Why Should Protestants Reject the Apocrypha?

In part two of a message on The Bible and Catholic Tradition, Don Green provides reasons why the Apocrypha must be rejected by Protestants:

1. The apocrypha does not claim inspiration for itself. The apocrypha does not claim 

inspiration for itself.

Secondly, the Jews who lived in Palestine never accepted the apocrypha as revealed 

Scripture. The Jews in Palestine never accepted the apocrypha as revealed Scripture.

3. Jesus Christ and the New Testament writers do not quote the apocrypha like they do 

the rest of the Old Testament. Jesus Christ and the New Testament writers do not quote 

the apocrypha like they do the rest of the Old Testament. That's very significant.

4. The early church as a whole rejected the apocrypha. The early church as a whole 

rejected the apocrypha.

5. And this one is very compelling: even the Roman Catholic Church did not declare the 

apocrypha inspired until 1546 at the Council of Trent. That's 2,000 years after the 

completion of the Old Testament. If those books were inspired and we've taught on the 

canon here in months gone by, if those books were truly inspired, the early church would 

have recognized them as so. That fact that it took 1,500 years for the Catholic Church to 

make that claim ought to set off in your mind, "Wait a second. This isn't square. This isn't 

right. You're up to something here."

Now, inevitably, inevitably sincere well-intentioned Catholics will ask someone like us, 

"Why do you leave out the apocrypha?" The answer to that question is a different 

question. The real question is, "Why did the Roman Catholic Church add it?" That's the 

question. You can't evaluate it as we look at it here in 2017, we have to look at the 

historical process, the undeniable historical facts of it and say, "Why did they do that?" 

1546, do some math. Remember that we're doing all of this in honor of the 500th

anniversary of the Reformation which began on October 31, 1517. Do the math. Luther 

nails the 95 Theses in 1517 and the world is turned upside down. The Catholic Church 

tries to get things back under control in 1546. What's going on here? The Catholic 

Church needed outside books to try to argue against the Reformers. They could not refute 

the Reformers on Scripture alone so they changed the rules, they added the books and 

then started to appeal to things that they had never claimed were inspired beforehand.

6. The apocrypha contain numerous errors which are inconsistent with being the inerrant 

word of God. They contain numerous errors which are inconsistent with being the 

inerrant word of God.

And finally, Jewish scholars in the first century affirmed a book as canonical only if it 

was available in Hebrew. The apocryphal books are found only in Greek.

That's seven reasons for why we do not accept the apocrypha and gives an explanation 

briefly though it may be, as to why the Catholic Church found it necessary to add them 

historically.

Green adds one final note:

...even the apocrypha recognizes its own inferiority. You can find this in the New American Bible, a version approved by the Roman Catholic Church, in 2 Maccabees 15:37-38. Listen to this, listen to what the writer of 2 Maccabees said, "I will bring my own story to an end. If it is well written and to the point, that is what I wanted. If it is poorly done and mediocre, that is the best that I could do." Beloved, does that sound like the authoritative revealed word of God to you? Does that sound like the prophets who said, "Thus saith the Lord"? Does that sound like the word of Jesus saying, "Truly, truly, I say to you"? You put it side-by-side and you say there is no comparison here. On its own merits, it disclaims its own authority.

Green concludes:

Well, let's summarize it and say this, just to summarize as we close. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 4:6, "Do not exceed what is written. Don't go beyond the written word of  God." Catholics, sadly, do just that. They add oral tradition. They claim authority for a small group of men to restrict interpretation of the Bible. They add books to the Bible. This is just a multiplied travesty and an undisguised assault against the authority of Scripture. So we ask the question again: why are we, Protestants, why do we protest against the Catholic Church? Why do we reject the claims of Rome without any fear of bringing condemnation on our souls from the true and living God? We are Protestants because our authority is the Bible. We believe Sola Scriptura. We are Protestants because we have rejected Catholic tradition, their Magisterium and the apocrypha, because they violate Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone, that is why we are Protestants. Scripture alone, that is why we reject Roman Catholicism and it's truth claims.

Recommend Reading:

Should Christians Use The Apocrypha?