What's the Big Deal About the Apocrypha?

I grew up Catholic, in the 70's and 80's. And I have to tell, even back then, it made you feel isolated. Every thing about the RC church is just slightly different. Sometimes a great deal, in fact.

One thing is the Bible. We use the Douay version, not the King James. And it too is just slightly, insidiously different. The Psalms for one thing, are numbered slightly differently.

And then there is the Apocrypha. The word literally means of questionable authenticity. Did you know I didn't even know that until I left hs? Even in high school, they gave us some BS story of why it was called that.

Anyway, I've read the Apocrypha. And I can tell you, doctrinally, it isn't much different from the rest of the Bible. Actually, it is where we first hear of the archangel Raphael. His name literally means "God hath healed". What's wrong with that? We could all use a little bit of healing in our lives. I even prayed to St. Raphael (as we call him) for that reason.

Again, why is it considered apocryphal? And again, what's the big deal?

 

Religion is what it is. You can't apply any logic to it. And all the texts are being interpreted and there is an authority that tells how the interpreting is supposed to be done.

So either get with the program or move on.

 

I once read them too (my grandpa had them in his closet) and they were excluded for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately its over a decade ago and im a bit out of it.

We're not in the dark ages anymore. Neither are our societies 'pillarized' anymore to such a degree a catholic christian has to either 'get with the program' or just has to move on. Lots of viable inbetween options. Whatever works for a sincere believer

 

the big deal was the first and second mycean confrences which decided which texts to include and which not to, in the christian library that eventually came to be collated into that book christians now call 'the book'.
apocrapha are the text the second excluded. that they included instead the corrispondences of saul of tarsus, makes me seriously question the quality of its judgement.

 

Protestant bible right? They excluded that stuff if I remember well.

No we're not in the dark ages anymore but with regards to the catholic church doctrine is still a big thing. And that includes what scriptures make it into the book and what has been discarded. It's selective and manipulative. And the OP asked a question about that.

 

I've got my own hard-backed copy of the Apocrypha. I've read it several times...was brought up Baptist (protestant) so of course there was NEVER any mention of such a thing as the Apocrypha.

I personally think one reason it wasn't included in the King James Version is because it reflects more of the supernatural nature of God and His angels. Even though Protestants believe in God (well they claim to) many MANY of them don't want to/refuse to accept there is a whole supernatural aspect IF you really do believe. The older I've gotten the more I truly don't understand how many of them justify how they cherry-pick what they choose to believe and choose not to. Of course they would NEVER use that phrase - cherry-pick - but that is exactly what they do.

There is the whole story about the angel telling what to burn and do to get rid of the demon that kept killing the young woman's husbands. Without looking it up and perusing it, I'm certain there are other instances/stories where there seemed to be magic involved, God magic that is...and we can't have that in the protestant's minds!

 

The big deal is whether or not these books are considered inspired and authoritative. These are Hebrew books which are considered "deuterocanonical" (second canon) by the Catholic Church, not apocryphal. In other words, the authenticity of the books was initially disputed,.but eventually accepted by the R.C. Church, but not Protestants, as official.

 

read book of thomas and tell me there's no big deal

also esdras 2

 

well to me, the christian bible is no bigger of a deal then the sacred writings of other religions.
a bunch of humans, over a period of time, with the good intention of wanting to encourage people to want to avoid causing harm,
and an intuitive if flawed understanding of social psychology, wrote a series of books, that were deliberated over twice,
because the first attempt ended in a rather violent riot, a long time after they were written,
that still took the invention of the printing press to be made widely available in a single volume.

i think its weird when people call it the living will of anything, because while some of its contents may have been recorded by friends of people who may have been chosen by a god or something like one to channel it, it was still written by human hands with human ink on human paper, with very little actually to do with or about, anything other then human relationships with each other.

 

Religion and is interaction with science is something that has always interested, but somewhat confused me. Their are many religions in this world and they all believe in some form of god. Assuming that their is only one god, we are all worshiping him (or her) in our own human way and this is fine as long as it promotes peace and harmony. Looking from a scientific standpoint, more than one billion stars are capable of sustaining life. Therefore can we really assume that we are the only form of life in the universe. Even today, certain advances in science puzzle me, since some of them suddenly appear out of the blue. Transistors and fiber optics are a good example of technology that suddenly appeared after all the 1947 reports of a crashed space craft. Many people seriously believe that America has contact with extra terrestrial life, while others believe it to be a secret of the Vatican. Perhaps one day all this will gel together and we will have a better understanding of the whole truth and all these ancient documents will fall into place. However, I feel that we have nothing to fear.

 

There are more scriptures left out of the bible than were put in. That makes the truth incomplete. All religions put in only what they deem relevant to that religion, which leaves big holes in understanding. Same with science, which is a religion. Some Christian religions have even changed the wording of the commandments, like THOU SHALL NOT KILL, to thou shall not murder, in order to justify killing.

 

Just because some people treat science as a religion (no argument there), doesn't mean it actually is a religion. And no, science is not a religion.

Also: its not like the Bible would be more true if it would include the apocryphs.