New Testament citations of "Apocryphal" books?

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enanneman

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The New Testament contains many scriptural references to the Old Testament. For example, Peter cites Deuteronomy 18:15 when he says in Acts:
For Moses said: 'A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you. (Acts 3:22)
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My question: Are there any New Testament citations to any of the seven books that are part of the Protestant Apocrypha?

Thanks!

Eric
 
OH MAN! Steve wood just gave a talk on this very subject this morning on Immaculate Heart radio! And it’s escaping me now :banghead: , but there is reference in one of Paul’s letters to Maccabees. Not an exact quotation, but he said that it seems pretty clear that Paul is thinking of this situation in Maccabees when he is writing. He talked of some others, but again I can’t remember! :crying:

Sorry for the poor ability to help.
 
OH MAN!!! Steve Wood was talking about this very topic this morning on Immaculate Heart Radio. AND I CAN"T REMEMBER THE SPECIFIC CITATIONS!!! :banghead: I know he was talking about one of Paul’s letter and Paul makes reference to suffering and torture and he says that it is pretty clear that he is referring to a Portion of Maccabees (16-17, can’t remember if it’s 1st or 2nd). There were other reference but I can’t remember them! :crying:

Sorry for the poor ability to help!
 
The New Testament also cites books that are considered “Apocryphal” even by Catholics (for example, one of the Books of Enoch and the Assumption of Moses). Saint Paul even cites Pagan philsophers and some of their quotes.

The Old Testament also cites books, that are now lost to us (like the Book of Jashar).

The point is, citing a work does not mean that you take it to be inspired.
 
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DominvsVobiscvm:
The New Testament also cites books that are considered “Apocryphal” even by Catholics (for example, one of the Books of Enoch and the Assumption of Moses). Saint Paul even cites Pagan philsophers and some of their quotes.

The Old Testament also cites books, that are now lost to us (like the Book of Jashar).

The point is, citing a work does not mean that you take it to be inspired.
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That is true however citation does prove that the apostles where familiar with the duerocanonical works and that they were popular in early christian circles. In context Paul citation of pagan philoophers is made as an attempt to evangleize pagans on thier own turf. Ultimately catholics know the canon thrrough the tradition of the church. There are book uncited or not alluded to in New Testament that are part of the Old Testament canon so citation by itslef does no prove canonicity merely a familiarity and a wintess to the popularity of these writings as religious literature.
By this we are certain the apostles knew of the dueterocanonical works as to whether they were canonical at that particular time is probably not known as the Jews really closed the canon 2 centureis later and the catholic christians listed their canons officially for the first time in the fourth century. The be completely honest there was no closed canon at the time of Christ. And since there was a civil war of sorts between Jews and Christians there canon of the OT really doesn’t affect us since it was after teh fact the early Christians were thrown out of the temple and had no say in thier councils later on.
 
There was certainly difference of opinion regarding the canon. Did not the Sadducees accept only the first five books of the Law? (Excluding the Prophets and such). However, in the New Testament, there are direct quotes from the Septuagint, which supports the fact that the Apostles were familiar with the Greek Canon. The Greek (or Alexandrian) Canon included the same books of the Old Testament as the modern Catholic Bible. Why would inspired authors quote from a translation (the Greek Septuagint) that included non-canonical writings, one must ask Protestants. By quoting the Septuagint, it is strongly implied that they used and trusted the Septuagint. (The fact that they accepted the Greek Canon of the Catholic Church is furthered by the multiple references and allusions to the Deutero-Canonical books).

God bless,
Tyler
 
It probably doesn’t help either way.

Take Esther, for example. It’s a “protocanonical” book of the Old Testament. Both Catholics and Protestants accept it as inspired and canonical. Is it quoted in the New Testament?

No.

Interestingly, St. Athanasius doesn’t include Esther in his listing of the OT canon (he explicitly puts it in the non-canonical category). However, I don’t know if it has anything do with the NT not citing Esther. It probably doesn’t.

Of course, Protestants aren’t ready to drop Esther on that basis. Why? Given their opposition to the Deuterocanonicals based on the supposed non-citation in the NT, I have no idea.
 
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tkdnick:
I know he was talking about one of Paul’s letter and Paul makes reference to suffering and torture and he says that it is pretty clear that he is referring to a Portion of Maccabees (16-17, can’t remember if it’s 1st or 2nd).
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Matthew 22:23-38 says:The same day Sad’ducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, `If a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.”

Hebrews 11:35 says, “Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life.”

It is quite possible that both of the above Scripture passages refer to the torture and martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons described in 2 Maccabees 7:1-42
 
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enanneman:
Are there any New Testament citations to any of the seven books that are part of the Protestant Apocrypha?
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This is from One Bread One Body forum on ChristianBBS FAQ
Jesus and the Gospel writers referenced the Deuterocanonicals in the following instances:
Matthew 6:12, 14-15—“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your heavenly father forgive your transgressions.”
Sirach 28:2—“Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.”

