Bible Canon

THE BIBLE CANON : M. M. NINAN
ERRORS IN THE APOCRYPHA
Bible Query from the Apocrypha gives the following lists of errors:
Tobit (Tobias) -5 historical errors 9 pgs
Judith -14 historical errors 14 pgs
Additions to Esther (8 places) -2 historical errors 4 pgs
Wisdom of Solomon
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
-2 contradictory
doctrine
-8 contradictory
doctrine
19 pgs
44 pgs
Baruch -4 historical errors 7 pgs
Letter of Jeremiah in Baruch
Song of the 3 Holy Children (Prayer
of Azariah)
(placed in Daniel)
73 verses
2 pgs
Susanna (placed in Daniel) 2 pgs
Bel and the Dragon (placed in Daniel) 1
error
2 pgs
1 and 2 Maccabees -2 historical errors 41 pgs
Even though these books may be read as literature, they cannot have the credibility of
Mosaic or Prophetic literature.
The apocryphal books in the Septuagint is found in the three oldest "Alexandrian"
manuscripts, the earliest dating to the middle of the 4th century
• Vaticanus - contains all the Catholic Apocrypha except I and II Maccabees.
• Sinaiticus - contains all the Catholic Apocrypha except II Maccabees, and additionally
has IV Maccabees.
• Alexandrinus - contains all the Catholic Apocrypha plus III and IV Maccabees and I
Esdras
Jerome (340-420 AD) rejected the Apocrypha:
"As the Church reads the books of Judith and Tobit and Maccabees but does not receive
them among the canonical Scriptures, so also it reads Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus for the
edification of the people, not for the authoritative confirmation of doctrine." Jerome's
preface to the books of Solomon
At the Council of Trent (1546) the Roman Church canonized the Aporcrypha. Luther after
the reformation kept the apocrypha sandwitched between the Old and the New but prefaced
the Apocrypha with the statement: "Apocrypha--that is, books which are not regarded as
equal to the holy Scriputres, and yet are profitable and good to read." King James Version
Defended page 98.
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