> The original King James Bible in 1611 included the
Apocrypha.
>
> Can anyone tell me when, and under what circumstances the books of the
> Apocrypha were dropped from the later editions of the King James version?
You can still pick up, in second hand bookshops, the King
James version of the Old Testament Apocrypha, in a separate
volume. I don't know if they still publish it today, but my
copy is dated 1954, and is a small, slim, black pocket
sized volume, on very thin paper.
They evidently didn't stop them publishing the Apocrypha,
but for some reason, perhaps to restrict access to
non-canonical material to clergy and other interested
paerties. I don't know why this is, but has it got
something to do with the BCP, wherein the Articles of
Religion list the books of the bible recognised as
scripture by the Church of England. The Apocrypha are not
listed as such in either my 1703 or 1858 copies. To list a
set of texts as canonical, and then to publish widely
another set would surely have been to send an ambiguous and
inconsistent message to the less educated majority of
Anglicans, in a period when the C of E and state tried so
hard to impose credal, doctrinal and liturgical uniformity,
while clerics and scholars who needed the Apocrypha could
still buy an Authorised Version .
Graham.
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Graham Williamson-Mallaghan
School of Classics and Theology
Queens Building
Queens Drive
University of Exeter
EX4 4QG
0044 (01)392-676239
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