In the course of my readings (Bible), I came across the
Deuterocanonical books. I have read some information regarding them, and what I
find intriguing and troubling is that Christians are divided as to whether such
writings should be included in the Christian canon. I would like to know what
is your Church’s stand concerning this debate about the books that for others
they should be considered as Scriptures inspired by God?
The Church of Christ
upholds that the books and writings that comprise the body of literature termed
as either Apocrypa or Deuterocanonicals should NOT be included among the books
that comprise the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures because:
First, the Aprocryphal of
Deuterocanonical books are not included in the body of writings from which
Christ quoted. Christ enumerated such writings when He said, “These are the
very things I told you about while I was still with you; everything written
about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms”
(Lk. 24:44, TEV). The body of writing
that consist of the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms,
which Christ was referring to, is the Hebrew canon or the sacred scriptures of
the Jews. The Church
of Christ firmly believes
that the books that should comprise the Old Testament should be identical
content-wise with the scared Scriptures of the Jews because the Jews themselves
were the ones entrusted with God’s words before the Christians dispensation
(Rom. 3:1-2, NIV; 9:4, TEV). As attested by biblical scholars,
none of the Aprocryphal of Deuterocanonical writings is included in the Hebrew
canon of the Holy Scriptures (“Introduction to the Aprocryphal/Deuterocanonical
Books” from the New Oxford Annotated Bible; An Ecumenical Study Bible, iii AP).
Second, the Aprocrypha or
Deuterocanonicals mention doctrines that violates God’s teachings contained in
those writings Christ and the apostles recognized and quoted from. For example,
what is written in Maccabees 12:43-45 clearly contradicts a biblical teaching.
The passage from the Aprocryphal writing of II Maccabees speaks of Judas
Maccabeus collecting two thousand drachmas of silver and sending it to
Jerusalem as “atonement for the dead, so that they might be delivered from
their sin.” However, the biblical teaching expressed in Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 that
the dead cannot benefit from the deeds done in their behalf by the living
because dead “don’t know anything … and will never share in the things that
happen on earth” (Easy-to-read-Version) is blatantly violated. Let us bear in
mind that God’s teachings written in the Bible do not contradict one another (I
Cor. 2:13, NKJV).
Therefore, the Aprocrypha or the
Deuterocanonicals should not be considered as writings inspired by God, and so
they should not be included in the Holy Scriptures. An as for the Church of
Christ, the Bible, the Scriptures inspired by God, is composed of the Old and
New Testaments, with the latter consisting of 27 books and the former
consisting of 39 books that are the same in content with the sacred Scriptures
of the Jews.