Old testament Apocrypha

To understand Jesus of Nazareth, it is essential to read the writings from the four-century gap between the Old and New Testaments. Matthias Henze introduces this period and its writings, discusses how they have been read through history, guides students' encounters with select texts, and introduces key ideas in New Testament texts that can't be understood without these early Jewish writings.

(Follow for Follow - Enjoy your read!!)

All credit goes to Steve Delemarter  for making this work!! 100s of hours spent in 2 summers putting together this Exhaustive work made me tired from just reading the journey and hard work this awesome gentleman put in to just make this work!!

Hb The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
Apocalyptic Literature and Testament - Volume 1
Edited  by - Edited By James H. Charles WorthThe Apocrypha, therefore, includes thirteen documents: 2 Ezra (= 1 Esdras),* Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, 1 Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Azariah with the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. Often two pseudepigrapha, 4 Ezra (= 2 Esdras)* and the Prayer of Manasseh,* are considered part of the Apocrypha. The thirteen documents in the Apocrypha, with the exception of Tobit, which may bThe Vision of Daniel, The Death of Abraham (both ed. by A. Vassiliev in Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina, vol. 1. Moscow, 1893), the Hebrew Apocalypse of Elijah (ed. and trans. M. Buttenwieser, Die hebrdische Ellas-Apokalypse. Leipzig, 1897), the Book of Jasher (ed. J. Hive, The Book of Jasher. Bristol, 1829), the Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan (ed. A. Dillmann, Das christliche Adambuch des Orients. Gottingen, 1853; ET: S. C. Malan, The Book of Adam and Eve. London, 1882), the Cave of Treasures (ed. C. Bezold, Die Schatzhohle: Syrisch und Deutsch, 2 vols. Leipzig, 1883, 1888; ET: E. A.
W. Budge, The Book of the Cave of Treasures. London, 1927), the Book of the Rolls (cf. M. D. Gibson, Apocrypha Arabica. Studia Sinaitica 8. London, 1901), the Sin of Solomon (unpublished, probably a homily, cf. Cod. Par. Gr. 1021, fols. 184v-185v in the Bibliotheque Nationale), Pirhe de Rabbi Eliezer (trans. G.
Friedlander, Pirfce de Rabbi Eliezer. New York, 1981 4), the Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra (ed. and trans. J.-B. Chabot,  4 4 L'Apocalypse d'Esdras," Revue semitique 2 [1894] 242-50, 333-46), the Book of the Bee (ed. and trans. E. A. W. Budge, The Book of the Bee. Anecdota Oxoniensia, Sem. Ser. 1.2. Oxford, 1886), and the Questions Addressed by the Queen (of Sheba), and Answers Given by Solomon (trans. J. Issaverdens, The Uncanonical Writings of the Old Testament. Venice, 1901).Josephus Ant Jewish Antiquities Apion Against Apion Life Life of Josephus War Jewish Wars New Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha EBar Epistle of Barnabas GBart Gospel of Bartholomew QuesBart Questions of Bartholomew lClem 1 Clement 2Clem 2 Clement PseudClemRec Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions Did Didache GEbion Gospel of the Ebionites GEgyp Gospel of the Egyptians GHeb Gospel of the Hebrews ShepHerm Shepherd of Hermes Aploan Apokalypsis tou hagiou Idannou Protlames Protoevangelium of James ActsJn Acts of John GMatthias Gospel of Matthias GNic Gospel of Nicodemus ActsPaul Acts of Paul ApPaul Apocalypse of Paul ApPet Apocalypse of Peter GPet Gospel of Peter PrPet Preaching of Peter ActsPhil Acts of Philip GPhil Gospel of Philip RevSteph Revelation of Stephen ActsThom Acts of Thomas ApThom Apocalypse of Thomas GThom Gospel of Thomas GTr Gospel of Truth ApVirg Apocalypse of the Virgin Early Fathers AdvHaer Epiphanius, Adversus haereses AposCon ApostoApMos Apocalypse of Moses AsMos Assumption of Moses PrMos Prayer of Moses TMos Testament of Moses BkNoah Book of Noah Ps-Orph Pseudo-Orpheus PJ Paraleipomena Jeremiou PhEPoet Philo the Epic Poet Ps-Philo Pseudo-Philo Ps-Phoc Pseudo-Phocylides FrgsPoetWrks Fragments of Poetical Works LivPro Lives of the Prophets HistRech History of the Rechabites ApSedr Apocalypse of Sedrach TrShem Treatise of Shem SibOr Sibylline Oracles OdesSol Odes of Solomon PssSol Psalms of Solomon TSol Testament of Solomon 5ApocSyrPss Five Apocryphal Syriac Psalms Thai Thallus Theod Theodotus T12P Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

