Why Not The Apocrypha?

Biblical Canon

Before we consider possible additions to the Bible, we must first define what constitutes the Bible. 

We have already examined the first method, which are the Old Testament Quotations. Explicit quotations in the New Testament strongly affirm the respective books of the Old Testament. However, not all books of the Bible are quoted in the New Testament. 

Therefore, we will now consider historians and scholars such as Amphilochius, Hilary, Josephus, Justin Martyr, Luther or Melito, and their statements regarding which books they included in the inspired Bible.

Ecclesiastical Books (Apocrypha)

Having examined the Old Testament Quotations and narrowed down the Biblical Canon based on early witnesses, we now turn to the Apocrypha themselves. This is best accomplished by creating a chronological overview of all available witnesses.

The Roman Catholic Church, its third doctor and patriarch of Calvinism (Augustine), and the last editors of the great codices were responsible for their inclusion (+7 books). The late reformers, however, were the first to include the complete Apocrypha (+14 books) in our Bibles, but they obscured this fact by creating a separate section for these books and essentially giving them the same weight as the four books excluded by Luther (Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation). 

The timeline also clearly shows that the original Septuagint, often used as 'scape goat' for the inclusion of the Apocrypha, did not contain the 'Septuaginta Plus' for at least 400 years, until many churches used -, and the great codices later added these 'Ecclesiastical' books.