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Non-Canonical Books

The Apocryphal Books

The Roman Catholic Bible includes fifteen books not included in the Protestant Canon. They are called the Apocryphal Books, also known as the Deuterocanonical Books. They were approved in April 1546 by the Fourth Session of the Council of Trent for inclusion in the Roman Catholic Canon. They consist of Judith, Tobit (Tobias), Baruch [of which chapter 6 is the Letter of Jeremiah], 1 and 2 Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus (Wisdom of Jesus Son of Sirach), additions to the book of Esther, additions to the book of Daniel [The Prayer of Azariah and the song of the Three Jews; Susanna; Bel and the Dragon], and the Wisdom of Solomon.

The Pseudopigrapha

Another set of writings called the Pseudopigrapha consists of eleven writings - or more. These books are generally not accepted in any canon. The Pseudopigrapha includes Enoch, The Assumption of Moses,  a fraction of the Apocalypse of Moses, 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra, the Sibylline Oracles, Psalms of Solomon, The Book of Jubilees, The Books of Adam and Eve, Life of Adam and Eve, The Martyrdom of Isaiah, The Letter of Aristeas, The Apocalypse of Adam, The Revelation of Esdras, Joseph and Aseneth, The Second Treatise of the Great Seth, The Testament of Abraham, and others.

Reasons for Rejection

Protestant Bibles do not include either the Apocryphal (Deuterocanonical) Books, nor the Pseudopigrapha. Some say these books make interesting historical reading, but there is evidence they contain historical error. Most protestant scholars reject these two sets of books for the following reasons:

1.  The Jews who originally received them did not accept them as of Divine origin.
2.  The N.T. never quotes from them, with two minor exceptions:
- Jude 14 and 15 contains a quotation found in Enoch 1:9
- Romans 1 parallels the Wisdom of Solomon chapter's 12 to 14 - but contains no new teaching.
3.  Jesus never quotes from them.
4.  The doctrinal teaching in these books is aberrant - there is no confirmation of their teachings anywhere in scripture.
- Sin is treated lightly
- Salvation is often treated as works
- Angels are elevated and almost seem to be on a par with God
- Miracles are fanciful with little historical certainty
5.  It is difficult to ascertain their date of writing and authorship. In the few cases where authors have been verified, they never had the same standing as a canonical writer.

Canon

There are many things of note when it comes to the Bible. One of the most important is how we got our canon. Canon is a word that comes from the Greek language and it means 'gauge' or 'rule.' Canonicity therefore is the gauge or rule by which we tell if a book is of Divine origin and therefore part of the Bible. The sixty-six books in our Bible did not become part of the canon of scripture by the will of man. They were not inserted in our Bible because a committee examined them and found that they 'measured up.'

There are sufficient copies of the original texts in the original languages of the Bible to verify both the Old and New Testament texts. Further, enough ancient translations of the Old and New Testaments have survived to verify the Bible text.  I believe the 66 books comprising the protestant Bible constitute the whole and complete Word of God.

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