BIBLICAL BRIEFS 63
The word “apocrypha” in Greek means “what is hidden, secret” and in Latin “of dubious authenticity, esoteric”. Apocryphal books are scripts which are not recognized as part of the canon of the Bible, that is, they claim to be inspired by God, but there is reasonable general consensus among experts that they are not part of the Word of God. In some Bibles, such as the the one used by the Roman Catholic Church, the Old Testament apocrypha are added to the existing 66 books. Old and New Testament apocrypha are sometimes mistakenly refered to as the “lost books” of the Bible. There are some lost books [such as The Book of Jasher (Jos. 10:13); The Book of the History of the Kings of Judah and Israel (2Chron. 28: 26); The Book of the Acts of Solomon (1Kings 11:41); The Story of the Prophet Iddo (2Chron. 13:22); The Book of the Wars of the LORD (Num. 21:14)], but the apocryphal books are not lost – they are readily available to read today. The decision of which books should be part of the Bible was done at various meetings [the Council of Laodicea (363 AD), the Council of Hippo (393 AD) and the Council of Carthage (397 AD)] and there they constituted “the holy Scriptures” (Rom 1: 2). There are also many other letters and documents written by the Apostolic Fathers in the early centuries to exchange information, confirming the biblical canon. Although there is much value attached to certain apocryphal books, eg. The Book of Enoch, it does not correspond to the authoritative Bible books. For example, in The Book of Enoch, there is much deception regarding angels, demons and the end-times, which is unfortunately integrated into general Christian ways of thinking, even if it is not according to the Bible. (It is also not the book referred to by Jude 1: 9.) The Bible, as it was handed down throughout the ages, cohesively conceals “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2: 3) in Jesus, who is also the transcribed Word of God, “words … engraved in rock forever!” (Job 19: 23-24; 1Cor. 10: 4).
Dr. Tom Gouws
