Apocrypha: what do the “forbidden books” hide? Apocrypha. Apocryphal literature

Apocrypha(from the Greek ἀπό-κρῠφος - secret, hidden; (later) forged) - 1) monuments of ancient Jewish religious writing, compiled, formally, in the image of the Holy Books of the Old Testament, but were not such and were not included in the Holy Canon; 2) monuments of early pseudo-Christian writing, compiled on behalf of eyewitnesses or participants in the Gospel events or events in the early history of the Church, presented as true and revered as such in certain religious circles, but rejected by the Ecumenical as false; 3) (in the interpretation of Protestants) non-canonical Books that are part of the Bible used in Orthodoxy.

What are apocrypha? Those apocrypha, which will now be discussed, claim to be the genre of the Gospel, but the Church either rejects their apostolic origin or believes that their content has been significantly distorted. Therefore, the Apocrypha is not included in (to put it simply, in the Bible) and is not considered a spiritual and religious guide to life, but rather literary monuments of the era when the first generations of Christians began to come into contact with the pagan world. The main apocryphal texts appear much later than the canonical New Testament books: from the 2nd to the 4th centuries - all researchers today agree with this fundamental fact, regardless of religious beliefs.

All New Testament apocryphal books can be divided into two large groups: the first is a kind of folklore, that is, apocrypha, in an unimaginably fantastic form, telling about “events” from the life of Christ that are not in the canonical Gospels. And the second is the “ideological” apocrypha that arose as a result of the desire of various mystical and philosophical groups to use the outline gospel history to present their religious and philosophical views. First of all, this applies to the Gnostics (from the Greek “gnosis” - knowledge), whose teaching is an attempt by paganism to rethink Christianity in its own way (according to Deacon Andrei Kuraev, many modern sectarians are doing the same thing, trying to write their own “gospel”) .

One of the main reasons for the appearance of apocryphal writings of the first, “folklore” group is natural human curiosity. These apocrypha are addressed to those segments from the earthly life of Christ that are not described in the New Testament, or are described little. This is how the “gospels” appear, telling in detail about the childhood of the Savior. In form and style, the Apocrypha is very inferior to the rich, figurative language of the Bible. By the way, the very fact of the story in the apocryphal writings about events that are not covered in the Bible once again confirms that the apocrypha were written later than the canonical Gospels - the authors of the apocrypha speculated about what the Gospel remains silent about. According to researchers, none of the apocrypha that has come down to us was written earlier than 100 A.D. (the writing of the corpus of New Testament books was already completed by that time).

A characteristic feature of apocryphal writings of this type is their fantastic nature: the authors often gave free rein to their imagination, without thinking at all about how their fantasy correlates with the truth. The miracles performed by Christ in these books are striking in their meaninglessness (the boy Jesus collects water from a puddle, makes it clean and begins to control it with one word), or cruelty (the boy who sprinkled water from the puddle with a vine is called “a worthless, godless fool” by “Jesus” ”, and then tells him that he will dry up like a tree, which immediately happens). All this is very different from the main motive of the gospel miracles of Christ - love. The reason for the appearance of apocryphal texts of the second, “ideological” group was the desire to reinterpret Christianity in the stereotypes of pagan thought. Gospel names, motifs and ideas became only a pretext for the retelling of completely different myths: pagan content began to be clothed in Christian forms. With all the variety and variety of Gnostic teachings, almost all of them proceeded from one idea, which affirmed the sinfulness of the material world. They considered only the Spirit to be God's creation. Naturally, such a tradition assumed and offered a fundamentally different reading of the Gospel story. So, for example, in the Gnostic “Gospels of the Passion” you can read that Christ, in general, did not suffer on the cross. It only seemed so, since He, in principle, could not suffer, since He did not even have flesh, it also only seemed! God cannot possess material flesh.

Of course, the apocryphal literature is so wide and varied that it is not so easy to reduce it to any common denominator. Moreover, individual apocryphal stories are perceived as additions to the condensed gospel narrative and have never been rejected by the Church (for example, the story of the parents of the Virgin Mary, her introduction into the temple, the story of Christ’s descent into hell, etc.). But the paradox of the apocrypha is that, for all their claims to mystery, the truly mysterious Christian books are the biblical books. Revealing the Mystery of the Bible requires spiritual effort and consists of purifying the heart, and not in fantastic descriptions of how Christ first sculpts birds from clay, and then brings them to life, and they fly away (“The Gospel of Childhood”). According to the modern Indologist and religious scholar V.K. Shokhin, the apocrypha is fundamentally different from the biblical Gospels precisely in the presentation of material, in the way of describing certain events: the apocryphal approach is more reminiscent of the journalistic techniques of the “Vremechko” program than a serious story about secret knowledge. In order to be convinced of this, it is enough to read and compare the Apocrypha and the Gospels. After which, by the way, one more thing becomes obvious important point– this is the inspiration of the Gospels. In the Orthodox Church it is generally accepted that, although the New Testament books were written by people (which is confirmed by the peculiarities of the author’s style), these people wrote, being moved by the Holy Spirit. It is this guidance of the Holy Spirit that creates the authentic Gospels, which over time are unerringly collected into the biblical canon.

In general, we can fully agree with the assessment given to apocryphal literature by Archpriest Alexander Men: “When you and I, out of curiosity or in search of some truly hidden knowledge, some kind of secret Christianity (nowadays they often talk about esoteric Christianity), we begin to turn to this literature , we must remember that this literature is only a monument, only a testimony of human searches. It contains wanderings and delusions, questions and human mistakes. And the Gospel contains the answer. The answer is clear. An answer not intended for a narrow audience of the elite, which presupposes for the elite any person who has a sincere desire to comprehend the truth, whose heart is open to it.”

