The Books called the Apocrypha consist of 14 books originally attached to the Greek Old Testament that were not in the Hebrew-written Bible. That is because they were 'first-written' in the Greek language. They were considered scripture and used as such by the Jews of the Dispersion (Jews living in foreign countries) at the time of Christ.
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New Testament Apocrypha III - REJECTED SCRIPTURES The Gospel of Philip Translated by Wesley W. Isenberg A Hebrew makes another Hebrew, and such a person is called 'proselyte'. The Apocrypha isn’t Divinely inspired, and is therefore not part of the canon, and some of its works are even antithetical to Judaism. Other works may indeed contain some valuable information, but they aren’t given any more credence than any other book, and be aware that there have been various additions and deletions made throughout the ages. More Buying Choices $102.40 (24 used & new offers) Apocrypha (Large Print): King James Version. 4.7 out of 5 stars 387. The Encyclopedia of Lost and Rejected Scriptures: The Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha. 4.7 out of 5 stars 532. Hardcover $42.49 $ 42. 49 $65.00 $65.00. FREE Shipping by Amazon.
About 60 years after the crucifixion of Christ, a group of Rabbi's (survivors of the Roman annihilation of Jerusalem) met at Jamnia and canonized a Hebrew scripture specifically devoid of Greek writings. Any work of scripture not originally written in Hebrew was discarded as unclean.
This codification of the Hebrew Bible by the Jewish Rabbi's cancelled for the Jews the authority, not only of the contested books we now call apocryphal, but also the popular Greek Old Testament itself that foreign Jews had been using for the previous 300 years. That work had earlier been authorized for publication by the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem for use by the Jews of the Dispersion whose language was primarily Greek.
Jamnia was a seminal decision because it isolated Christians from Jews on the basis, not just of scripture, but of language as well.
The early Christians stuck to the Greek Old Testament and the Jews concreted themselves on the Hebew Old Testament decided on by the Rabbi's at Jamnia.
The early Christians had good reason for their decision to retain the Greek scriptures. Not only did the entire pagan world speak Greek, but according to the Talmud, at the time Jesus preached, Hebrew and Greek scrolls hung side by side in Herod's Temple. Even the Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran include fragments written in both languages. When Christ's disciples wrote the New Testament books, they, too were composed in the same Greek language, allowing the world at large to read them.
The Jewish action, fixated as it was on the Greek language, nullified both sets of Christian books. The New Testament and the apocryphal books were both relegated to pagan classification and permanently discarded.
In prophecy, this is why Jesus, quoting Isaiah, announced that He would speak to the Jewish people in a foreign language. Obviously, that 'foreign' language was Greek.
The early Christian Church in the first century A.D. quickly coalesced into two Roman churches, one in the east, which we call today Eastern Orthodox, and the other in the west now called Roman Catholic. Both adopted the Greek Old Testament. Owing, however, to the nature of some of the material and questions raised by the Jewish Rabbi's at Jamnia, the Roman Catholic Church did so with reservations. It was obvious to Catholic scholars that some of those apocryphal documents, though dating from antiquity, were less than inspired.
The strongest motivation for those reservations, however, came from the fact that in the writings of the Apostles, almost all of the Old Testament quotations used to emphasize their points, came from books outside those fourteen.
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Consequently early Catholic scholars assigned those questionable Greek-written books to a middle category,. In doing so, they coined the term 'Apocrypha' which meant 'hidden' to define them. The title was not meant to disparage their claim to divine inspiration, but to suggest that their content was more for scholars because of the hidden nature of the revelations they contained. They felt the general public was not sufficiently enlightened to readily understand them.
Later, in the middle ages, the Roman Church, agreeing with what had been up to that time an unofficial policy of acceptance, officially moved a certain group of the apocryphal books back to the regular (or recognized) scriptures. That is where they remain to this day i.e., true scripture to Greeks and Romans. Together, the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches represent about 75% of the world's Christians, so acceptance of these books as true scripture is substantial in the modern Christian community.
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In the Protestant Church, it is a different matter.
When Martin Luther broke with the Catholic Church, he ordered the Greek Apocrypha placed between the Old Testament and the New Testament in his 1534 Bible, with the inscription:
'Apocrypha: these are book which are not held equal to the Sacred Scriptures and yet are useful and good for reading'.
