# William Cunningham on the error of printing the apocryphal books with the Bible



## Reformed Covenanter (Jun 10, 2020)

Though the Reformers were unanimous in rejecting the claim of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament to a place in the canon, in denying to them divine inspiration and authority, they generally allowed them to retain their place in the Bible, and translated them into the vulgar languages. And in some editions of the Bible which were circulated on the Continent, the apocryphal books were not merely collected together and appended to the Old Testament—the form and position in which they commonly appear in Bibles printed in England—but they even were intermingled with the sacred Scriptures, coming in without any obvious and palpable mark of distinction at the places where they are introduced in the Septuagint, the source from which those apocryphal books and portions of books are derived.

This was a very erroneous and dangerous practice, even in the less offensive form which it assumed in Bibles printed in England, in which the Apocrypha was appended and not intermingled, as tending to break down in men’s minds a right sense of the distinction that ought ever to be maintained full and unimpaired between the word of God and the word of man, between writings which come from God, and are therefore possessed of supreme and infallible authority, and writings which besides being possessed of no authority whatever, are some of them liable to the still more serious objection of putting forth a false claim to a divine origin.

For the reference, see William Cunningham on the error of printing the apocryphal books with the Bible.

Reactions: Like 2


----------



## Guido's Brother (Jun 11, 2020)

Many of the earliest Reformed confessions (including the Belgic) included apocryphal proof-texts. Still to this day, the Belgic Confession contains an unattributed quote from one of the apocryphal books. A few years back, I wrote something on this for Westminster Theological Journal. You can find it here if you're interested.

Reactions: Like 2 | Informative 1


----------



## JM (Jun 11, 2020)

I have the apocrypha in the Didache Study Bible RSV and the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint (Orthodox Study Bible). Not long ago I had seen a Lutheran edition ESV and an edition for Anglicans also ESV.


----------



## yeutter (Jun 12, 2020)

JM said:


> I have the apocrypha in the Didache Study Bible RSV and the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint (Orthodox Study Bible). Not long ago I had seen a Lutheran edition ESV and an edition for Anglicans also ESV.


Anglicans, that use the 1928 Book of Common Prayer have many readings that are taken from the Apocrypha. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer has considerably fewer Apocrypha readings.

Reactions: Like 1


----------