Literature:

1. Kuraev Andrey, deacon.
- Tradition. Dogma. Rite. Moscow - Klin: Publishing house of the Brotherhood of St. Tikhon. 1995;
– Satanism for the intelligentsia. T. 2. Christianity without the occult. Moscow: Moscow courtyard of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, Father's House. 1997. pp. 75-79.

2. Sventsitskaya I. Apocryphal Gospels. M.: Priscels, 1996.

3. Shokhin V.K. Ancient India in the culture of Rus'. M.: Science. 1988. pp. 30-36 (“Indian religions and apocrypha”).

What are apocrypha? How, when and why did they appear?
How different is the Jesus of the apocrypha from the Savior, faith in whom has been preserved by the Church for centuries? And most importantly, is there something in these monuments of Christian literature that would be fundamentally important for a believer, but at the same time is carefully hidden from “ordinary people” and is accessible only to “initiates”?

From time to time funds mass media explode with another sensation on the topic of biblical texts. Despite all the diversity, such news boils down to one scheme: finally, researchers managed to discover ancient written sources that allow us to take a different look at the history of Christianity and even show that the Church supposedly teaches something completely different from what Christ and His first followers said.
After some time, when the excitement subsides, as a rule, it turns out that the found written monument is nothing more than a copy or version of an ancient and long-known apocrypha, with which historians had dealt before, and that there is nothing fundamentally new in the new find. .
However, despite the obvious desire to create a sensation on empty space, the authors of both the apocrypha themselves and high-profile reports about them do very serious work. Its goal is to offer the inexperienced reader and viewer a different image of Christ, often strikingly different from the one evidenced by church tradition.

What is apocrypha?

Those who are now over forty years old remember children's books of the Soviet era very well. Beautiful, kind, interesting works, where heroes defeated evil, showing examples of courage, mutual assistance, loyalty and love. But there were also publications in which the child was biasedly told about the Bolshevik Party, revolutionaries, “Grandfather Lenin” and other similar concepts and personalities. The authors of these publications deliberately kept silent about the negative traits of those they wrote about, offering the young reader a popular and largely fictitious portrait of this or that figure, clearly dividing the world into “good” insiders and “bad” outsiders.
In the language of the Church, such creativity is called apocrypha - this is how texts are designated that in some way relate to Christianity, but have a very dubious origin. But before acquiring exactly this meaning, this term underwent many modifications.
The word “apocrypha” is translated from ancient Greek as “secret”, “hidden”. Initially, it was almost a curse and was used to refer to heretical books that were used in their close circle by sectarians who posed as Christians and believed that they possessed saving knowledge inaccessible to “ordinary mortals.” The unusual nature of the professed teachings, as well as the isolation of these sects themselves, forced their adherents to hide their true postulates and open secret records only to the most dedicated and “worthy”, in their opinion, people.
Over time, when Gnosticism (the name given to a number of different occult-mystical beliefs that were widespread in the Roman Empire and Western Asia in the 2nd and 3rd centuries) began to actively polemicize with the Church, apocryphal writings became property broad masses and ceased to be secret. But the very concept of apocrypha remains. Now the heretics put a sacred meaning into it and insisted that it was their writings that contained the truth, and that the Gospel and other Scriptures were allegedly a distortion and reworking of the original words of Christ. From now on, for heretics, the apocrypha was “secret” not so much because of its “underground origin”, but because it contained some very important information, understandable only to the most “enlightened” and “advanced”. Of course, these texts could also be read by an ordinary person. But he, according to the sectarians, could not see in them the hidden mysterious meaning that the Gnostic saw.
However, this concept also has a positive meaning, because the apocrypha was created not only in a heretical environment. Members of the Church also quite often took up pen and recorded what modern researchers would classify as folk art. These written monuments contained biographies of saints, apostles and the Savior, told about various miracles, or systematized the moral teaching of the Church. Thus, by the beginning of the 4th century, a very powerful layer of Christian literature had formed, which, among other things, claimed to take a place on a par with the Holy Scriptures.
Ultimately, by the end of the era of persecution, the holy fathers managed to develop the so-called Canon of Holy Books - a list of apostolic works, the origin of which is beyond any doubt. Regarding the remaining scriptures that claimed to take their place in the Bible, but never took it, the Church has developed a very flexible position, which continues to this day. Based on it, the entire block of apocrypha can be divided into three groups of literary monuments.

Three types of apocrypha

If you ask a person who is a believer, but does not know church tradition very well, why the Church remembers events that are not written about in the Gospel - for example, the Savior’s descent into hell or the Dormition of the Virgin Mary - then the question will put our interlocutor in an awkward position. People who are more knowledgeable will answer that the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and Her childhood, and the youth of Christ, and some events after Christ’s Passion - all this is known to us thanks to the Holy Tradition, which has many forms. And that the New Testament books are just one of them. Everything that the canonical Gospels are silent about, we know from the apocrypha of the first - “positive” - type, which is a written recording of precisely that Tradition that has been preserved by the Church since the day of its founding.
There are quite a lot of such “positive”, i.e., recognized by the Church, apocrypha: about a dozen books are known that serve as a supplement to the main New Testament writings. These include, for example:
– “Proto-Gospel of Jacob” (c. mid-2nd century);
– “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, or Didache” (beginning of the 2nd century);
– “The Gospel of Nicodemus”
(c. early 4th century);
– “The Shepherd” (c. 2nd century);
– “The Tale of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary”
(c. 5th century).

