Apocrypha | Exploring the enigmatic apocryphal writings beyond the canon of Scripture.: Dead Sea Scrolls

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Once thought to be nothing more than a 3rd-century Manichaean corruption of biblical and Jewish legends, a primordial Aramaic form was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. This much older Book of Giants was composed hundreds of years before Christ’s first advent—at the latest—and shares Enochian similarities. In the popular LSV reconstruction of the DSS Book of Giants, instead of presenting each fragmentary section, the narrative is pieced together in a plausible chronological order by chapter, so some fragments are grouped together. The fragment identifiers are listed before each set of verses belonging to that fragment.

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Gnosis.org

Apocryphal Books > Judeo-Christian Legends and Pseudepigrapha > Book of Giants

The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are apocryphal works purporting to contain the last words of the twelve sons of Jacob. These are part of the Oskan Armenian Orthodox Bible. Fragments of similar writings were found at Qumran, and scholarship maintains that the Testaments were written in Hebrew or Greek in the 2nd century BC, and reached their final form in the 2nd century AD.

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Apocryphal Books > Orthodox Deuterocanon > Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

The Prayer of Manasseh (or Manasses) is a short work of 15 verses recording a penitential prayer attributed to King Manasseh of Judah. Most scholars believe that the Prayer of Manasseh was written in Greek in the 1st or 2nd century BC. Another work by the same title, written in Hebrew and containing distinctly different content, was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

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Apocryphal Books > Orthodox Deuterocanon > Prayer of Manasseh

Psalm 151 is a short psalm found in most copies of the Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek title given to this psalm indicates that it is supernumerary. It is also included in some manuscripts of the Peshitta. The psalm concerns the story of David and Goliath. The Eastern Orthodox Church, as well as the Coptic Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, and the Armenian Catholic Church accept Psalm 151 as deuterocanonical. Psalms 152–155 are found extant in two Syriac manuscripts and appear to have been composed in the pre-Christian era. Psalms 154 and 155 have also been found in Hebrew in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Psalms 156–160 come from the Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5) and 4Q88. Probable interpolations are made in a number of instances to make the text more readable.

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Apocryphal Books > Additions to the Bible > Apocryphal Psalms

The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters, considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is known as the Book of Division. Jubilees is considered one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches. It is also not considered canonical within Judaism outside of Beta Israel. It is generally dated to the 2nd century BC and its primary purpose seems to be in promoting the use of a 364-day calendar in Israel (a year equally divided into 52 weeks of seven days each). With no intercalary method given, the year would not synchronize with the seasons in the long-term. The book also reimagines some of the history of Genesis and introduces a concept foreign to Judeo-Christianity in which certain sins are unatonable.

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Apocryphal Books > Orthodox Deuterocanon > The Book of Jubilees

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The Book of Enoch (also called 1 Enoch) is an ancient Jewish religious work, ascribed by tradition to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah. Enoch contains unique material on the origins of supernatural demons and giants, why some messengers fell from Heaven, an explanation of why the Great Flood was morally necessary, and prophetic exposition of the thousand-year reign of the Messiah. It is wholly extant only in the Ge’ez language, with Aramaic fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls and a few Greek and Latin fragments. Jude 1:14–15 is a direct quote of Enoch 1:9 (see also 1 Enoch 60:8). Enoch is composed of five sections.

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