Some Pseudepigrapha  and other Ancient Works +
Other Syriac and English , Arabic , Greek works listed below I myself can obtain if you message me !

Table of Contents

1. The Life of Adam and Eve (Apocalypse of Moses) (Arabic)
2. The Testament of Adam (Syriac and Arabic)
3. The Cave of Treasures (Syriac and Arabic)
4. The Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan (Arabic)
5. ​The Book of Adam (Codex Nazaraeus; Mandean Fragment) (Syriac)
6. Life of Abel, by Symmachus (Syriac)
7. Syriac Book of Seth (Syriac)
8. 1 Enoch (Syriac)
9. Apocalypse of Enoch (Syriac)
10. Tractate of Shem (Syriac)
11. The Testament of Abraham (On the Death of Abraham) (Arabic)
12. History of Melchizedek (Syriac and Arabic)
13. Joseph and Asenath (Recension Two) (Syriac)
14. History of Joseph (Syriac)
15. History of Joseph, Son of Jacob [Version A] (Arabic)
16. History of Joseph, Son of Jacob [Version B] (Arabic)
17. History of Joseph (Arabic)
18. Dormition of Joseph, the Son of Jacob (Arabic)
19. Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs (Syriac)
20. The Names of the Wives of the Patriarchs (Syriac)
21. The Conversation of Moses with God (Syriac and Arabic)
22. The Book of Jubilees (Syriac)
23. The Life of Moses (Arabic)
24. Instruction of David to Solomon (Arabic)
25. The Palace of Solomon (Arabic)
26. Questions of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon (Syriac)
27. Testament of Solomon to Rehoboam his son (Arabic)
28. The Final Counsel of Solomon (Arabic)
29. The Death of Solomon (Arabic)
30. Aphikia (2 Recensions) (Arabic)
31. History of the Rechabites (Syriac and Arabic)
32. History of the Prophet Elijah (Arabic)
33. ​History of the Prophet Elijah and the son of the Widow (Arabic)
34. ​​History of the Prophet Elijah and his Ascension (Arabic)
35. ​​Sermon of Elisha the Prophet on Sinners (Arabic)
36. ​​​Sermon of the Prophet Elisha on the necessity of purification (Arabic)
37. ​​​Prayer of Manasseh (Syriac and Arabic)
38. ​​​Prayer of Manasseh (Cited from the Apostolic Constitutions) (Syriac and Arabic)
​​​​39. Prayer of Manasseh (from the Byzantine Horologion) (Christian Palestinian Aramaic and Syriac)
​​​40. ​4 Esdras (The Apocalypse of Ezra) (Syriac and Arabic)
41. ​​​​​The Apocalypse of Ezra on the reign of the Arabs (Syriac)
42. ​History and Wisdom of Ahiqar (Syriac and Arabic)
43. ​​5 Maccabees (Syriac)
44. ​​History of St. Shamuni (Arabic)
45. ​​Syriac Apocryphal Psalms (Syriac)
46. ​​Odes of Solomon (Syriac)
47. ​​History of Job (Arabic)
​48. ​Psalms of Solomon (Syriac)
49. ​​The Lives of the Prophets (Syriac and Arabic)
50. ​​The History of Jonah (Syriac and Arabic)
51. ​​Habakkuk Apocryphon (Arabic)
​​52. History of Isaiah the Prophet (Arabic)
​​53. Apocryphon of Jeremiah on the Captivity of Babylon (Arabic)
​54. Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch (2 Baruch) (Syriac and Arabic)
55. Epistle of Baruch (Syriac)
​​56. Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius (Syriac and Arabic)
​​​57. On our Lord and on the end written by the youth Daniel (Syriac)
​​58. ​ Fourteenth Vision of Daniel (Arabic)
​​​59. Apocalypse of Daniel (Arabic)
60. On Daniel and the boy Caleb (Arabic)
61. Conversation of Joseph and Nebuchadnezzar (Arabic)
​​​​62. The Tiburtine Sibyl (Syriac and Arabic)