However, despite the fact that they are quite respectable in age, the Church has never equated them with the authentic Gospels, the Book of Acts and the Apostolic Epistles. And there were a number of very good reasons for this.
First, most of the apocrypha are at least a quarter of a century younger than the latest surviving New Testament texts, the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation. That is, these writings could not have been written by the apostles personally, although, undoubtedly, in general they reflect the tradition that developed back in apostolic times.
Secondly, almost all church apocrypha were created by anonymous people who deliberately signed the names of famous early Christian writers. In fact, there was nothing wrong with this - in the times of Antiquity and the Middle Ages this was done quite often, and not at all out of a desire to become famous or get rich (although this also happened), but simply because the works of famous authors had a better chance of finding their readers. However, an anonymous person is an anonymous person, and the holy fathers, who approved the biblical canon, saw perfectly well where the next Pauline epistle was, and where it was a later forgery, although similar in style to the original, but still having some differences. As a result, books whose origins were in doubt were never included in the Bible.
And the third reason logically follows from the second: anonymous writings, not included by the Church in the canonical books of Scripture, do not contain anything that is not contained in the canonical texts. As a rule, apocryphal collections are either retellings of pious stories, or a repetition of already famous phrases and thoughts expressed by the Savior and His disciples. Simply put, the Church did not see anything fundamentally new in these books and, in order to avoid tautology, did not sanctify controversial creations with its authority. In addition, there was another reason for such a seemingly biased attitude towards these texts, but more about it below. For now, let's turn to two other types of apocrypha.
These are undoubtedly “false scriptures” that are of sectarian origin and refer to books that can bring confusion into the hearts of believers. Among them, the following stand out:
– “The Gospel of Childhood”;
– “The Gospel of Thomas”;
– “The Gospel of Judas”;
- “The Apostle Paul’s journey through torment.”
The exact date of their creation is often difficult to establish, but most often it is the turn of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The first such fakes began to be created already in the 3rd century, and this process lasted until the 9th century, or even longer. The appearance of the main body of such writings is associated with the growth in the number of Christians during the era of persecution. This was a time when, on the one hand, the Church was forced to secrecy and limit preaching. On the other hand, the very martyrdom of hundreds of thousands of Christians was already a powerful sermon to which hearts seeking God responded. However, having gone through the stage of primary preparation and having accepted Baptism, many new Christians were not able to completely break with their pagan past and leave their previous errors. As a result, a situation arose when these people imposed some of their own personal worldviews on the evangelical value system. Instead of looking at the world through the eyes of the Gospel, they continued to look at the Gospel itself through the eyes of the pagans.
As a result of this rethinking, a whole layer of apocrypha of the second type appeared, in which one can find both Christ and church vocabulary, which, however, is filled with completely different, non-evangelical content. In the books created by yesterday's pagans there was still a place for authentic Christian motives, but they were already greatly “diluted” with purely philosophical and even occult elements.
And yet the main danger was not the first two types, but the third. This group of apocrypha is already 100% sectarian in origin. They were created in different time, different people, but with the same goal - to confuse believers. A striking example- "Tibetan Gospel". The principle, as always, was very simple: any heretical concept was deliberately clothed in Christian forms, and the resulting works of “creativity” were distributed under the names of famous apostles and saints. Of course, most often the forgery was detected in time and prevented from spreading among Christians. But there were many cases when heretics got their way, and they managed to lure some believers into their sects. At times, such apocrypha were created not by “inventing” something new, but as a result of “deep editing” of already known canonical texts. In any case, this created serious problem, since the forgeries were often so skillful that only spiritually mature and theologically “savvy” people could identify them.
In principle, the same situation is observed now, when the authors of “sensations” offer the reader a “product” on the pages of which Christ looks a little different than in the Gospel. And here the question arises: is it really that important? After all, it would seem that these are just details. However, in fact, there is a fundamental difference between the Jesus of the apocrypha and the Savior as the Church sees Him.

Christ through the eyes of the Gospel

The Gospel - the real canonical Gospel - shows us one very important truth, which today quite often does not pay due attention. Each of us knows this truth from childhood. Its essence is that a Christian is called to believe in Christ. This faith, or rather, this calling is main feature Christianity, which sets it apart from a number of other religious systems in the world.
If we try to answer the question of what is the essence of religion, we will not be mistaken if we say that the main task facing all religious systems of the world is to give man salvation. But the whole problem is that different religions understand salvation differently and, accordingly, offer different ways to achieve it.
The first and most numerous group of religions believes that the essence of salvation is that after death a person receives a comfortable and joyful eternal life. In order to achieve it, it is necessary here on earth to fulfill a certain number of norms and regulations. These standards in different religions may not match. However, the principle is the same: if a person correctly fulfills these instructions, then eternal life after death is guaranteed to him. If a person violated these norms or did not fulfill them at all, then he faces eternal punishment. But, no matter what fate befalls a person, in any case, after death he cannot participate in the life of the Divine. He can enjoy the beauties of the Gardens of Eden, a variety of pleasures can await him, but the path to God is closed to him. According to this group of religions, there is a huge gap between the Divine and man. And a person cannot cross this abyss either in earthly or in the afterlife.

