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370-121-MS: Judaism, Christianity & Islam (Sasson): Biblical Apocrypha

This guide contains the resources you will need to use for the Judaism, Christianity & Islam course. These are very specialized resources for interpretive scriptural research, so we've also included information to help you get the most out of each resourc

Biblical Apocrypha

The term "Biblical Apocrypha" can refer to two separate groups of ancient texts.

The first group, known as the Apocrypha in Judaism and the Old Testament Apocrypha or the Deuterocanional or Intertestamental books in Christianity, are ancient texts that are contemporaneous with the Hebrew Bible, but are not were not canonized in Judaism. They are, however, generally recognized as part of the Bible by most Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant Christian sects. Usually, they are printed between the Old and the New Testaments in a Christian Bible, which is where the term "Intertestamental" comes from. The term "Deuterocanonical" comes from the Greek meaning "coming from the second canon," and it applied to this group of books in recognition of the fact that they are not part of the canonical Hebrew Bible.

The second group is the New Testament Apocrypha. These books are writings by early Christians that provide accounts of Jesus and his teachings, but that were not included as part of the 27 books of the modern New Testament canon when it was established. Unlike the Old Testament Apocrypha, these works are not recognized by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant churches as canonical. However, they are still valuable to the study of the Bible and of early Christian History in particular.

Intertestamental/Deuterocanonicals/Old Testament Apocrypha

The following volume contains the full Intertestamental/Deuterocanonical/Old Testament Apocrypha in translation, with annotations and commentary. It includes an alphabetical index of people, places, and concepts as mentioned in the commentary for the Apocrypha, but not for the Apocrypha themselves.

Many Christian Bibles also include the Apocrypha, often with annotations. Here is a selection of Bibles that contain the Apocrypha that are available to you in the Library:

New Testament Apocrypha

The following volumes have translated versions of the New Testament Apocrypha, including modern commentary.

The Other Bible

The Other Bible contains translations of the Gnostic Gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Visionary Wisdom Texts, the Christian Apocrypha, the Jewish Pseudepigrapha, and the Kabbalah. It includes extensive commentary for each, as well as an index for names, places, and events as mentioned in the various texts. It does not include a line-by-line scriptural index.

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