The Apocrypha

[Gregory Matthews]

 

 Early History: The Bible is a collection of religious writings that were written over a long period of time. Those older writings were collected into what we generally call the Old Testament, and the newer writings that followed the ministry of Christ were collected into what we generally call the New Testament.

 Those collected works constitute what we call the Cannon of Scripture. This simply identifies the works that are considered to be authoritative guides to our faith, and inspired by God.

 The books considered to be canonical came from a large number of literary works that did not make it. Those that did not make it into scripture have been called the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha. A few of those works were accepted by some elements of Christianity and they are often called Deuterocanonical.

 In this work, I will look at those works that are called Deuterocanonical by some and the Apocrypha by others. The works that I will examine are:

 1^st Maccabees: This work is considered to be the best historical a count that dates from the Intertestamental period that exists today.;

 2^nd Maccabees: This work is considered to have some good history from the Intertestamental period, but it is not as accurate is is 1^st Maccabees.

 3rd & 4^th Maccabees: These two works are not accepted either as history or as proper for inclusion in the Bible.

Additions to the book of Daniel:

The Prayer of Azariah: This is the prayer of Abednego, just before he was thrown into the fiery furnace and how God delivered the three of them.

The Song of the Holy Children: This continues the Prayer of Azariah, with a song to the God who had saved the three of them.

Susanna: This is a nice devotional story of Daniel saving the life of a woman falsely accused of wrong-doing.

Bel & the Dragon: The title gives it away. There is a fight with a dragon. In addition, the Babylonian God Bel, is shown to actually be human.

Prayer of Manasseh: This is a story of a king of Judah who worships Idols, repents and is granted mercy by God.

1^st Esdras: This book is rooted in the Biblical book of Ezra. It is a Septuagint translation with some differences from the Hebrew version.

2^nd Esdras: This book falsely claims to be written by the Hebrew Ezra.

Tobit: In this book, an angel and a demon are directly involved in the life of Tobit.

Judith: In this book, a woman saves Jerusalem from capture by an Assyrian general.

Esther: This is an expanded version of the Hebrew book of Esther. In this work, God is very active.

The Book of Sirach or Ecclesiasticus: This is an ethical work, written in Greek, by a known person, Jesus Son of “Sirach.

Baruch: This is a theological work, supposed to have been written by a former exile to Babylon

Wisdom of Solomon: Just a book of so-called wise thoughts.

 

 

[phkrause]

On 7/25/2024 at 2:48 PM, Gregory Matthews said:

1^st Maccabees: This work is considered to be the best historical a count that dates from the Intertestamental period that exists today.;

 2^nd Maccabees: This work is considered to have some good history from the Intertestamental period, but it is not as accurate is is 1^st Maccabees.

I agree about these 2 books. I really enjoyed reading these. Book 1 was great, and book 2 was OK. I've never heard or seen books 3 and 4?? I also did enjoy reading all the other books of the Apocrypha!!