An Introduction
Part 2

A History of Inclusion

             A clear history exists of the inclusion of the books called the Apocrypha in the King James Bible and their presence long before that translation:
●  "In 405 Pope Innocent I embodied a list of canonical books in a letter addressed to Exsuperius, bishop of Toulouse; it too included the Apocrypha. The Sixth Council of Carthage (419) Re-enacted the ruling of the Third Council, again with the inclusion of the apocryphal books… "The Sixth Council of Carthage repromulgated in Canon 24 the resolution of the Third Council regarding the canon of scripture, and added a note directing that the resolution be sent to the bishop of Rome (Boniface I) and other bishops:  ‘Let this be made known also to our brother and fellow-priest Boniface, or to other bishops of those parts, for the purpose of confirming that Canon [Canon 47 of the Third Council], because we have received from our fathers that these are the books which are to be read in church.’" (The Canon On Scripture,  F. F. Bruce)

●   In the year 1615 Archbishop Gorge Abbott, a High Commission Court member and one of the original of the 1611 translators, "forbade anyone to issue a Bible without the Apocrypha on pain of one year's imprisonment"

●  "It should be observed that the Old Testament thus admitted as authoritative in the Church was somewhat bulkier and more comprehensive than the [Protestant Old Testament] . . . It always included, though with varying degrees of recognition, the so-called Apocrypha or Deutero-canonical books. 

●  The use made of the Apocrypha by Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian and Clement of Alexandria is too frequent for detailed references to be necessary" (Early Christian Doctrines, J. Kelly)

●  "The books that follow in order after the Prophets unto the New Testament, are called Apocrypha, that is, books which were not received by a common consent to be read and expounded publicly in the Church, neither yet served to prove any point of Christian religion save in so much as they had the consent of the other scriptures called canonical to confirm the same, or rather whereon they were grounded: but as books proceeding from godly men they were received to be read for the advancement and furtherance of the knowledge of history and for the instruction of godly manners: which books declare that at all times God had an especial care of His Church, and left them not utterly destitute of teachers and means to confirm them in the hope of the promised Messiah, and also witness that those calamities that God sent to his Church were according to his providence, who had both so threatened by his prophets, and so brought it to pass, for the destruction of their enemies and for the trial of his children." (Geneva Bible, 1560, Preface)

●  "The holy ecumenical and general Council of Trent . . . following the example of the orthodox Fathers, receives and venerates all the books of the Old and New Testament . . . and also the traditions pertaining to faith and conduct . . . with an equal sense of devotion and reverence . . . If, however, any one receive not, as sacred and canonical, the said books entire with all their parts, as they have by custom been read in the Catholic Church, and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate, and knowingly and deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, let him be accursed." (Decree of the Council of Trent in 1546)

●  "In the name of Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church. . . And the other books (as Jerome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners: but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine." (Articles of Religion of the Church of England, 1563, Sixth Article)

●  "APOCRYPHA, that is, Books which are not to be esteemed like the Holy Scriptures, and yet which are useful and good to read." (Luther Bible, 1534) 

●  Most early Bibles contained the Apocrypha; here are just a few:
1534 Luther's German translation of the Bible
1534  Coverdale
1537 Thomas Matthew Bible
1539 Taverner
1541 The "Great" or "Cromwell's"  Bible
1551 The "Tyndale/ Matthews" Bible
1560 The Geneva Bible
1568 The Bishops' Bible
1610 Catholic Old Testament
1611 King James Bible
1615 King James Version Robert Barker at London, England
1625 A King James Version 
1717 King George 1st, AKA, The "Vinegar Bible"  
1782  The Aitken Bible
1791  The Family Bible
1846  The Illuminated Bible 

●  The Apocrypha are are also contained in the following:
The Septuagint (LXX) - Except II Esdras.
Codex Alexandrinus (A) - Also contains III & IV Maccabees
Codex Vaticanus  - Except I & II Maccabees and The defaulter of Manassah
Codex Sinaiticus (Aleph)
Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus - Includes Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus
Chester Beatty Papyri - Fragments of Ecclesiasticus
The Dead Sea Scrolls - Some apocryphal writing was found among the The Writings of Church Fathers

 ●  Bibles are still available with Apocrypha:
The Bible: Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha: Published by Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0192835254 (Pub. Date: July 1998)
KJV Standard Reference Edition With Apocrypha: Published by Cambridge Univ Pr (Bibles); ISBN: 0521509467; Slipcase edition (Pub. Date: August 1997)
1611 Edition: a reprint of the 1611 KJV With Apocrypha, Published by Nelson Bible; ISBN: 0840700415; Reissue edition (Pub. Date: June 1, 1982)
King James Version Lectern Edition: Published by Cambridge Univ Pr (Bibles); ISBN: 0521508169; (Pub. Date: March 1998)
The Dake Annotated Reference Bible, Standard Edition: King James Version With Apocrypha, Published by Dake Publishing ISBN: 1558290699 (Pub. Date: April 1996)

Part 3