There is another group of religions. They believe that only God exists, and everything else is just “shards” of the Divine that have become separated from their Source and “forgot” about their origin. Man in these religions is also considered a god, who is called to emerge from this material world and unite with the Divine, from which he once fell. Therefore, eternal bliss is understood as the union of the soul with the Supreme Divine Absolute, while the soul itself completely dissolves in God and the human personality completely disappears.
But there is also Christianity. And the understanding of salvation that it offers to man is radically different from all possible schemes, which form the basis of other religions of the world.
On the one hand, Christianity in no way denies the fact that God and man are different sides existence, that God is the Creator, and man is just a creature limited by the boundaries of space and time. But, on the other hand, Christianity insists that the gap that really exists between the Creator and the creature is surmountable and that a person can really participate in divine existence of the Holy Trinity, while remaining a person and not completely dissolving in the all-consuming abyss of the Divine. In other words, in Christianity a person is called, while remaining himself and without losing his personal uniqueness, to unite with his Creator and become God by grace.
It was to achieve this goal that Christ came to our world two thousand years ago. The four Gospels, which were compiled by His disciples, tell about His earthly life, teaching, miracles. At first glance, the sermon of their Teacher is similar to the sermon of other philosophers and prophets. But this is only at first glance.
The fact is that in any other religion in the world, the personality of the teacher occupies a secondary place in relation to the teaching that he preaches. Even if the person who carries this teaching to other people is its direct author, the teaching still comes first, and its author comes second. Of course, this does not mean that the teacher himself cannot be revered. On the contrary, the vast majority of religions have great respect for their founders, giving them high honors and even worshiping them. But if we imagine that for some reason the name of the founder of this or that religious tradition was forgotten or completely unknown, then this fact would in no way affect the very essence of this tradition. The most important thing is what exactly this or that religion preaches. And who preaches is a question of second importance.
In Christianity everything is just the opposite. The main place in the life of a believer is occupied by Christ himself, and His teachings and commandments are a kind of guidebooks, pointing out the right road and helping to pave the right route, at the end of which stands the personality of our Divine Teacher.
I am the light of the world (); I am the way and the truth and the life (); whoever does not take up his cross and follows Me is not worthy of Me () - these and similar words are found in the New Testament very often, and they come not only from the lips of the Savior himself, but also from His apostles, who always saw in his Teacher is more than just a prophet or the founder of a new religion. They saw in Him the Son of God and God, who came to this world to save his lost creation - man. And for two thousand years now, the Church, following the Apostle Peter at every Liturgy, repeats the words that have become the main words of every Christian: “I believe, Lord, and confess that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
So, a Christian is one who believes in Christ. Or rather, one for whom Christ is the core of his entire life. Without this most important condition, our faith turns into an empty formality, our worship into beautiful performances, and our morality into simple game in beads This is a very harsh and harsh statement, but it is true: without Christ, Christianity becomes a simple philosophy that can give a person a lot. Philosophy does not give only Christ himself. And without Christ it is impossible to be saved.

The distorting mirror of the apocrypha

But it is precisely this most essential thought (that without Christ there is no salvation) that is not found in any of the apocrypha of the second and third types. The main feature of any fraudulent work, one way or another related to Christianity, is the fact that in it Christ appears as a kind of technical figure and does not play, by and large, leading role. In the apocrypha, he can be anyone - a teacher, mentor, preacher, higher intelligence, miracle worker or someone else. There is only one thing He fundamentally cannot be - a Loving God, Crucified for the sake of saving the world.
This happens because pagan consciousness (by the way, and materialistic consciousness too) puts an insurmountable wall between the Creator and creation. The fallen human mind is unable to perceive the idea of ​​God, who cares how His creation lives. In general, this approach is understandable. After all, the apocrypha of the second and third circles were born in a heretical environment, and any heresy is, first of all, the isolation of one detail from the general context and its elevation to the forefront. In other words, heresy is a shift in priorities, when the secondary becomes the main, and the main becomes secondary.
And any “seductive” teaching is born where God, from the main goal of human existence, turns into only a means of achieving some good. For different groups of pagans this benefit was presented in different ways. For example, Gnostic pantheists, who considered the world a continuation of the divine absolute, strived for complete dissolution in the “abyss of the deity”, for the complete destruction of their own personal beginning and union with the Primary Source. For these heretics, Christ was God's messenger, who, in their opinion, came only to impart to people some knowledge that could be guaranteed to lead the chosen ones to their intended goal. Other authors of the apocrypha (for example, numerous so-called “Childhood Gospels”) emphasized the miracles performed by the young Jesus. This “mania for miracles” is understandable, since in the minds of the authors the image of the Messiah was closely connected not with the idea of ​​a Loving God, but with the concept of an omnipotent miracle worker who, after the apocalypse, will reward all the saved righteous.
But many apocrypha of the first circle (that is, books that were completely ecclesiastical in origin) have a very peculiar feature, which ultimately did not allow the holy fathers to include them in the corpus of the New Testament. These literary monuments talk a lot about morality, about faith, about salvation, but very little about Christ. It is given in them as if “by default”. It is implied that the reader already knows about Him and that now it is more important for him to answer the question “how to be saved” than to receive information about the Savior himself. This approach is possible in principle. But it can only be used by spiritually mature people.
A New Testament- for everyone, he is universal, and therefore his books should testify to the most important thing - about God, “for us, man and for our salvation, who came down from Heaven.” If a new Christian begins to immediately talk about the “mechanism” of salvation, then there is a huge risk that such a believer will never see the real Savior behind all this. The true Gospel speaks first and foremost about Christ. It was from such - and only from such - books that the canonical code was ultimately compiled.

When reading in newspapers or the Internet another message that somewhere a certain scripture has again been found, which supposedly sheds light on the teachings of the Church and tells, for example, that Jesus grew up in Tibet, it is important to ask yourself one question: “Do I want to Should I believe in this Christ? If the reader of such sensations really cares about Jesus of Nazareth as one of the teachers of righteousness, who performed miracles and called everyone to love and compassion, then perhaps we can continue to listen to this news. But if a person cares about Christ, Who gave us His Church - the God and Savior of the entire universe, calling us to Himself, then in this case it would be logical to brush aside such things in every possible way and trust in the experience of the saints, who have long said their word regarding such “scriptures.” "and throughout their lives they demonstrated fidelity to the very truths that are revealed in the canonical books of the New Testament.

The banned gospels, or apocrypha, are books written between 200 BC. e. and 100 AD e. The word “apocrypha” is translated from Greek as “hidden”, “secret”. Therefore, it is not surprising that for centuries apocryphal books were considered secret and mysterious, hiding in themselves secret knowledge Bibles available to only a few. Apocryphal books are divided into Old Testament and New Testament. But what do these scriptures hide - do they reveal secrets? church history or are they led away into the jungle of religious fantasies?

Apocryphal texts arose long before Christianity.

After the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity, the priest Ezra decided to collect all the surviving holy books. Ezra and his assistants managed to find, correct, translate and systematize 39 books. Those apocryphal tales that contradicted the selected books and diverged from the Old Testament traditions, carried the spirit of pagan superstitions of other peoples, and also had no religious value, were eliminated and destroyed. They were not included in the Old Testament, and later the Bible.

