This is lengthy, but will explain many of our questions about the many Bible translations we have come to use today.
Apocrypha, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means "books included in the Septuagint and Vulgate but excluded from the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament.
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. By the 13th century this revision had come to be called the versio vulgata, that is, the "commonly used translation" and ultimately it became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Septuagint is an Ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. It was originally the designation for the Koine Greek translation of the Pentateuch, but came in time to refer to the Greek translation of the Old Testament adopted by Christians, incorporating the translations of all the books of the Hebrew Bible and books later considered apocryphal or deutero-canonical, some composed in Greek and some translations. The translation process was undertaken in stages. It began by the 3rd century BCE and was completed by 132 BCE initially in Alexandria, but in time possibly elsewhere too. It incorporates the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) until the development of Byzantine Greek (c.600 CE). Other versions are now preserved only in fragmentary form.
The Apocrypha (missing books of the KJV Bible printed in 1611) was officially removed from the English printings of the KJV by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1885 leaving only 66 books. In the Catholic Church the version used is the Douay-Rheims Bible consisting of 73 books. In the Protestant church only the 66 books approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury are allowed, which today is known as the Authorized King James Bible. No other books, neither the Apocrypha, which was included in the original 1611 King James Bible were considered inspired, but only historical as there have been over sixhundred books removed since the first reformation of 312 when Emperor Constantine after solidifying his position to gain complete control of the western portion of the Roman Empire instituted the Edict of Milan, a "Magna Carta of religious liberty," which eventually changed the Empire’s religion and put Christianity on an equal footing with paganism. Christianity having been the victim of the Roman Empire, under the Emperor Constantine, who blended the Christian Church with the institutionalized "pagan" practices of Rome and eliminated any semblance of either the Jewish religious influence or the first church Jesus established during his ministry.
William Tyndale's New Testament started in 1525 and his incomplete work on the Old Testament became the basis for the Great Bible. This was the first "authorized version" issued by the Church of England during the reign of King Henry VIII in 1539. These English expatriates undertook a translation that became known as the
Geneva Bible. This translation, dated to 1560, was a revision of Tyndale's Bible and the Great Bible on the basis of the original languages.
The Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, King James Bible or KJV, (includes the Apocrypha) is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. In January 1604, King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference where a new English version was conceived in response to the perceived problems of the earlier translations as detected by the Puritans a faction within the Church of England. James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the Episcopal structure of the Church of England and its beliefs about an ordained clergy. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek; the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew text, while the Apocrypha were translated from the Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible – for Epistle and Gospel readings – and as such was authorized by Act of Parliament. By the first half of the 18th century, the Authorized Version was effectively unchallenged as the English translation used in Anglican and Protestant churches. Over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English speaking scholars.
The Revised KJV (or English Revised Version) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. It was the first and remains the only officially authorized and recognized revision of the King James Bible. The stated aim of the RV's translators was "to adapt King James' version to the present state of the English language without changing the idiom and vocabulary," and "to adapt it to the present standard of Biblical scholarship." Further, it was to be "the best version possible in the nineteenth century, as King James' version was the best which could be made in the seventeenth century. The revisers were charged with introducing alterations only if they were deemed necessary to be more accurate and faithful to the Original Greek and Hebrew texts. In the New Testament alone more than 30,000 changes were made, over 5,000 on the basis of what were considered better Greek manuscripts. The work was begun in 1879, with the entire work completed in 1885. (The RV Apocrypha came out in 1895.) The Revised Version of 1885 was the first post-King James Version modern English Bible at the time to gain popular acceptance and it was used and quoted favorably by ministers, authors, and theologians in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Other important enhancements introduced in the RV include arrangement of the text into paragraphs, printing Old Testament poetry in indented poetic lines (rather than as prose), and the inclusion of marginal notes to alert the reader to variations in wording in ancient manuscripts.
Jerusalem Bible contains the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Baruch and the Maccabees 1 and 2.
Below is a full list of the 14 books of the Apocrypha that are now left out of the original 1611 printing of the KJV removed in 1828, but each one can be found within the books of what we now have as our KJV.
