QUESTION: Didn't the King James Bible when first printed contain the 
          Apocrypha?

ANSWER: Yes.

EXPLANATION: Many critics of the perfect Bible like to point out that 
the original King James had the Apocrypha in it as though that fact 
compromises its integrity. But several things must be examined to get 
the factual picture.

First, in the days in which our Bible was translated, the Apocrypha 
was accepted reading based on its historical value, though not 
accepted as Scripture by anyone outside of the Catholic church. The 
King James translators therefore placed it between the Old and New 
Testaments for its historical benefit to its readers. They did not 
integrate it into the Old Testament text as do the corrupt Alexandrian 
manuscnpts.

That they rejected the Apocrypha as divine is very obvious by the 
seven reasons which they gave for not incorporating it into the text. 
They are as follows:

1. Not one of them is in the Hebrew language, which was alone used by 
the inspired historians and poets of the Old Testament.

2. Not one of the writers lays any claim to inspiration.

3. These books were never acknowledged as sacred Scriptures by the 
Jewish Church, and therefore were never sanctioned by our Lord.

4. They were not allowed a place among the sacred books, during the 
first four centuries of the Christian Church.

5. They contain fabulous statements, and statements which contradict 
not only the canonical Scriptures, but themselves; as when, in the two 
Books of Maccabees, Antiochus Epiphanes is made to die three different 
deaths in as many different places.

6. The Apocrypha inculcates doctrines at variance with the Bible, such 
as prayers for the dead and sinless perfection.

7. It teaches immoral practices, such as lying, suicide, assassination 
and magical incantation.

If having the Apocrypha between the Testaments disqualifies it as 
authoritative, then the corrupt Vaticanus and Sinaiticus manuscripts 
from Alexandria, Egypt, must be totally worthless since their authors 
obviously didn't have the conviction of the King James translators and 
incorporated its books into the text of the Old Testament thus giving 
it authority with Scripture.

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