Later, some of these apocrypha were nevertheless included in the Talmud. The Church, both Roman Catholic and Orthodox, claims that the apocryphal books contain teachings that are not only not true, but often even contrary to real events. For a long time, apocryphal texts were considered heretical and were destroyed. But not all apocrypha suffered such a fate. The Roman Catholic Church officially recognized some of them because they supported certain aspects of the doctrine that the priests wanted to emphasize to the faithful.

How did the New Testament apocrypha appear? Who decided that one gospel was true and another was false?

Already in the 1st century. n. e. There were about 50 gospels and other sacred texts. Naturally, a dispute arose among Christians about which books should be considered truly holy.

A wealthy shipowner from Sinop, Marcion, undertook to solve this problem. In 144, he published a list of New Testament writings required for Christianity to accept. This was the first “canon”. In it, Marcion recognized only the Gospel of Luke and the ten epistles of Paul as authentic, adding to it the apocryphal Epistle of the Laodiceans and ... his own composition, containing very dubious instructions.

After this, the Church Fathers undertook to compose the canonical New Testament themselves. At the end of the 2nd century. After much debate and discussion, agreement was reached. At church councils in Hippo (393) and Carthage (397 and 419), the sequence of the 27 writings of the New Testament recognized as canonical was finally approved, and a list of canonical books of the Old Testament was compiled.

Since then, for almost two millennia, the Old Testament has consistently contained 39, and the New Testament - 27 books. True, since 1546, the Catholic Bible necessarily includes seven apocrypha, including the Book of the Wars of the Lord, the Book of Gad the Seer, the Book of the Prophet Nathan, and the Book of Solomon.

The New Testament Apocrypha consists of books that are similar in content to the books of the New Testament, but are not part of it. Some of them complement those episodes that the canonical Gospels are silent about.

The New Testament apocrypha is divided into four groups. Let's look at them.

Apocrypha-additions.

These include texts that complement the existing New Testament narratives: details of the childhood of Jesus Christ (Gospel of James, Gospel of Thomas), descriptions of the resurrection of the Savior (Gospel of Peter).

Apocrypha-explanations.

They cover in more detail and detail the events described in the four Gospels. These are the Gospel of the Egyptians, the Gospel of the Twelve, the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Nicodemus, etc. These are just a few of the 59 New Testament apocrypha known today.

The third group consists of apocrypha, which tell about the acts of the apostles and allegedly written by the apostles themselves in the second and third centuries AD: Acts of John, Acts of Peter, Acts of Paul, Acts of Andrew, etc.

The fourth group of New Testament apocrypha are books of apocalyptic content.

The Book of Revelations at one time captured the imagination of the first Christians and inspired them to create similar works. Some of the most popular apocrypha are the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of Paul and the Apocalypse of Thomas, which tell about life after death and the fate that awaits the souls of the righteous and sinners after death.

Many of these writings are of interest only to specialists, and some, like the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Mary, have revolutionized modern science and the consciousness of hundreds of thousands of people. The Dead Sea Scrolls also told scientists many amazing things. Let us dwell on these remarkable documents in more detail.

Dead Sea Scrolls or Qumran Manuscripts, are the names of ancient records that have been found since 1947 in the caves of Qumran. Studies of the manuscripts have confirmed that they were written precisely in Qumran and date back to the 1st century. BC e.

Like many other discoveries, this was made by accident. In 1947, a Bedouin boy was looking for a missing goat. While throwing stones into one of the caves to scare away the stubborn animal, he heard a strange crackling sound. Curious, like all boys, the shepherd boy made his way inside the cave and discovered ancient clay vessels, in which, wrapped in linen cloth yellowed by time, lay scrolls of leather and papyrus, on which strange icons were applied. After a long journey from one curiosities dealer to another, the scrolls fell into the hands of specialists. This discovery shook the scientific world.

At the beginning of 1949, the amazing cave was finally examined by Jordanian archaeologists. Lancaster Harding, director of the Department of Antiquities, also involved the Dominican priest Pierre Roland de Vaux in the research. Unfortunately, the first cave was plundered by the Bedouins, who quickly realized that ancient scrolls could be a good source of income. This resulted in the loss of a lot of valuable information. But in a cave located a kilometer to the north, about seventy fragments were found, including parts of seven original scrolls, as well as archaeological finds that made it possible to confirm the dating of the manuscripts. In 1951–1956 the search continued, an eight-kilometer ridge of rocks was carefully examined. Of the eleven caves where the scrolls were found, five were discovered by Bedouins and six by archaeologists. In one of the caves, two rolls of forged copper were found (the so-called Copper Scroll, which hides a mystery that haunts the minds of scientists and treasure hunters to this day). Subsequently, about 200 caves in this area were explored, but only 11 of them contained similar ancient manuscripts.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, as scientists have discovered, contain a lot of varied and interesting information. Where did this amazing and unusually rich library for its era come from in the Qumran caves?

Scientists tried to find the answer to this question in the ruins located between the rocks and the coastal strip. It was a large building with many rooms, both residential and commercial. A cemetery was discovered nearby. Researchers have put forward a version that this place was a haven-monastery of the Essenes sect (Essenes), mentioned in ancient chronicles. They fled persecution in the desert and lived there separately for more than two centuries. The documents found told historians a lot about the customs, faith and rules of the sect. Particularly interesting were the texts of the Holy Scriptures, which differed from the biblical ones.

The Dead Sea Scrolls helped clarify a number of unclear passages in the New Testament and proved that the Hebrew language was not dead during Jesus' earthly life. Scientists have noticed that the manuscripts make no mention of the events that followed the capture of Jerusalem. There can be only one explanation - the manuscripts are the remains of the library of the Jerusalem Temple, saved from the Romans by some priest. Apparently, the inhabitants of Qumran received warning of a possible attack and managed to hide the documents in the caves. Judging by the fact that the scrolls were preserved intact until the 20th century, there was no one to take them...