The Hebrew Bible Apocrypha is an important segment of the scriptural history of Judeo-Christian religion. In this short article, I will review the Apocrypha, its historical background, factors involved in its exclusion from the Bible, and the canons of various church traditions that recognize the Apocrypha as part of their Bible. I will attempt to show in the coming pages that the apocryphal literature continues to assert influence on the Christian world despite controversies and debates surrounding these books’ questionable canonical status. It is important to understand that the history of sacred writings in the Judeo-Christian religion cannot be complete without analyzing and understanding the role of the Apocrypha within the grand scheme of biblical literature that accommodates sacred scriptures. The apocryphal books may be either sacred or secular in their nature of origin and content, but they do indeed tap into the sacred biblical stream of consciousness and thus find themselves a niche within the Hagiographa of the Jewish and Christian traditions, which many still hold sacred.

The English term Apocrypha is derived from the Greek word ἀπόκρυφος, which means "hidden." The word Apocrypha is a specific term used to refer to those particular books that are considered 'Scripture' by the Roman Catholic Church while the Protestants dispute that. The Roman Catholic Church does not term this set of books as the Apocrypha but rather calls them the "Deuterocanonical" (second canon) books.

This is simply a work in progress, at the moment in skeletal form. It serves as the basis for a much longer work that will take into account not only the Second Temple Jewish context of the book but also its reception history, extending to the present.

Readers have long wondered what is the meaning of the dog that briefly appears in the Jewish fairy tale known as the Book of Tobit. This article considers common answers such as influence from Ahikar, the Odyssey, influence of Persian culture and influence of folktale and goes into depth of the dog's significance in human culture, especially in connection with healing and defeating dragons and evil spirits and raises questions about the dog's possible connection to the archangel Raphael.

This article provides the edition of a hitherto unknown Old Testament apocryphon preserved in a ca. 4th century Coptic papyrus fragment. Its main points of interest lie in its apparent portrayal of Moses as leader of the Exodus already as a child, as well as the prominent role in the pursuit of the Hebrews assigned to the infamous Egyptian magicians Jannes and Jambres who fought against Moses and Aaron in Ex 7. The apocryphal legend of Jannes and Jambres is recontextualized within the framework of Egyptian literary history, demonstrating an evolution of the pagan Egyptian genre of the magician tale that is adapted into Jewish apocrypha and survives in Christianized form into Coptic hagiography. New insights on the Coptic Apocryphon not yet contained in this article will be presented in vol. 2 of More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

Resumen
La Revelación de Gabriel es una inscripción
pétrea encontrada en el lado
jordano del Mar Muerto de carácter mesiánico.
Se basa en la exégesis de Daniel,
al igual que otros textos de Qumrán que
proclaman la divinidad del Mesías. Juntos,
estos textos del Mar Muerto desvelan
que la creencia en un Mesías divino
que muere y resucita al tercer día existió
antes de que naciera Jesús de Nazaret.

