Background and History

The chapters above are the King James Apocrypha. This essay is the setting of Baruch: who is said to have written it, when and where the book places the story, what happens in it, which copies have been found, and why the Protestant canon does not include it.

Canon and Authorship

Athanasius counts Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle as one book, and then names other books as not in the canon. Trent receives Baruch. Westminster Confession 1.3 , under Church Lists, refuses the books commonly called Apocrypha. A Catholic Encyclopedia article on Baruch was not opened.

Baruch 1:1 says Baruch the son of Nerias wrote these words in Babylon. Baruch 1:2 dates that writing to the fifth year, after the Chaldeans had burned Jerusalem. Jeremiah 36:4 says Baruch the son of Neriah wrote in Judah in Jehoiakim’s fourth year. This page does not treat the two scenes as the same roll. Chapter 6 calls itself an epistle of Jeremy.

At a Glance

Author	The book says Baruch the son of Nerias wrote it in Babylon. Chapter 6 is a copy of an epistle it attributes to Jeremy.
Date	The book dates the writing to the fifth year, the seventh day of the month, when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burnt it. A year number in the modern calendar was not added.
Place	The book names Babylon and Jerusalem. A modern city was not added.
Genre	A book read to the exiles, with prayers and an epistle against idols.
Chapters	6
Verses	213 in this King James Apocrypha
Key verse	Baruch 1:1 Apocrypha Not part of the 66-book Protestant canon. Catholic and Orthodox churches accept these books as deuterocanonical. And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the son of Sedecias, the son of Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in Babylon,Baruch 1:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source

Setting

Baruch 1:1

And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the son of Sedecias, the son of Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in Babylon,Baruch 1:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says these are the words of the book which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the son of Sedecias, the son of Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in Babylon. Baruch 1:2 In the fifth year, and in the seventh day of the month, what time as the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and burnt it with fire.Baruch 1:2 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source dates that writing to the fifth year, the seventh day of the month, when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burnt it with fire. Baruch 1:3 And Baruch did read the words of this book in the hearing of Jechonias the son of Joachim king of Juda, and in the ears of all the people that came to hear the book,Baruch 1:3 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source says Baruch read the book in the hearing of Jechonias the son of Joachim king of Juda.

The Text

This King James book is six chapters. Chapter 6 is not a separate file. Baruch 6:1

A copy of an epistle, which Jeremy sent unto them which were to be led captives into Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to certify them, as it was commanded him of God.Baruch 6:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source calls itself a copy of an epistle which Jeremy sent to those who were to be led captives into Babylon by the king of the Babylonians. Baruch 6:2 Because of the sins which ye have committed before God, ye shall be led away captives into Babylon by Nabuchodonosor king of the Babylonians.Baruch 6:2 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source names Nabuchodonosor king of the Babylonians.

Manuscripts

The Dead Sea Scrolls contents page lists the Epistle of Jeremiah among three Apocrypha works found among the Scrolls, with Ben Sira and Tobit. It does not give a cave number on the page that was opened. A Catholic Encyclopedia article on Baruch was not opened.

Structure and Themes

The first chapters are the book read in Babylon and the prayers that follow. The sixth chapter is the epistle. Athanasius’s letter, quoted under Church Lists, counts “Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle” as one book.

Issues With This Book

Jeremiah 36:1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,Jeremiah 36:1 · King James VersionOpen source is the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah. Jeremiah 36:4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.Jeremiah 36:4 · King James VersionOpen source says Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote from Jeremiah’s mouth all the words of the Lord upon a roll. That scene is in Judah, in Jehoiakim’s fourth year. Baruch 1:1

And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the son of Sedecias, the son of Asadias, the son of Chelcias, wrote in Babylon,Baruch 1:1 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source and Baruch 1:2 In the fifth year, and in the seventh day of the month, what time as the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and burnt it with fire.Baruch 1:2 · King James Version (Apocrypha)Open source place Baruch the son of Nerias writing in Babylon in the fifth year, when the Chaldeans had taken Jerusalem and burnt it. The two passages name a Baruch son of Neriah, or Nerias, in different places and at different points in the king’s story. This page does not treat them as the same roll.

Trent receives Baruch. The Catechism’s list includes Baruch. Those sentences are under Church Lists.

On This Site

These articles quote the church lists and the passages that those lists argue from. They link back to this collection.

Church Lists

The Council of Trent, session 4 (1546), receives Tobias, Judith, Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with Jeremiah, Daniel, and two books of Maccabees, and it anathematizes a knowing refusal. That decree’s first and second books of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah, not the books titled 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras in this King James Apocrypha. The decree does not name the Prayer of Manasseh as its own book. The English of the decree is quoted on How Was the Bible Canon Decided, and What Is the Apocrypha?

