Old Testament Apocrypha

[The Liturgist]

The Saxon immigration to America occurred in 1839 with the intent of establishing churches, schools and a seminary. They accomplished what they endeavored to do some 50 years before mass immigration from Europe at the turn of the century.

Forgive me, I misread your previous post.

 

[dan.pine]

As an Orthodox Christian I avoid a lot of “scholarship” as it is referred to today. We look to the continuity of the fathers of the church from generation to generation. Meaning that the early church accepted all entire Septuagint as we know it as being passed down by the Apostles. That settles the issue for us regardless of scholarly views or that of other traditions. In fact, basically all of the issues that modern traditions seem to have in understanding the true faith or what the meaning of this or that scripture meant is found in the same generation to generation continuity of the fathers of the church.

 

[dan.pine]

I do appreciated the input of the difference of the heretical writings as compared to the issue of certain books of the Old Testament. Apples to oranges. In fact the winnowing fork so to speak at the early church fathers used to canonize the New Testament was Holy Tradition as found in our history, liturgical worship, our prayers (we believe what we pray and pray what we believe) etc. So the two topics are definitely not comparable. Further more, Orthodox Christians do use the ”OT Apocrypha books“ throughout our liturgical year. The only book we don’t use liturgically is Revelation.

 

[Yekcidmij]

Hence all English translations after 1782 followed suit.

The NSRV and certain prints of the ESV have it.

 

[Yekcidmij]

Greetings all

I have a question about the apocrypha of the Old Testament.. Do scholars of textual criticism have a position on it, as is the case with the apocrypha of the New Testament..?!

I think many (most?) today would say that the OT canon was not tightly fixed before the first centuries BC/AD. There may have been more than one conception of what was canonical. For example, there is the well known Masoretic tradition, but prior to the first centuries, it appears there were other Hebrew editions that may have included other books, such as the Deuterocanon. One of those Hebrew versions was translated into Greek in Alexandria and came to be a family of Greek Old Testament texts now called the Septuagint. By all appearances, what we consider Deuterocanonical were probably included. Samaritans have a slightly different canon translated from another Hebrew version.

Amazon.com

Emanuel Tov - Text Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

 

[dan.pine]

I think many (most?) today would say that the OT canon was not tightly fixed before the first centuries BC/AD. There may have been more than one conception of what was canonical. For example, there is the well known Masoretic tradition, but prior to the first centuries, it appears there were other Hebrew editions that may have included other books, such as the Deuterocanon. One of those Hebrew versions was translated into Greek in Alexandria and came to be a family of Greek Old Testament texts now called the Septuagint. By all appearances, what we consider Deuterocanonical were probably included. Samaritans have a slightly different canon translated from another Hebrew version.

Amazon.com

Emanuel Tov - Text Criticism of the Hebrew Bible

The MT wasn’t put together until around 1000 AD if memory serves me correctly. The reason why we don’t find those books in any MT version is because they refused to allow any books into their canon if they couldn’t prove it was written in Hebrew originally. During the time of the Septuagint translation the Hebrew language died. Jews during Christ time didn’t speak it other than a select few who read it liturgically for synagogue usage.

 

[dan.pine]

He’s chapter 2 from the Wisdom of Solomon. Read it and tell me if you think this book was prophetically speaking of the Jewish people and then of Christ. It’s hard for me to see this detailed of a prophecy and consider the book non-inspired like the Protestant view today. The truth is there’s minor “corrections” made to the MT text in order to limit the idea that Jesus fulfilled the prophecies. Unfortunately so books were just easier discarded entirely.

An Ungodly View of Life

1 For they said among themselves, as they reasoned incorrectly:
“Our life is short and painful,
And there is no cure for the death of a man;
For no one has been known to return from Hades;†
2
Because we were born by chance,
And after this we shall be as though we never existed;
For the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
And our speech is the spark kindled by the beating of our heart.
3
When the spark is extinguished, our body will turn to ashes,
And our breath will disperse like empty air.
4
Then our name will be forgotten in due time,
And no one will remember our works;
So our life will pass away like the trace of a cloud
And be scattered like fog,
Driven away by the rays of the sun
And oppressed by its heat.
5
For our appointed time is the passing of a shadow,
And there is no return from our death;
Because it is sealed up, no one can turn back.
6
Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that exist,
And make the most of creation as quickly as possible,
As we did in our youth.
7
Let us be filled with expensive wine and perfumes,
And let no flower of springtime pass us by.
8
Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds
Before they wither away.
9
Let none of us fail to share in our arrogance.
Let us leave signs of our gladness everywhere,
Because this is our portion, and this is our lot.
10
Let us oppress the righteous poor man;
Let us not spare a widow,
Nor respect the aged gray hair of an old man.
11
Let our might be our law of righteousness,
For what is weak is shown to be useless.

Hatred of the Righteous

12
“Let us lie in ambush for the righteous man,
Because he is useless to us and opposes our deeds;
He denounces us for our sins against the law
And accuses us of sins against our upbringing.†
13
He claims to have knowledge of God,
And he calls himself a child of the Lord.
14
He has become for us as a refutation of our purposes;
Even seeing him is a burden to us,
15
Because his life is unlike that of others;
For his paths go in a different direction.
16
We are considered by him as a hybrid,
And he avoids our ways as something immoral.
He considers the last things of the righteous as blessed
And pretends that God is his Father.
17
Let us see if his words are true,
And let us put these last things to the test at the end of his life.
18
For if the righteous man is a son of God, He will help him,
And deliver him from the hand of those who oppose him.†
19
Let us test him with insult and torture
That we may know his gentleness
And test his patient endurance.
20
Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
For there shall be a visitation because of his words.”
21
So they reasoned these things
And were led astray,
For their malice blinded them.
22
But they did not know the mysteries of God,
Nor hope for the wages of holiness,
Nor judge the reward of blameless souls.
23
For God created man for immortality
And made him an image of His own eternity.
24
But death entered the world by the envy of the devil,
And those of his portion tempt it.