Brief Introductions To Religious Texts will serve to educate the general public on the great religious texts, what they are and basic scholarship related to them. The Philosophy of this series is to educate with the hope of clearing up misconceptions and fighting ignorance, which can lead to hate. Also to make this information available and easily Understandable by the general public. Interaction with the blog, asking questions, and sharing are greatly encouraged. Words appearing in bold are important terms defined at the end of the post. Also included at the end of the post are online resources for further study.
If you have read my previous posts on the Old Testament and The Deuterocanonical Literature you have probably came across an unfamiliar word, one denoting a type of religious literature, the Pseudepigrapha. The Pseudepigrapha is unknown to many outside the field of religious studies, but thanks to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, documentaries such as Banned From The Bible, and movies such as The Da Vinci Code lay people have gained both an awareness and an interest in this type of literature, as well as Other “lost books” of the Bible. What exactly is the Pseudepigrapha? It is group of sixty-five texts related to but with a few exceptions, not part of any version of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament. These books were authored by Jews or Christians, mostly during the three centuries before the Common era, and the first two centuries of the Common Era. These writings are labeled “Pseudepigrapha” due to the fact that in most instances, they are falsely attributed to an individual, usually a Patriarch or Prophet.i
The Origin and History Of the Term ‘Pseudepigrapha’
The literal meaning of the term Pseudepigrapha is “falsely attributed writings”. It is commonly used as a literary genre for any text incorrectly ascribed to an ancient figure. The word is used by scholars to refer to non-biblical Jewish works other than the Apocrypha, Josephus, or Philo, known prior to 1948, written in the time period mentioned above.ii The technical sense of the term “Pseudepigrapha” posses an extended and unique history. It was utilized first in the later portion of the second century by Serapion when he referred to the New Testament Pseudepigraphaiii. The word was granted importance in the initial portion of the 1700’s by J. A. Fabricius, who named the first volume of his monumental series Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti. In the 1800’s an assemblage of “Pseudepigrapha” was compiled by M. L’Abbe J.-P. Migne, who was Catholic, and was called ‘Dictionnaire des apocryphes, ou collection de tous les livres apocryphes relatifs a Vancien et au nouveau testament’, this work did not use the term “Pseudepigrapha”. This was due to the fact that Catholic Christians regard the Apocrypha to be deuterocanonical literature and thus use the term Apocrypha to refer to the Pseudepigraphaiv. Modern scholars use the term “Pseudepigrapha”, due to the fact that the word has been handed down from former generations and is currently in use all over the world, not because it designates these texts as illegitimate.v
The Books Of The Pseudepigrapha
These texts are rich in theological expressions and beliefs, all of which were formulated, at least partly, from those located in the Hebrew Bible. There are at minimum four momentous theological interests which are quite often found in these writings: “preoccupations with the meaning of sin, the origins of evil, and the problem of theodicy; stresses upon God’s transcendence; concerns with the coming of the Messiah; and beliefs in a resurrection that are often accompanied with descriptions of Paradise.”vi
The books of the Pseudepigrapha can be placed into five loosely defined genres.