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120 says the Church discerned the canon by apostolic Tradition and counts 46 Old Testament books, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The Confession of Dositheus, from the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672, answers “What Books do you call Sacred Scripture?” by naming, among the books Cyril Lucaris had called Apocrypha, “The Wisdom of Solomon,” “Judith,” “Tobit,” “The History of the Dragon,” “The History of Susanna,” “The Maccabees,” and “The Wisdom of Sirach,” and it says “we judge these also to be with the other genuine Books of Divine Scripture genuine parts of Scripture.” That sentence, on the English hosted by CRI/Voice, does not name 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, or the Prayer of Manasseh. The host says the English is adapted from J. N. W. B. Robertson’s 1899 translation. The brackets around “Bel and the Dragon” on that page are the editor’s.

Anglican Article VI says the other books, “as Hierome saith,” the Church “doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.” The article’s other books include the Third and Fourth of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, the rest of Esther, Wisdom, Jesus the Son of Sirach, Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and the First and Second of Maccabees. Its canonical First and Second of Esdras are Ezra and Nehemiah. The sentence is on the Articles of Religion and on What Do Anglicans Believe?

The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

That is Westminster Confession 1.3, as printed by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. What Do Protestants Believe? quotes the same paragraph.

The Lutherhaus Wittenberg records a complete German Bible of 1534, printed by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, titled Biblia, das ist, die gantze Heilige Schrifft Deudsch. A Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek record of a 1536 Lufft Apocrypha title page reads “Apocrypha. Das sind Bücher: so nicht der heiligen Schrifft gleich gehalten: und doch nützlich und gut zu lesen sind.” Bruce Metzger, writing in Christianity Today in 1957, says the 1534 edition gathered the books between the Old and New Testaments under that heading and did not include 1 and 2 Esdras. The 1534 leaf itself was not opened for this page.

The New Testament and These Books

These pages do not cite a sentence in the New Testament that names Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, or Maccabees as Scripture. Jude 14 says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, and the next verse continues that prophecy. First Enoch is not one of the fourteen books in this King James Apocrypha.

1 Maccabees 9:27 says there was great affliction in Israel, “the like whereof was not since the time that a prophet was not seen among them.” 2 Maccabees 15:38 is the writer’s own limit: if the story is done well, that is what he desired, and if slenderly and meanly, that is what he could attain.

2 Maccabees 12:44 says that if Judas had not hoped the slain would rise, it would have been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Verse 45 says he made a reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin. This King James text has no verse 12:46. The Catechism’s footnote 607 names 2 Maccabees 12:46 for that reconciliation. Is Purgatory Biblical? quotes the churches on that dispute and does not decide it.

Tobit 12:9 says alms deliver from death and shall purge away all sin. Sirach 3:30 says water quenches a flaming fire and alms make an atonement for sins. Those sentences are what the pages that discuss almsgiving and atonement are quoting. This site does not have a separate article whose only subject is alms.

Jewish Lists

Josephus, Against Apion 1.8 (William Whiston’s translation), says the Jews have “only twenty two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine,” five of them Moses, thirteen the prophets after Moses through Artaxerxes, and four hymns and precepts. History written since Artaxerxes “hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of Prophets since that time.”

Jerome’s prologue to Kings, the Prologus Galeatus, in Kevin P. Edgecomb’s public-domain translation, counts twenty-two books and says “whatever is outside of these is set aside among the apocrypha.” He names Wisdom, “the book of Jesus son of Sirach,” Judith, and Tobias as not in the canon, and he says the first book of Maccabees is Hebrew and the second is Greek. The translation is at tertullian.org.

Athanasius, Festal Letter 39 (367), counts twenty-two Old Testament books and includes “Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the epistle” as one book. He then names Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, and Tobit as “not indeed included in the Canon, but appointed by the Fathers to be read.” The English is the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers text on New Advent.

Melito of Sardis, quoted by Eusebius in Church History 4.26.14, lists the Old Testament books he learned in the East. The list includes “Wisdom also” and does not name Tobit, Judith, Sirach, or the books of Maccabees.

The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), “Bible Canon,” says the Jewish canon is twenty-four books: the five of the Law, eight of the Prophets, and eleven Writings. It summarizes the baraita in Bava Batra 14b as Law; Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets); and Writings (Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles). That summary does not include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch as its own book, or Maccabees. The English of the Talmud on Sefaria is copyrighted, so this page does not reprint it.

3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151 are not in this King James text.

Baruch