JFJ Forums

Do Jews for Jesus consider the Apocrypha inspired?

Thanks,

Ginger2

Born again Christians do not consider the Apocrypha as inspired?
Partial truth and interpretation at best.

Could the situation have been that some Apocrypha books were part of the Tanakh before the Temple fell in 70 A.D.?

I'm not sure if by Jews for Jesus you mean the missionary organization or Jewish people who are for Jesus.

The Jews for Jesus missionary organization doesn't mention the Apocrypha in the statement of faith, but missionaries have published papers referencing the Apocrypha as a historical work.

I would say that the Apocrypha does have historical value but is not inspired.

Judaism divides what Christians call the bible into three books. At the time of Jesus, The Torah (Five books of Moses) had been accepted as inspired. The Neviim (Prophets) is the second division and had been accepted also. There were still discussions concerning what was to be included in the third book, called the Ketuvim (Writings). At the time of Jesus, Psalms was viewed as inspired but other books were still be discussed. You will see this division in the NT, when scripture refers to Moses, the Prophets and Psalms.

Thank you.

Not all Christians agree on the canon of scripture.  Catholic and Eastern Orthodox (and possibly Anglican) churches believe that the Apocrypha (we prefer to call them Deuterocanonical boks) are part of God's inspired word. The Deuterocanonical books were even included in the original King James bible (though I beleive as an appendix).

It was the same for Jews in the time of Christ and there was no "official" canon until some time after the destruction of the temple.  (Many believe the Jewish canon was established at the council of Jamnia ~90 A.D.)  Prior to this, Jews of the Diaspora used the Septuagint which was a Greek translation of many of the Hebrew writings.  The Septuagint contains all of the Hebrew scripture, the Deuterocanonical Books, and several others.  Here is a link that gives more detail:  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon
A study of the Greek N.T. shows that a majority of the N.T. verses that reference the O.T., take from the Septuagint version of scripture.  (I can dig up a reference to this if anyone is interested).

The statement "born again Christians do not consider the Apocrypha to be inspired" is not true.  I consider myself a born again Christian and I believe, along with many other born again Christians, that these books are inspired.  I think a more accurate statement is that not all Christians beleive in the same canon.

Some of the apocryphal books are gnostic in origin dated some 75 to 100 years
after Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and Paul's letters.

The statement, "The authoritative statements of Christ and his apostles, and the eyewitness narratives and accounts
included in the KJV New Testament lend more to the life and testimony of Y'shua than the apocrypha," can be considered along with other statements such as, "New Testament Christians do not believe the apocrypha h is inspired."

Catholics are the only Christians I've known to accept the Apocrypha as inspired. Can I ask what denomination you are from?

It is my opinion the Apocrypha cannot be inspired as they don't fit the criteria.

I ask the question, because of a discussion I was having on another forum.  I think I asked in a Jewish Website, also, but never got a response.

Ginger

In Judeo-Christian theology, the term apocrypha refers to any collection of scriptural texts that falls outside the canon. Given that different denominations have different ideas about what constitutes canonical scripture, there are several different versions of the apocrypha. During sixteenth-century controversies over the biblical canon the word "apocrypha" acquired a negative connotation, and it has become a synonym for "spurious" or "false". This usage usually involves fictitious or legendary accounts that are plausible enough to commonly be considered as truth.

I consider understanding what you read is not dependant of the volume of what is read.

Shalom.