Apocalyptic Literature and Related Works: The word “Apocalypse” is a Greek word meaning a “revelation” or a “disclosure.” These texts incorporate a revelation of what is happening in the heavens above or what will occur in the imminent future. Such revelations are generally “graphically illustrated with visions and auditions, and there are often cosmic trips by Enoch or other “holy ones” into the hidden reaches of our universe.”vii This genre consists of nineteen documents:
1 (The Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch (Also known as the Book Of Enoch or The First Book Of Enoch)
2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch (Also Known as The Second Book Of Enoch Of The Book Of The Secrets of Enoch)
3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch (Also known as The Third Book Of Enoch)
Sibylline Oracles
Treatise of Shem
Apocryphon of Ezekiel
Apocalypse of Zephaniah
4 Ezra
Greek Apocalypse of Ezra
Vision of Ezra
Questions of Ezra
Revelation of Ezra
Apocalypse of Sedrach
2 (Syriac Apocalypse of) Baruch
3 (Greek Apocalypse of) Baruch
Apocalypse of Abraham
Apocalypse of Adam
Apocalypse of Elijah
Apocalypse of Daniel
Testaments: The second variety of books in the Pseudepigrapha are “Testaments” (frequently they include apocalyptic sections); The narratives of the Hebrew Bible commonly render the setting for these “Testaments.” Though there was not a solid genre to stick to, the authors of these texts shared the structure or format of most of these writings. A patriarch of the Hebrew Bible, near his death, gathers his sons and followers around him so he can impart his final words of instruction and perception. These testaments (or last wills) contain ethical teachings and are commonly dramatized by visions into the future. In some aspects, this genre was inspired by Jacob’s testament to his sons.viii This group contains the following documents:
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Testament of Job
Testaments of the Three Patriarchs
Testament of Abraham
Testament of Isaac
Testament of Jacob
Testament of Moses (Also known as The Assumption Of Moses)
Testament of Solomon
Testament of Adam
Expansions of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Other Legends: The third category of texts in the Pseudepigrapha. These documents especially demonstrate the imaginative power of the Hebrew Bible; with only one exception, The Letter of Aristeas, they enlarge and embellish the narratives and stories of the Hebrew Bible. This genre contains the following documents:
The Letter of Aristeas
Jubilees
Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah
Joseph and Asenath
Life of Adam and Eve
Pseudo-Philo
Lives of the Prophets
Ladder of Jacob
4 Baruch
Jannes and Jambres
History of the Rechabites
Eldad and Modad
Wisdom and Philosophical Literature: The fourth kind of writings found in the Pseudepigrapha preserve some of the wisdom of the ancients, not just that found in early Judaism but also of the surrounding cultures. Here, we encounter the universalistic truths so necessary for refined and learned demeanor and behavior in all aspects of life, secular and religious. Jews inclined to adopt philosophical truths from other cultures, oftentimes but not always, recasting them in light of the Torah. This genre contains the following works:
Ahiqar
3 Maccabeesix
4 Maccabees
Pseudo-Phocylides
The Sentences of the Syriac Menander
Prayers, Psalms, and Odes: The last genre of texts in the Pseudepigrapha contains some poetic compositions which are influenced by the thought and style of the canonical Psalms, while others display the more free evolutions of poetic style typical of early Jewish hymns. The final genre contains the following writings:
More Psalms of David
Prayer of Manasseh
Psalms of Solomon
Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers
Prayer of Joseph
Prayer of Jacob
Odes of Solomon
The Significance of The Pseudepigrapha
A fragment of The book of Enoch
The Pseudepigrapha offer us an improved understanding of Jewish thought and history in the last few centuries before the common era and the first few that preceded the opening of the common era. That period contains four features that are sensational. First, there was a plethora of literature, although we only have a fraction of the books produced by Jews during the period. Known to us today are many texts that are lost due to the fact that early Christians quoted from and mentioned them, since some writings are available only in shortened manuscripts or are fragmentary, since there are citations of volumes which were written but have been lost to time, such as those by Jason of Cyrene, Justus of Tiberias, and Nicolaus of Damascus. With each new discovery of a manuscript we are reminded that there are still countless numbers of texts to be recovered.
It is apparent that the Judaism of the time period after the Babylonian Exile was distinguished by large and wide-ranging literature: from the composition of epics or tragedies in hexameters or iambic trimeters to philosophical tractates, from what could be dependable histories to creative recreations of the bygone times, from apocalyptic dreams and visions of another world to wisdom of a humanistic variety, and from complaints in apparently Promethean arrogance, against God to hymnic and self-examining submissions to God as the only manner of righteousness and redemption. During this time in history, the Jewish genius rapidly expanded into creative new writings.
Secondly, the Pseudepigrapha exemplify the permeating influence of the books of the Hebrew Bible upon the Judaism of this period. That is seen not just in the genre of books labeled “Expansions of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament” but also in many texts of the apocalypses and testaments. Judaism became for all time a religion of the Book, the Hebrew Bible.
Third, it is in the Pseudepigrapha that we learn that the consecutive conquests of Palestinian Jews by Persians, Greeks, and Romans, and the intermittent invasions by Syrian, Egyptian, and Parthian armies did not curb the liveliness of religious Jews for the traditions of their ancestors. The ancient Psalms of David were perpetually enlarged until some collections contained 155 psalms. Different psalm books appeared, especially the Psalms of Solomon, the Hodayoth, the Odes of Solomon, and perhaps the Hellenistic Synagogal Hymns. Apocalypses that emphasized the magnificence and transcendence of God were conventionally interspersed with hymns that celebrated closeness of God, and by prayers that were perceived as answered. The Jewish religion of this time was a thriving and heartfelt religion. New hymns, psalms, and odes testify to the reality that persecution could not extinguish the blessings by the faithful.
