Great Bishop of Geneva! : Do Maccabees Disclaim Divine Inspiration? · HGL's F.B. writings : On Bible Canon (and Some Other Inbetween)
This is one argument that the Apocrypha was not inspired—1 Maccabees 9:27 and 2 Macc. 15:37–39 explicitly disclaim divine inspiration.
dixit Sarfati
Now, here are the passages:
II Maccabees 15:37 This, then, is how matters turned out with Nicanor, and from that time the city has been in the possession of the Hebrews. So I will here end my story.
The Compiler’s Epilogue
38 If it is well told and to the point, that is what I myself desired; if it is poorly done and mediocre, that was the best I could do. 39 For just as it is harmful to drink wine alone, or, again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one’s enjoyment, so also the style of the story delights the ears of those who read the work. And here will be the end.
And:
1 Maccabees 9:27 So there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that prophets ceased to appear among them.
The authors and compilers are disclaiming inspiration as if prophets, but so is St Luke who claims to have been doing research.
In other words, the quoted words cannot exclude some other sort of Divine Inspiration from I and II Maccabees any more than the prologues to Gospel by St Luke and to Acts could exclude this type from Luke's authorship!/HGL
