OF THE

BOOKS OF THE BIBLE,

BOTH

The Canonical and the Apocryphal,

DESIGNED TO SHOW

οτ

WHAT THE BIBLE IS NOT, WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO USE IT.

BY PROF. CE. STOWE, D. D.

(THE NEW TESTAMENT,)
ILLUSTRATED.

PUBLISHED BY SUBSCRIPTION ONLY, BY

HARTFORD PUBLISHING COMPANY,

HARTFORD, CONN.

J. D. DENISON, NEW YORK.

ZEIGLER, MCCURDY & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PA.; CINCINNATI, O.;
AND ST. LOUIS, MO. J. A. STODDARD, CHICAGO, ILL.

1868.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1867, by

CALVIN E. STOWE,

in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for District of Connecticut.

Entered also at

STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON, ENGLAND.

TO THOSE WHO WITH ME

Believe and lore and trust the Bible

THE FOLLOWING PAGES

AKE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED

By the Author.

JERUSALEM FROM MOUNT OF Olives,

CONVENT OF ST. CATHARINE, MOUNT SINAI,

to face Title Page.

ISLAND OF PAtmos,

NINE FAC-SIMILE ILLUSTRATIONS OF ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS, lettered A, B, C, D, E, F, F, G, H, with their explanations, are inserted at the close of the third chapter.

PREFACE.

THE purpose of this volume can best be shown by a familiar illustration: I purchase several different parcels of real estate in the city of Hartford, and wish to ascertain the validity of my title to each one of the parcels. I take the deeds to the register's office and there trace each one by itself through all the preceding purchasers till I come to the title derived from the original proprietors. If there is no break in this chain of documentary evidence the title is perfect. So each one of the books of the New Testament must be traced up to the Apostles, who only had authority to deliver inspired books to the churches. This is what the present volume professes to do. It is a book of authorities and testimonies; it is the tracing and verifying of title deeds.

But there are some deeds in which the chain is broken before we get to the original proprietors; there are some which are forgeries and were not given by the men whose names they bear; and there are others which were given by the persons whose names they bear, but these persons had no authority to make the sales. All such deeds are invalid and confer no title.

These latter deeds represent the apocryphal books. It is proposed to show that every one of the apocryphal books belongs to one of these three classes, to wit: 1. They can not be traced to the apostles; 2. Some of them are proved to be forgeries; 3. And others, though genuine, were written by persons who had not apostolic authority to give inspired books to the churches.

In making our investigations we begin with the times of Jerome and Augustin; because all admit that since that period there have been no changes in the canon, and no authority for any change.

Thus each individual book of the New Testament is shown to stand on its own merits, its own evidence; and there is a full exposure of the groundlessness of the silly story so often repeated, that certain men got together and voted what should be Bible, and what should not, and that this is the authority on which we receive the books of the Bible as of Divine origin.

This being a book of AUTHORITIES AND TESTIMONIES, as has already been said, it must necessarily be, to a considerable extent, made up of extracts from the original authors and witnesses. The works from which these extracts are made, are not accessible to the