# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 01 17_S84
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84

and inclined to throw everything wholly into confusion before they should confess that they could ever be shown their bounds by the Church before the laity. And this I have lately had to see on the occasion of a ban which I laid upon one of their students, who had stabbed a clergyman. Thereupon they let (curarunt) my sealed notices be taken down in broad noon from the gates by the armed youth and publicly torn to pieces, to so great an offense of the heretics and children, that this kingdom since the time of the Hussites has seen nothing more dreadful and more outrageous against the archiepiscopal authority.” (See: J. Flor. Hammerschmidii Prodrome gloriae Pragenae p. 519 seqq. J. E. Kapp Sammlung, 1749. pp. 182—199.

Well then, Mr. “Herold des Glaubens” of St. Louis, that you have hitherto raised doubts against the authenticity of the anonymous Prague Jesuit letter, that shall be made you a present of; you had to do that, since you yourselves write out into the world under the Jesuit cloak of anonymity, which hides all blushing; but what will you now begin with the letter, signed unfortunately with his name by a high prelate of your Church, and addressed to your holy father the Pope himself, which paints all your Prague Jesuits, yes all Jesuits of the whole land of Bohemia so shamefully that you can now see in that letter-writer nothing more than One out of a thousand of like mind, nothing more than a species of the genus? — Well, we shall see.

(For the “Lutheraner.”)

Shall the Apocrypha of the Old Testament Henceforth Be Bound with the Bibles or Not?

Over this question there has been carried on in Germany for some years a lively controversy in many writings, of which the most are against the retention of the Apocrypha. One of the most instructive essays on this subject is without doubt that in last year's July number of the “Ev. Kirchenzeitung,” which shall here be communicated in abstract with some additions.

The biblical books of the O. Test. are partly canonical, partly apocryphal. The canonical books, so named from the Greek word Canon, that is, rule or line, are such as are for the whole Church the sole rule and line of faith, of doctrine, and of confession. These canonical books are all those which stand in Luther's translation of the Bible from the first book of Moses to the prophet Malachi; they have all been given by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, for which we have sufficient testimonies in the Old and New Testament, e.g., 2 Sam. 23, 1-3. John 5, 39. 2 Tim. 3, 16. and for that very reason all those books are canonical.

The apocryphal books, on the other hand, are such whose authors may not be counted among the holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, 2 Peter 1, 21., and to whom the Holy Ghost gives no witness in His Word. These are all those writings which stand in Luther's translation of the Bible from the book of Judith to the Prayer of Manasseh. In the N. Testament not a single passage from these apocryphal books is expressly cited; yet in the apocr. books there are found many passages which are to be regarded as parallel passages to sayings of the N. Test.

The distinction between canon. and apocryphal books became, indeed, ever more general in the Christian Church, especially from the 3rd century on, through Origen and Jerome, yet already in the year 393 the council at Hippo made the mistake of declaring the said books to belong to the Canon of the O. Test. From that time on the confusion between canon. and apocryph. books gained more and more the upper hand, particularly in the Western Church, until at last the Reformation of Dr. Luther brought the truth, already recognized in the age of the Church Fathers, again to light also in this matter.

Dr. Luther, namely, in his German translation of the Bible assigned the Apocrypha their place between the canon. books of the Old and New Testament, and guarded against the placing of them on a level with the canon. books, but also against any disparagement, by the masterly superscription: “Apocrypha, that is, books which are not to be held equal to the Holy Scripture, and yet are useful and good to read.” This judgment can rightly be accepted as the judgment of the whole Luth. Church, since in it the Luth. translation of the Bible enjoys decided churchly authority.

While now the Reformed in general agree with this judgment, the Roman Catholics have stepped forward in decided opposition to it. For they wished not to give up the prevailing practice of placing the apocr. books on a level with the canon., because they would thereby have made the concession to the Protestants that these had brought to light, in an important point, the truth misjudged for centuries; they failed to see that the Church can never have the right to raise to the dignity of canon. books such as lacked all testimonies to their divine credibility; they persisted in the long-prevailing confusion of the word of men and the Word of God, and finally they were unwilling to lose the apparent proof-texts for certain doctrines, e.g., the book of Tobit for the doctrine of guardian angels, the 2nd book of Maccab. 12, 42 for purgatory and intercession for the dead. Therefore the council of Trent, which was held from the year 1545 on, went so far as to lay under the curse all those who did not hold all the books contained in the Rom. Vulgate or Latin translation of the Bible to be holy and canonical.

To this unlawful exaltation of the apocryphal books there was opposed their undeserved banishment, particularly on the part of the Protestant Bible Society in England. Since its founding in the year 1804 it had been its principle to omit the Apocrypha in the editions of the Bible issued by it, in which the later founded North American Bible Society followed it. Nevertheless the English Bible Society, up to the year 1826, always supported also such Bible societies of the Continent as circulated Bibles with the Apocrypha. About this time, however, there arose against this from Protestant Scotland such an opposition that at last that Bible society declared itself decidedly against all circulation of the apocryphal books, and thereby not only denied the principles of all Protestants in regard to these books, but also by its manner of acting withheld from millions the blessing of the same, which they had had so long in the Christian Church.

In Germany no striking agitations were called forth at that time by this controversy; for the Bible societies there declared themselves, with few exceptions, for the retention of the Apocrypha, since they declared themselves not entitled to alter anything in the churchly custom. Only for some years has there arisen a lively war against these books, which still continues. The attacks come from the most various regions and proceed in like manner from Lutherans (e.g., Pastor Kraussold in Fürth, Pastor Kluge in Bernstadt in Silesia,) from Reformed and Unionists. An attentive observer will not fail to notice that all these attacks stand more or less under the influence of an otherwise very honorable man, namely Dr. Marriott in Basel, the editor of the periodical, “der wahre Protestant,” whose task is the combating of Roman Catholicism. The same had offered a prize for the best attacks against the Apocrypha, whereupon no fewer than 19 writings came in, of which 2 won the prize, namely a more learned writing by Licentiate Keerl, and a more popular one by the above-mentioned Pastor Kluge. Both writings were distributed free of charge last year at the Kirchentag in Bremen. “When one has taken in all,” says the author of that essay, “that has been gathered in the writings cited against the Apocrypha, and then approaches them anew, one feels oneself only so much the more drawn by the spirit of living fear of God which breathes upon us out of them. It takes only a very small degree of unprejudiced mind to perceive this particularly in books such as Jesus Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit, Baruch, the first book of the