Apocryphal Literature Complete Overview

The term “apocrypha” (Greek for ‘hidden things’) is not some neatly collected and connected group of books but a term used to refer to some texts outside of the biblical canon still held by Protestants and Rabbinic Jews. Accordingly, the apocrypha cannot be capitalized like the Bible can because it presents diverse doctrines from differing Jewish parties throughout time. In fact, there are often contradictions among the apocrypha. For example, Judith includes a story of a gentile becoming circumcised and joining Israel while the Wisdom of Solomon and Letter of Jeremiah (among many others) see gentiles as inherently evil and reprobate. Further, Judith supports deceit and seduction in order to bring deliverance for Israel - An idea inherently opposed by the earlier Sirah and Judaism in general. Sirah is anti-apocalyptic while 2 Esdras is esoteric and an apocalyptic text altogether.

There is no ordering of the apocrypha that will give the reader any sense of development of ideas or stories as seen in the Hebrew Scriptures. Whatever order they're put in, even the texts that do have similar ideas, do not consider themselves to offer perspectives comparable to the others. Take the Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirah. The two are wisdom texts that do not disagree with each other. In fact, they both refer to Lady Wisdom and her act in creation, but Wisdom of Solomon is especially emphatic of the idea that Wisdom is distinct from God yet also an expression of God - Something not so clear in Sirah’s writings. Sirah has his “Hymn in Honor of the Ancestors” just as Wisdom of Solomon has its own account of the Torah and how Wisdom acted within it. However Wisdom of Solomon’s account is attempting to show the system of reward and retribution which Wisdom works with; Sirah, on the other hand, is simply recalling some great men and how they walked in wisdom (just as Jesus believes his contemporary high priest Simon and himself to be doing in his concluding prayer)!

While some apocrypha contradict others, some simply speak to ideas not found in other apocrypha. So, for example, while few apocrypha could be referencing prayer for the dead, only 2 Maccabees explicitly speaks to it. Further, not all apocrypha are equal - some are more important than others. The additions to the Septuagintal Daniel - The Prayer of Azariah and the Three Jews, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon - are nowhere near as important as The Wisdom of Solomon, its developed understanding of Wisdom as a manifestation of God, and interpretation of the Torah. Even 3 and 4 Maccabees are significantly less significant than 1 and 2 Maccabees given the historicity of the account of 1 Maccabees and the influence of the theology of atonement in 2 Maccabees.

So, despite how some scholars - even most - tend to use the term, it is best to be thought of as a genre (as in, it would be more precise to use the term “apocryphal literature” than “the apocrypha”) at least and most likely a meta-genre. There are many different genres of their own living under the apocrypha genre - Pseudepigrapha being another entire genre under the apocrypha that has its own subgenres (apocalyptic, testamental, re-written Bible, and so on). While non-Protestants (Catholics and Orthodox Christians) already pseudepigrapha (which is also a genre and not a bound collection of texts) apocrypha and so there is no reason to see the pseudepigrapha as a separate set of texts (as they often do). After all, they agree that the pseudepigrapha is also non-canonical (and maybe less canonical if that’s even possible). Even aside from pseudepigrapha being apocrypha, apocrypha shares all the genres of the Bible before it: mainly narrative and wisdom literature. Some stories should be seen as more historical than others: Judith presents itself as an allegory for the Maccabean Revolt and especially the defeat of Holoferne; Tobit stands on its own but is still historically improbable; 1 Maccabees has its own agenda but is still the most historical of the preserved accounts of the Maccabean Revolt; 2 Maccabees, on the other hand, is significantly less strict about how it feels it ought to tell the story.

So what is apocrypha? Apocrypha should be understood as the genre of any media made in the Biblical style but not being a part of the Bible. This means that modern media like “The Chosen” and “Risen” and “Noah” and “Exodus: God’s & Kings” are all equally apocryphal (again, not all apocrypha are equal [or even right for that matter]!). Just as these films and series will all give later readers of the Bible a better understanding of our reading of the Bible today, we can have a better understanding of the reading of the Bible by Jews in the days of Jesus.