2.5. Apocrypha
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“1. The 14 books of the Septuagint included in the Vulgate but considered uncanonical by Protestants because they are not part of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Roman Catholic canon accepts 11 of these books and includes them in the Douay Bible. 2. Various early Christian writings proposed as additions to the New Testament but rejected by the major canons. 3. apocrypha. Writings or statements of questionable authorship or authenticity.”1 “The Roman Catholic Church’s claim that these writings of the Apocrypha are inspired must be rejected for the following reasons . . . [which see]”2 “The Apocrypha of the Old Testament: Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach), Baruch, 3 Ezra (=1 Esdras), 4 Ezra (=2 Esdras), The Letter of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, Psalm 151. All of these except 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) are present in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (LXX); 2 Esdras is found in the Latin translations of the Old Testament and was used by many early church fathers. While the Greek Orthodox use 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151, the Roman Catholic Church does not.”3
Notes
1 American Heritage Online Dictionary, Ver. 3.0A, 3rd ed. (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), s.v. “Apocrypha.”
2 James G. McCarthy, The Gospel According to Rome (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1996), 338-339.
3 J. Julius Scott Jr., Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1995,2007), 357.