This page provides links to articles and extracts.
“Lost Gospels”—Lost No More by Tony Burke published at BAR. See extracts below.
The final shape of the canon was seemingly settled by 367 C.E. when Athanasius of Alexandria issued his annual letter for Easter. This 39th Festal Letter lists the 27 books of the New Testament as we have it today.2 It is often assumed that Athanasius’s letter had a devastating effect on the Christian apocryphal.
First, the shape of the 27-book New Testament canon was not settled in the fourth century after all. The Bible took on different shapes in parts of the world outside of Roman influence. The Eastern Orthodox Church, centered originally in Constantinople, separated from Rome in the fifth century. Their New Testament did not include Revelation until the 10th century. Farther east, the Syrian Orthodox Church, established in 451 C.E., until recently read from a New Testament that lacked five of the 27 texts (those still debated in the fourth century: 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation) and once included 3 Corinthians. So enamored was Syrian Christianity with apocryphal texts that monasteries throughout Turkey and Iraq have become a major source for manuscripts of Christian apocrypha.
Still farther east, the Bible of the Armenian Church included 3 Corinthians and the Martyrdom of John. And the Bible of the Ethiopian Church today includes not only additional Old Testament texts, including Enoch and Jubilees, but a New Testament canon with several texts related to church organization and practice along with the Book of the Covenant, the Book of the Rolls and others.
Who Wrote the Apocrypha? (Did They Write Anything in the Bible?)
Written by Marko Marina, Ph.D. Posted on BartEhrman.com August 18th, 2024.
In this article, we’ll journey into the fascinating world of apocryphal authorship. We’ll look at the origins of these texts, examine whether we know who wrote the Apocrypha books, and consider whether these authors contributed to the Bible’s canon.
When & Why The Apocrypha Was Removed from the Bible (Untold Story!)
Written by Joshua Schachterle, Ph.D. Date written: June 29th, 2024. Interesting extracts are below. By Marko Marina, Ph.D.
- Michael Stone notes, for example, that manuscripts of some books of the Apocrypha have been found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, making it clear that the Essenes who wrote and preserved those texts considered them to be Scripture. [See extracts below of his webpage]
- …the official Hebrew Bible canon today contains no books from the Apocrypha, the canon having long been closed.
- Martin Luther, one of the first Protestants, included the apocryphal books in his 1522 translation of the Bible from Latin to German, but he placed them in a separate section after the Old Testament. In fact, it was he who first called them Apocrypha, claiming that they were not inspired Scripture but were still good for Christians to read.
- In addition, the influential Christian bishop and theologian Augustine of Hippo (354 CE-430 CE) included seven apocryphal texts in his canon (Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, and Baruch). This canon was then officially reconfirmed centuries later by the Council of Trent in 1546, affirming that these seven books were as divinely inspired as every other part of the Catholic Bible.
- When the King James Version (KJV), a Protestant endeavor, was originally made, [published 1611] it included the Apocrypha in a separate section, noting, like Luther, that while apocryphal texts were worthy of being read, they should not be considered inspired Scripture.
- As for Protestants, Devin Rose writes that, based on the writings of early Protestant reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin, there are two principal reasons the books of the Apocrypha were rejected as Scripture.
- The first is a passage in the apocryphal book 2 Maccabees, which refers to and praises the practice of praying for the souls of the dead. Protestants denied that this was an acceptable practice,
- The second reason Protestants removed these texts is that Jewish authorities rejected the Apocrypha for the Hebrew Bible canon. Since Christianity grew out of 1st-century Judaism, Protestant reformers saw any books rejected by the Jews as equally undeserving of Christian canonical status.
What is the Apocrypha? The 14 Books Left Out of the Bible
Written by Joshua Schachterle, Ph.D, Date written: October 30th, 2023. Extracts from his article are below.
The Apocrypha is a list of 14 books that were left out of the Hebrew Bible canon. In this article, I’ll identify the 14 books, describe them for you briefly, and tell you why they were left out of the Jewish canon.
The Books, Dates of Composition, and Summaries
Tobit, written 225-175 BCE
This book tells the story of two Israelite people, a blind man named Tobit living in Nineveh and a woman named Sarah, living in a city called Ecbatana. Tobit sends his son Tobias to retrieve some money he’d left in another city. An angel named Raphael guides Tobias to Ecbatana, where he meets Sarah. Raphael saves Sarah from a demon and Tobias marries Sarah. They return to Tobit who has been miraculously cured of his blindness.
Judith, written about 100 BCE
Judith, a Jewish widow, attracts and seduces an Assyrian general besieging her city. Having ingratiated herself with him, she waits until he is drunk and then decapitates him, saving the capital Jerusalem from total destruction.
Esther, written around 115 BCE
Although the Hebrew version of Esther is canonical, the Greek translation adds six sections to it. Esther is the story of an Israelite woman who saves her people from an anti-Israelite Persian plot. The canonical story makes no mention of God. The additions, however, mention God more than 50 times and also speak of the inner thoughts of the main characters.
Wisdom of Solomon, written around 50 BCE
This book centers on the importance of Wisdom as related to humans and to God. It may have influenced the famous prologue of the Gospel of John, with wisdom replaced by the “Word.”
The Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus, written 200-175 CE
This is the only book of the Apocrypha for whom we know the author, Jesus son of Sirach. We know this because his grandson, Ben Sira of Jerusalem, translated the original Hebrew document into Greek and wrote a prologue. The book is entirely based on ethical teachings.
Baruch, written 200-100 BCE
Baruch consists of contemplations by a Jewish writer about past Jewish exiles from Babylon. It includes theology and thoughts on wisdom.