The hypothesis linking the appearance of the manuscripts with the destruction of Jerusalem is confirmed by the contents of the Copper Scroll. This document consists of three copper plates connected with rivets. The text is written in Hebrew and contains more than 3000 characters. But to make one such mark would require 10,000 strikes! Apparently, the content of this document was so important that such an expenditure of effort was considered appropriate. Scientists were not slow to verify this - the text of the scroll speaks of treasures and claims that the amount of gold and silver buried in Israel, Jordan and Syria ranges from 140 to 200 tons! Perhaps they were referring to the treasures of the Jerusalem Temple, hidden before the invaders broke into the city. Many experts are confident that there was not such a quantity of precious metals in those days not only in Judea, but throughout Europe. It should be noted that none of the treasures were found. Although there may be another explanation for this: there could be copies of the document, and there were plenty of treasure hunters throughout human history.

But this is not all the surprises that the Qumran scrolls presented to scientists.

Among the community's documents, researchers found horoscopes of John the Baptist and Jesus. If you study what is known about these historical figures, a rather interesting picture emerges. The Bible states that John the Baptist withdrew into the Judean desert near the mouth of the Jordan River, which is located just over 15 kilometers from Qumran. It is possible that John was associated with the Essenes or even was one of them. It is known that the Essenes often took in children to raise, but nothing is known about the youth of the Forerunner, except that he was “in the deserts.” From the documents we learn that this is what the Qumranites called their settlements!

It is known that after John’s sermon, Jesus came to ask for baptism, and the Baptist recognized Him! But the Essenes distinguished each other by their white linen clothes. The canonical Gospels are silent about the childhood and adolescence of Christ. He is described as a mature man with deep knowledge and quoting sacred texts. But somewhere he had to learn this?

From documents found at Qumran, scientists learned that family Essenes constituted the lower classes of the community. They were usually engaged in carpentry or weaving. It is believed that Christ's father Joseph (a carpenter) could well have been a lower-level Essene. In this regard, it is logical to assume that after the death of his father, Jesus went to teach among the Initiates and spent there exactly those almost 20 years that “fell out” of the Holy Scriptures.

An equally interesting document is the Gospel of Mary.

Mary Magdalene is considered one of the most mysterious heroes of the New Testament. Her image, influenced by the inspired speech of Pope Gregory the Great (540–604), depicts a very attractive woman and gives believers a hint of a certain intimacy between Christ and Mary.

In his homily, the Pope said something like this: “.. the one whom Luke calls a sinner and whom John calls Mary is that Mary from whom seven demons were cast out. What do these seven demons mean if not vices? Previously, this woman used incense oil as perfume on her body for sinful activities. Now she offered it to God. She was enjoying herself, but now she was sacrificing herself. She directed what served sinful motives to serve God...” However, oddly enough, the high priest himself mixed several biblical images in the image of Mary Magdalene.

So, in order. The story of the anointing of Jesus' head and feet is told in all four Gospels, but only John mentions the woman's name. Yes, her name is Mary, but not Magdalene, but Mary of Bethany, sister of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead. And the apostle clearly distinguishes her from Mary Magdalene, whom he mentions only at the end of his story. Mark and Matthew do not name the woman who anointed Jesus. But since we're talking about also about Bethany, it is quite possible to assume that they are also talking about Lazarus’ sister.

The events in the Gospel of Luke are described very differently. Luke calls the nameless woman who came to Christ in Nain a sinner, which was automatically transferred by medieval consciousness to the image of Mary from Bethany. She is mentioned at the end of the seventh chapter, and at the beginning of the eighth Luke reports on the women who accompanied Christ with the apostles, and mentions in the same passage Mary Magdalene and the casting out of seven demons. Obviously, Gregory the Great did not understand what we were talking about different women, and built a single story chain.

Another oddity of the Gospels is that Mary Magdalene is considered a walking woman, although this is not even hinted at anywhere. In the Middle Ages, the most terrible sin for a woman was adultery, and this sin was automatically attributed to Magdalene, representing her as a lady of easy virtue. It was not until 1969 that the Vatican officially abandoned the identification of Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany.

But what do we know about the woman named Mary Magdalene in the New Testament?

Very little. Her name is mentioned in the Gospel 13 times. We know that Jesus healed her by casting out demons, that she followed him everywhere and was a wealthy woman, since there are descriptions of how she financially helped Christ’s disciples. She was present at the execution, when all the apostles fled in fear, prepared the Savior’s body for burial and witnessed his resurrection. But there is not a single mention of the physical intimacy of Christ and Magdalene, which is now so fashionable to talk about. Many argue that according to ancient Jewish tradition, a man at the age of 30 certainly had to be married, and Mary Magdalene is naturally called the wife. But in fact, Jesus was perceived as a prophet, and all the Jewish prophets did not have a family, so there was nothing strange in his behavior for those around him. However, the canonical Gospels report that there was some kind of spiritual intimacy between the Savior and Mary.

Its essence is revealed to us by the Gospel of Mary, dated to the first half of the 11th century. Its text consists of three parts. The first is Christ's conversation with the apostles, after which he leaves them. The disciples are plunged into sadness, and then Mary Magdalene decides to console them. “Do not cry,” she says, “do not be sad and do not doubt, for His grace will be with you all and will protect you.” But the answer of the Apostle Peter is simply amazing. He says: “Sister, you know that the Savior loved you more than other women. Tell us the words of the Savior that you remember, which you know, not we, and which we have never heard.”

