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Question: I've heard it said that we don't have all the Bible; is
that true?

1. This question has reference to the apocrypha (a Greek term that
means "hidden", or "secret things"), books that were written at
various times from about 300 B.C. to 30 B.C. (The Bible Almanac,
p.582).

2. These books are as follows:
     1) 1 Esdras
     2) II Esdras
     3) Tobet
     4) Judith
     5) The Rest of the Book of Esther.
     6) The Wisdom of Solomon
     7) The Wisdom of Ecclesiasticus
     8) Baruch
     9) The Song of the Three Holy Children
     10) The History of Susanna
     11) Bel and the Dragon
     12) The Prayer of Manasses
     13) I Maccabees
     14) II Maccabees

3) Some of these books are valuable as history, particularly the
books of Maccabees, but they are not inspired books.

4) This can be seen from the fact that the New Testament quotes
from the O.T. hundreds of times, but never from the apocrypha.

5) The 16th Century reformer, Martin Luther, included the apocrypha
in his German Bible (1534), but printed them separately, asserting
that they were not inspired, but profitable.

6) There is no internal or external evidence which would include
the apocrypha as scripture.

7) The Council of Trent (1545-63) proclaimed the books as Scripture
and pronounced an anathema on those who disagree. But this attempt
is 1 1/2 thousand years too late.

We can be confident that we have all God intended for us to have in
our Bible. 



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