Being raised in a Protestant denomination which did not read the books known as The Apocrypha, I didn’t know anything about them until the televised funeral of former Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies in 1978, when the Prince of Wales read the lesson from Ecclesiasticus 44 (“Let us now praise famous men …”). My immediate reaction was to think Prince Charles was a real prat because he didn’t know how to correctly pronounce “Ecclesiastes” but then a few verses into the reading I realised he wasn’t reading from Ecclesiastes at all and I was completely unfamiliar with this text with its similar sounding name (I was the prat for thinking HRH was the prat!) Soon after I bought my first copy of the Apocrypha (King James Version). The NRSV with the Apocrypha is now my regular “desk Bible.”
I’ve referred several times in previous posts to writings such as Judith, Susanna, 1 & 2 Maccabees, and Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira (aka Sirach and Ecclesiasticus). These, and others, are generally not found in Protestant Bibles unless they have a section between the Old and New Testaments known as “Apocrypha”. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles do include these books (which they call Deuterocanonical), although they are not separated out into their own section between the Testaments but are placed in their appropriate places (Susanna, for example, is included as an addition to Daniel).
For some Protestants, who have never read the Apocrypha or owned a Bible which includes them, it may seem that the Catholic and Orthodox churches have added them to their Bibles. The reality, however, is that they were always part of Christian Bibles (or the canon) until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century when the reformers removed them or assigned them their own section between the Testaments. The first editions of the King James Bible included these apocryphal texts. So if the reformers decided to remove these books from the canon, why should Protestant Christians read them? Here are my top reasons:
- The writers of the New Testament quoted or alluded to several of the apocryphal/deuterocanonical books, so one’s reading of the New Testament will be better informed if the reader is familiar with these texts. If the writers of the NT regarded them as “Scripture” and were influenced by them, then our understanding of their writings will be enhanced if we are familiar with the literature which influenced them. For example, readers who are not familiar with the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira (“Ecclesiasticus”) would not realise that it is possibly quoted or alluded to more often than any book in the Hebrew Bible (“Old Testament”) with the exception of Psalms and Isaiah. Standard commentaries on the NT use of the OT (such as Beale & Carson’s Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament) will list or index the scores of references in the NT to books in the Apocrypha.
- There were several centuries between the last historical events described in the HB/OT and the events recorded in the NT. Many of the events in these “missing” centuries are described in detail in books such as 1 & 2 Maccabees. They not only provide historical background to the NT, they also form a “bridge” between the two Testaments and help to make sense of the religious, social and political circumstances in the time of Jesus and the first Christians. For example, the New Testament begins in a Jewish country occupied by the Romans, speaking Greek, and ruled by an Idumean king. It speaks about Pharisees, Sadducees, and chief priests, as though we should know the difference between these groups. The Apocrypha helps to make sense of all that.
- Some books in the Apocrypha are written in a similar “style” to books in the HB/OT. For example, Judith is very similar in style to Esther, and Wisdom of Ben Sira is similar in style to other “Wisdom” books (such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes). By reading ancient Jewish texts which were similar in style to books in the Bible we are familiar with, we might recognise literary features which were common to literature of a particular “genre” and this enables us to make better sense of the more familar books. For example, Daniel and Esther both contain historical inaccuracies. Judith is written in a similar “style” and probably around the same time. Judith also contains historical inaccuracies but these inaccuracies are so obvious that they were clearly deliberate, which suggests that deliberately including historical inaccuracies was almost certainly a literary device used by the writers to let their readers know that while they looked like historical narratives they were, in fact, novellas or historical fiction. Rather than spending an inordinate amount of time trying to resolve the historical inaccuracies in Daniel or Esther, our reading of Judith informs us so that we can read these texts as a different kind of literature, and there is no need to resolve the “problems” because they are actually deliberate and for a specific purpose.
- For centuries, in fact for most of Christian history, the Apocrypha was part of all Christian canons. It was regarded as inspired Scripture by scholars, commentators, writers and artists and therefore influenced their work. By being familar with the Apocrypha we can see its influence on ideas and theology throughout the centuries.
