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Critiquing the Apocrypha (Belgic Confession 6a)

Rev. Angus Stewart

 

Belgic Confession 6: The Difference Between the Canonical and Apocryphal Books
We distinguish those sacred books from the apocryphal, namely: the third book of Esdras, the books of Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Jesus Syrach, Baruch, the appendix to the book of Esther, the Song of the Three Children in the Furnace, the History of Susannah, of Bell and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the two books of the Maccabees. All of which the church may read and take instruction from so far as they agree with the canonical books; but they are far from having such power and efficacy, as that we may from their testimony confirm any point of faith or of the Christian religion; much less detract from the authority of the other sacred books.

Have you ever seen a copy of the Apocrypha? The word itself comes from the Greek and means "hidden" or "obscure." This could refer to its origin (since the authors of many of the books are not known) and/or its contents (because some of its material is legendary or even puerile) and/or it use (for what ought people to do with it?).

Belgic Confession 6 enumerates thirteen apocryphal books. Other confessions add IV Esdras and so list fourteen books, for example, article 6 of Anglicanism's Thirty-Nine Articles and article 3 of the Irish Articles (1615).

Protestantism denies that any of the apocryphal books are inspired or canonical. Only the 39 Old Testament books and the 27 New Testament books are the Word of God (Belgic Confession 4-5).

Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, receives eleven apocryphal books as inspired and authoritative. III Esdras and the Prayer of Manasses are the two books listed in Belgic Confession 6 which Rome does not accept as canonical.

Eastern Orthodoxy receives all the eleven apocryphal books that Rome accepts, plus III Esdras and III Maccabees. However, these thirteen apocryphal books are deuterocanonical, having only secondary authority in Eastern Orthodoxy, whereas Rome's eleven apocryphal books have full authority.

In the remainder of this article, we shall consider (parts of) three apocryphal books which clearly betray the fact that they are not the Word of God.

II Maccabees

Read carefully the last three verse of II Maccabees:

37 Thus went it with Nicanor: and from that time forth the Hebrews had the city in their power. And here will I make an end.
38 And if I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I desired: but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto.
39 For as it is hurtful to drink wine or water alone; and as wine mingled with water is pleasant, and delighteth the taste: even so speech finely framed delighteth the ears of them that read the story. And here shall be an end (15:37-39).

Do you see the big issue here? It is not merely that it is questionable (to say the least), even in the ancient world, that it is "hurtful to drink wine or water alone" (v. 39). Verse 38 reveals that II Maccabees is a purely human composition! The author states that he has tried hard to tell his story well but recognizes that if his readers judge that it was poorly told, it was the best he could do. He knows that he has not penned the words of God, and the perceptive reader recognizes this too.

Tobit

Moving from II Maccabees, we turn to Tobit. Study closely the following excerpt:

8 Prayer is good with fasting and alms and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with unrighteousness. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold:
9 For alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin. Those that exercise alms and righteousness shall be filled with life:
10 But they that sin are enemies to their own life.
11 Surely I will keep close nothing from you. For I said, It was good to keep close the secret of a king, but that it was honourable to reveal the works of God.
12 Now therefore, when thou didst pray, and Sara thy daughter in law, I did bring the remembrance of your prayers before the Holy One: and when thou didst bury the dead, I was with thee likewise.
13 And when thou didst not delay to rise up, and leave thy dinner, to go and cover the dead, thy good deed was not hid from me: but I was with thee.
14 And now God hath sent me to heal thee and Sara thy daughter in law.
15 I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One (12:8-15).

Verse 9 seems to teach salvation by (man's) works: "alms doth deliver from death, and shall purge away all sin."

