Apocryphal Books: Why don't Lutherans accept them?

Q: I have some Roman Catholic friends who say that Lutherans got rid of some books of the Bible and that's why we have a different faith. Is it True?

A: NO! The canon (list of Bible books) accepted by the Roman Catholic Church as the official Bible includes books and chapters that most other church bodies do not accept as Scripture. These are called the Apocryphal books, or Deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics.

   The very first matter in this discussion is to talk about why they are in the Roman Catholic Bible and not the majority of Protestant Bibles. It isn't really a matter of Lutherans and Protestants excluding the Apocryphal books, they were never were included in a listing of the canon until 1546.

   With the successful rise of the Lutheran church and its profound Biblical stance (Scripture alone is the source of our doctrine and teaching), the Roman Catholics called a church council to deal with the Lutheran problem. This council (or meeting) was held in the city of Trent. In 1546, as part of this council 15 books that had never been officially accepted as books of the Bible were declared canonical. Along with these books, the council declared that the unwritten tradition of the church was also the Word of God.

   These books Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, First and Second Maccabees, An ending to Esther, and additions to Daniel were rejected by the early church and later Christians for a number of reasons:

1. None of these were ever part of the Hebrew Old Testament. Hebrew is the language of the Jews and of the rest of the books of the Old Testament. Romans 3:1-2, indicates that the oracles of God were given to the Jews. It would seem odd to deliver these oracles in the language of foreigners.

2. Even though the New Testament quotes or alludes to 36 of the 39 books of the Old Testament, not one of the Apocryphal books are ever quoted or mentioned.

3. None of the Apocryphal books themselves ever claim to be part of the inspired Scripture.

4. The Jews before and after Jesus' time rejected the apocryphal books.

5. There are clear and obvious errors within the apocryphal books. For example, in the Books of the Maccabees: In 10:1 it incorrectly gives facts concerning Alexander, son of Antiochus Epiphanes and in 13:31 it gives a time of assassination of Antiochus VI by Tryphon that is clearly incorrect. In 6:37 it is said there were 32 men upon each elephant, not a likely scenario. Since the Bible is without error, this book does not qualify as canonical.

6. The additions to Esther and Daniel were written in a different language and a different style than the rest of those books and appear to have been written at least several hundred years after the original.