The Scribe’s Treasure
The Apocrypha of 1611
“They are not to be any otherwise approved, than to be read for example of life and instruction of manners.” — after the judgment of the ancient church
The Apocrypha, in the King James Bible of 1611, printed between the Testaments: fourteen books of Jewish writing from the centuries between Malachi and Matthew. The translators of 1611 included them, as the church had for centuries, 'for example of life and instruction of manners' — but not as canonical Scripture, and the confessions of the Reformation churches say the same. Grace Team University presents them here exactly so: a SEPARATE VOLUME, never mixed into the Bible — historically treasured, doctrinally weighed, and always judged by the sixty-six books that are the Word of God.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” — John 5:39
1 EsdrasThe Apocrypha · 1611A Greek reworking of the history from Josiah to the return from Babylon, parallel to 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah — plus the famous contest of the three bodyguards on what is strongest (wine, the king, women, and at last truth). It shows what Jews of the last centuries before Christ were reading, but it adds legend to the biblical record and was never received as Scripture.
9 chapters · 448 verses2 EsdrasThe Apocrypha · 1611An apocalypse written after Jerusalem's fall (c. A.D. 100): Ezra questions an angel about God's justice, the end of the age, and the fate of Israel. Chapters 3–14 (the 'Fourth Book of Esdras') wrestle honestly with suffering, but teach a despairing arithmetic of the saved ('many are created, but few shall be saved') and rest on visions God never gave His prophets. The opening and closing chapters are later Christian additions.
16 chapters · 874 versesTobitThe Apocrypha · 1611A moving story of a righteous captive in Nineveh, his son Tobias, the angel Raphael in disguise, and God's care for a suffering family. Read it for its devotion to prayer, almsgiving, and burial of the dead — but note its doctrine: 'almsgiving will deliver from death' (12:9) makes charity a purchase of pardon, and its angelology and magic fish sit outside anything the prophets taught.
14 chapters · 244 versesJudithThe Apocrypha · 1611A gripping tale of the widow Judith saving her city by beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. It is also historically impossible on its face — Nebuchadnezzar reigns as 'king of the Assyrians' in Nineveh — and the church has generally read it as edifying fiction, not history, and certainly not Scripture.
16 chapters · 339 verses
9 chapters · 448 verses2 EsdrasThe Apocrypha · 1611An apocalypse written after Jerusalem's fall (c. A.D. 100): Ezra questions an angel about God's justice, the end of the age, and the fate of Israel. Chapters 3–14 (the 'Fourth Book of Esdras') wrestle honestly with suffering, but teach a despairing arithmetic of the saved ('many are created, but few shall be saved') and rest on visions God never gave His prophets. The opening and closing chapters are later Christian additions.
16 chapters · 874 versesTobitThe Apocrypha · 1611A moving story of a righteous captive in Nineveh, his son Tobias, the angel Raphael in disguise, and God's care for a suffering family. Read it for its devotion to prayer, almsgiving, and burial of the dead — but note its doctrine: 'almsgiving will deliver from death' (12:9) makes charity a purchase of pardon, and its angelology and magic fish sit outside anything the prophets taught.
14 chapters · 244 versesJudithThe Apocrypha · 1611A gripping tale of the widow Judith saving her city by beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. It is also historically impossible on its face — Nebuchadnezzar reigns as 'king of the Assyrians' in Nineveh — and the church has generally read it as edifying fiction, not history, and certainly not Scripture.
16 chapters · 339 verses
Additions to EstherThe Apocrypha · 1611Six Greek expansions of the book of Esther: Mordecai's dream, the text of the king's letters, the prayers of Mordecai and Esther, Esther's fainting audience before the king, and the dream explained. They add God's name (absent from the Hebrew Esther) and religious colouring the Holy Spirit did not put there — a standing lesson in what happens when men improve on Scripture.
7 chapters · 105 versesWisdom of SolomonThe Apocrypha · 1611Beautiful Greek philosophy in a Hebrew dress — the praise of Wisdom, the fate of the righteous and the wicked, and a retelling of the Exodus. Written in Alexandria, steeped in Plato, it contains passages Christians have always loved for their echoes of Christ — yet it was composed centuries after Solomon and never stood in the Hebrew canon.
19 chapters · 436 versesEcclesiasticusThe Apocrypha · 1611The 'Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach' (c. 180 B.C.) — the longest apocryphal book: proverbs for daily life, the fear of the Lord, and the great praise of the fathers in chapters 44–50. Much of its practical wisdom agrees with Proverbs, and it preserves precious Jewish history; but its teaching on alms atoning for sins (3:30) and its author's own modesty ('the third generation' after the prophets) confess it is not the Word of God.
51 chapters · 1392 versesBaruchThe Apocrypha · 1611Presented as the writing of Jeremiah's scribe in Babylon: a confession of Israel's sin, a hymn to Wisdom, and (as chapter 6) the Letter of Jeremiah mocking idols. The idol chapter is excellent preaching against image-worship — and the whole book shows the church a post-exilic Judaism already looking for a wisdom it could not find, which came at last in Christ, 'the wisdom of God.'