Tobit also teaches a strange, unbiblical angelology. First, it refers to "the seven holy angels" (v. 15) but Scripture nowhere gives the specific number of any rank of angel. Second, one of these seven angels is identified as Raphael (v. 15), but Michael and Gabriel are the only two faithful angels named in God's Word. The canonical status of Tobit (with its reference to the angel Raphael) in Roman Catholicism, but not Protestantism, explains the popularity of the name Raphael (including its alternative spelling, Rafael, and its abbreviation, Rafa) in a Roman Catholic country, like Spain, for example, Rafael Nadal (tennis player) and Rafa Benitez (football manager), whereas this name is extremely rare among Protestants. Third, the angel Raphael in the book of Tobit occupies an angelolatrous role in presenting the prayers of the saints before God (vv. 12, 15). Fourth, this allegedly holy angel actually lies! He says, "I am Raphael" (v. 15), but he earlier identified himself as "Azarias," the son of Ananias (5:12), and thus a human being with a physical earthly father.

Moving from the excerpt from chapter 12 (above) to Tobit 6, the man Azarias or the angel Raphael (!) proposes a means of exorcism that can only be described as magic! A demon is to be driven out by the smoke arising from cooking the heart and liver of a fish: "Touching the heart and the liver, if a devil or an evil spirit trouble any, we must make a smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and the party shall be no more vexed" (v. 7). The "angel" is none too hot on medical advice either! Listen to his prescription for a man with whiteness in his eyes: "As for the gall [of the fish], it is good to anoint a man that hath whiteness in his eyes, and he shall be healed" (v. 8).

Bel and the Dragon

The forty-two verses of Bel and the Dragon are quoted below:

1 And king Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus of Persia received his kingdom.
2 And Daniel conversed with the king, and was honoured above all his friends.
3 Now the Babylonians had an idol, called Bel, and there were spent upon him every day twelve great measures of fine flour, and forty sheep, and six vessels of wine.
4 And the king worshipped it, and went daily to adore it: but Daniel worshipped his own God, And the king said unto him, Why dost not thou worship Bel?
5 Who answered and said, Because I may not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, who hath created the heaven and the earth, and hath sovereignty over all flesh.
6 Then said the king unto him, Thinkest thou not that Bel is a living god? seest thou not how much he eateth and drinketh day?
7 Then Daniel smiled, and said, O king, be not deceived: for this is but clay within, and brass without, and did never eat or drink any thing.
8 So the king was wroth, and called for his priests, and said unto them, If ye tell me not who this is that devoureth these expences, ye shall die.
9 But if ye can certify me that Bel devoureth them, then Daniel shall die: for he hath spoken blasphemy against Bel. And Daniel said unto the king, Let it be according to thy word.
10 (Now the priests of Bel were threescore and ten, beside their wives and children.) And the king went with Daniel into the temple of Bel.
11 So Bel’s priests said, Lo, we go out: but thou, O king, set on the meat, and make ready the wine, and shut the door fast, and seal it with thine own signet;
12 And to morrow when thou comest in, if thou findest not that Bel hath eaten up all, we will suffer death; or else Daniel, that speaketh falsely against us.
13 And they little regarded it: for under the table they had made a privy entrance, whereby they entered in continually, and consumed those things.
14 So when they were gone forth, the king set meats before Bel. Now Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes, and those they strewed throughout all the temple in the presence of the king alone: then went they out, and shut the door, and sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed.
15 Now in the night came the priests with their wives and children, (as they were wont to do,) and did eat and drink up all.
16 In the morning betime the king arose, and Daniel with him.
17 And the king said, Daniel, are the seals whole? And he said, Yea, O king, they be whole.
18 And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked upon the table, and cried with a loud voice, Great art thou, O Bel, and with thee is no deceit at all.
19 Then laughed Daniel, and held the king that he should not go in, and said, Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps are these.
20 And the king said, I see the footsteps of men, women, and children. And then the king was angry,
21 And took the priests with their wives and children, who shewed him the privy doors, where they came in, and consumed such things as were upon the table.
22 Therefore the king slew them, and delivered Bel into Daniel’s power, who destroyed him and his temple.
23 And in that same place there was a great dragon, which they of Babylon worshipped.
24 And the king said unto Daniel, Wilt thou also say that this is of brass? lo, he liveth, he eateth and drinketh; thou canst not say that he is no living god: therefore worship him.
25 Then said Daniel unto the king, I will worship the Lord my God: for he is the living God.
26 But give me leave, O king, and I shall slay this dragon without sword or staff. The king said, I give thee leave.
27 Then Daniel took pitch, and fat, and hair, and did seethe them together, and made lumps thereof: this he put in the dragon’s mouth, and so the dragon burst in sunder: and Daniel said, Lo, these are the gods ye worship.
28 When they of Babylon heard that, they took great indignation, and conspired against the king, saying, The king is become a Jew, and he hath destroyed Bel, he hath slain the dragon, and put the priests to death.
29 So they came to the king, and said, Deliver us Daniel, or else we will destroy thee and thine house.
30 Now when the king saw that they pressed him sore, being constrained, he delivered Daniel unto them:
31 Who cast him into the lions’ den: where he was six days.
32 And in the den there were seven lions, and they had given them every day two carcases, and two sheep: which then were not given to them, to the intent they might devour Daniel.
33 Now there was in Jewry a prophet, called Habbacuc who had made pottage, and had broken bread in a bowl, and was going into the field, for to bring it to the reapers.
34 But the angel of the Lord said unto Habbacuc, Go, carry the dinner that thou hast into Babylon unto Daniel, who is in the lions’ den.
35 And Habbacuc said, Lord, I never saw Babylon; neither do I know where the den is.
36 Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and bare him by the hair of his head, and through the vehemency of his spirit set him in Babylon over the den.
37 And Habbacuc cried, saying, O Daniel, Daniel, take the dinner which God hath sent thee.
38 And Daniel said, Thou hast remembered me, O God: neither hast thou forsaken them that seek thee and love thee.
39 So Daniel arose, and did eat: and the angel of the Lord set Habbacuc in his own place again immediately.
40 Upon the seventh day the king went to bewail Daniel: and when he came to the den, he looked in, and, behold, Daniel was sitting.
41 Then cried the king with a loud voice, saying, Great art thou, O Lord God of Daniel, and there is none other beside thee.
42 And he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den: and they were devoured in a moment before his face.