These days it’s easy to get hold of a copy of the Apocrypha. If you’re already using an electronic Bible on your phone or laptop you should be able to access a version which includes the Apocrypha. Many of the “standard” translations such as the NRSV and ESV and even the KJV have editions which include the Apocrypha.
No, you are correct—according to the Wikipedia page on the ESV, they did produce an Anglican edition and a Catholic edition, both including the Apocryphal/deuterocanonical books. I just wasn’t aware of this before.
I wrote a blog post a couple years ago on the use of the deuterocanonical books in early Christian literature (https://blog.dianoigo.com/2018/07/the-use-of-deuterocanonical-books-in.html) though I didn’t discuss the New Testament much there.
NT quotations from/allusions to the Pseudepigrapha would also make for a very interesting post. The quotation from 1 Enoch in Jude is the best known example, of course, but Dale Allison makes what is in my view a convincing circumstantial case that the otherwise unknown “Scripture” source quoted in James 4:5 is the Book of Eldad and Modad (long lost, but quoted in the Shepherd of Hermas and mentioned by other early Christian writers).
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0951820711426745
Thanks Tom. One of the most interesting NT references to pseudepigrapha is the likely reference to “The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres” in 2 Timothy 3:8, although Targum Pseudo-Jonathan also mentions Jannes and Jambres. Another would be the allusion to the Testament of Job in James. I agree that a post on NT allusions to the pseudepigrapha could be interesting. I’ll put it on my list.
Thank you for this, Stephen. Your reasons are good ones indeed. I didn’t know that the ESV has an edition with the Apocrypha. I have found that Catholic apologetics websites tend to exaggerate the number of citations of the deuterocanonical/Apocrypha books in the New Testament. There are numerous close parallels, but most are explicable in terms of both the deuterocanonical and NT writer using a common source (often from the Hebrew Bible) or simply operating in a similar thought-world.
I don’t think that there are any direct quotations of these books in the NT, but I would concede that there are a number of allusions. Of these, the three most striking that I’m aware of are the following. (It is interesting that two of them imply an identification of Christ with Wisdom).
(I) Sirach 51:25-27 / Matthew 11:28-30
Sirach 51:25-27 (NABRE)
25 I open my mouth and speak of her:
gain wisdom for yourselves at no cost.
26 Take her yoke upon your neck;
that your mind may receive her teaching.
For she is close to those who seek her,
and the one who is in earnest finds her.
27 See for yourselves! I have labored only a little,
but have found much.
Matthew 11:28-30 (NABRE)
28 Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.
(II) Wisdom 7:26 / Hebrews 1:3
Wisdom 7:24-26 (NABRE)
24 For Wisdom is mobile beyond all motion, and she penetrates and pervades all things by reason of her purity.
25 For she is a breath of the might of God and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled can enter into her.
26 For she is the reflection of eternal light, the spotless mirror of the power of God, the image of his goodness.
Hebrews 1:1-3 (NABRE)
1 In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets;
2 in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe,
3 who is the refulgence of his glory,
the very imprint of his being,
and who sustains all things by his mighty word.
* Note that the Greek word ἀπαύγασμα (“reflection”) occurs nowhere else in the entire LXX and NT besides Wisdom 7:26 and Hebrews 1:3, which heightens the likelihood of an allusion.
(III) Wisdom 2:16-20 / Matthew 27:41-43
Wisdom 2:16-20 (NABRE)
[The wicked said]
16 He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the righteous
and boasts that God is his Father.
17 Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him in the end.
18 For if the righteous one is the son of God, God will help him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
19 With violence and torture let us put him to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.
Matthew 27:41-43 (NABRE)
41 Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. So he is the king of Israel! Let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
Tom, I think you’re right and the ESV does not have an edition with Apocrypha – I don’t know why I thought it did. Thanks too for some good references where the NT alludes to the Apocrypha. I suspect you’re right (again) that the NT doesn’t directly “quote” the Apocrypha, although some of the allusions are so strong that they verge on quotations. I’ll try to write another post soon on NT allusions to the Apocrypha. The NT does, of course, quote from the Pseudepigrapha (1 Enoch at least) as well as alluding to several other works.