And Mary tells Christ’s disciples about the vision in which she spoke with the Savior. It seems that she was the only student who fully understood her mentor. But the reaction of the apostles to her story is surprising - they do not believe her. Peter, who asked her to tell about everything, declares that this is the fruit of a woman’s imagination. Only the Apostle Matthew stands up for Mary: “Peter,” he says, “you are always angry. Now I see you competing with a woman as an opponent. But if the Savior found her worthy, who are you to reject her? Of course, the Savior knew her very well. That's why he loved her more than us." After these words, the apostles set off to preach, and the Gospel of Mary ends here. However, there is another, albeit highly controversial, version that claims that the Gospel of John, which some researchers call unnamed or written by Christ’s beloved disciple, actually belongs not to John or an unknown apostle, but to Mary Magdalene. The version is undoubtedly interesting, but there is not enough evidence yet to confirm its truth.

The most striking discovery was the Gospel of Judas, which shocked scientists and caused a storm of controversy and debate.

The Gospel of Judah in Coptic was found in 1978 in Egypt and was part of the Chakos Codex. The Chacos Papyrus Codex was created, as radiocarbon dating data indicate, in 220–340 BC. Some researchers believe that this text was translated into Coptic from Greek dating back to the second half of the 11th century.

The main difference between this apocryphal Gospel and all others is that in it Judas Iscariot is shown as the most successful disciple and the only one who fully and completely understood the plan of Christ. That is why, and not for the sake of the notorious thirty pieces of silver, he agreed to play the role of a traitor, sacrificing everything for the sake of fulfilling his duty - glory throughout the ages, recognition of his Gospel and even life itself.

As sources indicate, Judas was Jesus’ paternal half-brother, the custodian of the savings of Christ and his disciples, that is, he was in charge of a very significant amount that allowed him to live without denying himself anything. Judas used his money at his own discretion, so thirty pieces of silver was an insignificant amount for him. Jesus always trusted only him and could entrust the most important mission only to a relative devoted to the end. After all, the people demanded from Christ proof of his divinity, and this could be done only in one way... The faith of Judas remained unshakable. Having fulfilled his mission, he left, organized his own school, and after the death of his teacher, one of the students wrote the Gospel in the name of Judas.

From the Gospel it also became clear that Judas kissed Christ at the moment when he brought the soldiers to him, in order to still show his descendants the purity of his intentions and love for Jesus. But we know that this kiss was interpreted by the Church completely differently. Church traditions about the Gospel of Judas have been known for a long time, but until our time it was considered irretrievably lost. The authenticity of the manuscript is beyond doubt - scientists used the most reliable methods and got the same result. This time the medieval legend turned out to be true.

Apocrypha (from ancient Greek - “hidden, hidden”) are works of late Jewish and early Christian literature that were not included in the biblical canon. The concept of “apocrypha” originally referred to the works of Gnosticism, which sought to keep its teachings secret. Later, the term “apocrypha” was attributed to early Christian texts that were not recognized as “inspired”: the Gospels, Epistles, Acts and Revelations that were not included in the Bible are considered by the Church to be “extraneous” or “non-canonical”, that is, apocrypha proper.

General definitions

A-priory " Church Dictionary“P.A. Alekseev (St. Petersburg, 1817), these are “hidden, that is, books published unknown from whom, or that are not publicly read in church, as the Holy Scripture is usually read. Such books are all those that are not in the Bible.” That is, apocryphal books for the most part distort the principles of revealed teaching, and they cannot generally be recognized as divinely inspired (for example, due to the too strong element of human wisdom). Therefore, these books were mercilessly persecuted by the Fathers of the Church and were not included in the canon of revealed books of the Old and New Testaments (the Bible).

There are apocrypha that slightly diverge from Christian doctrine and, in general, confirm the Holy Tradition ancient Church, for example, in iconography and worship: for example, there is an apocrypha called the “Proto-Gospel of James” - it is not recognized by the Church as divinely inspired scripture, but is accepted as evidence of Church Tradition. And most of the feasts of the Mother of God - the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, the Entry into the Temple, partly the Annunciation (this was reflected in the iconography) are confirmed by the Proto-Gospel of James. This text is called apocrypha not in the sense that it contains something contrary to Holy Scripture. In many ways, it is simply a fixation of Church Tradition.

Fighting the Apocrypha before the Nativity of Christ

Apocryphal books arose long before Christianity. Soon after the return of the Jews from Babylonian captivity, the Old Testament priest Ezra made an attempt to collect (and separate from the false apocrypha) all the sacred books, then still scattered and partially lost. With his assistants, Ezra managed to find, correct/translate into modern language, supplement and systematize 39 books (in the Tanakh of the Jewish tradition they were artificially combined into 22 books - according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet). Those apocryphal books that contradicted the selected books, diverged from the traditions of the Old Testament legend, were infected with pagan myths and superstitions of neighboring peoples, containing occult practices and magical spells, as well as books that do not have religious value (household, entertainment, children's, educational, love, and other nature), were strictly eliminated (sometimes mercilessly destroyed) and were not included in the Old Testament, and later in the Christian Bible. Later, some of these apocrypha nevertheless became part of the Talmud, Mishnah and Gemara used by Judaism.

The problem with non-canonical books

Deuterocanonical books

After the death of Ezra, his followers (zealots of piety) continued their search, and those books that were found were relevant and those that were written in subsequent centuries (for example, the Maccabees) were selected by them as inspired. But the rigor and meticulousness of the selection, as well as the indisputable authority and traditions of Ezra, did not allow innovations to be introduced into the established canon of the Holy Books. And only in the fairly free and enlightened city of Alexandria, where there was a rich library of antiquity, when translating the Old Testament books into Greek, 72 Jewish interpreters and translators, after deep study, diligent prayers and debates, added (in the Greek text) to the previous 39 books 11 books. It was this version (Septuagint) that became the main one for Christians who spoke predominantly in the first centuries of Christianity. Greek.

When Protestants, using ancient handwritten originals, began to translate the Bible into modern national languages, they discovered the absence of these 11 books in all Jewish texts and hastened to declare these books apocrypha (although they did not prohibit them, but only declared them of little importance). It should be noted that even some canonical books (which do not confirm their views) raise doubts among Protestants.

