POCRYPHA

with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books

AINE

IDLING

, Ph.D.

Editor

New Revised Standard Version

APOCRYPHA, TABLE OF CONTENTS 11

ABLE OF

ONTENTS

to the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books

Introduction to the Apocrypha

…………….……………………. 2

Tobit

…………………………………………………………………. 16

Judith

………………………………………………………………… 44

Additions to Esther

……………………………………..………… 75

Wisdom of Solomon

……………………………………….…..…. 99

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)

………………………………..…….……… 138

Baruch

………………………………………………………………. 252

Letter of Jeremiah

………………………………………..………. 264

Additions to Daniel

………………………………………….…… 270

Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews

……… 271

Susanna

………………………………………………………..… 277

Bel and the Dragon

…………………………………………… 283

1 Maccabees

……………………………………………………….. 287

2 Maccabees

……………………………………………………….. 350

1 Esdras

………………………………………………..……………. 397

Prayer of Manasseh

…………………………………..………….. 429

Psalm 151

………………………………………………..…………. 433

3 Maccabees

………………………………………………...…….. 435

2 Esdras

………………………………………………………….…. 456

4 Maccabees

……………………………………………………..... 517

INTRO TO THE APOCRYPHA 22

NTRODUCTION TO THE

POCRYPHAL

EUTEROCANONICAL

OOKS

Definitions

As the terms are used in the New Revised Standard Version translation,the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books are those works that wereincluded in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of theHebrew Bible with additions, or in the Old Latin and Vulgatetranslations, but are not included in the Hebrew text that forms boththe canon for Judaism and the Protestant Old Testament. All of theseworks, whether they are individual books or additions to the Hebrewtexts of Esther and Daniel, have been regarded as canonical by one ormore Christian communities, but not by all. (The exception to this is 4Maccabees, which appears in an appendix to the Greek Bible.)"Apocrypha" means "hidden things," but it is not clear why the termwas chosen to describe these books. It could mean that they were"hidden" or withdrawn from common use because they were viewedas containing mysterious or esoteric teaching, too profound to becommunicated to any except the initiated (see 2 Esdras 14.45-46). Or itcould mean that such books deserved to be "hidden" because theywere spurious or heretical. This ambivalence has continued into thepresent, although increasingly even scholars from traditions that donot regard these books as canonical consider them of great value forunderstanding Judaism in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and thusin the wider contexts, both literary and historical, of the later books inthe Hebrew Bible and of the New Testament as well."Deuterocanonical," along with it coordinate term "protocanonical," isused in Roman Catholic tradition to describe the status of the twogroups of books of the Old Testament. The "protocanon" consists ofthe books of the Hebrew Bible and the "deuterocanon" of the bookswhose inspiration came to be recognized later, after the matter had