What is the Bible?
Part 4
What About the Pseudepigrapha and the Apocrypha?
Series Intro…
For many this may seem
like a very simple question, even silly. Everybody knows what the Bible is,
right? Yet, it’s really not simple at all. In this series of posts, it is my
hope to share the variety of answers that are legitimately possible to that
question.
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The word “Pseudepigrapha” translates as “false
writings” and “Apocrypha” means “hidden writings.” So, what do the writings
categorized as either pseudepigraphal or apocryphal have to do with answering
the question, “What is the Bible? In a phrase, “so very much.” At the very
least, to ignore these writings because some religious leaders/councils decided
that they are not “inspired” is to ignore the religious context of Second
Temple Judaism and the early church – the context out of which Christianity and
Rabbinic Judaism came into existence.
But, just as important, many of the
pseudepigraphal and apocryphal writings are alluded to and/or even quoted in some
of the New Testament writings; i.e., those 1st century C.E. writings
deemed by later church leaders to be “the inspired word of God.” As one scholar
has identified, in a 92-page document, there are hundreds of allusions to, and
paraphrases and quotes from, these so-called “non-inspired” writings in the New
Testament.[1] What are these writings?
· Pseudepigrapha are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true
author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.
· Apocrypha are works of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin.
Biblical apocrypha is a set of texts included in the Latin
Vulgate and Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Bible. While Catholic tradition
considers some of these texts to be deuterocanonical, Protestants consider
them apocryphal.
OT Pseudepigrapha
(parital) - Charlesworth[2]
|
Apocrypha – NRSV Annotated
Bible[3]
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·
1 Enoch
· Syballine Oracles
· Vision of Ezra
· Apocalypse of Abraham
· Apocalypse of Adam
· Apocalypse of Daniel
· Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
· Testament of Job
· Testament of Moses
· Letter of Aristeas
·
Jubilees
· Joseph and Aseneth
· Pseudo-Philo
· Prayer of Manasseh
· Prayer of Joseph
· Odes of Solomon
· Etc…
|
·
Tobit
· Judith
· Additions to the Book of Esther
· Wisdom of Solomon
·
Wisdom of Jesus/
Ecclesiasticus
· Baruch
· The Letter of Jeremiah
· Prayer of Azariah
· Susanna
· Bel and the Dragon
·
1 Maccabees
·
2 Maccabees
· 3 Maccabees
· 4 Maccabees
· 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras
· Prayer of Manasseh
· Psalm 151
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The fact that there are so many allusions, paraphrases
and even quotations in the New Testament writings to many of these writings
indicates that Jews of the late Second Temple Judaism were very familiar with
their contents. It also begs the question of how the New Testament authors—and,
therefore, Jews and early followers of Jesus—regarded the authority/inspiration
of, at least some of, these writings. Some of the more significant writings are
in bold in the above table.
To illustrate, consider the New Testament letter of
Jude and its relationship to, and respect for, the pseudepigraphal book of 1
Enoch.
Jude
|
1 Enoch
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Relationship
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(14–15) It was also about these that
Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “See, the
Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on
all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have
committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners
have spoken against him.”
|
(1:9) Behold, he will
arrive with ten million of the holy ones in order to execute judgment upon
all. He will destroy the wicked ones and censure all flesh on account of
everything that they have done, that which the sinners and the wicked ones committed
against him.
(93:3) He [Enoch] then
began to recount from the books and said, I was born the seventh during the
first week, during which time judgment and righteousness continued to
endure.
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Quotation – Refers to Enoch as having “prophesied”
the second coming of the Lord!
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(6) And the angels who did not
keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in
eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day.
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(10:6) and in order that he may be sent into the fire on the great
day of judgment
(12:4) At that moment, the
Watchers were calling me. And they said to me, “Enoch, scribe of
righteousness, go and make known to the Watchers of heaven who have
abandoned the high heaven,
the holy eternal place, and have defiled themselves with women, as their
deeds move the children of the world, and have taken unto
themselves
wives: They have defiled themselves with great defilement upon the ear.
(21:11) upon this great pain, until the
great day of judgment—and to those who curse
there will be plague and pain
forever, and the retribution of their spirits. They will bind
them there forever—even from
the beginning of the world.
|
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(4) For certain intruders have
stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this
condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into
licentiousness and deny our
only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
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(48:10) On the day of their weariness,
there shall be an obstacle on the earth and they
shall fall on their faces; and
they shall not rise up again, nor anyone be found who will take them with his
hands and raise them up. For they have denied the Lord of the Spirits and his
Messiah. Blessed be the name of the Lord of the Spirits!
|
In addition to the quote and numerous paraphrases and
allusions found in Jude, the pseudepigraphal book of 1 Enoch is also alluded to
numerous times in Revelation, Matthew, James, Luke, John, 1 Corinthians,
Colossians, etc. Jews and early followers of Jesus in the late first century CE
did not have any category of writings called pseudepigraphal or apocryphal.
Either writings had authority and thus communicated truth or not. Fragments of
so many of these writings were also found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. If the
New Testament writings demonstrated such respect for and reliance on many of
these writings, and many people consider the New Testament writings as
inspired, then, at the very least, should we not show respect for these
pseudepigraphal and apocryphal writings rather than ignore or discredit them?
We will end this “What is the Bible?” series with one
final post regarding the concept and history of canonization. In other words,
we need to understand how, when and why the 24 books of Hebrew Bible and the 27
books of the New Testament were canonized and, thus, why other very popular and
respected writings of the Second Temple period were rendered, at best, deuterocanonical[4]
and, at worst, non-canonical.
[2] Charlesworth, James H., ed., The Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha, 2 Volumes. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers,
2015).
[3] Coogan,
Michael D., ed., The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard
Version with the Apocrypha (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
[4] The deuterocanonical books
(from the Greek meaning "belonging to the second canon")
are books and passages considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox
Church and Assyrian Church of the East to be canonical books of the Old
Testament but which are considered non-canonical by Protestant denominations.
