It continues
to amaze me that there are those that cling to a singular view of all things
biblical. If it is not in the King James
Bible exactly the way he had it translated, it is a fake, a forgery, or an
insidious plot by Satan to corrupt the minds of men.
All of the excluded books from the 4th
through 19th century, of course, are controversial to some, but
authenticity is an individual decision.
Anything else is, in any case, intellectual censorship.
It is also
interesting to note that the first books of the New Testament were not written
until 40 years after the crucifixion, therefore written by scribes who were at
best, toddlers at the time of the crucifixion with only word-of-mouth stories
to relegate to papyrus. The following books were written after that. Three hundred years later, a political convention (Diet
of Wourms) made political decisions as to what should, or should not be
included in the Bible to ensure that the Church of the day maintained absolute religious
and political power over
the population.
There are over 500 books that have
been associated with the Bible either through archaeological research or
historical documentation. This does not
include any books believed to be written after the corruption of doctrine by
the Universal Church established by the Emperor Constantine in the Fourth
Century AD.
More than 60 English-language versions are available. We can divide
them into three broad types: word-for-word, meaning-to-meaning (also called
thought-for-thought) and paraphrased. Usually a particular Bible version will
explain, on its introductory pages, which approach was used in preparing it –
some include the apocrypha, many do not. The term "apocrypha" comes from a Greek word meaning
"hidden" or "secret" and the books were originally
considered by the early church as too exalted to be available to the general
public. As time progressed, the exalted nature of the books was lost and the
books were deemed by some as false. Between the Book of Malachi and Matthew
there is a gap of approximately 450 years. It is these books that fill that gap
and, in the time of Christ, these books formed part of the Septuagint Greek
Bible that was in circulation at that time.
What is missing from most Bibles, and our understanding of it, is what
happened in that 450-year gap. Prophets were still writing and reflecting on
life in the Holy Land right up until the Romans destroyed the temple of
Jerusalem in 70 AD. The world that Jesus entered in 4 BC is not the world that
Daniel and Malachi experienced. One of the values of these books is how they
reflect the mindset of Judaism and a Roman world that the New Testament writers
faced. Malachi and Daniel leave us in Persia; Matthew brings us into a Roman
world.
The Apocrypha bridges that gap and gently nudges us into the reality of
Roman Palestine. It was only in the fourth century AD that Christians first
started to question the “canonicity” of the works, although most survived to be
included in the King James translation of the Bible in 1611.
Unknown to almost all of the over two billion people who claim the
Bible as their spiritual foundation is that there are several books and two
sections missing from all but a few modern versions of that Bible. Perhaps one
of the best kept secrets of the modern Protestant church is that the Bible used
by that church is not the original King James Bible. That translation,
completed in 1611, and the Bibles published for the use of the clergy and the
church members until 1885, contained 80 books. Although attempts to remove the books
of the Apocrypha from the Bible began immediately after the King James
translation was completed, they remained in the Bible until the end of the 19th
Century. There is no doubt that the books of the Apocrypha were controversial,
but it cannot be denied they were included in the original King James Bible.
The concept of the Protestant Church about the Apocrypha is virtually
non-existent, with the general understanding that only the Catholic Church uses
it. One would be hard-pressed to find any members of the clergy even aware that
these books were ever included in the King James Bible. There are 155,683 words
and over 5,700 verses contained in 168 chapters now missing from the King James
translation of the Bible due to the exclusion of the Apocrypha. Although this only
happened just over a hundred years ago, their existence as fully accepted
scripture is virtually unknown.
The
Apocrypha in the original King James Bible (1611 – 1885):
1st Esdras
2nd Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Add to
Esther
The Wisdom
of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus
or the Wisdom of Jesus Son Sirach
Baruch
Letter of
Jeremiah
Prayer of
Azariah or Song of the Three Young Men
Susanna
Bel and the
Dragon
Prayer of
Manasseh
1st Macabees
2nd Macabees
The
Apocrypha in the Douay Rheims Bible:
1st Esdras
2nd Esdras
Tobias
Judith
Wisdom of
Solomon
Ecclisiasticus
(The Wisdom of Jesus' Son Sirach)
Baruch
Abdias
Micheas
(This is the book of Micah)
Aggeus (This
is the book of Haggai)
1st Macabees
2nd Macabees
These
Apocrypha books are missing from in the Douay Rheims Bible:
Addition to
Esther
Letter of
Jeremiah
Prayer of
Azariah or Song of the Three Young Men
Susanna
Bel and the
Dragon
Prayer of
Manasseh