As the Protestant revolt swept Europe, and sects of all sorts began appearing and sparking centuries of bitter internecine Christian warfare, the apocryphal books of the Old Testament were removed entirely from most Protestant Bibles. The Anglican Church retained them, but with the caution that they be used only for 'life, and instruction of manners; but not to establish any doctrine'.
The caution about doctrine was irrelevant.
Soon after Pentecost, and long before the Jews codified their scriptures at Jamnia, the twelve Apostles, together with Paul and the other leading figures in the Jerusalem Christian movement met in that city to decide the fate of the Old Testament laws. In a single sweeping edict, they cancelled the Old Testament's entire doctrinal authority. Not just the 14 'apocryphal' books, but the entire Old Testament (Hebrew and Greek alike). None of it thereafter could be used to establish doctrine in the developing Christian community (Acts 15:1-29). From that point on, the Old Testament's messages could be used only for prophecy.
The authority for the twelve Apostles to do this stemmed from the fact that Jesus had changed the management. He had given the world an entirely new Covenant. The old Covenant no longer applied. It's authority had been cancelled by God.
Today, some Christians in Protestant circles regard the Old Testament Apocrypha as simply fiction, or worse. That is an overreaction. When we think about these books in terms of prophecy, many of them remain very valuable. Among them are serious works written by Hebrew scholars and prophets and the inspiration of their verses is obvious. Stemming as most of them do from a century or more before the birth of Jesus, they offer invaluable insight into the Jewish historical process. For those who continue to use them as scripture they offer far more (see list below).
The Old Testament Apocrypha consists of the following 14 books listed in two categories, those accepted as scripture by the Roman and Greek churches and those not accepted as scripture.
Compilation of little-known and never-before-published apocryphal Christian texts in English translation
This anthology of ancient nonbiblical Christian literature presents introductions to and translations of little-known apocryphal texts from a wide variety of genres, most of which have never before been translated into any modern language.
An introduction to the volume as a whole addresses the most significant features of the included writings and contextualizes them within the contemporary (quickly evolving) study of the Christian Apocrypha. The body of the book comprises thirty texts that have been carefully introduced, annotated, and translated into readable English by eminent scholars. Ranging from the second century to early in the second millennium, these fascinating texts provide a more complete picture of Christian thought and expression than canonical texts alone can offer.
For ordering information, visit Eerdmans.
PREVIEW (introduction and front matter)
CONTENTS
1. Gospels and Related Traditions of New Testament Figures
The Legend of Aphroditianus (Katharina Heyden)
The Revelation of the Magi (Brent Landau)
The Hospitality of Dysmas (Mark Bilby)
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (Syriac) (Tony Burke)
On the Priesthood of Jesus (Bill Adler)
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 210 (Brent Landau)
Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 5072 (Ross P. Ponder)
The Dialogue of the Paralytic with Christ (Bradley N. Rice)
The Toledot Yeshu (Stanley Jones)
The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon (Alin Suciu)
The Discourse of the Savior and the Dance of the Savior (Paul C. Dilley)
An Encomium on Mary Magdalene (Christine Luckritz Marquis)
An Encomium on John the Baptist (Philip L. Tite)
The Life of John the Baptist by Serapion (Slavomír Céplö)
Life and Martyrdom of John the Baptist (Andrew Bernhard)
The Legend of the Thirty Silver Pieces (Tony Burke and Slavomír Céplö)
The Death of Judas according to Papias (Geoffrey S. Smith)
2. Apocryphal Acts and Related Traditions
The Acts of Barnabas (Glenn E. Snyder)
The Acts of Cornelius the Centurion (Tony Burke and Witold Witakowski)
John and the Robber (Rick Brannan)
The History of Simon Cephas, the Chief of the Apostles (Stanley Jones)
The Acts of Timothy (Cavan Concannon)
The Acts of Titus (Richard Pervo)
The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena (David Eastman)
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3. Epistles
The Epistle of Christ from Heaven (Calogero A. Miceli)
The Letter of Ps.-Dionysius the Areopagite to Timothy on the Death of Peter and Paul (David Eastman)
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4. Apocalypses
The (Latin) Revelation of John about Antichrist (Charles Wright)
The Apocalypse of the Virgin (Stephen Shoemaker)
The Tiburtine Sibyl (Stephen Shoemaker)
The Investiture of Abbaton (Alin Suciu and Ibrahim Saweros)