Apocrypha, Empire, and the Pagan Bible

The Bible is not the Word of God Part 5

Bibliolatry Limits Our Text:

Not only does bible worship diminish the worship of the person Jesus; it greatly limits the scope of text we would use for gaining revelation. There are many non-canonical texts with tremendous revelation. When we elevate and honor one medium for truth we will camp out there and exclude others. The Apocryphal books are at times viewed as evil but these texts were widely used by the early church. The book of Enoch shaped the language of many of the gospels. Anytime you read the phrase “son of man” Jesus is declaring that he is the one mentioned by Enoch.

The purpose of this writing is not to dive into the history surrounding the canonization of scripture. However that could be the most convincing argument against the text that I could present; perhaps at another time.

Consider that we didn’t have a canon until 325 CE and that it was by the persuasion of a pagan emperor (baptized on his deathbed). Even after the canon the church used the non-canonical books. The canon became a list of “safe books” for common people under the Imperial Church while the other books were reserved for the “mature.” Eventually the non-canonical books were banned and/or burned all together.

Apocrypha - (ἀπόκρυφα) those having been hidden away.

Yet in many of these books we find deep and meaningful revelation that is not found in the canon. Such as...

PART 6