The Apocrypha Books
The Holy Bible • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Today, we are going to dive back into a series that I started in December here in Sunday evenings with the theme being “The Holy Bible.”
We examined first “The Doctrine Of Inspiration” and then “The Inerrancy Of The Bible.”
This evening we are going to pick up with this series by looking at that which many have heard about but few know much about and that is the Apocrypha books.
As you can I know there are sixty-six books in our bible.
In the Old Testament there are thirty-nine books.
In the New Testament there are twenty-seven books.
However, not everyone’s bible today has “only sixty-six” books in it.
Apocrypha’s History
Apocrypha’s History
The Additions & Attachments.
The Additions & Attachments.
I remember when Kristin and I first started dating and we went over to her friends house for a birthday party.
Kristin was knew to “the faith” and at some point she came across the bible of her friend and happened to notice that this bible had additional books in it.
This friend was from the denomination “Greek Orthodox” and thus a split from Catholicism.
She asked me about it, and I told her they were called the Apocrypha books, but to be honest that was really the extent of what I knew about them then.
And though I haven’t spent a great deal of time studying these books, for the reason we will discuss more later in this lesson, I have come to know them better.
So what are the Apocrypha books; they are an additional seven books that are added to the original Old Testament along with some other attachments added to other books.
The full additional seven books are…
Tobit
Judith
1 & 2 Maccabees
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus or Sirach or Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach
Baruch
The attachments are…
Extra verses and chapters to the book of Esther.
Esther 10:4-16:24 is added.
Extra verses and chapters to the book of Daniel.
The Prayer of Azariah & the Son of the Three Young Jews which is placed between Daniel 3:23 and Daniel 3:24.
Susanna which is considered Daniel 13.
Bel and the Dragon which is consider Daniel 14.
The Letter of Jeremiah
This is attached to Baruch “sometimes.”
The Date & Confirmation.
The Date & Confirmation.
The date of these Apocryphal books were written is between 200 BC and 200 AD.
Notice that all of these were written long after the last book of the Old Testament was written.
And they certainly had people who recognized them as being around and even “good secular” books, but they were not consider inspired.
Joseph wrote, “We have not an innumerable multitude of books among us disagreeing from and contradicting one another (as the Greeks have) but only twenty-two books… which are justly believed to be divine.”
Remember the Jews combined many books like the Kings and Chronicles wherein today we break those up into separate books.
When Jerome (347-420 AD) translated the Latin Vulgate he included the Apocrypha books, but added that they were ecclesiastical books, but not a part of the Hebrew canon or inspired.
In the Middle Ages the Latin Vulgate became the standard bible for Catholicism and in 1546 during the Council of Trent (1546) Catholicism responded to the bible being translated in the modern language by decreeing…
“The Synod ... receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety, and reverence, all the books both of the Old and of the New Testament—seeing that one God is the author of both—as also the said traditions, as well those appertaining to faith as to morals, as having been dictated, either by Christ's own word of mouth, or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continuous succession.”
Summary
Summary
So we can see that these were not consider by the Jews or Christians as inspired until much, much later.
They were only venerated by Catholicism as a “gotcha” to the translating of the bible in modern languages.
So then the question remains…
Are They Inspired?
Are They Inspired?
The Answer Is NO!!!
The Answer Is NO!!!
There are simply too many contradictions between the Apocrypha books and the bible.
These are bountiful and plenty so we will just examine a few.
In Judith 1:1 we read Nebuchadnezzar to be the king of Assyria.
1 It was the twelfth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. In those days Arphaxad ruled over the Medes in Ecbatana.
1 In his days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.
In Wisdom 11:17 it implies that creation was done from “pre-existing matter.”
17 For your all-powerful hand, which created the world out of formless matter, did not lack the means to send upon them a multitude of bears, or bold lions,
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
In 2 Maccabees 12:43-45 it suggests praying for the dead suggesting a doctrine of purgatory.
43 He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking account of the resurrection. 44 For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. 45 But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from their sin.
Hebrews 9:27 (ESV)
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment
In Tobit 6:5-8 it endorses the use of magic wherein an angel instructs Tobias to use fish parts to ward of demons.
7 Then the young man questioned the angel and said to him, “Brother Azariah, what medicinal value is there in the fish’s heart and liver, and in the gall?” 8 He replied, “As for the fish’s heart and liver, you must burn them to make a smoke in the presence of a man or woman afflicted by a demon or evil spirit, and every affliction will flee away and never remain with that person any longer.
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
Summary
Summary
v
Conclusion
Conclusion
v
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
