The Baptist Confession of Faith
Of The Holy Scriptures
Chapter 1 Paragraph 3
22 February 2026
The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon or rule of the Scripture, and, therefore, are of no authority to the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings.
Of the Holy Scriptures, chapter 1, paragraph 3. The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon or rule of the scripture, and therefore are of no authority to the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings. And we have scriptural proofs at the bottom. Luke chapter 24, verse 27 and 44, and Romans chapter 3, verse 3. I will come to that in a second.
The confession is building a foundation for our Christian faith. We saw in paragraph two of the chapter a list of the Old and New Testament books, which is what we call the canon of scripture. The word canon means rule or measuring stick, which in the context of Christianity means the authority by which our faith and practice are governed. Since the word of God is our ultimate authority for all our faith and practice, it is important to establish and distinguish the inspired Word of God from that which are not. In today's paragraph, we are concerned with the Old Testament canon, specifically rejection of what is called the Apocrypha books, which are not considered canonical by Protestants, but are considered canonical by the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches. It is also noteworthy at this point that the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches do not agree on the same Old Testament canon.
The word Apocrypha means hidden writings. These are a series of books written almost in the 400 years between the Old and the New Testament period, with the exception of one. These are also called Deuterocanonical books, the prefix Deutero meaning secondary in contrast to proto-canonical books, proto meaning primary. We as Reformed Baptists do not distinguish between the Word of God as primary and secondary, but rather seek to receive the Scripture as it is, the Word of God. If the Holy Spirit has inspired men of God to write, it is Scripture.
Let us first establish what writings are considered apocryphal. As I mentioned earlier, the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches have slightly different number of books in the Old Testament. So, I'll make the distinction here. It's about 15 books in total, and the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox both share these books. Tobit. Judith, additions to the Book of Esther, First and Second Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, also known as the Ecclesiasticus or Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach, Baruch, then there are the additions to Daniel, which are the prayer of Azria or Abednego, the song of three young men, Shadrach, Mishek and Abednego, Susanna and the judgment of Daniel, Belle and the dragon. So, these are the additions into the book of Daniel. And in addition to these, the Eastern Orthodox have more in their canon. Those are first and second Esdras and the prayer of Manasseh. And obviously this is from the Old Testament where Manasseh repents, and his prayer is recorded as scripture.
Let us look at the history of how these writings became a part of the Bibles. Around the year 200 BC, Greek became the prominent language which prompts the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. This is known as the Septuagint or the LXX. Christians after the time of the apostles seem to have known about the Apocrypha books and hence were present in the Septuagint. Obviously, I'm giving a very condensed version of the historical accounts. Pope Damascus I then commissions Jerome to translate the Old and New Testament to Latin in the 4th century AD, which then becomes the Latin Vulgate. He includes the Apocrypha in this Latin Vulgate since it was present in the Septuagint, although he rejected its authority. Ten centuries later, when John Wycliffe and Co. produced the first English translation of the Bible, Apocrypha is included in it as well. During the Reformation, the Reformers stood along with Jerome and recognized that only the writings recognized by the Jews as Holy Scripture is part of the Old Testament canon. That being said, the Reformers regarded the Apocrypha writing with respect and sometimes quoted from them in their writings. The Apocrypha writings were so ingrained into the church that the Geneva Bible and the authorized King James Version of 1611 all contained the Apocrypha writings in the Bible, albeit not considered part of the canon. It was not until 1827 that it was removed from the common Protestant Bibles printed today.
The Catholic Church did not have an official canon until the Council of Trent and contrary to many of their church fathers, the Council declared the Deuterocanonical books as part of the canon. It is good to note that Jerome did not consider the Apocrypha to be inspired Word of God. Now I talk about Jerome because he is indispensable to the Catholic Church. Listen to his preface to the book of Sirach. “Therefore, just as the Church also reads the book of Judith, Tobias and the Maccabees, but does not receive them among the canonical scriptures, so also one may read these two scrolls for the strengthening of the people, but not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical dogmas”. Here is Jerome again, providing counsel to a mother on how to raise her daughter. “Let her avoid all apocryphal writings. And if she is led to read such not by the truth of the doctrines which they contain, but out of respect for the miracles contained in them, let her understand that they are not really written by those to whom they are ascribed, that many faulty elements have been introduced into them, and that it requires infinite discretion to look for gold in the midst of dirt”.