Luke 1:17 (describing John the Baptist)—“He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers towards children and the disobediant to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.”
Sirach 48:10—“You are destined, it is written, in time to come, to put an end to wrath before the day of the Lord, to turn back the hearts of fathers towards their sons, and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.”

Luke 1:28, 1:42—“And coming to her, he said, ‘Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you!’…Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
Judith 13:18—"Then Uzziah said to her: 'Blessed are you, daughter, by the Most High God, above all the women of the earth; and blessed be the Lord God, the Creator of heaven and earth.

Luke 1:52—“He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones, but lifted up the lowly.”
Sirach 10:14—“The thrones of the arrogant God overturns, and establishes the lowly in their stead.”

Luke 12:19-20—“I shall say to myself, ‘Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’”
Sirach 11:19—“When he says: ‘I have found rest, now I will feast on my possessions,’ he does not know how long it will be till he dies and leaves them to others.”

Luke 18:22—“When Jesus heard this, he said to him, ‘There is still one thing left for you: sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.’”
Sirach 29:11—“Dispose of your treasure as the Most High commands, for that will profit you more than the gold.”
 
John 3:12—“If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”
Wisdom 9:16—“Scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?”

John 5:18—“For this reason the Jews tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but he also called God his own Father, making himself equal to God.”
Wisdom 2:16—“He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father.”

John 10:29—“My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.”
Wisdom 3:1—“But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.”

Romans 2:11—“There is no partiality with God.”
Sirach 35:12—“For he is a God of justice, who knows no favorites.”

Romans 9:21—“Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for a noble purpose andanother fo an ignoble one?”
Wisdom 15:7—“For truly the potter, laboriously working the soft earth, molds for our service each several article: both the vessels that serve for clean purposes, and their opposites, all alike; as to what shall be the use of each vessel of eiother class, the worker in clay is the judge.”

Romans 11:24—“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?”
Wisdom 9:13—“For what man knows God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends?”

1 Thessalonians 2:16—"(The enemies of Christ persecute us), trying to prevent us from speaking to the Gentiles that they may be saved, thus constantly filling up the measure of their sins. But the wrath of God has finally begun to come upon them."
2 Maccabees 6:14—“Thus, in dealing with other nations, the Lord patiently waits until they reach the full measure of their sins before he punishes them; but with us he has decided to deal differently”

James 1:13—“No one experiencing temptation should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one.”
Sirach 15:11-12—“Say not: ‘It was God’s doing that I fell away’; for what he hates he does not do. Say not: ‘It was he who set me astray’; for he has no need of wicked man.”

James 5:2-3—“Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver hav corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire.”
Judith 16:17—'The Lord Almighty will requite them; in the day of judgement he will punish them: he will send fire and worms into their flesh, and they shall burn and suffer forever."

Now, of course, you may say that these don’t sound like exact quotes, and you’d be right; but there are thousands of allusions in the New Testament from the Old, both Deuterocanon and not, which are not exact quotes. Romans 11:34, for example, also has an allusion to Job 15:8, but ironically the allusion to Wisdom 9:13 is closer in actual wording to it than Job is. And, of course, if you want to get into loose allusions, we could expand the above list to ten times the size it is. Then there are also the cases of outright error in some New Testament quotes, such as Matthew 27:9, in which Matthew quotes “the prophet Jeremiah”, when the allusion is actually found nowhere in Jeremiah but rather in Zecheriah 11:12-13.

There is also the case of some Old Testament books not being quoted by Jesus in the New Testament: He didn’t quote from Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, or the Song of Solomon. And yet they are still considered to be canonical Scripture even though He did not reference them.
 
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kepha1:
Yup. Sure is. Would 70+ be enough?

scripturecatholic.com/deuterocanon.html

And they are not necessarily called Apocryphal Books, the proper term is Deutero-Canonical Books,
if I may split this hair________________________:smiley:

kepha1
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These scripture references are great. So is the whole website. Thankshttp://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon7.gif
 
Todd Easton:
Matthew 22:23-38 says:The same day Sad’ducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, `If a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.”

Hebrews 11:35 says, “Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life.”

It is quite possible that both of the above Scripture passages refer to the torture and martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons described in 2 Maccabees 7:1-42
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That was it! Guess it wasn’t a letter from Paul…
 
I always thought the woman with the seven husbands was a reference to the story (very popular at the time) which begins in Tobit 3:7 and continues for the next few chapters of Tobit…

**"Now it happened on the same day, that Sara daughter of Raguel, in Rages a city of the Medes, received a reproach from one of her father’s servant maids,

Because she had been given to seven husbands, and a devil named Asmodeus had killed them, at their first going in unto her." **

Tobit’s son Tobias, with the help of an angel, ends up vanquishing the demon and marries Sara without getting killed.
God bless,
Paul
 
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