Many early Christian leaders cite the Apocrypha as Scripture. However, this evidence carries little weight for several reasons:
First, some early Church Fathers also cite pseudepigraphal books as Scripture. Of course, Christians of all theological stripes reject the Pseudepigrapha, so such an argument from historical authority really backfires:
The Epistle of Barnabas (16:5) quotes from 1 Enoch 89.56, calling it “Scripture.”
Tertullian believed that 1 Enoch was Scripture (De Cultufeminarum, 1.3). Tertullian quotes 1 Enoch four times. He quotes 1 Enoch 19.1 (On Idolatry 4), and he quotes 1 Enoch 61.5 as “Scripture” (On Resurrection of the Flesh 32).[1]
Shepherd of Hermas (2.3.4) cites the lost book of “Eldad and Modat [Medad].”
Irenaeus quotes from 1 Enoch 12-16 (Against Heresies, 4.16.2).
Clement of Alexandria quotes from 1 Enoch 19.3; 7.1-8.3 (Selections from the Prophets 2.1; 53.4). He quotes the lost Apocalypse of Zephaniah as a prophet (Stromata 5.11), and he quotes the lost Apocalypse of Elias as “Scripture” (Exhortation 10.94.4).[2]
Second, some early Church Fathers never cite the Apocrypha. Justin Martyr and Theophilus of Antioch “never refer to any of the books of the Apocrypha at all.”[3] 3 and 4 Maccabees are “never referred to by any writer”[4] in the second century.
Third, some early Church Fathers cite the Apocrypha, but only as history and not Scripture. Judith and 1 and 2 Maccabees are “little used, and only as historical sources, without any suggestion that they are Scripture.”[5] Didache 4.5 and the Epistle of Barnabas both quote Ecclesiasticus, but not as Scripture. Beckwith writes, “Until the final years of the second century, there is only one isolated example of any of the books being treated as Scripture.”[6]
[1] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 397.
[2] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 397.
[3] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 388.
[4] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 388.
[5] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 388.
[6] Roger T. Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 1986), 389.