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Understanding the Apocrypha

In case you don't know, the Apocrypha or the "deuterocanon" is a set of Old Testament books that Martin Luther removed from protestant Bibles. Originally, King James (in his famous translation) included them at the end of the protestant Old Testament books, but marked them as uninspired.

Basically the story is that Martin Luther didn't like the books. They clearly teach prayer for the dead and purgatory among other things. Because the current Jewish canon didn't include them, he felt justified in removing them from the Bible. Since then protestants are missing a portion of the Bible and have long invented myths as to why these books shouldn't be included.

Well, today I read a great article: 5 Myths about 7 Books by Mark Shea that tackles the five most common myths about the deuterocanonical books:

• Myth 1: The deuterocanonical books are not found in the Hebrew Bible. They were added by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent after Luther rejected it.
  
• Myth 2: Christ and the Apostles frequently quoted Old Testament Scripture as their authority, but they never quoted from the deuterocanonical books, nor did they even mention them. Clearly, if these books were part of Scripture, the Lord would have cited them.
  
• Myth 3: The deuterocanonical books contain historical, geographical, and moral errors, so they can't be inspired Scripture.
  
• Myth 4: The deuterocanonical books themselves deny that they are inspired Scripture.
  
• Myth 5: The early Church Fathers, such as St. Athanasius and St. Jerome (who translated the official Bible of the Catholic Church), rejected the deuterocanonical books as Scripture, and the Catholic Church added these books to the canon at the Council of Trent.
  

Thanks to Catholic and Enjoying It! by Mark Shea for pointing out the article.

God bless,
Jay