# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juli 1856_S214
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Whether Such a One Is to Be Declared a Heretic or a Dangerous False Teacher, etc. 214

...pel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the thirteen Epistles of Paul, likewise the first of Peter and the first of John .. But are there, besides these enumerated books, also other books contained in the canon of Scripture? Answer: Indeed, such as are called by the common name of the Apocrypha ... Now name the apocryphal books of the New Testament. Answer: The Epistle to the Hebrews, of James, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, of Jude, and the Revelation of John. From what does it appear that these are Apocrypha? Answer: From the fact that they were not accepted by all in the primitive Church as certainly apostolic, but some churches doubted concerning them for a time, and some even expressly disputed some of them. But are they then of the same validity as the Apocrypha of the Old Testament? Answer: By no means: because the apocryphal books of the Old Testament are altogether uncertain, and also contain much that is directly contrary to canonical Scripture, and therefore have no authority in the assertion of the articles of faith. The Apocrypha of the New Testament, however, are not so entirely doubtful, nor do they contain anything directly contrary to canonical Scripture, and therefore they also have evidentiary authority in controversies of faith. For although doubt has been raised concerning them by some in the Church, yet they have been accepted by others on account of the God-inspired doctrine they contain. Doubt has been raised concerning the author, but not concerning the doctrine, which has been accepted as apostolic. But the Papists err, who say that both the apocryphal books of the Old and of the New Testament have equal authority with the canonical ones in the proof of the articles of faith." (Buddeus reports in his Isagoge that lectures on this great Catechism of Dietrich have here and there been held in schools and universities.)

Friedrich Balduin (Professor at Wittenberg, d. 1627) writes: "The same is the case with the canonical books of the New Testament (as with those of the Old Testament), which have already been divided by Eusebius into three classes. Some are genuine, undoubted, and testamentary; others are disputed by some for certain reasons, but only by some; some are disputed by all — namely those which have been disputed by the whole primitive Church and which have therefore been rejected as spurious and as supposititious writings foisted on it by fable-writers .. To the second class are reckoned the epistle ascribed to James, the Epistle of Jude, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, to which some add the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelation ... The books of the second class are called Apocrypha, partly because some have doubted concerning their authors, partly also because not all of them reach, in equal degree, those which are canonical beyond doubt .. If concerning this epistle (of James) and other writings there had never been doubt in the original Church, we would