Bible
|
3. I heard that in the Catholic Bible there are some books called
‘Apocryphal’, what are these books? |
|
These books are books that the Roman Catholic Church added to the
canon of the Bible (that is, to the number of books the Bible is composed of
and that the Church considered holy from the very beginning). The names of
these apocryphal books are these: |
|
Tobias, Judith, Maccabees 1, Maccabees 2, Book of Wisdom, Book of
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), and the Book of Baruch. It must be said that besides
these books, were added some words to the book of Esther and to the book of Daniel.
Both the Apocryphal books and the additions were declared SCRIPTURE DIVINELY
INSPIRED on the 8th of April, 1546, by the council of Trent, which
cursed with a malicious curse those who don’t accept as sacred and canonical
all the books declared holy and part of the canon by the Roman Catholic
Church (so it cursed also those who don’t accept the apocryphal books and the
additions as Word of God). Here is the curse: ‘If anyone does not accept as
sacred and canonical the aforesaid books in their entirety and with all their
parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and as
they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and
deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, let him be anathema’ (Council
of Trent, Session IV, first decree). |
|
The apocryphal books (from apokryphos,
Greek word which means ‘hidden’) are called ‘Deuterocanonical books’ which
means ‘added to the canon.’ |
|
We don’t accept the apocryphal books as the Word of God (that’s why they
are not in our Bible) for the following reasons: |
|
|
|
1) They are
full of contradictions (real contradictions and not apparent ones) and errors |
|
2) The
Spirit of Truth, who attests the truth, does not attest in us children of God
that those books are Word of God for He makes us feel in an unmistakable way
that they must not be accepted as Word of God |
|
3) Neither Jesus
Christ nor the apostles mentioned them |
|
4) The Jews
first, and then the Christians of the first centuries after Christ, never accepted
them as part of the canon. |