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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.
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