Dr Paul Allen

Today the word Apocrypha is synonymous with the fourteen or fifteen books of doubtful authenticity and authority. These writings are not found in the Hebrew Old Testament , but they are contained in some manuscripts of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, which was completed around 250 B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt.  Most of these books were declared to be Scripture by the Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent (1545–1563), though the Protestant Church rejects any divine authority attached to them.  Those who attribute divine authority to these books and advocate them as Scripture argue that the writers of the New Testament quote, mostly from the Septuagint, which contains the Apocrypha. They also cite the fact that some of the Church fathers, notably Iranaeus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria, used the Apocrypha, in public worship and accepted them as Scripture, as did the Syriac Church in the fourth century.  St. Augustine, who presided

As for the other events of the reign of Ahaz, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? [2 Kings 16:19] We do not have the “annals of the kings of Judah,” but we do have ancient Hebrew writings that are not part of what the Protestant church regards as the Bible. These writings are the Apocrypha and come down to us from the ancient Hebrews. Jewish writers since the first century, notably the historian Josephus, made it clear that these books were not authoritative, nor deemed inspired. The Greek Alexandrian Canon seems to include the Apocrypha. Ancient copies of the Greek Old Testament found in Alexandria, Egypt, include the apocryphal books. This does not mean Alexandrian Jews believed these books inspired. Our Bibles contain introductory articles, notes, and guides that we do not consider to be part of the Word of God. We cannot be sure how the Alexandrian Jews regarded the apocryphal books, but we know for certain that Palestinian Jews

The English word “church,” like cot “kirk” (cf. Dutch “kerk”; Ger. “Kirche”), is derived from Gk. kyriakós “belonging to the Lord,” or more specifically, kyriakḗ oikía “belonging to the house of the Lord.” In the Old Testament , Heb. qāhāl designates an assembly, either religious (e.g., 2 Chr. 30:23; cf. “congregation”) or secular (e.g., Jer. 26:17, KJV; RSV “assembled people”). In the New Testament Gk. ekklēsía is roughly the equivalent of Heb. qāhāl since it connotes the assembly and could be literally translated “meeting called together” (see below).  At Acts 19:32, 39, ekklēsía refers to a large gathering in the theater at Ephesus, while at 7:38 it refers to the Hebrew community in the wilderness. Usually the Greek term represents God’s people as distinguished from others, thus called out (ek “out” and klētos “called”) of the world. Though the New Testament community of believers is intimately bound to its Old Testament counterpart, many Christians hold that the Church is a