Rules for Detecting Apocrypha

by Ron Halbrook
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 4, December 1995

(I am regularly asked why the Apocrypha of the Catholic Bible should not be considered a legitimate portion of God’s word. Several years ago, Rpn Halbrook presented the following material to the Bible class he was teaching in Athens, Alabama. Brother Halbrook has given permission to reprint part of that material here. We thank him for this, Floyd D. Chappelear.)

A writing has no right to claim to be a part of the Bible if:

1. It contains manifest contradictions.
2. It contains any statement of history, geography, chronology, or narrative contradictory to known history, geography, chronology, or narrative.
3. It contains anything bizarre, trifling, silly, or fabulous.
4. It mentions things of a date later than the time the supposed author lived or later than the time of the setting of the writing,
5. It has a style entirely different from the alleged author's known style.
6. It uses idiom or dialect different from the country or time of the alleged author ("The influence of native idiom appears nowhere more remarkably than in the ... New Testament.").
7. It shows a disposition and temper different from the alleged author.
8. It consists of mere extracts from other books.
9. It was never referred to as Scripture by either the friends or the enemies of Christianity for the first 400 years A.D.
10. It was expressly rejected and exposed by writers in the first 400 years A.D.
11. (As in the case of every single apocryphal Old Testament book) It is universally acknowledged to have never had a place in the Hebrew Bible
12. (As in the case of every single apocryphal Old Testament book) It is never quoted or approved by Christ, the apostles, or any New Testament writer.
13. (As in the case of every single apocryphal Old Testament book) It makes no claim to divine inspiration and authority, nor does it definitely disclaim such inspiration and authority, as some do.
14. It suggests a lower spiritual and moral level by upholding practices and doctrines contrary to the known Scriptures. Some such books sanction lying, suicide, salvation by works of merit, magical incantations, and prayers by the living for the dead.

NOTE: The 14 rules given are condensed and reworked from rules suggested in General Biblical Introduction by H. S. Miller, The Canon of the Old and New Testaments Ascertained by A. Alexander, Famous Biblical Hoaxes (Modern Apocrypha) by E. J. Goodspeed, and other sources.