Apocrypha

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I looked in the online catholic encyclopedia and it shows lots of these writings some of which are clearly commented on as fake or heretical, but some seem to be favourably commented on.
Is there a list of apocrypha which are accepted by the Catholic Church, even though they are not part of the bible?
 
There is no list, but you can go by two things:

There are works that St Jerome included in the Vulate in an appendix (in his very original Vulgate; they might not be in the New Vulgate on the Vatican website). Even if a work isn’t in the Catholic canon, it still probably had good support and isn’t heretical if St. Jerome included it. He included many books he didn’t consider canonical out of respect for the diversity of opinion on them.

At least the Protoevangelium of James is a very highly favored book; it is even read at the liturgy in the Eastern traditions. It’s very cool, from it we know the names of Mary’s parents, and from it we get the tradition of St. Joseph with the lily. It’s not infallibly taught that the book is inspired, but it’s a part of extrabiblical written tradition for sure.

You can also narrow out the value of books that are totally weird or heretical, and so no early church Fathers seriously considered them (e.g. the Gospel of Thomas, which is gnostic bunk).

Helpful?
 
Many thanks. I’ll look them up. If I can’t find them I’ll come back for your further assistance.
 
I found the Protoevangelium of James. When was this written and who is the James that wrote it?

With regard to St Jerome is there someplace I can find (buy if need be) the complete works of St Jerome including the Appendix you refer to?
 
By tradition, the protoevangelium of James was written by St. James the Greater, the Apostle, who wrote the Letter of James too. But I’m not sure what the historians say.

For the other books, here are two other ways to get them I can think of:
  1. Try getting an older Vulgate (the translation of the Bible by St. Jerome) such as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, or some other such copy. This might be hard! But you can also read them online here sacred-texts.com/bib/vul/. Tada! That includes apocrypha like the Prayer of Manasseh, letter to the Laodiceans, and “1 and 2 Esdras.” What they call “1 and 2” Esdras I’ve usually heard called “3 and 4 Esdras”; usually Ezra = 1 Esdras and Nehemiah = 2 Esdras. The third and fourth are considered apocrypha.
  2. Now, that’s all Vulgate, so it’s in Latin. To get them in English, find an Oxford or Cambridge study bible w/ apocrypha – it will probably include those books too. Some of them are accepted by the Orthodox. Also, there is a 151st psalm that is apocryphal (the Catholic Church only accepts 150).
Hope this is helpful. God bless you.

in Jesus, Mary and St. Joseph.
 
I would add the Gospel of Nicodemus as parts of it appear in the Holy Week services of the Byzantine Churches.
 
I managed to order the Oxford Study Bible with Apocrypha from Amazon.
Thanks.
 
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thistle:
I looked in the online catholic encyclopedia and it shows lots of these writings some of which are clearly commented on as fake or heretical, but some seem to be favourably commented on.
Is there a list of apocrypha which are accepted by the Catholic Church, even though they are not part of the bible?
Click to expand...
The Catholic Scripture is based on the Septuagent OT which was used in Juda in the time of Christ. The books of teh Septuagent are still in the Catholic Bible, but were taken out of the protestant bibles.
In fact the Deuterocanonical books were not even taken out of the protestant scriptures until the 1830’s or so. Get a KJV from before that and you will find them in it as well. I guess the protestants think some revelation happened in the 1830s to allow them to take books out of the bible.
 
Old Testament-Standard Protestant List
Genesis I Kings Ecclesiastes Obadiah
Exodus II Kings Song of Solomon Jonah
Leviticus I Chronicles Isaiah Micah
Numbers II Chronicles Jeremiah Nahum
Deuteronomy Ezra Lamentations Habakkuk
Joshua Nehemiah Ezekiel Zephaniah
Judges Esther Daniel Haggai
Ruth Job Hosea Zechariah
I Samuel Psalms Joel Malachi
II Samuel Proverbs Amos
New Testament List
Matthew Ephesians Hebrews
Mark Phillippians James
Luke Colossians I Peter
John I Thessalonians II Peter
Acts II Thessalonians I John
Romans I Timothy II John
I Corinthians II Timothy III John
II Corinthians Titus Jude
Galatians Philemon Revelation

The standard Protestant Old Testament consists of the same 39 books as in the Bible of Judaism, but the latter is organized differently. The Old Testament used by Roman Catholics has 7 additional “deuterocanonical” books, plus some additional parts of books. The 7 are: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Slrach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, I Maccabees, and II Maccabees. Both Catholic and Protestant versions of the New Testament have 27 books, with the same names.

Source:

World Almanac & Book of Facts; 2005, p737, 1/6p

Apocrypha [Gr.,=hidden things], term signifying a collection of early Jewish writings excluded from the canon of the Hebrew scriptures. It is not clear why the term was chosen. The Apocrypha include the following books and parts of books: First and Second Esdras; Tobit; Judith; the Additions to Esther; Wisdom of Solomon; Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus); Baruch; the Letter of Jeremiah (in Baruch); parts of Daniel (the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men; see also Bel and the Dragon and Susanna 1); First and Second Maccabees; the Prayer of Manasses (see Manasseh). All are included in the Septuagint, with the exception of 2 Esdras=4 Ezra. However, they were not included in the Hebrew canon (ratified c.A.D. 100). In 1566 the collection was deemed “deutero-canonical” by the Roman Catholic Church, meaning that their canonicity was recognized only after a period of time. Protestants follow Jewish tradition in regarding all these books as non-canonical. Jewish and Christian works resembling biblical books, but not included among the Apocrypha, are collected in the Pseudepigrapha. The term Apocrypha is sometimes applied to early Christian writings that were once considered canonical by some but are not in the New Testament.

Bibliography.

See The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha (1977); G. W. E. Nickelsburg, Jewish Literature Between the Bible and the Mishnah (1981).
 
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