APOCRYPHA

4. Apoealypiical: Second Esdras [Fourth Esdraa in Vulgate].

5. Didactic: Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon.

In some classifications Third and Fourth Maccabees are included.

Most of these books are found in their original form in Greek, with the exceptions noted below, and not in the Hebrew; therefore the Jewish religious leaders did not regard them as inspired. Furthermore, some of their writers (1 Mac 4« 9", 2 Mac 2") disclaim inspiration as the Jews understood it. The NT writers do not quote these books, nor do they definitely refer to them. Their existence in the Greek Bible of the times of Christ does not seem to have given them any prestige for the Jewish authorities of that day. The Church Fathers made some use of them, by quotation and allusion, but were not so emphatic in their favour as to secure their incorporation in the regular canonical books of the Bible.

Jerome, in his revision of the Old Latin Bible, found the Apocryphal books therein, as carried over from the Septuagint; but in his translation of the OT he was careful not to include in the OT proper any books not found in the Hebrew Canon. In fact, he regarded his time as too valuable to be spent in revising or trans-lating these uninspired books.

It was not until the Council of Trent, April 15, 1546, that the Roman Catholic Church publicly set its seal of authority on eleven of the fourteen or sixteen (in-cluding 3 and 4 Mac.) Apocryphal books. This Council names as canonical the following books and parts of books: First and Second Maccabees, Additions to Esther, History of Susanna, Song of the Three Holy Children, Bel and the Dragon, Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Sirach, and Wisdom of Solomon; omitting from the above list the Prayer of Manasses, First and Second Esdras [Vulgate Third and Fourth Esdras].

The Council of Trent settled the Canon of Scripture for the Roman Catholic Church, and decreed an ana-thema against any one who did not agree with its state-ment. Even before the meeting of that famous Council, Coverdale, in 1535, had introduced the Apocrypha into the English Bible edited by himself. It was published in the first edition of the AV in 1611, but began to be left out as early as 1629'. It was inserted between the OT and NT. As a result of a controversy in 1826, it was excluded from all the Bibles published by the British and Foreign Bible Society.

In our discussion of the character and contents of these books, we must keep in mind the tact that the word 'Apocrypha' is used in the Protestant sense as inclusive of the fourteen books given in the RV of 1895, eleven of which are regarded as canonical by the Roman Catholic Church.

The general character and the contents of these books are as follows: —

1. First Maccabees. —This is a historical work of rare value on the Jewish war of independence against the encroachments and invasions of Antiochus Epiphanes (B.C. 168-164). Its author is unknown, though thought to have been a Jew of Palestine, who wrote between B.C. 105 and 64. The book is known in a Greek original, though it was translated, according to Jerome, from a Hebrew original that was current in his day (end of 4th cent.).

2. Second Maccabees is an abridgment of a five- volume work by Jason of Cyrene {2'^). It is prefaced by two letters said to have been sent from the Jews of Jerusalem to the Jews of Egypt. This book deals with the history of the Jews from the reign of Seleucus iv. (b.c. 176) to the death of Nicanor (b.c. 161). The multi-plication of the marvellous and miraculous in the narra-tive discounts the value of the material as a source of historical data. The book was written somewhere between b.c. 125 and the fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70. It is extant in Greek.

42

APOCRYPHA

3. First Esdras (Third in the Vulgate) is the canonical book of Ezra in Greek, which in reconstructed form tells the story of the decline and fall of the kingdom of Judah from the time of Josiah. It recites the over-throw of Jerusalem, the Babylonian exile, the return under Zerubbabel, and Ezra's part in the reorganization of the Jewish State. Josephus refers to the legend regarding the three courtiers contained in this book. Its author is unknown. The Council of Trent placed it in an appendix to the NT as Third Esdras, and not among their regular canonical books.

4. Additions to Esther. — The canonical Esther con-cludes with IQS; this chapter is filled out by the addition of seven verses, and the book concludes with six addi-tional chapters (11-16). The regular text of the book is occasionally interpolated and amplified by some writer or writers, to give the story a fuller narrative and make the teUing of it more effective. These additions sometimes contradict the Hebrew, and add nothing new of any value. This editorial work is thought to have been done by an Egyptian Jew somewhere in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor (b.c. 181-145).

6. The History of Susanna is an account of Daniel's discovery of a malicious slander against the good woman Susanna. The story is prefixed to the book of Daniel. It is found in the Greek, and was prepared by an un-known author at an unknown date.

6. The Song of the Three Holy Children is found in-serted between v.^ and v.'* of Dn 3. Its author and date are unknown.

7. The Story of Bel and the Dragon follows Dn 12. It is a proof by Daniel that the priests of Bel and their families ate the food set before the idol. Daniel slays the dragon, and is a second time thrown into the lions' den. The origin of this story is unknown, though it is by some attributed to Habakkuk. The three preceding stories are found in the Septuagint of Daniel, and a MS of No. 6 has recently been found.

8. Tobit is a romantic story of the time of Israel's captivity. Tobit is a pious son of Naphtali who becomes blind. He sends his son Tobias to Rages in Media to collect a debt. An angel leads him to Ecbatana, where he romantically marries a widow who was still a virgin though she had had seven husbands. Each of the seven had been slain on their wedding-day by Asmodseus, the evil spirit. On the inspiration of the angel, Tobias marries the widow, and, by burning the inner parts of a fish, puts the spirit to flight by the offensive smoke. The blindness of Tobit is healed by using the gall of the fish, the burning of whose entrails had saved the lite of Tobias. The book is found in an Aramaic version, three Greek, and three Old Latin versions, and also in two Hebrew texts. Its date is uncertain, though it doubtless appeared before the 1st cent. b.c.

9. Judith is a thrilling tale of how Judith, a Jewish widow, secured the confidence of Holofernes, an Assyrian commander who was besieging Bethulia. Stealthily in the night time she approached him in his tent, already overcome with heavy drinking, took his own scimitar and cut off his head, and fled with it to the besieged city. This valorous act saved the distressed Israelites. The story bristles with absurdities in names, dates, and geographical material.- It seems to have imitated in one respect Jael's murder of Sisera (Jg 4"-^). It may have been written some time about b.c. 100, so long after the life of Nebuchadrezzar as to have made him king of Nineveh, instead of Babylon. The original text is Greek.

10. Baruch. — This is a pseudepigraphical book attributed to Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah. Its purpose seems to have been (1) to quiet the souls of the Jews in exile by telling them that they would soon return to their native land; and (2) to admonish them to flee the idolatry that was everywhere prevalent in Babylonia. Bar 6 is called the ' Epistle of Jeremy ' and is nominally a letter of that prophet, warning the