Event overview
Protestantism is a religion based on an anthology: the Bible. English Protestants, however, generally accepted fewer holy books than Catholics. Scripture alone, rather than the Papacy or Church councils, was paramount. Yet which scriptures were to be accepted and which rejected was no straightforward matter. This talk begins with a brief account of how and why certain Jewish writings came to be regarded as apocryphal. It also underscores the fact that the Apocrypha was a Protestant construction, one moreover that reflected the privileging of Jewish texts available in Hebrew over those then extant in Greek. For the gradual evolution of the Apocrypha as a distinct corpus was partially a by-product of the Humanist return to the sources – specifically Hebrew.
Previous studies of the Apocrypha in early modern England have tended to stress two points: firstly, that the removal of these books from the Old Testament was unauthorised, lacking explicit royal and ecclesiastical sanction; secondly, that their influence was greater than commonly recognised. Here I want to suggest that in addition the Apocrypha was important because of its inherent potential to exacerbate religious conflict – not just between Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists, but also between moderate churchmen and puritans. Thus, to take an emotive example, a controversial scholar urged printers to omit the Apocrypha from the Bible, dismissing these ‘unperfect histories’ as nothing better than trifling Jewish fables and ‘meane wittes’ work:
A Turky leprous slave might as seemly be placed in seat, cheek by cheek, betwixt two the best Christian Kings; as the wicked Apocrypha betwixt both testaments.
Dates & times
Date | Time | Add to calendar |
---|---|---|
9 Dec 2015 | 5:30pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.