Now as important as it is to know how the early church understood the books of the Bible, there are far more important considerations in favour of rejection of the apocryphal writings.
Number 1. It was never part of the Jewish canon. Apostle Paul tells us that the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. Romans chapter 3 verse 2. Since the Jews never considered the apocryphal text to be scripture, it is not reasonable to consider them scripture now.
Listen to the structure of the Old Testament Jesus had in mind when he speaks in Luke chapter 24, verse 44. says, then he said to them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Now notice the structure that he's talking about. Jesus is here talking about the structure of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. This is divided into the law of Moses, which is the Torah, the prophets, which is the Nevi’im, and the writings, which is the Ketuvim. These make up the 24 books in the Hebrew Bible and is the same content as the Protestant Old Testament. The number 24 differs from our Old Testament books of 39 because some books are grouped together.
Number 2. Jesus never quotes the Apocrypha. All through the life of Jesus Christ on earth, he does not quote from the Apocrypha and neither does the apostles. Claims are often made contrary to this in examples such as Matthew chapter 4, verse 4, where it says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. As a quotation from Wisdom chapter 16, verse 26. These are often claims that lack merit, as this is clearly a quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3. Of around 250 Old Testament quotations in the New Testament, Apocrypha is never quoted. Apocrypha writings contain truth that echo many Jewish and Christian teachings, but do not carry any ecclesiastical authority. Jesus, being a Jew, never quotes outside of the inspired Word of God.
Number 3. Jews recognize the sacred writings of the Old Testament just as the apostles did the New Testament. Apostle Peter equates the writings of Paul to scripture in 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 15 to 16. In the first century, and the church merely recognized it, not with the authority of a church council, as often is the claim of the Catholic church, but merely as recipients of inspired writings revealed to the church. This is similar to how the Jews recognize the Old Testament canon and these writings, these sacred writings or oracles by the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit were entrusted to them. There was never a church council that put together the Old Testament canon.
Number 4. The apocryphal writings contain doctrinal errors. Scripture affirms that God's word is the truth in John chapter 17, verse 17. Apostle Peter says, no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 21. So, we know that the inspired words of God do not contradict each other. And this is true in case of what we have today in our hands as God breathed word of God in the 66 books of the Bible. This is however not true for the apocryphal writings. Here are some of the quotations from Apocrypha that are contrary to doctrine. This is from Sirach chapter 3, verse 3. Those who honour their father atone for sins. We know that honouring our parents is a good and right thing to do, but they do not atone for our sins. Again, this is from Sirach, which is also called the words of or the wisdom of Jesus. Nothing to do with the Jesus of the Bible. Sirach chapter 3 verse 30, as water extinguishes a blazing fire, so arms giving atones for sin. From 2nd Maccabees chapter 12, verse 43. And making a gathering, he sent 12,000 drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. Obviously, this is providing groundwork for such ideas as purgatory. There are many more that could be quoted but, it would not be necessary since we have already established that God's word does not error.
So, in conclusion, the apocryphal writings may be read to understand some history of the intertestamental period. This endeavour, however, requires much prudence and discernment to separate truth from error, even from a historical perspective. Due to the reasons mentioned above, the apocryphal writings are neither considered canonical nor safe and therefore do not hold any authority over any doctrinal or ecclesiastical matters of the Church of God.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What are ‘Apocryphal’ writings?
2. How does the confession distinguish inspired Scripture from other helpful—but uninspired—writings?
3. How do the Scripture passages help us understand why inspiration is necessary for something to be part of the biblical canon?
4. Read Amos 8:11. Discuss how Amos prophecy points to Apocryphal writings being uninspired.
5. Should Christians read the Apocrypha today? Why or why not?