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St. Teresa of Avila Interceding for the Souls in Purgatory, from the workshop of Peter Paul Reubens, 1577–1640

II Maccabees 12:43-46: "And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

II Maccabees 12:43-46, this is a part of the Bible that Luther took out, but it is a part of the Catholic Bible.

“II Maccabees 12:43-46, this is a part of the Bible that Luther took out, but it is a part of the Catholic Bible.”

It is worth noting that the Jews did not include it as Holy Scripture.

Incorrect statement. Macabees was NOT part of the Hebrew Bible nor was it part of the early Church's Bible and technically until the Councils of Trent it was not even canon in the Catholic bible.

In fact, St Jerome who assembled and translated the Latin Vulgate bible (late 4th century translation from Greek) specifically stated that the Apocrypha books (Macabees) were not found in the Hebrew Bible and were not canon.

Thus Luther did not take out the books, he corrected the mistake of the Council of Trent and returned the canon back to it's prior configuration that had been accepted not only by early church leaders, but had been the position of the Catholic leadership for over a thousand years.

It was the Catholic church who accepted the concept of purgatory despite not being taught by Jesus or the Apostles. They needed this concept to be combined with prayers for the dead in order to sell indulgences and raise money. Thus during the Councils of Trent, the Apocryphal books were accepted by the Catholic leadership to justify purgatory, prayers for the dead and the selling of indulgences.

And the best scholarship today acknowledges—that like mainstream Jews of His day (including the Pharisees, Saducees and the Essenes), Jesus Himself must of rejected the canonicity of the Apocrypha. He never indicated otherwise—and it would of been a notable innovation—and something He would of been accused of—if He had.

I believe it was mistrust of the Jews, and frankly, anti-Semitism—which kept idea of the possibility of the Apocrypha being canon alive throughout the Middle Ages. Finally sealed of course in Trent—with its curses to Hell of all Protestants.

Oh, the reason Protestants call it the “Apocrypha,” is the 4th C. translator of the Latin Vulgate, St. Jerome, named those books that—and, like the Jews, also thought they should be excluded from the Canon. Luther simply sided with the Jews....and with the majority of Roman Catholic scholars who came before him...

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather go by the books of the Old Testament acknowledged by Jesus and the 1st Century Apostles—not that of a 16th Century Roman council.