Finally, the Pseudepigrapha prove that the Jews of this era were often conflicted internally by divisions and sects, and were periodically conquered from the outside by foreign nations who disrespected, battered, and often subjected the Jewish people to deadly torture. This maltreatment by foreign occupants increased the want to revolt. A few books of the Pseudepigrapha reflect the hostilities among the Jews. Particularly worth mentioning are the Psalms of Solomon and the Testament of Moses, which record the idea that God alone is the source of power; it is he who will start action against the foreigners and remove them from Jerusalem. The apocalyptic texts are generally negative about the present: they present God as having withdrawn from the sphere of history and from the earth; he would only comeback to complete the end of the present era and to usher in a new era. It was by this belief that the apocalyptic authors supported the commitment of God to the covenant, arouse the reader to live in terms of another world, and imagine a positive finale for Israel in God’s completed story. Due to this the books of the Pseudepigrapha are an essential source for understanding the social constructs of the Judaism of that day. The simplistic idea of this Judaism should be remodeled; it surely was not a religion which had fallen into backbreaking legalism due to the crippling demands of the Law, nor was it defined by four dominant sects. A new view has been rising because of the ideas saved in these books. There are three illustrations which demonstrate this insight: First, we cannot determine, with certainty, any writer of these books as being a Pharisee or an Essene or as belonging to any other sect. Second, the Jews who lived in Palestine were influenced by Egyptian, Persian, and Greek ideas. Hence, the longtime distinction between “Palestinian Judaism” and “Hellenistic Judaism” has to be either redefined or discarded. Third, because of the varied, even conflicting, nature of the ideas common in many facets of the Judaism of this time, it is obvious that it was not monolithically organized or molded by a central and all-powerful “orthodoxy.”
At the beginning of the 1900’s it was commonly believed that the Judaism of the time in which the Pseudepigrapha originated, was shaped and defined by “normative Judaism” or a ruling orthodoxy centralized in Jerusalem. This belief is no longer supported by most biblical scholars. Since 1947, when the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, there has even been an inclination to stress unduly the diversity in Early Judaism. Where as it is now accepted that foreign ideas entered deep into many facets of Jewish thought, and that sometimes it is challenging to decide whether an early text is in essence Jewish or Christian, it is, nevertheless, unwise to overstate the diversity in Early Judaism. In the first century Judaism was not unvaryingly normative nor chaotically diverse.x
Due to the fact that it was in this period of Judaism that Christianity originated in, this texts also illuminate early Christianity. Many writers of Pseudepigrapha seriously thought they were transcribing the inerrant words of God. Early Christian communities, seemingly took several books of the Pseudepigrapha very seriously. The writer of the New Testament Epistle of Jude, in verses 14 and 15, quoted as prophecy a part of 1 Enoch, and this section, 1 Enoch 1:9, was discovered in Aramaic from one of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were located.
Compare Jude 1:14-15xi,
“And to these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all that are ungodly among them of all their works of ungodliness which they have impiously wrought, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
With 1 Enoch 1:9xii,
“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.”
The author of Jude likely was dependent, in verses 9-10, upon a lost Jewish apocryphon about Moses. It appears that the early Pseudepigrapha were written during a time when the definitions of the canon seemingly remained fluid at least in part, to some Jews, and “that some Jews and Christians inherited and passed on these documents as inspired. They did not necessarily regard them as apocryphal, or outside a canon.”xiii
How These Books Are Viewed By Religious Groups Today
An Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Many of these Pseudepigrapha were preserved by the Jews and Christians of Ethiopia.
With the exception of III and IV Maccabees, which is considered canonical by the Eastern Orthodox Churches, The books of 1 Enoch and Jubilees which are considered canonical by The Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the group of Ethiopian Jews known as Beta Israel, and The Testaments of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which are accepted as scripture by Beta Israel, these books are not accepted by any modern religious group as scripture. Be that as it may, due to the reasons why these texts are significant, many Jews and Christians study these texts today. However modern usage is not just limited to Jews and Christians, Muslims too, have found significance in this literature. Some Islamic theologians believe that some of the Pseudepigrapha, such as The Testament of Moses, contain prophecies of the Prophet Muhammad.