The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children, written 1st century BCE
These are Greek additions to the Hebrew/Aramaic book of Daniel. The first part is the prayer of Daniel’s friend Azariah (called Abednego in in Daniel 1:6–7) while he, Shadrach and Meshach are in the fiery furnace. The second part talks about the angelic figure in the furnace with them. The third part is a hymn of praise to God for saving them.
Story of Susanna, written 333-160 BCE
Another Greek addition to the book of Daniel. A married woman named Susanna is seen bathing by two elders. In their lust, they go to her and demand that she have sex with them. She refuses and they have her arrested, falsely claiming that she had sexual relations with a young man.
As she is about to be executed, the prophet Daniel interrupts, demanding that her accusers be questioned. The men’s deceit is exposed and they are executed instead.
The Story of Bel and the Dragon, written 200-100 BCE
These are also Greek additions to the Book of Daniel. In it, the king of Babylon insists that his Bel, a Babylonian god represented by an idol, is really a god, since he eats and drinks the food offered to him every day. Daniel disagrees and discovers that the priests of Bel are eating and drinking the offerings.
In the story of the dragon, there is an actual animal called a dragon which the king claims must be a god. Daniel promises to kill it without a sword, and does so by giving the dragon poisonous food, thereby proving the dragon is not a god.
The Prayer of Manasseh, written 1st or 2nd century BCE
A brief prayer ascribed to Manasseh, one of the kings of Judah. In the Hebrew Bible, this king worships idols and then is taken prisoner by the king of Assyria. In captivity he prays for mercy – this prayer is supposedly his actual prayer – and when he is freed, he stops worshiping idols.
1 Maccabees, written about 100 BCE
This is the story of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, whose King Antiochus IV Epiphanes issues decrees demanding that Jews forget Jewish culture and accept Greek language and culture. [See link below to an article by Bart Ehrman]
2 Maccabees, written 150-100 BCE
More stories of the Maccabean Revolt against King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It ends with the defeat of the Seleucid Empire by Judas Maccabeus, the leader of the Maccabees.
1 Esdras, written 2nd century BCE
Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Book of Ezra. Very similar to the Hebrew version of Ezra–Nehemiah, although stories of Nehemiah are removed, and some material is added.
2 Esdras, written 70-218 CE
One of many apocalyptic Jewish books written in the 1st to the 3rd centuries CE. The author claims to be (but cannot be) Ezra, a scribe and priest of the fifth century BC.
Jewish Holy Scriptures: The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha by Michael E. Stone. Extracted intro paragraphs are below.
The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) consists of a collection of writings dating from approximately the 13th – 3rd centuries BCE. These books were included in the Jewish canon by the Talmudic sages at Yavneh around the end of the first century CE, after the destruction of the Second Temple. However, there are many other Jewish writings from the Second Temple Period which were excluded from the Tanakh; these are known as the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha.
The Apocrypha (Greek, “hidden books”) are Jewish books from that period not preserved in the Tanakh, but included in the Latin (Vulgate) and Greek (Septuagint) Old Testaments. The Apocrypha are still regarded as part of the canon of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, and as such, their number is fixed.
The term Pseudepigrapha (Greek, “falsely attributed”) was given to Jewish writings of the same period, which were attributed to authors who did not actually write them. This was widespread in Greco-Roman antiquity – in Jewish, Christian, and pagan circles alike. Books were attributed to pagan authors, and names drawn from the repertoire of biblical personalities, such as Adam, Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Ezekiel, Baruch, and Jeremiah. The Pseudepigrapha resemble the Apocrypha in general character, yet were not included in the Bible, Apocrypha, or rabbinic literature.
All the Apocrypha and most of the Pseudepigrapha are Jewish works (some contain Christianizing additions). They provide essential evidence of Jewish literature and thought during the period between the end of biblical writing (ca. 400 BCE) and the beginning of substantial rabbinic literature in the latter part of the first century CE. They have aroused much scholarly interest, since they provide information about Judaism at the turn of the era between the Bible and the Mishna (Biblical Law and Oral Law), and help explain how Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity came into being.
Some More of the OT Apocrypha: the Letter of Jeremiah, Additions to Daniel, and 1 Maccabees – Bart Ehrman
The OT Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books are truly fascinating, even if not widely read. Few people outside of the Catholic and Orthodox traditions knows about the first one; the other two here though are better known and, in fact, historically significant. Some descriptions from my book The New Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction.
Deuterocanonical Books: Number and Why They Were Removed from the Bible
Written by Marko Marina, Ph.D., edited by Laura Robinson, Ph.D. November 2nd, 2024. Extracts are italicized below.
While Catholics and Orthodox Christians accept these books as part of the Old Testament, Protestants label them as “Apocrypha,” meaning “hidden” or “obscure.” This distinction between “Deuterocanonical” and “Apocryphal” may seem subtle, but it carries significant theological weight.
The term “Deuterocanonical” preserves the books’ value within Christian tradition, particularly in the Catholic Church, which holds that these books, as stated in the Catechism, are as equally inspired as the rest of the books in the Bible.
By contrast, as Lee M. McDonald notes, Protestants use the term “Apocrypha” to downplay or even dismiss these books’ historical and theological significance, subtly pushing them to the margins of sacred scripture.
The word “Apocrypha” comes from the Greek “apokryphos,” meaning “hidden away.” Originally, this term didn’t have the negative connotation it later took on in the Protestant tradition. However, during the Reformation, Martin Luther and other reformers sought to return to what they considered the “pure” Hebrew Bible, rejecting any texts not written in Hebrew.
By labeling these books as “Apocrypha,” they reduced their authority. In fact, Luther himself remarked that while these books are “useful and good to read,” they are not of the same status as the Hebrew scriptures. He saw them as edifying but not inspired by the Holy Spirit in the same way as the rest of the Old Testament.