In this study I examine the special multifunctionality of Raphael’s character. The author of Tobit 12 collects together various aspects occurring within the angelology of Palestinian Judaism of the last centuries BC, and relates these diverse characteristics to his protagonist, Raphael.  Below, firstly, in a predominantly technical section, I give an overview of the pericope, then, in the second part, I evaluate the data concerning the character and work of the angel in question.

According to the transliterations of the ancient literary corpus of the Near Eastern and Western Civilizations, evil has been extant since the beginning of time: it arguably reared its head in the first book of the Old Testament (Gen. 3.1, 4.8, 6.1-4); Mesopotamian literature,  antedating the Pentateuch by at least several centuries, describes wars, the wraths of the gods, and a tyrannical king; and, originating millennia earlier, Sumerian poems  depict spiritual anguish in the afterworld and tribal warfare. The primary focus in this essay will be on “The most significant biblical passage for the ‘fallen angels’ tradition . . . the notoriously difficult Gen. 6:1-4” (Stuckenbruck 355). I will examine, of course, the passage itself, the terminology used therein, and the various translations. Furthermore, I will attempt to explicate theories on the origin of evil and provide the verses that were utilized to support these theories. The views of select philosophers and theologians on the implications of the Mesopotamian and apocryphal texts in the testaments will be explored. Finally, Judaic and Christian mindsets will be considered to discern the differing views on the etiology of evil (angels, demons, Nephilim, giants), their interpretations of canonical and apocryphal documents, and the basis of their theological tenets.

Jewish culture played a significant role in the development of literacy among the Georgians. Curiously enough, this is even true for the Christianization of the country, which provided the background for the emergence of autochthonous literature in about the fourth cen
tury ce. The reason for this was that the alleged “apostle” of the Georgians, an Aramaic- speaking female captive from Cappadocia named Nino, sought support from the Jewish community of Mtskheta, the first capital of Georgia, “because of the Hebrew language” she could communicate in there— as legend has it, the Jewish community had settled in Eastern Georgia some centuries before that, probably coming from Iran or Mesopotamia.1
Nevertheless, there are no indications that Jewish literary products were taken over directly into Georgian in the early centuries, in direct translations from Hebrew sources. Instead, we may claim with certainty that in the first millennium of our era, Jewish text materials, biblical or others, all entered Georgia via Greek or other languages, especially Armenian and Syriac, as intermediaries, and over a long period of time. This is manifest, first of all, in the fact that for the bulk of Old Testament texts, the Old Georgian tradition possesses several redactions (up to four according to present- day knowledge) that can be shown to reflect different Vorlagen, different schools, different places (within and outside Georgia), and different times. As a matter of fact, it is at least as difficult to establish a critical text of “the” Old Testament in Georgian as it is to establish “the” Septuagint text.2
The same situation also exists for textual traditions from the Second Temple period that have been adopted by Georgians. Such sources are not numerous though. What we have, is some (but not all) of the apocryphal texts that found their way into the Greek Old Testament, a few other Biblical apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, and a comparatively late version of Flavius Josephus’s Jewish Antiquities. The present chapter is meant to give a rough survey of these texts, focusing on some peculiarities in the Georgian tradition that deserve attention cross- linguistically.

3 main traditions have been preserved historically for the Pentateuch: the Masoretic Text (MT), the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP), & the Septuagint (LXX). But for the rest of the OT, there are really only 2 main traditions that have been preserved historically, those being the MT & the LXX. For the New Testament (NT), traditional scholarship has identified 5 main text-types. These can further be divided really down to 3 main text-types, those being the Alexandrian, the Western, & the Byzantine (the Majority Text). Defenders of each of these text-types of the NT & manuscript traditions of the OT will ardently defend their preferred text as the sole supreme or superior text or version of that portion of the Scriptures. However, with the discovery of many new & rare ancient manuscripts, the truth behind the matter has been proven to be much more complicated than most scholars were willing to admit, especially with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). The DSS  offered new & unique readings preserved nowhere else, but which suggest that the original text in many places was quite different from all other manuscripts preserved outside of the DSS. For the NT, many rare & ancient manuscripts have been discovered from diverse regions of the ancient world, so many, that we have strong evidence that the Byzantine text-type, which constitutes the majority of all manuscripts of the NT, is the latest in date & is the least faithful in regards to the original text. In addition to the OT & NT textual traditions, we have an increasing amount of manuscript evidence for various extra-biblical books.

