{"id":96511,"date":"2026-07-06T17:27:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=96511"},"modified":"2026-07-06T17:27:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:27:20","slug":"rules-for-detecting-apocrypha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/rules-for-detecting-apocrypha\/","title":{"rendered":"Rules for Detecting Apocrypha"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\tby Ron Halbrook
\nvia\u00a0Sentry Magazine<\/em>, Vol. 21 No. 4, December 1995\n

(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.)<\/p>\n

A writing has no right to claim to be a part of the Bible if:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It contains manifest contradictions.<\/li>\n
  2. It contains any statement of history, geography, chronology, or narrative contradictory to known history, geography, chronology, or narrative.<\/li>\n
  3. It contains anything bizarre, trifling, silly, or fabulous.<\/li>\n
  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,<\/li>\n
  5. It has a style entirely different from the alleged author’s known style.<\/li>\n
  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.”).<\/li>\n
  7. It shows a disposition and temper different from the alleged author.<\/li>\n
  8. It consists of mere extracts from other books.<\/li>\n
  9. It was never referred to as Scripture by either the friends or the enemies of Christianity for the first 400 years A.D.<\/li>\n
  10. It was expressly rejected and exposed by writers in the first 400 years A.D.<\/li>\n
  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<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n
  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.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    NOTE: The 14 rules given are condensed and reworked from rules suggested in General Biblical Introduction<\/em> by H. S. Miller, The Canon of the Old and New Testaments Ascertained<\/em> by A. Alexander, Famous Biblical Hoaxes<\/em> (Modern Apocrypha) by E. J. Goodspeed, and other sources.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Ron Halbrook via\u00a0Sentry 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[660,130],"class_list":["post-96511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apocrypha","tag-canon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17161,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-any-of-the-apocrypha-truthful\/","url_meta":{"origin":96511,"position":0},"title":"Are any of the Apocrypha truthful?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you for the insight into the Book of Enoch. I have been curious about reading this piece. I was wondering if you know of any other \"gospels\" that are considered truthful that are apart of the Apocrypha writings, such as the books of Maccabees, Thomas, Mary, etc. Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25883,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-the-apocrypha-books-accepted-as-canon-before-the-council-of-trent\/","url_meta":{"origin":96511,"position":1},"title":"Were the Apocrypha books accepted as canon before the Council of Trent?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Again I question your dates. You say that the Catholic Church added the \"Apocryphal\" books to the Bible in 1546 AD. I'm assuming you are talking about the Council of Trent, the Church's response to the Reformation. You are correct in saying that the Church affirmed that the \"Apocryphal\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24302,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-jude-contain-quotes-not-found-in-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":96511,"position":2},"title":"Why does Jude contain quotes not found in the Old Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When we study the book of Jude in our Bible study group, I found that in verse 9 and verse 14, Jude quoted \"The Lord rebuke thee\" and \"Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,\" but they were not in the Old Testament. A brother told\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39522,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-sirach-inspired\/","url_meta":{"origin":96511,"position":3},"title":"Is Sirach Inspired?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Thomas There is confusion over whether or not the Apocrypha are inspired and whether or not they belong in the canon of the Bible. We can have confidence in knowing these books were not authored by God. In between the last book of the Old Testament and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94813,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-canon-of-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":96511,"position":4},"title":"The Canon of the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 28, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Inspired Books The Canon of the Old Testament - Part 1 The Canon of the Old Testament - Part 2 The New Testament Canon False Books The Book of Enoch The Book of Jasher The Apocrypha New Testament Apocrypha - Infancy Gospels","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46938,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-indulge-in-food-and-drink-at-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":96511,"position":5},"title":"Is it wrong to indulge in food and drink at worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong for members of the church to indulge in food and drink while worship is happening? We have this problem, and I need an answer with Scripture, please. Thank you. Answer: I've noticed that people like to make rules instead of citing the Scriptures. It is that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96511"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96514,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96511\/revisions\/96514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}