Heidegger's Bible Handbook: OT Apocrypha: The Reading of the Apocrypha

9.  Of old were they read in the Eastern and Western Church, elsewhere even publicly.

But concerning this, although men trust well enough to their own judgment in obscure matters, this is certain, that in the early Church they began to be read by the faithful in private, and even in public in some places.  For Christians, not yet so openly tested by that controversy concerning the Canonical and Apocryphal books, and with no one yet drawn away to insanity by it, that he might undertake to claim Divine honor for human writings, admitted the reading of the Apocryphal books with a less partial spirit, especially since some contain ἠθικὴν/ethical wisdom, and also the Church’s history, not to be despised.  Concerning Sirach, the Apostolic Canon LXXXV, among other things, thus ordains:  Ἔξωθεν δὲ ὑμῖν προσιστορείσθω, μανθάνειν ὑμῶν τοὺς νέους τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ πολυμαθοῦς Σιρὰχ, but extrinsically (that is, outside the Canon as previously designated) let it be understood by you, that your youth ought to learn the wisdom of the most learned Sirach.  But Canon 59 of the Council of Laodicea forbids Ψαλμοὺς ἰδιωτικοὺς, καὶ ἀκανόνιστα βιβλία, private Psalms (that is, of Solomon, superadded to the Psalms of David, as Balsamon[1] and Zonaras[2] explain in their notes) and non-Canonical books to be read in Church, and commands to be read μόνα τὰ κανονικὰ τῆς παλαιᾶς καὶ καινῆς διαθήκης, only the Canonical books of the Old and New Testament (which the next Canon then lists, with all the controverted Apocryphal books excluded).  That this is to be understood of the public reading and explanation as suggested, is evident from the Catechesi of Cyril of Jerusalem.  That the Greek Church did not prohibit to itself their private reading, is apparent from the evidence provided by Saint Athanasius and Epiphanius.  For, in his Synopsi, after the enumeration of the twenty-two books of the Old Testament, Athanasius subjoins:  Ἐκτὸς δὲ τούτων εἰσὶ πάλιν ἕτερα βιβλία τῆς αὐτῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης, οὐ κανονιζόμενα μὲν, ἀναγινωσκόμενα δὲ μόνον τοῖς κατηχουμένοις, beyond these there are other books of the Old Testament (that is, these controverted Apocryphal books, which he immediately itemizes), not Canonical, but which are only read to Catechumens.  Epiphanius, de ponderibus et mensuris, concerning Wisdom and Sirach:  καὶ αὐταὶ χρήσιμοι μέν εἰσι καὶ ὠφέλιμοι, ἀλλ᾽ εἰς ἀριθμὸν ῥητῶν οὐκ ἀναφέρονται, those are also useful, but are not received into the number of specified (Canonical) books.  But in the Western Church the reading of the Apocryphal books was even more thoroughly accepted.  This is gathered out of Saint Jerome, who in his Preface to the Proverbs of Solomon speaks in this way:  Therefore, just as the Church does indeed read the books of Judith and the Maccabees, but does not receive them among the Canonical Scriptures:  so also it reads these two volumes (Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus) for the edification of the people, but not to confirm the Ecclesiastical authority of doctrines.  Ruffinus, Expositione Fidei, concerning all the Apocryphal books enumerated by Jerome:  They maintained that all these were indeed read in the Church, but were not set forth for the confirmation of the authority of the faith.  Yet it is not strange that it happened, since it is evident that, in the progress of time, other books also, not conjoined with the Sacred Books, like the Shepherd of Hermas[3] and the writings of Ephræm,[4] as Jerome testifies in de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, the trials and triumphs of the Martyrs, the Protevangelium of Saint James, as Postel testifies in Neander’s Præfatione ad Apocryphos, the Homilies gathered by command of Charlemagne, and others also mentioned by Baronius,[5] Annalibus, on the Year 44, sections 13, 14, 42, 48, not to mention the Passionalia, Legends, and books of similar chaff, were wont to be read.

[1] Theodore Balsamon was a twelfth century Patriarch of Antioch.  He wrote Scholia on Photius’ Nomocanon, a standard work of Ecclesiastical and Civil canons, decrees, and laws.

[2] John Zonaras (twelfth century), native of Constantinople, was a historian and theologian.

[3] The Shepherd of Hermas, a Christian composition of the latter half of the second century, was highly prized, and considered canonical by some Church Fathers, such as Irenæus.

[4] Ephræm Syrus was the most influential Syriac Church Father of the fourth century.  From monastic seclusion, he composed commentaries on most of the books of the Old Testament, which commentaries demonstrate a knowledge of both the Syriac Peshitta and the Hebrew original.

[5] Cesare Baronio (1538-1607) was an Italian Cardinal and Vatican librarian.  He is remembered primarily for his work in ecclesiastical history, Annalibus Ecclesiasticis.