Our Protestant Bibles omit the Apocrypha Books. The question is why? One of the reasons is they are not divinely inspired. They are myths and quasi-history with God not speaking into them. Although one could argue Esther does not have God speaking into those events either but the King Xerxes was a real Babylonian King. Another major reason is that our Protestant list of books contains what the Jews currently have regarding The Old Testament. The Jews over time removed the 7 deuterocanonical books including Judith, Tobit, and The Maccabees. The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles retain the Apocrypha because it was in use during the time of Christ. For instance the origin of Hanukkah (Festival of Dedication) was instituted because The Maccabees retook Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple that had been defiled. However, the Book of Maccabees do not contain the institution of the feast of Hanukkah, it is the Talmud, an extra book of the Jews that contains the miracle of the oil continuing to burn in the Lampstands during Maccabees. Both Purim which celebrated the salvation of the Jews from Haman and extermination during Esther, Hanukkah which celebrates Maccabees saving the Jews from the pogroms of Antiochus Epiphanies and rededication of the Temple are feasts not instituted by The Lord, they are memorials like Holocaust Memorial Day that The Jews were rescued from the brink of Annihilation. This is why despite the popularity of Purim and Hanukkah it is not on the same level as High Holidays of Passover, Tabernacles, and Pentecost which God instituted, “Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to Me. You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread [Passover]; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. None shall appear before Me empty-handed.
Also you shall keep the Feast of Harvest [Pentecost, Acts 2 Holy Spirit pours out power at Pentecost], [acknowledging] the firstfruits of your toil, of what you sow in the field. And [third] you shall keep the Feast of Ingathering [Booths or Tabernacles] at the end of the year, when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.” (Exodus 23:14-17). In the same way The Apocryphal books are like Purim and Hanukkah, not breathed or instituted by God. Now Jesus did attend Hanukkah, “Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:22-29). However, Jesus altered Hannukah there by revelaing Himself, just as He added to Passover, “They left and found things just as Jesus had told them. So they prepared the Passover.
When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God. After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant [foretold in Jeremiah 14:11-14] in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:13-20). Just as Jesus who is The Lord God and Son of God could change the Sabbath, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath,” (Mark 2:27-28), He added to feasts and changed their focus to The New Covenant.
The question is the Apocrypha valuable if the Jews have removed it? You would think if anyone would have kept these books in The Bible, it would be the Jewish People since it contains exploits of Judas Maccabaeus and his men fighting for the survival of the Jewish People. Thankfully because The Jews removed them first that debunks the idea Protestants first removed them, Martin Luther removed them after examining the Jews had already removed them in their Bibles. The Apocryphal has bad theology & doctrine in Maccabees that has prayers for the dead, “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins,” (2 Maccabees 12:46) this is rubbish! Jesus alone forgives sins, “And He [that same Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins [the atoning sacrifice that holds back the wrath of God that would otherwise be directed at us because of our sinful nature—our worldliness, our lifestyle]; and not for ours alone, but also for [the sins of all believers throughout] the whole world.” - 1 John 2:2 and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world.But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” -Hebrews 9:22-26). This evil prayer to the dead in Maccabees is where Catholics get the idea of purgatory and masses for the dead, but Jesus has emptied hades, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water,” (1 Peter 3:18-20) and “Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)” (Ephesians 4:8-10), and “He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption,” (Acts 2:31); therefore no such place as hades or purgatory exists anymore. We have to remember the Apocryphal books take place in Old Testament and Intertestament periods, not the New Testament, and so we should not base doctrine on them, because we are under a new covenant (Luke 22:20), a better covenant, “But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises,” (Hebrews 8:6) and “Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant,” (Hebrews 7:22). Jesus had changed everything! We can enter holiest place, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus,” (Hebrews 10:19), death has lost its sting, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Corinthians 15:55-58), we are new creation, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come,” (2 Corinthians 5:17), God lives in us not temples of stone, “All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God,” (1 John 4:15) and “However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands..,” (Acts 7:48), we kings and priests, “Jesus, the Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood and has made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen,” (Revelation 1:5-6), we are a friend of God, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you,” (John 15:15), co-heirs, “if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him,” (Romans 8:17), children of God, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus, And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you,” (Galatians 3:26-30) and the Bride of Christ (Revelation 19:6-9).
The 66 Book Canon of 39 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament is the true canon. Beware of the deuterocanonical books, they have some intriguing history, and myths, but they also arn’t accepted as canon by Jews and us Protestants. More importantly our Lord Jesus Christ, all the apostles save Jude do not quote The Apocryphal books. Nor do the Old Testament Prophets. If these apocryphal books were important they would haven been quoted by Jesus & His Apostles often, just as Jesus quote Old Testament passages at least 180 times, with 283 direct quotes of the Old Testament and 400 references to Old Testament passages shared between Christ and His Apostles in The New Testament. The fact Jesus, Paul, Peter, Stephen in Acts, and others quote The Old Testament without the apocryphal books is another reason to do without them.
The Apostle Paul and Peter tells us to beware of myths and fables, which in context they meant books like apocryphal and other strange myths of the Jews back then that are now discarded or de-canonized by Jews today, “Not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth,” (Titus 1:14), “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16), “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness,” (1 Timothy 4:7), “Nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith,” (1 Timothy 1:4), and “And will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths,” (2 Timothy 4:4).
The Apocryphal was removed with good reason. Our Lord Jesus and the Apostles did not quote it. The Jews removed it from their Tankh (Old Testament). The Apocryphal contains quasi-Historia, where myths and history are mixed, making it not the reliable. There are wicked doctrines like prayers for the dead, when The Lord forbade divination and necromancy, “Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,” (Deuteronomy 18:10), and “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer [necromancer, one who evokes the dead] or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.” (Deuteronomy 18:9-12). These are still abominations to the Lord, hence these passages in the New Testament, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts [phármakos – properly, a sorcerer; used of people using drugs and "religious incantations" to drug people into living by their illusions – like having magical (supernatural) powers to manipulate God into giving them more temporal possessions], the idolaters and all liars-their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death,” (Revelation 21:8), “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” (Galatians 5:19-21), “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood,” (Revelation 22:15), “A number of them who had been practicing sorcery brought their incantation books and burned them at a public bonfire. The value of the books was several million dollar” (Acts 19:19), and “When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?” (Acts 13:6-11). The fact the Apocryphal supports necromancy and sorcery via the dead makes it contradict Scripture, and for that reason avoid it. Stick to 66 Books in our Bible. Amen.
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