosophy and Judaeo-Christian teaching that began in the first Christian century and became fully developed only in the centuries that followed. The contrast between their teachings and the biblical books are often quite striking.
For Christians, these writings do not provide doctrinal information, but they do yield insights into what people were thinking in biblical times and shortly thereafter. You should push back at anyone’s claims that these writings deserve equal authority with the canonical Gospels, Acts, epistles, and John’s Apocalypse. At best, they are speculative attempts to satisfy curiosity about obscure points of New Testament history. At worst, they are attempts to deceive, mislead, and pervert the message of the New Testament.
Want to dive deeper?
- Dave Miller – Why are the Apocrypha excluded from the Bible? (Apologetics Press)
- Eric Lyons – Reasons to Reject the Apocrypha (Apologetics Press).
- Moises Pinedo – The Bible and Catholic Traditionalism (Apologetics Press).
- The Canon and Extra-canonical Writings (Apologetics Press Staff)
- Don Stewart. What is the Old Testament Apocrypha? Are Some Books Missing from the Old Testament? (Blue Letter Bible).
- William Webster. The Old Testament Canon and the Apocrypha – Part 1: The Canon of the Jews | Part 2: From the Beginning of the Church Age to Jerome | Part 3: From Jerome to the Reformation (Christian Truth).
- The Canon: Why the Roman Catholic Arguments for the Canon are Spurious” (Christian Truth).