Let us summarize the story or stories in Bel and the Dragon. Daniel, in two separate incidents, exposed and destroyed two idolatrous objects: Bel, who was merely a statue that cannot eat (vv. 1-22), and the dragon, which was merely some sort of animal (vv. 23-27). Enraged by Daniel's success, the Babylonians forced King Cyrus to deliver him to them, and they cast their enemy into the lion's den (vv. 28-42). Daniel survived the week without being devoured by the seven lions and was provided with a meal of soup and bread from the hand of the prophet Habakkuk (vv. 33-39).

There are obvious problems with this apocryphal book. First, unlike the real prophet Daniel, this other "Daniel" comes across as something of a smart alec, who "smiled" (v. 7) and "laughed" (v. 19) at the fraud of Bel. Second, how did the animal which was the dragon "burst in sunder" when the lumps of cooked pitch, fat and hair were put in its mouth (v. 27)? Third, did the Babylonians really have the power to threaten to destroy the Medo-Persian Emperor, Cyrus, and his house, so that he was constrained to yield Daniel to them (vv. 29-30)? Fourth, the inclusion of Habakkuk is clearly legendary. It is somewhat strange to read of a prophet going to a field with a meal he had made for reapers (v. 33), but his bringing a dinner from Judah to Daniel in a lion's den in Babylon is bizarre (vv. 34-37). Besides, Habakkuk, if alive at this late date, would have been extremely old. Fifth, the idea of the lion's den arose from the narrative of Daniel 6, wherein the prophet was cast before these ferocious beasts at Darius' reluctant command. Several Old Testament Scriptures are the occasion for a number of apocryphal books. Baruch picks up on the book of Jeremiah, and the idea for the appendix to the book of Esther is even more obvious. The Song of the Three Children in the Furnace (cf. Dan. 3) and the Prayer of Manasses (cf. II Chron. 33:11-13) are, likewise, man's uninspired "developments" of God's inspired Word.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What does the word "Apocrypha" mean?

2. How many of the apocryphal books are canonical or deuterocanonical according to Eastern Orthodoxy? Rome? Protestantism?

3. What do you think are the most weighty arguments from the contents of II Maccabees, Tobit, and Bel and the Dragon against their canonicity?