Apocryphal Book Listing

• Tobit - Begin reading
  The Book of Tobit, named after its principal hero, combines specifically Jewish piety and morality with oriental folklore in a fascinating story that has enjoyed wide popularity in both Jewish ...(more)

• Judith - Begin reading
  The Book of Judith is a vivid story relating how, in a grave crisis, God delivered the Jewish people through the instrumentality of a woman. The unknown author composed this edifying narrative ...(more)

• Additions to Esther - Begin reading
  The Book of Esther is named after its Jewish heroine. It tells the story of the plot of Haman the Agagite, the jealous and powerful vizier of King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) of Persia (485-464 B.C.), to destroy ...(more)

• Wisdom of Solomon - Begin reading
  The Book of Wisdom was written about a hundred years before the coming of Christ. Its author, whose name is not known to us, was a member of the Jewish community at Alexandria, in ...(more)

• Sirach - Begin reading
  The Book of Sirach derives its name from the author, Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sirach (Sir 50:27). Its earliest title seems to have been "Wisdom of the Son of Sirach." ...(more)

• Baruch - Begin reading
  The opening verses of this book ascribe it, or at least its first part, to Baruch, the well-known secretary of the prophet Jeremiah. It contains five very different compositions, the first and the last ...(more)

• Letter of Jeremiah - Begin reading
  Usually placed at the end of Baruch as the sixth chaptter, it is patterned after the earlier letter of Jeremiah (29), in the spirit of the warnings against idolatry contained in Jeremiah 10 and Isaiah 44. Its earnestness is impressive, but in restating previous inspired teachings at a later day, it does so with no special literary grace.

• Additions to Daniel
  
  • Prayer of Azariah - Begin reading
    The first addition consists of a prayer in which Azarias, standing in the midst of the furnace, asks that God may deliver him and his companions, Ananias and Misael, and put their enemies to shamea brief notice of the fact that the Angel of the Lord saved the Three Children from all harm, whereas the flame consumed the Chaldeans above the furnace ; and a doxology leading on to the hymn familiarly known as the "Benedicite".

  • Susanna - Begin reading
    The second addition tells the history of Susanna, a faithful wife of a wealthy Jew named Joakim, and resident in Babylon. Accused falsely of adultery by two unworthy elders whose criminal advances she had repelled, she was sentenced to death by the tribunal before which she had been arraigned. As Susanna was led forth to execution, Daniel, moved by God, accuses the people of condeming a daughter of Israel to death without sufficient inquiry. He then examines the two pretended witnesses separately and proves that their testimony is self-contradictory. In fulfilment of the Law of Moses, the two elders were put to death, "and Daniel became great in the sight of the people from that day, and thenceforward."

  • Bell and the Dragon - Begin reading
    The last addition contains the narrative of the destruction of Bel and the dragon. The first narrative recounts the clever manner in which Daniel shows the king that the offerings to the Babylonian idol, Bel, were really consumed at night by the pagan priests and their families: in consequence, these impostors were put to death, and Bel and its temple destroyed. The second recounts how Daniel caused to die a great dragon that the Babylonians worshipped. Enraged at this, the people forced the king to cast the Prophet into a lions' den. Daniel remained there unharmed for six days, and fed by the prophet Habakkuk who was miraculously transported from Judea to Babylon. On the seventh day, the king having found Daniel alive in the midst of the lions, praised aloud the God of Daniel and delivered the Prophet's accusers to the fate which Daniel had miraculously escaped.

• 1 Maccabbes - Begin reading
  1 Maccabees was written about 100 B.C., in Hebrew, but the original has not come down to us. Instead, we have an early, pre-Christian, Greek translation full of Hebrew idioms...(more)

• 2 Maccabbes - Begin reading
  Although this book, like the preceding one, receives its title from its protagonist, Judas Maccabee (or Maccabeus), it is not a sequel to 1 Maccabees. The two differ in many respects...(more)

• 1 Esdras - Begin reading
  Although not belonging to the Canon of the Sacred Scriptures, this book is usually found in an appendix to the editions of the Vulgate. It is made up almost entirely from ...(more)

• Prayer of Manasseh - Begin reading
  The Prayer of Manasses is an apocryphal writing which purports to give the prayer referred to in 2 Chronicles 33:13, 18-19. Its original is Greek.

• Psalm 151 - Begin reading
  This psalm was included as a part of the Septuagint but is not considered as being a part of the original 150. Only the three of the seven include it within their list.

• 3 Maccabees - Begin reading
  The third does not hold a place in the Apocrypha, but is read in the Greek Church. Its design is to comfort the Alexandrian Jews in their persecution. Its writer was evidently an Alexandrian Jew.

• 2 Esdras - Begin reading
  Known as 4 Esdras in most Latin manuscripts; the (Protestant) English apocrypha, however, give it as II Esdras, from the opening words: "The second book of the prophet Esdras"...(more)

• 4 Maccabees - Begin reading
  The fourth contains a history of the Jews from B.C. 184 to B.C. 86. It is a compilation made by a Jew after the destruction of Jerusalem, from ancient memoirs, to which he had access.