OF THE APOCRYPHAL BOOKS. These are books not admitted into the Sacred Canon, because they are either spurious, or at least not admitted to be divine. Their names and number are as follows:- the two books of Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, the History of Susannah, Bel and the Dragon, the prayer of Manasses, and the four books of the Maccabees. The word apocrypha is of Greek origin, and is either derived from apo tēs kruptēs, because the books in question were removed from the crypt, chest, or other receptacle, in which the sacred books were deposited, or from apo, from, and krupto, I hide, because they were concealed from the generality of readers, their authority not being recognized by the Church, and because they are books which are destitute of proper testimonials, their original being obscure, their authors unknown, and their character either heretical or suspected. Some of these books are found in Syriac, some in Greek, and some only in Latin, while others are extant in all the three languages, and also in Arabic. "The Apocrypha," says Dr. Cumming," was never received or admitted by the Jews, to whom were divinely entrusted the oracles of God, it is not once quoted by our Lord, nor by any of the Apostles, as a portion of the sacred volume. Josephus, the cele brated Jewish historian, who ought to know what books were recognized by his countrymen and coreligionists, disclaims the Apocrypha as part of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Apocrypha was not recognised by any of the ancient Christian fathers, who are looked up to as being valuable historians, however imperfect expositors of Divine Truth. I have in my possession the catalogues of Sacred Scriptures, or canon, as recorded by the ancient fathers of the Christian Church. Athanasius, who lived in the year 340, rejects the whole of the Apocrypha, except one book, which he thinks may be inspired, called the Book of Baruch. Hilary, who lived in the year 354, rejects all the Apocrypha. Epiphanius, who lived in the year 368, rejects it all. The Fathers in the Council of Laodicea, A. D. 367, reject all the Apocrypha. Gregory of Nazianzum, who lived in 370, rejects all. Amphilocius, who lived in 370, also rejects all. Jerome, who lived in 392, rejects it all. And lastly, Gregory the Great, who is asserted by Romanists to have been the first Pope, and who lived in 590, rejects the two books of Maccabees, which are at this day received by the Roman Catholic Church, and in this presents a useful specimen of Papal harmony. The Apocrypha, moreover, contains doctrines totally destructive of morality. For instance, in the second book of Maccabees, (xiv. 42), we read thus-"Now, as the multitude sought to rush into his house, and to break open the door, and to set fire to it, when he was ready to be taken he struck himself with a sword, choosing to die nobly rather than to fall into the hands of the wicked, and to suffer abuses unbecoming his noble birth." In these words there is a distinct eulogium upon suicide; it is declared, that the man who rushed unbidden and unsent into the presence of his God, "died nobly." To such morality as this we find no parallel or counterpart in the rest of the sacred volume. And, in the same second book of Maccabees, we read that "it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins." In other portions of the Apocrypha, especially in the book of Tobit, which has been received as inspired, it is written "that to depart from injustice is to offer a propitiatory sacrifice for injustice, and is the obtaining of pardon for sins." These and other doctrines, that might be quoted from the Apocrypha, contradict the plain doctrines of Scripture, and show distinctly that these books are not to be confounded or identified with the sacred volume, and that, whatever objections may lie against the morality of the Apocrypha, these do not militate one jot or tittle against the morality of what is really the word of God." |