by nativenyr23 39 Replies latest watchtower bible
Was watching a History Channel program last night (yeah, i'm a history channel geek!) and was introduced for the first time in my LIFE to the APOCRYPHAL BOOKS OF THE BIBLE?!?!?!?!? OMG....fascinating. I'm gonna go to Barnes & Noble today and do some research but was wondering if anyone here on this forum had any input on this topic. I can't wait to dig into these and read these....and find out exactly why they were excluded, etc.
Native
There have been differing canon's of the bible depending on who was doing the canonizing. But another problem comes from the discrepency between the Greek and Hebrew Septuiagints.
The Greek Septuagint has these "extra" books: Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and 1st and 2nd Maccabees. Some of the other books normally found in the Hebrew Septuagint have more chapters/vs then in the Hebrew Sept..
There are many possible books to the Christian apocrypha. One of the more interesting is the Gospel of Thomas, a work referred to often by the Gnostics in their time (and probably still by Gnostic Hermetic traditions even now?). There is a copy of it at http://www.gospelthomas.com/
The apocraphal Susannah and the Elders story of Daniel Chapter 13 reminds me of a few Jehovah's Witness Elders I've encountered in my time; it's strange how something so realistic can get dropped out when so much whacky stuff has been left in!
Hi Native,
I was given a catholic bible as a gift a few years ago. In this bible were additional books called the apocrypha. I've never read these books but they are on my future to do /read list. These are the names of the books:
Tobit, Judith, Esther(Greek), Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, Letters of Jeremiah, Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, 1Maccabees, 2Maccabees, 1Esdras, 2Esdras, The Prayer of Manasseh.
Let us know how you like the books.
Manon
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2XBQHV6063&isbn=0529020610&itm=2
I have this book. Very interesting, especially the second half about Adam and Eve.
Stan
Sorry, for whatever reason that link dead-ends.
The book is: The Forgotten Books of the Bible and the Lost books of Eden. Do a search at B&N and you will find it.
Stan
The WTBTS generally recognises 1 st Maccabees as being a historically accurate book, although not inspired.
No thanks the bible is long and confusing enough without adding extra books.
The books were taken out by people who didn't agree with the books, for one reason or other. Some say that historically this or that shouldn't/can't be included - I suppose they read the bible like it's another history book or something. Personally I consider that them to be indispensible reading - Song of the three young men is very enlightening for myself, to understand what hades is all about, and I would suggest that anyone in the wt society could well do with reading Susannah and Bel the Dragon.
My bible wouldn't really be complete without them, but hey, that's just me.
I took an English course in college called The Bible as Literature. We had to purchase a Revised Standard Version of the Bible - the Oxford Study Bible with Apocrypha - for the course, and complete the reading it in its entirety during the semester.
I actually enjoyed some of the stories from the Apocrypha. (Reading the books of Macabees was arduous though.) I'd been so used to the NWT and was already very familiar with the accepted canonical books, so these were new and rather refreshing. The stories of Susannah and Judith I found to be fascinating.
Love, Scully
