Gmail - [CB] The Apocrypha -- Missing in Action in the Lutheran Church - jacobthanni@gmail.com

Here is a helpful article from Paul T. McCain to Cyberbrethren

Gmail - [CB] The Apocrypha -- Missing in Action in the Lutheran Church - jacobthanni@gmail.com




July 27, 2008

Greetings Cyberbrethren:

In the past several decades, there has been a resurgence of interest
in the so-called "missing books" of the Bible. The work of persons
such as Elaine Pagels has made a career of trying to popularize the
Gnostic Gospels and other Gnostic literature. The most dramatic
discovery of Gnostic texts occurred in the upper Egyptian city of Nag
Hammadi. The Gospel of Thomas was found as a complete text. These
Gnostic texts are often referred to in populist works and the major
media as the "missing books of the Bible." Actually, nothing could be
further from the truth. They were never regarded as being part of
Christian Scripture. Gnosticism, in its variety of forms, was a
mixture of pagan philosophy and Christian stories.

A whole cottage industry has developed around these "missing books,"
pumping out volumes of misleading books and information, leading
people to believe that somehow there has been a grand conspiracy to
cover up and hide the "real facts" about Christ and Christianity. All
one has to do to quickly demonstrate the difference between canonical
Scripture and these false Gnostic Gospels is read them. Frankly, the
Gnostic Gospels sound like something produced by a person writing
under the influence of LSD or other such hallucinogens. So, set the
Gnostic literature aside and let's talk about some books that have
always been in our Bibles, until the Lutheran Church moved into the
English language.

There are, in fact, "missing books" of Scripture: the Apocrypha. For
too many years Lutherans, like Protestant denominations everywhere,
have thought that these books are only part of the "Roman Catholic
Bible." Let's sort out the facts here, and conclude these brief
remarks with an excellent introduction to the Apocryphal books by
Pastor Richard Sawyer, which I'll provide below.

But let's first talk about how, when and why the Apocryphal books
became relatively unknown to English speaking Lutherans. When the
first complete edition of the Bible by the Wittenberg Reformers was
published, in 1534, Luther and his colleagues included the Apocryphal
books, though distinguished from the more universally accepted books,
by setting them apart in their own appendix to the Old Testament.
Luther's Bible was the first major edition to have a separate section
called Apocrypha. Books and portions of books not found in the Hebrew
Old Testament were moved out of the body of the Old Testament to this
section. The books of 1 and 2 Esdras were omitted entirely. Luther
placed these books between the. For this reason, these works are
sometimes known as inter-testamental books. The point is that
Apocryphal books were never rejected by orthodox Lutherans, but always
included in every edition of the Luther Bible and in many German
editions of the Bible as well, for instance all German Bibles
published by Concordia Publishing House as long as German bibles were
publishedl. The Roman Catholic, at the Council of Trent, did something
never before done in the history of the church: it put the Apocryphal
books on the same level of authority as the rest of the books of the
Bible. Why? Because it is in the Apocryphal books that Rome claims to
find justification for several of its false doctrines: chiefly, the
doctrine of purgatory. But this fact never dissuaded Lutheran
Christians from using these books or including them in their Bibles.

In the early years of the 20th century, as Lutherans in the USA began
replacing German with English in their churches, and in their Bible
translations, the Apocryphal books simply went missing, indeed
"missing in action" is pretty much what happened to them. In recent
years, interest is increasing in these books, as Lutherans look to
reclaim more of their heritage. There is no reason to allow Rome to
claim these books as their own, for indeed, they are not the sole
possession of Rome, or Eastern Orthodoxy. It will take a lot of
careful pastoral instruction to help the members of English speaking
Lutheran congregations distinguish the Apocryphal books from the
Gnostic non-Biblical books, and to help explain what the Apocryphal
books are, and what their traditional place in the Bible has always
been in the Lutheran Church. For that matter, the Apocryphal books are
featured throughout Western European culture. Perhaps the best way to
help Lutherans who are unfamiliar with these books understand their
place in the Lutheran Church's own culture and hymnody is to point
them to a well-known hymn from the age of Lutheran Orthodoxy: Now
Thank We All Our God, written by Martin Rinkart circa 1636 when the
devastating Thirty Years War was nearing its end. It depends very much
on Luther's translation of the Apocryphal book of Sirach, Chapter 50.