6 chapters · 213 verses
7 chapters · 105 versesWisdom of SolomonThe Apocrypha · 1611Beautiful Greek philosophy in a Hebrew dress — the praise of Wisdom, the fate of the righteous and the wicked, and a retelling of the Exodus. Written in Alexandria, steeped in Plato, it contains passages Christians have always loved for their echoes of Christ — yet it was composed centuries after Solomon and never stood in the Hebrew canon.
19 chapters · 436 versesEcclesiasticusThe Apocrypha · 1611The 'Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach' (c. 180 B.C.) — the longest apocryphal book: proverbs for daily life, the fear of the Lord, and the great praise of the fathers in chapters 44–50. Much of its practical wisdom agrees with Proverbs, and it preserves precious Jewish history; but its teaching on alms atoning for sins (3:30) and its author's own modesty ('the third generation' after the prophets) confess it is not the Word of God.
51 chapters · 1392 versesBaruchThe Apocrypha · 1611Presented as the writing of Jeremiah's scribe in Babylon: a confession of Israel's sin, a hymn to Wisdom, and (as chapter 6) the Letter of Jeremiah mocking idols. The idol chapter is excellent preaching against image-worship — and the whole book shows the church a post-exilic Judaism already looking for a wisdom it could not find, which came at last in Christ, 'the wisdom of God.'
6 chapters · 213 verses
Song of the Three Holy ChildrenThe Apocrypha · 1611The Greek addition to Daniel 3: the prayer of Azariah in the furnace and the great hymn of praise ('O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord') sung by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. As poetry it is glorious; as Scripture it is an addition — the Hebrew Daniel, which the Lord and His apostles received, does not contain it.
1 chapter · 68 versesSusannaThe Apocrypha · 1611A courtroom jewel: the chaste Susanna, falsely accused by two corrupt elders, is saved when young Daniel cross-examines the witnesses apart and their stories collide. Read as a story of God's care for the innocent and the beginnings of Daniel's fame — a traditional tale, not a chapter of the canonical Daniel.
1 chapter · 64 versesBel and the DragonThe Apocrypha · 1611Two short satires on idolatry from Greek Daniel: Daniel proves the idol Bel eats nothing (the priests do), and destroys a worshipped dragon with a cake of pitch. Fine ammunition against image-worship, in the manner of Baruch 6 — and plainly a later appendix, not part of the prophet's book.
1 chapter · 42 versesPrayer of ManassehThe Apocrypha · 1611A short, tender prayer put in the mouth of Judah's worst king, whom Chronicles says 'humbled himself greatly' in Babylon (2 Chronicles 33:12–13) — Scripture records the repentance but not this prayer. The church has treasured it as a model of confession; it is a human composition about a biblical event, not part of the event's inspired record.
1 chapter · 15 verses
1 chapter · 68 versesSusannaThe Apocrypha · 1611A courtroom jewel: the chaste Susanna, falsely accused by two corrupt elders, is saved when young Daniel cross-examines the witnesses apart and their stories collide. Read as a story of God's care for the innocent and the beginnings of Daniel's fame — a traditional tale, not a chapter of the canonical Daniel.
1 chapter · 64 versesBel and the DragonThe Apocrypha · 1611Two short satires on idolatry from Greek Daniel: Daniel proves the idol Bel eats nothing (the priests do), and destroys a worshipped dragon with a cake of pitch. Fine ammunition against image-worship, in the manner of Baruch 6 — and plainly a later appendix, not part of the prophet's book.
1 chapter · 42 versesPrayer of ManassehThe Apocrypha · 1611A short, tender prayer put in the mouth of Judah's worst king, whom Chronicles says 'humbled himself greatly' in Babylon (2 Chronicles 33:12–13) — Scripture records the repentance but not this prayer. The church has treasured it as a model of confession; it is a human composition about a biblical event, not part of the event's inspired record.
1 chapter · 15 verses
1 MaccabeesThe Apocrypha · 1611The most valuable of these books as history: a sober, careful account of the Seleucid persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes, the revolt of the Maccabees, the cleansing of the Temple (the origin of Hanukkah), and the rise of the Hasmonean house, 175–134 B.C. Indispensable for the four hundred 'silent years' between Malachi and Matthew — history to be thanked for, and its own pages never claim the Spirit's inspiration ('the prophets ceased,' 9:27).
16 chapters · 924 verses2 MaccabeesThe Apocrypha · 1611A more embroidered telling of the same revolt, with apparitions, martyrdoms (the mother and her seven sons, ch. 7), and explicit doctrines the Bible denies: prayers and a sin-offering for dead idolaters (12:43–45 — the seed-text of purgatory and masses for the dead) and the intercession of dead saints (15:14). Its author closes by hoping his work is merely 'pleasant' reading (15:38–39) — the church should take him at his word and keep it out of the canon.
15 chapters · 555 verses
16 chapters · 924 verses2 MaccabeesThe Apocrypha · 1611A more embroidered telling of the same revolt, with apparitions, martyrdoms (the mother and her seven sons, ch. 7), and explicit doctrines the Bible denies: prayers and a sin-offering for dead idolaters (12:43–45 — the seed-text of purgatory and masses for the dead) and the intercession of dead saints (15:14). Its author closes by hoping his work is merely 'pleasant' reading (15:38–39) — the church should take him at his word and keep it out of the canon.
15 chapters · 555 verses