In modern centuries, these amazing manuscript discoveries have led to a complete reassessment of all the evidence & a reconsideration of conclusions that were formerly regarded as settled. High profile critical editions of the Biblical & extra-biblical texts have been being worked on in these modern times, & continue to be produced with an ever increasing level of quality & authority. For any comprehensive critical edition of the Bible, these new critical editions that are being produced absolutely must be taken into consideration when available & their readings must be included. The question comes to us: if all these other critical editions are being produced, why does my critical edition need to be produced? I will explain the aspects that my critical edition will feature which differ from the other critical editions to such an extent that make it highly worthwhile & desirable to make my critical edition. First & foremost, a large portion of the main critical editions of the Biblical & extra-biblical texts are written in languages other than English. A comprehensive critical edition is needed which translates the information for a lay audience that can only read in English. This is a tedious task, & has never been attempted to any satisfactory degree. My Bible project would be the first to produce such. Furthermore, most critical editions feature a reconstruction of their respect text-traditions. The critical editions of the OT & NT are woefully inadequate, placing undue emphasis on only 1 textual tradition primarily (such as only the MT, or only the LXX, or only the Peshitta, etc). My critical edition will be the first edition to incorporate comprehensively all the main textual traditions, & will give a much more balanced consideration for all their various readings.

    Another thing that separates my critical edition from most critical editions is the high level of textual emendation that I intend to incorporate into the actual main text of the edition. The reason for this decision is based on a high degree of evidence of major corruption in both the OT & NT books.  Using the DSS & LXX, we can see that there is a large amount of evidence that many books of the OT have been radically altered from their original text forms. This reflects the best scholarship currently available. My critical edition will incorporate the emendations that I believe reflect the original text, & will reflect my unique theories about each of the Biblical books. Also unique to my critical edition will be a highly literal English translation which will allow for a much deeper & fuller understanding of the original Hebrew text that can be reconstructed. It is also my hope that this Bible project can also be translated into other languages such as Mandarin Chinese, but if this was ever to happen, it would be much farther down the line.

RESUMO: O presente artigo visa analisar a relação do livro de 2 Macabeus com os cânones grego (LXX), judaico (Bíblia Hebraica) e cristão (das diversas denominações). Além de se averiguar a relevância do livro para a história do judaísmo, se destaca a relação com os cânones como evidência de sua importância teológica e de sua difusão no contexto helenístico.
Palavras-chave: 2 Macabeus; cânon; judaísmo; Septuaginta (LXX); Bíblia.

ABSTRACT: This article aims to analyze the relationship between the book of 2 Maccabees and the Greek (LXX), the Jewish (Hebrew Bible) and the Christian (of the various denominations) canons. In addition, aims to ascertain the relevance of the book to the history of Judaism, showing the relation with the canons as evidence of its theological importance and its diffusion in the Hellenistic context.
Keywords: 2 Maccabees; canon; Judaism; Septuagint (LXX); Bible.

RESUMEN: El presente artículo busca analizar la relación del libro de 2 Macabeos con los cánones griego (LXX), judío (Biblia hebrea) y cristiano (de las diversas denominaciones). Además, busca también averiguar la relevancia del libro para la historia del judaísmo, destacando la relación con los cánones como evidencia de su importancia teológica y de su difusión en el contexto helenístico.
Palabras clave: 2 Macabeos; canon; judaísmo; Septuaginta (LXX); Biblia.