1 Esdras - Vulgate 3 Esdras, Greek for Ezra (book of Ezra)
2 Esdras - Vulgate 4 Esdras, Greek for Ezra (book of Ezra)
Tobit - (Tobiah) name found in Ezra 2:60; Nehemiah 2:10
Judith - (spelled Judeth in Geneva Bible) name found in Genesis 26:34; 36:2
Rest of Esther - (Vulgate Esther 10:4 - 6:24)
Wisdom - (Book of the Wisdom of Solomon) books include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Song of Sons) and Sirach (same as Ecclesiastes)
Ecclesiasticus - (Commonly called the Wisdom of Sirach or simply Sirach and known as the book of Ecclesiastes. Look up Scripture Catholic -Deuterocanonical Books in the New Testament)
Baruch - (Epistle of Jeremy - Jeremiah in Geneva Bible and all part of the Vulgate Baruch) name found in Jeremiah 32:12, 13; 36:4-32; 43:1-7; Nehemiah 3:20; 10:6; 11:5
Song of the Three Children - (Vulgate Daniel 3:24-90) applies to Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego found in KJV of Daniel Chapter 3
Story of Susanna or Shoshana in the Hebrew - (Vulgate Daniel 13) found in Luke 8:2, 3
The Idol Bel and the Dragon - ((Vulgate Daniel 14 also in Deuterocanonical books) found in Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 51:44; 50:2
Prayer of Manasses (follows 2 Chronicles in Geneva, It was placed at the end of 2 Chronicles in the late 4th-century Vulgate) found in 2 Kings 21:1-18; 2 Chronicles 33:1-9; 2; Chronicles 33:11-13; 2 Chronicles 33:15-17; 2 Chronicles 33:19
First book of Maccabees is a book written in Hebrew by a Jewish author after the restoration of an independent Jewish kingdom, about the latter part of the 2nd century BC. The original Hebrew is lost and the most important surviving version is the Greek translation contained in the Septuagint. The book is held as canonical scripture by some Christian churches (including Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic churches), but not by most Protestant groups. Such Protestants consider it to be an apocryphal book (see also Deuterocanon). In modern-day Judaism, the book is often of great historical interest, but has no official religious status.
2 Maccabees is a Deuterocanonical book of the Bible, which focuses on the Jews' revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. Unlike 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees was written in Koine Greek
Apocrypha, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means "books included in the Septuagint and Vulgate but excluded from the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament.
The Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations. By the 13th century this revision had come to be called the versio vulgata, that is, the "commonly used translation" and ultimately it became the definitive and officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Septuagint is an Ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. It was originally the designation for the Koine Greek translation of the Pentateuch, but came in time to refer to the Greek translation of the Old Testament adopted by Christians, incorporating the translations of all the books of the Hebrew Bible and books later considered apocryphal or deutero-canonical, some composed in Greek and some translations. The translation process was undertaken in stages. It began by the 3rd century BCE and was completed by 132 BCE initially in Alexandria, but in time possibly elsewhere too. It incorporates the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the Eastern Mediterranean from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) until the development of Byzantine Greek (c.600 CE). Other versions are now preserved only in fragmentary form.
The Apocrypha (missing books of the KJV Bible printed in 1611) was officially removed from the English printings of the KJV by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1885 leaving only 66 books. In the Catholic Church the version used is the Douay-Rheims Bible consisting of 73 books. In the Protestant church only the 66 books approved by the Archbishop of Canterbury are allowed, which today is known as the Authorized King James Bible. No other books, neither the Apocrypha, which was included in the original 1611 King James Bible were considered inspired, but only historical as there have been over sixhundred books removed since the first reformation of 312 when Emperor Constantine after solidifying his position to gain complete control of the western portion of the Roman Empire instituted the Edict of Milan, a "Magna Carta of religious liberty," which eventually changed the Empire’s religion and put Christianity on an equal footing with paganism. Christianity having been the victim of the Roman Empire, under the Emperor Constantine, who blended the Christian Church with the institutionalized "pagan" practices of Rome and eliminated any semblance of either the Jewish religious influence or the first church Jesus established during his ministry.
William Tyndale's New Testament started in 1525 and his incomplete work on the Old Testament became the basis for the Great Bible. This was the first "authorized version" issued by the Church of England during the reign of King Henry VIII in 1539. These English expatriates undertook a translation that became known as the
Geneva Bible. This translation, dated to 1560, was a revision of Tyndale's Bible and the Great Bible on the basis of the original languages.
The Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, King James Bible or KJV, (includes the Apocrypha) is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. In January 1604, King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference where a new English version was conceived in response to the perceived problems of the earlier translations as detected by the Puritans a faction within the Church of England. James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the Episcopal structure of the Church of England and its beliefs about an ordained clergy. The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek; the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew text, while the Apocrypha were translated from the Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible – for Epistle and Gospel readings – and as such was authorized by Act of Parliament. By the first half of the 18th century, the Authorized Version was effectively unchallenged as the English translation used in Anglican and Protestant churches. Over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English speaking scholars.
The Revised KJV (or English Revised Version) of the Bible is a late 19th-century British revision of the King James Version of 1611. It was the first and remains the only officially authorized and recognized revision of the King James Bible. The stated aim of the RV's translators was "to adapt King James' version to the present state of the English language without changing the idiom and vocabulary," and "to adapt it to the present standard of Biblical scholarship." Further, it was to be "the best version possible in the nineteenth century, as King James' version was the best which could be made in the seventeenth century. The revisers were charged with introducing alterations only if they were deemed necessary to be more accurate and faithful to the Original Greek and Hebrew texts. In the New Testament alone more than 30,000 changes were made, over 5,000 on the basis of what were considered better Greek manuscripts. The work was begun in 1879, with the entire work completed in 1885. (The RV Apocrypha came out in 1895.) The Revised Version of 1885 was the first post-King James Version modern English Bible at the time to gain popular acceptance and it was used and quoted favorably by ministers, authors, and theologians in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Other important enhancements introduced in the RV include arrangement of the text into paragraphs, printing Old Testament poetry in indented poetic lines (rather than as prose), and the inclusion of marginal notes to alert the reader to variations in wording in ancient manuscripts.
Jerusalem Bible contains the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Baruch and the Maccabees 1 and 2.
Below is a full list of the 14 books of the Apocrypha that are now left out of the original 1611 printing of the KJV removed in 1828, but each one can be found within the books of what we now have as our KJV.
1 Esdras - Vulgate 3 Esdras, Greek for Ezra (book of Ezra)
2 Esdras - Vulgate 4 Esdras, Greek for Ezra (book of Ezra)
Tobit - (Tobiah) name found in Ezra 2:60; Nehemiah 2:10
Judith - (spelled Judeth in Geneva Bible) name found in Genesis 26:34; 36:2
Rest of Esther - (Vulgate Esther 10:4 - 6:24)
Wisdom - (Book of the Wisdom of Solomon) books include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (Song of Sons) and Sirach (same as Ecclesiastes)
Ecclesiasticus - (Commonly called the Wisdom of Sirach or simply Sirach and known as the book of Ecclesiastes. Look up Scripture Catholic -Deuterocanonical Books in the New Testament)
Baruch - (Epistle of Jeremy - Jeremiah in Geneva Bible and all part of the Vulgate Baruch) name found in Jeremiah 32:12, 13; 36:4-32; 43:1-7; Nehemiah 3:20; 10:6; 11:5
Song of the Three Children - (Vulgate Daniel 3:24-90) applies to Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego found in KJV of Daniel Chapter 3
Story of Susanna or Shoshana in the Hebrew - (Vulgate Daniel 13) found in Luke 8:2, 3
The Idol Bel and the Dragon - ((Vulgate Daniel 14 also in Deuterocanonical books) found in Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 51:44; 50:2
Prayer of Manasses (follows 2 Chronicles in Geneva, It was placed at the end of 2 Chronicles in the late 4th-century Vulgate) found in 2 Kings 21:1-18; 2 Chronicles 33:1-9; 2; Chronicles 33:11-13; 2 Chronicles 33:15-17; 2 Chronicles 33:19
First book of Maccabees is a book written in Hebrew by a Jewish author after the restoration of an independent Jewish kingdom, about the latter part of the 2nd century BC. The original Hebrew is lost and the most important surviving version is the Greek translation contained in the Septuagint. The book is held as canonical scripture by some Christian churches (including Catholic, Orthodox and Coptic churches), but not by most Protestant groups. Such Protestants consider it to be an apocryphal book (see also Deuterocanon). In modern-day Judaism, the book is often of great historical interest, but has no official religious status.
2 Maccabees is a Deuterocanonical book of the Bible, which focuses on the Jews' revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. Unlike 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees was written in Koine Greek