Important Pseudepigrapha Related Terms
Apocalyptic Literature and Related Works: A genre of Pseudepigrapha, the texts of this genre include a portion which reveals what is currently happening in the heavens or what will happen in the near future. The word “Apocalypse” is a Greek word meaning a “revelation” or a “disclosure.”
Babylonian Exile: Also known as the Babylonian captivity, is the period in Jewish history during which a number of Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylonia. After the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, resulting in tribute being paid by King Jehoiakim.
Expansions of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Other Legends: A genre of Pseudepigrapha, the texts of this genre elaborate on and embellish the narratives and stories of the Hebrew Bible.
Prayers, Psalms, and Odes: A genre of Pseudepigrapha, the texts in the this genre contain some poetic compositions which are influenced by the thought and style of the canonical Psalms.
Pseudepigrapha: A group of sixty-five texts related to but for the most part are not part of Hebrew Bibles or Old Testaments. These books were authored by Jews or Christians, mostly during the three centuries before the Common era, and the first two centuries of the Common Era. These writings are labeled “Pseudepigrapha” due to the fact that in most instances, the individual, usually a Patriarch or Prophet, with which they claim to have been written by, in fact was not.
Testaments: A loose genre of Pseudepigrapha. These texts are usually in the following format; a patriarch of the Hebrew Bible, near his death, gathers his sons and followers around him so he can impart his final words of instruction and perception. These testaments (or last wills) contain ethical teachings and are commonly dramatized by visions into the future. In some aspects, this genre was inspired by Jacob’s testament to his sons.
Theodicy: The defense of divine goodness and providence in view of the existence of evil.
Wisdom and Philosophical Literature: A genre of Pseudepigrapha, the texts of this genre conserve some of the perceptions of the wisdom of the ancients, not just that early Judaism but also of the surrounding cultures.
Online Resources For Further Study
Websites
A Great Website for these texts and others early Jewish writings, as well as scholarship on these works.
http://www.earlyjewishwritings.com/
Another collection of Texts
http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/
PDF Files
Scholarly Collections of Pseudepigrapha
The classic R.H Charles’ Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament Volume 2
https://ia700303.us.archive.org/11/items/apocryphapseudep02charuoft/apocryphapseudep02charuoft.pdf
The Best Modern collection of Pseudepigrapha, it comes in 2 volumes
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 1: Apocalypses and Testaments
https://mega.co.nz/#!Sh8WAQba!T0i_XZZSaBHIpOebSzXv3GIBB3Dka3Eq3U1ISqU0pX4
Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Volume 2: Expansions of the Old Testament and Legends, Wisdom and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms, and Odes, Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic works
https://mega.co.nz/#!z8EWjL7Z!xGdeZkYgL11xvYLLNpDBRPPqmSynB_bXMJKakHAFPt0
A collection of separate PDF Pseudepigrapha files, including texts that are related to, but not int the Hebrew Bible but don’t quite meet the scholarly definition.
https://mega.co.nz/#F!vg8QnIaZ!d39cE9Qzbyy0k9NFpzwqbg
God willing next week’s post will be on The Hellenistic Jewish Literature.
i Achtemeier, Paul J. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. New York, New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996. , pp 47 894-895
ii This excludes the writings unique to The Dead Sea Scrolls.
iii ta pseudepigrapha, “with false superscription”; cf. Eusebius, HE 6.12
iv The word Pseudepigrapha is highly subjective, but unfortunately it is the only word we have for these texts.
v Charlesworth, James H. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983. Print. pp XXIV-XXV
viOld testament Psuedepigrapha, pp XXIX-XXX
viiHarper collins, pp 895
viiiFound in Genesis 49
ixThough this book is considered canonical by The Eastern Orthodox Church and many of The Oriental Orthodox Churches, because it is not considered canonical by Western Churches it is often placed in the Pseudepigrapha. I personally do not agree with this designation and have only included it here because it is often found on such lists.
x Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, pp XXVIII
xiNRSV
xii Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
xiiiOld Testament Pseudepigrapha xxiii
Perspectives Of A Fellow Traveler 