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Question #34
QUESTION: Didn't the King James Bible when first printed
contain the Apocrypha?
ANSWER: Yes.
EXPLANATION: Many critics of the perfect Bible like to
point out that the original King James had the Apocrypha in it as
though that fact compromises its integrity. But several things must
be examined to get the factual picture.
First, in the days in which our Bible was translated, the
Apocrypha was accepted reading based on its historical value,
though not accepted as Scripture by anyone outside of' the
Catholic church. The King James translators therefore placed it
between the Old and New Testaments for its historical benefit to
its readers. They did not integrate it into the Old Testament text as
do the corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts.
That they rejected the Apocrypha as divine is very obvious by
the seven reasons which they gave for not incorporating it into the
text. They are as follows:
1. Not one of them is in the Hebrew language, which was alone
used by the inspired historians and poets of the Old Testament.
2. Not one of the writers lays any claim to inspiration.
3. These books were never acknowledged as sacred Scriptures
by the Jewish Church, and therefore were never sanctioned by our
Lord.
4. They were not allowed a place among the sacred books,
during the first four centuries of the Christian Church.
5. They contain fabulous statements, and statements which
contradict not only the canonical Scriptures, but themselves; as
when, in the two Books of Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes is
made to die three different deaths in as many different places.
6. It inculcates doctrines at variance with the Bible, such as
prayers for the dead and sinless perfection.
7. It teaches immoral practices, such as lying, suicide,
assassination and magical incantation.
If having the Apocrypha between the Testaments disqualifies it
as authoritative, then the corrupt Vaticanus and Sinaiticus
manuscripts from Alexandria, Egypt must be totally worthless
since their authors obviously didn't have the conviction of the King
James translators and incorporated its books into the text of the
Old Testament thus giving it authority with Scripture.
The Answer Book © 1989 by Samuel C. Gipp
Reproduced by permission
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