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Question 1
David Bercot compares Protestant objections to the Apocrypha with his “Chinese food” aversion that started from one traumatic experience but later got dressed up with “plausible-sounding fake reasons”; what “real reasons” does he say are actually behind the Jewish and Lutheran rejection of these books, and how does that challenge the way you’ve been taught to trust your own objections?
Another way to ask: What “real reasons” does Bercot say are behind why Jews and Lutherans rejected the Apocrypha? How does that make you question whether your own objections might be more about habit or fear than solid proof?

Direct Answer Bercot says the “real reasons” were not neutral scholarly concerns, but motivated rejections: the scribes and Pharisees removed these books as part of a campaign against the Septuagint and Christianity, and Luther removed them because some books “went against his doctrines.” That challenges us to question whether our objections are truly principled or whether we’ve simply inherited “plausible-sounding” reasons that hide deeper biases.

Support from Transcript:

  • He compares objections to “fake reasons” that sound plausible but aren’t the real driver, like his Chinese food story.
  • He states: “We know the real reason why the scribes and Pharisees took these books out of the Jewish canon… part of their larger campaign against Christianity.”
  • He adds: “We know the real reason why Luther took these same books out… It’s because these books… went against his doctrines.”
  • He claims people won’t be told the real reasons because they’d say, “Those are terrible reasons.”
  • He admits his own past: “for much of my life, I’ve made these exact same objections myself… [but] I had been indoctrinated against them.”
Discussion Follow-ups What objections have you repeated without checking whether they are equally true of books you already accept? What would “integrity” look like in reexamining inherited assumptions?

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