The Apocrypha

If you were to look in the back of the Sunday Services Anglican prayer book above (a Sydney Anglican liturgical resource), you would find 'The Articles of Religion', otherwise known as the 'Thirty-Nine Articles'. The Articles are the doctrinal foundation and statement of belief of the Anglican Church.

In Article 6 ('On the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation') you will find this:

'And the other books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine; such are these following:
    The Third Book of Esdras.
    The Fourth Book of Esdras.
    The Book of Tobias.
    The Book of Judith.
    The rest of the Book of Esther.
    The Book of Wisdom.
    Jesus the Son of Sirach.
    Baruch the Prophet.
    The Song of the Three Children.
    The Story of Susanna.
    Of Bel and the Dragon.
    The Prayer of Manasses.
    The First Book of Maccabees.    The Second Book of Maccabees.'

In other words, most of the books of the Apocrypha are deemed to be suitable for reading 'for an example of life and instruction of manners', but not to be used in the formation of Christian doctrine nor in the canon itself.

I recall a Sunday last year where I'd looked up the sentence of scripture for the morning in the Australian Anglican Prayer Book and was given a choice of scripture verses and also a verse from Esdras! I chose to avoid the Esdras reading. On reflection, I will use it this year when that Sunday comes up again.

In a brief moment this morning I thought I'd follow up on the reason why the Apocrypha is largely not in bibles today, nor in most evangelical denominations' lines of sight.

This book above has been a very handy resource over the years, giving brief but thorough essays on a variety of theological topics. In the entry on the Apocrypha, it's noted that although the Jews denied the Apocrypha canonical status, the LXX manuscript included it as an addendum to the biblical OT text. Luther admitted the apocryphal texts were 'profitable and good to read', although it was only the later Reformers who took objection to it being part of the Bible.  

However it was only in 1827 that a decision was made by a particular British bible society to exclude the Apocrypha from its bible printing runs. From then on the evangelical tradition has been to not include the Apocrypha from English bibles.  

The Apocrypha however can still be found in some editions of the NRSV, TNIV (now discontinued), NCV, REB, CEV and NLT.

Interesting!