The paper employs Jungian psychoanalytic categories to interpret the book of Judith as mirror of the Jewish soul. Following Jung, it proposes that myths reflect the psychological exigencies of the nation from which they stem, and interprets the book as a dream or myth in which all the characters represent the psychological complexities of the dreaming subject. The paper thus treats the dynamics that occur between the (main) characters in Judith  as reflective of the (often) discordant dynamics within the soul of the Jewish nation at the time of the book's main events.

Paideia is a fundamental concept in the Wisdom of Solomon; in its various manifestations, it appears to function as a unifying factor in a text for which early scholarship claimed multiple authorship and which all modern experts agree can be somehow divided into three parts based either on genre, foci, or perspective. Paideia, even more than the ever present Sophia, strings these sections together into a coherent whole and reveals an integral aspect of this Hellenistic author’s worldview. Paideia leads to an immortal life in the presence of the divine (6:17-19; 7:14). A rejection of paideia leads to the soul going astray (17:1), impiety, and ultimately the death of the soul (1:16-2:24). The author, in the third section of the text, makes divine paideia the tool in his pseudo-historical, universal drama. Those who learn from the deity’s paideia are the righteous; those who do not are doomed to ungodliness. This paideia is part of God’s testing of humanity, the divine agon, and can even include somatic death (3:1-6). It is all of these various nuances which I hope to explore in this paper, to see both how they function on their own, but also how they work together in the author’s overall program and how they compare to similar discussions taking place in the cultural milieu.

The canonical biblical text about the Tower of Babel was added by the uncanonical narrative of the Nimrod, the son of Hus, the grandson of Ham, a Tower creation adviser, in the illuminated Old Russian Chronogaph Compendium [1]. The Old Russian variant of the name Nimrod is Невродъ (Не въ родъ) or "he is the different from his tribe", he was gigant, he was the first of the human race to stand against the law of God, he wanted to represent his power and the law above the divine.

The early German-speaking Lutheran and Anglican traditions used Sirach, a book in the Apocrypha, in their worship and catechetical life. Despite criticisms, they intentionally printed Sirach in their official Bibles and believed that it modelled and witnessed to Scripture. Theologians and clergy in both traditions frequently cited, quoted, and taught from Sirach. Both traditions read Sirach in their worship services. Lutheran popular piety employed Sirach in its schooling system, popular level handbooks, sermons, and engravings.

The contributions explore various aspects of the Book of Judith: its textual versions, historical background, theological ideas and literary afterlife.
The conference, on which this volume is based, was the most comprehensive scholarly meeting devoted recently to the Book of Judith. The contributors reopened several basic questions concerning the writing, such as the identification of concrete historical personalities reflected in the book, or some aspects of the halakhic system of the author.The scope of the contributions extends also to the late mediaeval use of the book by European playwrights.

Commentators on the Septuagint normally use what can be called " mainline " or " traditional " methods to interpret texts. This article follows a novel methodological approach that is based on recent developments in cognitive linguistics. More specifically, it utilises the theory and method underlying the concept " embodied cognition " or " embodiment ". It is argued that people interpret their environment, their lives, and life's vicissitudes unconsciously by using their bodies as point of reference. The underlying worldview and power structures inherent in the Susanna narrative are explored from this theoretical viewpoint. This theoretical approach is combined with insights from other disciplines such as cultural anthropology and social scientific readings of texts to further enhance the exposition of the worldview underlying the narrative. It is shown that cognitive linguistics adds value to existing interpretations of the narrative.