My own personal experience with the Apocryphal books is typical of
most other Lutherans in English speaking churches. I was raised to
understand that the Roman Catholics had their own Bible, and that
their Bible had more books than "our" Bible. I learned that the
doctrine of purgatory was drawn chiefly from one of the Apocryphal
books, and therefore those books were bad. But then I as I learned
more about the historic teachers of the Lutheran Church, I began to
see that the Apocryphal books were freely cited and used by them,
never on the same level of authority as the other books of the Old
Testament or the New Testament, but nonetheless, there was no
hesitancy to use these books by Martin Luther, Martin Chemnitz, Johann
Gerhard and others. Perhaps the most amusing and enlightening example
of the extent to which there is little awareness of the Apocrypha in
our Lutheran Church's history, even in The LCMS's history, was when we
produced a book of Walther's devotions, based on his sermons. There
are several references in C.F.W. Walther's sermons to Apocryphal
books, but not realizing that, our editors cited the Song of Songs,
when in fact the reference was to the Wisdom of Solomon. And in the
case of the Concordia Edition of the Book of Concord, we found a
series of woodcut illustrations of the Small Catechism, published
toward the end of Luther's lifetime in Leipzig. And what do you know,
the illustration provided for the 8th Commandment, "You shall not bear
false witness" is from the Apocrypha: the story of Susanna. The same
image was used in the first illustrated edition of the Small
Catechism, already in 1531.

It was interesting simply to include it in the Book of Concord and
watch to see how many people noticed it. There were quite a few
questions about it, leading to some good opportunities to explain the
Apocrypha. Simply put, the Apocrypha is every bit as much "Lutheran"
than it is "Roman Catholic." It is the common possession of the
Christian Church. I'm encouraged by this growing, and renewed,
interest in the Apocrypha and am pleased to note that next year Oxford
University Press will be releasing an edition of the English Standard
Version of the Bible that contains the Apocrypha.

We wrestled with the question of whether or not to include the
Apocryphal books in The Lutheran Study Bible. For three reasons, we
finally decided not to. First, the Apocypha is so little known among
Lutherans today that simply to include it in TLSB would have caused a
ruckus and consternation among most of our fellow English speaking
Lutherans who know nothing at all about the Apocrypha. We felt we
would be putting something in front of people who have had little, to
no, opportunity to learn and understand what these books are, from
their pastors. It woudl cause potentially very serious offense and
confusion, at this point in time. Second, there was no published
translation of the Apocrypha available in English, in the ESV
translation when we had to make a decision about this. Unfortunately,
the Oxford edition comes too late for our Bible. Third, there are next
to no resource materials available on the Apocryphal books from which
we can draw notes and commentary. Simply put, English speaking
Lutheran pastors, professors and theologians have not done any work on
these books. So, for these three reasons they will not be in TLSB. But
perhaps a future edition will be able to include them.

Here is Pastor Sawyer's article:

The Apocrypha is a collection of books, generally dated before the
first advent of Christ, and included in the bibles of many Christians.
They are not included in the Hebrew collection of Old Testament
Scripture, but they are included in the Greek translation of the Old
Testament Bible, called the Septuagint. It is uncertain exactly when
the Apocryphal books were included in the Septuagint, but since the
Septuagint is clearly the translation from which many of the New
Testament's quotations of the Old Testament are taken, we can consider
the Septuagint the Bible used by the Holy Evangelists and Apostles.
It's not unlike saying that the King James Version was the translation
prevalently used by Christians until only recently. If you read an old
book or watch an old movie, chances are, if Holy Scripture is quoted,
you'll find the citation taken from the King James Version. Well, read
the New Testament, and chances are, you'll find that when the Old
Testament is quoted, the translation used is the Septuagint. That
makes the Septuagint's inclusion of the Apocrypha a fairly compelling
argument for seriously considering these books. It is true that they
are not found among the Hebrew texts. That was a distinction not
missed by St. Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin. It was also
a distinction noted by Martin Luther when he made his translation of
the Bible into German. In fact, it's simply historical fact that the
Church has noted that there are certain books that were universally
recognized as belonging to the canon of Holy Scripture, and then there
were others that lacked that universal recognition. While some books
lacked universal acceptance, they were still often read - even within
the services of the Church - and while not as sure a basis for forming
doctrine as the Canonical Scriptures, they were considered pious,
laudable writings, useful for encouraging and training Christians in
their walk of Faith. Luther certainly held that opinion regarding the
Apocrypha. He wasn't the first to distinguish them from those books
universally accepted as the Word of God, but in doing so, neither was
he alone in recognizing their benefit and recommending their usage by
Christians. Luther not only translated the books of the Apocrypha into
German, he also included them in his German Bible. He included them in
an appendix so that they were distinguished from those books
universally attested as the Word of God but not removed from the piety
and faith of Christians. Luther has very favorable things to say about
the Apocrypha. The fact that German Christians in his day could open
their Bible and read the Apocrypha is testimony to that. The Lutheran
Confessions cite the Apocrypha, as do Luther, Melancthon, Chemnitz,
Gerhard, and other fathers in our Lutheran tradition.

Many Christians in America will be surprised to hear that the King
James Version, that most beloved of English translations, also
included the Apocrypha. As Luther had, the King James Version
distinguished the Apocrypha from the universally attested canonical
texts by including it in an appendix. Over time, especially after
copyright restrictions were broken by the American Revolution,
publishers ceased to include the Apocrypha in editions of the KJV.
Still, like the Septuagint, the first translation of the Bible into
Greek, and Jerome's Latin Vulgate, and Luther's German Bible, the
Apocrypha was included in the original King James Version.

The Apocrypha is a collection of sacred texts for Christians to
rediscover. How much better that Christians - who regularly make use
of devotional material, visit Christian bookstores, listen to
Christian music, watch movies with Christian themes - how much better
that Christians today familiarize themselves with the devout and pious
writings which are part of our heritage, which Luther and so many
others recommend for our edification! It is safe to say that
Christians - up until the past few hundred years - have been quite
familiar with the Apocrypha. The Apocryphal texts have influenced
religious art and music, hymnody and even names. The name Judy derives
from the name of a Hebrew heroine in the Apocryphal book, Judith. Toby
derives from the Apocryphal book, Tobit. Susan is derived from the
Apocryphal book, Susanna.

It is said that the account of 2 Esdras 6:42 gave Columbus the
necessary "evidence" that the waters of the Atlantic were not so wide
that the East Indies couldn't be reached by sailing west. If it
weren't for the Apocrypha, would Columbus have made his voyage? Wisdom
18:14-15 provide the testimony on which Christians understood Christ's
birth to have occurred when night was "half-spent," thus giving us the
carol, "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear."

Lutherans are familiar with the hymn, "Now, Thank We All Our God,"
which is based on Luther's translation of Sirach 50:22-24. And any
Lutheran who has attended the Easter Vigil and sung the Benedicte,
Omnia Opera, that is, "All You Works of the Lord" (LSB # 931; LW #
9;TLH p. 120) will note that it is the Song of the Three Young Men
(Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego) who were thrown into the fiery
furnace and kept safe by the pre-incarnate Christ. However, that song
is not in the Hebrew text of Daniel, and so is not known to most
Christians, since their English translations are taken from the
Hebrew. It is, however, included in the Apocryphal additions that have
come to us through the Septuagint. Thus, this beautiful and laudable
song of praise has graced the lips of many Lutherans, without their
realizing that they are singing a Biblical canticle from the Apocrypha.

Cordially in Christ,
Paul