Why Born Again Christians Don't Use the Apocrypha

A controversial issue is that born again Christians do not use the Apocrypha and are being accused of taking away from the Word of God.  However, the Apocrypha is nothing more than adding to the already inspired Word of God. So why is it not included in Scripture?  Here are the reasons:

1.) Neither Jesus nor the Apostles ever quoted from the Apocrypha.  Nothing else was directly sourced to it with "it is written".  The very references of Jesus were from Abel up to Zechariah proving much of the Old Testament was being quoted but NEVER the Apocrypha.  Jesus' references were usually the prophetic books and the Psalms.  For those Roman Catholic apologists who think they are on the right side, please read this document!

2.) It was rejected by the Jewish scholars for this reason- it was written during the 400 years of silence before the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ as God becoming man.  It was written after the writing of Malachi and God did not have any revelation or apparition during that time.  The signs and wonders only returned during the apostolic era and God ceased to send them after the end of the apostolic era.  Some historians suggests that the Pharisees were members of a Cabalistic society.

3.) The Apocrypha is filled with errors.  Here are just some:

Condones the use of magic

Tobit 6:5-7- "Then the angel said to him: Take out the entrails of this fish, and lay up his heart, and his gall, and his liver for thee: for these are necessary for useful medicines.  And when he had done so, he roasted the flesh thereof, and they took it with them in the way: the rest they salted as much as might serve them, till they came to Rages the city of the Medes.  Then Tobias asked the angel, and said to him: I beseech thee, brother Azarias, tell me what remedies are these things good for, which thou hast bid me keep of the fish?  And the angel, answering, said to him: If thou put a little piece of its heart upon coals, the smoke thereof driveth away all kind of devils, either from man or from woman, so that they come no more to them."

Clearly, Raphael here is a FALLEN ANGEL.

It teaches salvation by alms with these verses as an example when the Bible is clear money cannot deliver the soul by any means (Psalm 49:7):
  • Tobit 4:11, "For alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness."  
  • Tobit 12:9, "For alms delivereth from death, and the same is that which purgeth away sins, and maketh to find mercy and life everlasting."

It also teaches the heresy of Purgatory which denies Hebrews 9:27:

  • 2 Maccabbees 12:43, "And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection."

It also teaches pagan philosophy rather than Scriptural teaching:

  • Sirach 12:4-7 says, "Give to the godly man, and help not a sinner. Do well unto him that is lowly, but give not to the ungodly; hold back thy bread, and give it not unto him... give unto the good, and help not the sinner."  But the Bible has a very different view on that namely Proverbs 25:21 where wise King Solomon advised to be kind to one's enemies!


Historical inaccuracy also proves the Apocrypha to be not Scriptural.  According to the late Ptr. James Kennedy, the Bible is ever accurate with history.  If certain books that they want to add into the Bible are not accurate with history then it's not Scripture:

  • Judith 1:5, "Now in the twelfth year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor, king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Ninive the great city, fought against Arphaxad and overcame him."
  • Baruch 6:2, "And when you are come into Babylon, you shall be there many years, and for a long time, even to seven generations: and after that I will bring you away from thence with peace."
  • Tobit claims to have been alive when Jeroboam revolted (931 B.C.) and when Assyria conquered Israel (722 B.C.). These two events were separated by over 200 years and yet the total lifespan of Tobit was 158 years (Tobit 1:3-5; 14:11)! 


Some facts to verify: Nebuchodonosor (another way of saying Nebuchadnezzar) is NOT the King of Assyria but of Babylon.  Baruch 6:2 could not be written by Jeremiah's secretary because Jeremiah 25:11 was clear it would be seventy years not seven generations of exile.

4.) Even Roman Catholicism during its course had a problem accepting it

During the first four centuries of the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church, even the scholars of Alexandria, Egypt had their problems whether or not the apocrypha should ever be counted as Scripture. Even Jerome who is respected by Catholics had written this of the Apocrypha:

"As the Church reads the books of Judith and Tobit and Maccabees but does not receive them among the canonical Scriptures, so also it reads Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus for the edification of the people, not for the authoritative confirmation of doctrine." -Jerome

Others who rejected the Apocrypha were Origen, Eusebius, Cyril of Jerusalem and Athanasius.  So the "infallible" Roman Catholic Church even has problems with its own doctrine throughout the centuries.  Again Mark 7:8-13 comes to mind about putting man's tradition above God's Word.