This contribution explores some aspects of Martin Luther’s relationship to the Old Testament Apocrypha, which he translated and published as part of the German Bible. The historical background of Luther’s evaluation of these Apocrypha as writings “not held as equal to the Holy Scripture, yet which are useful and good to read” is presented at the beginning. We notice in which points and to what extent Luther is in line with the previous Christian tradition of treating these books and where he goes beyond the tradition. Luther’s evaluation of the Apocrypha in his introductions to them is presented next as well as his treatment of this literature in his other writings and his attitude to them expressed through some of his actions. His ambivalence towards these books is summarized at the end.

The article is in the Slovak language.

Dans cet article, je me propose de réfléchir au rôle et à la fonction de la pseudépigraphie dans les Oracula Sibyllina, une collection de textes poétiques à caractère politique et religieux écrits en grec entre le IIe siècle avant J.-C. et le VIIe siècle de notre ère. À cet effet, je recours à Michel Foucault et à sa réflexion sur la notion d’auteur, dont je tente de vérifier la pertinence pour comprendre les raisons qui ont poussé des juifs et des chrétiens à faire appel à des figures identifiées comme païennes pour transmettre leur message. Ce faisant, j’espère trouver des clés permettant de cerner les motivations et intentions des auteurs de ces textes. J’illustre mon propos par l’étude de quelques morceaux choisis du recueil.

In this article, I propose to reflect on the role and the function of pseudepigraphy in the Oracula Sibyllina, a collection of poetic texts of a political and religious nature written in Greek between the second century BC and the seventh century AD. To this end, I use Michel Foucault and his reflections on the notion of authorship and try to test its relevance to understand the reasons that led Jews and Christians to summon figures identified as pagans to convey their message. In doing so, I hope to better identify the intentions and motivations of the authors. I illustrate my points by studying some excerpts from the collection.

Some Armenian miniature paintings depict the foremother Eve in the illustrations of the
Nativity. The unprecedented iconographical type has two versions; either Eve’s head is depicted under the manger, or she is approaching Mary with outstretched arms. The miniatures of this group are always accompanied with legends that contribute to a better comprehension of the depicted scene. On this point, the name of Eve is accompanied by the emblematic demonstration of a head. Consequently, near the standing figure of Eve we can read, “Eve is rising from her tomb”, “The Tomb of Eve” or “Eve has been the midwife for Jesus”. It is quite possible, that the depiction of the feminine head evokes the same idea of the tomb of Eve, as Adam’s head hints about the location of his tomb on the mountain of Golgotha in the scene of the Crucifixion.

The piety of the Book of Baruch leaves virtually no place for the cultic relationship with God or cultic mediation. The religion of Baruch focuses on relation to God, revelation, moral life, community and salvation. In the New Testament we can find similar thoughts. The rabbinic tradition after the fall of the temple developed in the same direction.

consists of a number of actors of whom only a few such as Susanna, the two elders, the Jewish people and Daniel are directly related to the central action of the story. With regard to the roles of these actors in the story however, a question arises: Who is the subject of the story of Susanna? Most scholars question the attribution of the role of subject to Susanna. Their contention however, has not yet been sustained by convincing evidence stemming from the use of a suitable method. This study attempts to fill this gap by using the Greimassian approach to narratives, as refined by Everaert-Desmedt. The approach comprises three levels of analysis: the figurative, the narrative and the thematic. The contribution focuses only on the narrative level of analysis, particularly on the actantial model because the main role of this structure is to reveal different functions of actors called here actants. It is the contention here that following the actantial model of the Greimassian approach of analysis, Susanna emerges as the subject of the main concern of the story.

