Many people are familiar with the books that are placed in some Bibles between the Old Testament and the New Testament but what are they and are they important for us to read to learn about God and to grow in our Christian lives?
The best way to answer those questions correctly is to look at the history of when and how they were written and how they relate to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that was the Bible Jesus and Paul used and quoted from. If we didn’t have the Septuagint, we most likely would not have the Apocrypha in Bibles today as it was primarily their inclusion with the Septuagint that Jerome used to translate the Bible into the Latin Vulgate that they were considered part of the Old Testament scriptures.
Evaluated on their own, they were never included in the Old Testament canon.
In addition to false teachings in them including prayers for the dead and alms as contributing to salvation, you’ll see from this lesson how on the basis of their manuscript history alone, they have no place in the canonical Old Testament.
