Which book is considered an apocryphal gospel

Protestants hold to the 39 books of the Old Testament as inspired Scripture because there are no other books that need to be in the Old Testament. Here is are the basics about the Apocrypha. The Apocrypha is a collection of pre-New Testament works by Jewish writers, many collected in the Septuagint, a Greek translation of Hebrew texts including the 39 canonical books of the Old Testament.

Different scholars included different apocryphal books in their Bible translations before the official list we have today, which was ratified by several Roman Catholic councils and appeared in the King James Bible. The list is as follows:.

Most of these books have separate storylines and characters from the other books of the Bible. For example, the books of the Maccabees come after the Old Testament canon and describe the Maccabees revolting against empires that controlled Israel. Three of these books are sections of text included in the Septuagint as part of biblical texts but not in earlier versions: Additions to Esther, Additions to Daniel, and the Additional Psalm. Additions to the Book of Esther are extra scenes in the story of Esther, including Esther giving a long dramatic prayer to God before she goes to see the king, and her fainting when she goes to see King Xerxes.

Eventually, all three of the men join in a single prayer, where they exhort all creation to praise the Lord. Daniel appears at her trial and tricks the elders into contradicting their testimony.

Daniel cleverly shows that temple priests are actually eating all the offerings being left to Bel and shows the dragon is not a god by feeding it food that makes it explode. Depending on which Bible translation you read which included the Apocrypha, these additions may be printed separately from Esther, Daniel, and the Psalms, or they may be published within those books.

Some versions, such as the Catholic Living Bible, print them within the books but use italics or a different font to set them apart. There are a number of councils throughout early church history where church leaders discussed what books were divinely inspired and part of the Old Testament or the New Testament. During the fourth century, the most notable objection to the Apocrypha came from St. Jerome when he was translating the Septuagint into Latin. While comparing the Septuagint with earlier Hebrew manuscripts, Jerome concluded there was a problem with the Apocrypha and advised against considering them as Scripture.

Others disagreed, and the Council of Rome in included the Apocrypha in its list of canonical Scripture. The Council of Trent which took place over multiple meetings from and reiterated that the Roman Catholic Church considered the Apocrypha to be canonical Scripture. When the Protestant Reformation took place, Martin Luther released his German Bible translation with the Apocrypha as a separate section. There are a variety of minor denominations such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church which have their own opinions about the matter, some holding individual apocryphal or pseudepigraphical works as Scripture.

There are a number of reasons why different scholars have described the Apocrypha as not being part of the Scripture canon. Here are five of the clearest and simplest reasons:.

Not enough manuscript evidence. One important question scholars ask when analyzing the Scripture canon is if books have a line of tradition backing them. Patterson, Stephen J. Edited by David Noel Freedman, — New York: Doubleday, a. This entry deals with problems of definition, as well as the range and influence of the literature. New York: Doubleday, b.

A simple encyclopedia entry on this literature. Short bibliography appended. Smith-Christopher, Daniel L. Lost Books of the Bible for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, Despite the popular tone of a book in this series, this particular volume is nonetheless well researched and may well provide a key for certain readers to enter the world of the New Testament apocrypha and the Nag Hammadi texts as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page.

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Introductory Works In order to provide help for complete newcomers to this area of study, the short encyclopedic articles of Patterson a and Patterson b are a boon. A respected journal dedicated to studies of the Christian Apocrypha. How to Subscribe Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions.

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