The volume contains papers read at the Third International Conference on the Deuterocanonical Books, organised by the Shime‘on Centre for the Study of Hellenistic and Roman Age Judaism and Christianity of the Reformed Theological Academy, Pápa, Hungary. The topic of the conference was the Book of Ben Sira. This book, on the one hand, is an early Jewish document with crucial importance; and, on the other hand, has a “Hungarian relationship.” It is well known, that an important fragment of an unknown ma¬nuscript of the Hebrew text of Ben Sira was discovered by the rabbi and professor Alexander Scheiber in the Taylor-Schechter Collection (Cambridge) in the early eighties. It is thus appropriate to dedicate this volume to those Hungarian Jewish scholars of the last two centuries, who actively and creatively participated the study of various aspects of ancient Judaism.
The material of this volume can be divided in three main parts. In the first, the authors deal with introductory problems of the complex oeuvre of Ben Sira. The first two essays focus on rarely investigated ancient versions of the book; then its intellectual background is studied. The first part is finished by two complementary articles, touching certain aspects of the question of canon. The second main part of the volume focuses primarily on the wisdom part of Ben Sira. Here we read a treatment of a particular theme (divorce); a methodological and lexicographical essay on the possibility of the identifycation of the concepts of wisdom and law in Ben Sira; finally, an analysis of the relationship between wisdom thought and the Temple. At the end of the present volume, the reader will find four papers dealing with particular pericopae of the Praise of the Fathers section of the book.

The paper introduces into medieval studies a newly discovered by Dimitrie Bogdanovic manuscript 29 from monastery Savina, Montenegro, Hercegnovi, Montenegro-Primorska Episcopate, ca. 1380. The manuscript contains earliest copies of Slavonic apocrypha in versions preserved ancient features.

In this essay the ambiguous afterlife of the character Judith and the eponymous book as cultural artefact is explored. The very rich and extensive impact on cultural and social imaginaries by the narrative and character of Judith provides an entry point to consider the social, cultural, and ideological work performed by the text. By drawing on a neglected trajectory in the interpretation of Judith, that of its imperialising force, in which Judith functions de facto like other Greek and Roman female deities who acts as city protectresses, and later as the Virgin, it is clear that Judith functions as cypher for imperial symbolisms. By employing New Historicism and its attendant theoretical assumptions, the figure of Judith becomes the occasion for an experiment in theory and method, on the borderline between cultural discourses and theories of religion. The text is read as a site for the operation of discourse and ideology, and as agency-medium in the imagining of history. When the text is 'read' in light of the reception history of both text and image, the text reading denotes the problematic conceptual relationship between theology, religion, and culture. All in all, bringing to bear on the text questions like these, this paper explores the borderlines between culture and religion, particularly when done in connection with a text which itself straddles the border between canonical and extracanonical. Judith, the narrative and figure, serve here as test case for widening the questions that should be brought to bear on ancient 'religious' literature.

The martyrs in 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 have been explored in various ways. In their commentaries on 2 Maccabees, Jan Willem van Henten and Daniel Schwartz proposed that the deaths of the martyrs should be seen as human sacrifices to please the deity. This idea has either been challenged or supported by scholars. This article supported the idea of human sacrifice, and applied the view of Richard DeMaris of the martyr's deaths as exit rite to the above-mentioned texts. In essence this amounts to ritual critique. The results were surprising, and proved the model of DeMaris as a useful tool to examine rituals. The conclusion was reached that 2 Maccabees 6 and 7 is indeed an exit rite.

“Psychostasia” is the notion that a divine or supernatural figure
weighs and/or measures the souls of people when judging them. The present effort represents the second of three articles on psychostasia. The first article focused on the occurrences of psychostasia in the OT. In the current article, attention is paid to the occurrences of psychostasia in apocryphal and pseudepigraphical Jewish writings from the Second Temple period, including the Qumran Scrolls. The current purpose is firstly to determine whether or not the concept of psychostasia was a recognised and recognisable feature of Second Temple Palestinian Judaism. Allowing for a positive answer to the latter,  the second purpose of this article is to ascertain how the idea of psychostasia was understood by Palestinian Jews of the Second Temple period.

All the heroes of the Book of Tobit can first and foremost be characterised as strangers, who, against their own will, and against the Weltanschauung of their particular Jewish tradition have to live in a strange land. In this paper, I propose to proceed from this feeling, and investigate how this important aspect is manifested in the plot of the story.