The position of the Churches of the Anglican Tradition regarding the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical Books of the Old Testament is affirmed in the VI Article of Religion:
And the other books (as Hierome [Jerome] saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine; such are these following:
The Third Book of Esdras.
The Fourth Book of Esdras.
The Book of Tobias.
The Book of Judith.
The rest of the Book of Esther.
The Book of Wisdom.
Jesus the Son of Sirach.
Baruch the Prophet.
The Song of the Three Children.
The Story of Susanna.
Of Bel and the Dragon.
The Prayer of Manasses.
The First Book of Maccabees.
The Second Book of Maccabees.
The Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament are not part of the Hebrew Masoretic text officially canonised by Judaism at the rabbinical 'Council of Jamnia' in AD 90, but are books originally (so far as we know) written in the Greek language and incorporated into the Greek Old Testament of the Septuagint (LXX), translated from Hebrew to Greek in c. BC 150. Because we do not possess the Hebrew originals of the Deuterocanonical or 'second-canon texts,' they have been described as Apocryphal or 'hidden,' 'veiled,' for the Hebrew original texts are as yet unknown. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostles and the earliest Christians read and used the Septuagint Old Testament in its koinetic Greek form, and so would have used the Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books contained in them as part of Holy Scripture. The earliest Christian councils canonised these books and recognised them as part of the Old Testament, culminating in the modern use found in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, as well as in Anglicanism. However, the Apostolic Churches have long made a distinction between the character of the Hebrew books and the Greek books, seeing the latter as more instructive and formational in nature, rather than doctrinal or dogmatic.
The Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches, sister Churches in the Apostolic Tradition, have achieved full agreement on the matter. The Moscow Agreed Statement of the Anglican and Orthodox Churches in 1956 asserts, 'the Conference agreed that the Canon of Holy Scripture was the same for both Churches.'
In 1672 the Synodical Tome of the Council of Jerusalem gives the Orthodox view that the Anaginoskomena (books which may be read) can be described as good and edifying, and are not to be rejected completely. This accords completely with Anglican Article VI.
The Bonn Conference of Anglicans, Old Catholics and Orthodox in 1874, however, referring to these books as Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical, did not consider that they enjoyed the same canonicity as the books in the Hebrew Canon.
In the 'Conditions of Intercommunion' offered by the Anglicans to the Orthodox in 1921, the Anglicans stated that these books are called either Deuterocanonical or Anaginoskomena or Apocryphal, and that our Church accepts the teaching about them given by Saint Athanasius and Saint Jerome, echoed in Article VI. This statement, with the term Apocryphal removed, was accepted almost word for word by the 1931 Anglican-Orthodox Joint Doctrinal Commission in the second article of its Report.
The same unanimity was also shown at the 1956 Moscow Theological Conference, when it was declared by both sides that: 'Both Churches also accepted the uncanonical books, not as inspired by God, but as being useful and instructive.' But here, 'there was some difference between the speakers in their emphasis on the character of the inspiration of Holy Scripture, and on the measure of the human element in it.' This statement neatly summarises the Anglican position on the Apocrypha, which is considered by us an essential part of the Old Testament Canon; a Bible, thus, without the Apocrypha, is incomplete. Although the Apocryphal books may not be inspired by the Holy Ghost in the same way the Protocanonical texts are, they are considered an irreplaceable component of the biblical Canon - for they offer key instruction in the living of the Christian life and in the formation of Christian moral and ethical behaviour. Lex orandi, lex credendi: the Apocrypha is also an essential feature of the Book of Common Prayer liturgy; its hymns are sung as canticles in the Morning Office of the American Book, and the 1943 American Office lectionary includes several books of the Deuterocanonical tradition in the readings for Daily Morning and Evening Prayer throughout the Christian year. The BCP would be incomplete without the Apocrypha as well...
The Anglican doctrine of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture is fully in accordance with the teaching of Saint Athanasius and Saint Augustine: 'We believe that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation.' The Anglican Church professes this faith in the following phraseology: 'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.'
The Eastern Orthodox express the corresponding teaching of their own Church based on the words of Saint Basil the Great. 'Holy Scripture is fulfilled, clarified, and interpreted by Holy Tradition.' A joint Anglican-Orthodox declaration joins the views in harmony: 'everything necessary for salvation can be found in Holy Scripture as completed, expounded, interpreted, and understood in the Holy Tradition, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit residing in the Church.'
This statement was accepted as it stands by the Doctrinal Committee of Romanian Orthodox and Anglicans in Bucharest in 1935 in the fifth article of their Report. At Moscow in 1956 it was stated jointly that 'Holy Scripture is explained and completed in the light of Tradition.' This has long been the Anglican position, which emphasises the unity of Scripture, Tradition and Church: 'the Church to teach, the Bible to prove.' The old Anglican adage is 'the Bible and the Primitive Church.'
The Anglicans and Eastern Orthodox both proclaim: ‘By Scripture, we mean the Canon of Scripture as it is defined by Saint Athanasius and as it has been received by the whole Catholic Church.’
3 comments:
There are 39 books in the Old Testament. Three times nine equals twenty-seven. There are 27 books in the New Testament. Two times seven equals fourteen. There are 14 books in the Apocrypha.
Very interesting, thank you for posting this. A welcome reminder that the best of the English Reform looked to the Fathers.
How could that Council of Jamnia have authority over the Christian Church if it was from the post-resurrection neo-Jewish religion? Those men could not have been inspired by anything but themselves. The early Christians used the Septuagint, which included the apocrypha. The first council of the Church to decide anything about a Canon was the Council of Carthage, which included the apocrypha in the Canon.
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