These 11 non-canonical (deuterocanonical) books, that is, books not included in the original canon of Ezra, are revered in Orthodoxy in the same way as all other books of the Bible; they are also used during public worship (read in proverbs), along with the canonical ones. Nowadays, thanks to the successes of biblical archeology, Jewish texts previously considered lost have also become known for some books.

The fight against the apocrypha after the Nativity of Christ

With the rise of Christianity, there was an even greater need to separate the officially accepted books of the Bible from the various alternative apocryphal interpretations written at different times and by different people. Some of them were written by completely pious, albeit naive, people who wanted to explain and supplement the Holy Scriptures in their own way (for example, in “The Virgin Mary’s Walk through Torment” the descent Mother of God to hell and then her representation before the throne of the Son). Other apocrypha were born in various widespread early Christian sects, and heretical movements and in Gnosticism using Christian themes. There were also authors who specifically, supposedly on behalf of the apostles revered in Christianity, compiled and distributed “messages” that were compromising the official Church, which, in their opinion, hid the originally true teaching. Therefore, Christians at all times tried to defend, from their point of view, the true “purity of their faith,” and at all times, at councils, they compiled lists of renounced books (apocrypha), which were forbidden to be read, and which were searched for, torn, burned, or cleared/washed off parchments apocryphal texts and other palimpsests were written.

In modern Christianity, only 27 books are included in the New Testament canon and are recognized as inspired books, which, according to the church, were written directly by the apostles (secular witnesses of Christ). The composition of the New Testament canon is enshrined in the 85th Apostolic Canon. Together with the books of the Old Testament, they form the Christian Bible, which contains a total of 77 books. It is all these inspired books that are considered the only authoritative source in matters of sacred history and dogma in the main Christian denominations.

However, the writing of inspired books did not stop with the death of the apostles. The Orthodox Church has been replenished and continues to be replenished with a huge number of works (writings) of the Holy Fathers, liturgical texts and descriptions of the lives of saints, which, after a thorough and comprehensive study for compliance Holy Scripture(Bibles) are also recognized as divinely inspired and binding on all Christians. Therefore, these religious books, which are not directly part of the Bible, are not considered apocrypha.

The ancient apocrypha that has survived to this day has not only historical meaning, but to some extent dialectical, since they reflect the views of Christians of the first centuries.

The apocrypha includes the so-called Old Testament apocrypha, apocryphal Gospels, Acts, Apocalypses, etc., as well as alternative “official” biographies of saints.

Apocrypha is also composed in our time, when various sects, certain “elders”, soothsayers and “miracle workers” publish and distribute religious literature that interprets in their own way the history and principles of Christian doctrine.

Apocrypha of the Old Testament

Apocrypha of the New Testament

Apocryphal gospels

Up to 50 apocryphal gospels have reached us. The authors collected those oral traditions that could have been forgotten, or described those events about which there were only hints in the canonical Gospels. Sometimes the gospel stories were presented in a conversational form. The authors of these texts did not sign their names, but often to give greater value their works were given the name of one of the apostles or their disciples. The content of the apocryphal gospels is varied:

Childhood Gospels

The First Gospel of James (James, the Lord's brother) describes the time from the birth of the Savior to the massacre of the infants;

The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew or the Book of the Origin of Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior tells of the youth of Jesus;

The Proto-Gospel of James (brother of the Lord) describes the time from the birth of the Savior to the massacre of the infants.

“The Gospel of Jacob” (continuation of the “proto-gospel of Jacob”). The childhood of Jesus from conception to age 12. Conception, birth, flight and life in Egypt for 3 years, return and life in Nazareth for up to 12 years. The origin of the text is unknown;

The Story of Joseph the Carpenter (or The Book of Joseph the Carpenter);

The "Gospel of Childhood", attributed to the Apostle Thomas (read by Gnostics in the 2nd century);

Arabic “Gospel of Childhood” (about the Savior’s stay in Egypt);

The Tibetan Gospel (The Tibetan Tale of Jesus) is one of the “childhood gospels” according to which Jesus spent his life early years in Tibet and India.

“Jesus in the Temple” - a 3-day dispute between 12-year-old Jesus and the Jewish Pharisees in the Jerusalem Temple about the already come Messiah. The origin and authorship of the text is unknown;

"The Gospel of Mary";

"The Gospel of Nicodemus";

"Gospel of Apelles";

“The Gospel of the 12 Apostles” (“Didache”);

"The Gospel of the Jews";

"The Gospel of Peter";

"Gospel of Judas"

"The Gospel of Philip"

"The Gospel of Thomas";

"The Gospel of Barnabas"

Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

"The Acts of Peter and Paul";

"The Acts of Barnabas";

"The Acts of Philip in Hellas";

"Act of Thomas" (ancient origin);

"Acts of John";

"Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary"

"Acts of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian"

"The Acts and Martyrdom of the Apostle Matthias"

"The Acts of Paul"

"The Acts of Paul and Thekla"

"The Acts of the Holy Apostle Thaddeus, One of the Twelve"

"The Acts of Philip"

"Martyrdom of St. Paul the Apostle"

"The Martyrdom of the Holy and Glorious Chief Apostle Andrew"

"Teachings of Addai the Apostle"

Apocryphal Epistles of the Apostles

"Abgar's Message to Christ";

“The Epistle of Christ to Abgar”;

“Correspondence of Ap. Paul and Seneca" (6 letters; many were convinced of their authenticity, and only later research revealed the forgery);

"Epistle to the Laodiceans"

messages of Clement the Bishop (5 pcs.)

"Epistle of the Apostle Barnabas"

"Epistle of the Apostle Peter to the Apostle James"

"The Message of the Twelve Apostles"

"The Third Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians"

"Epistle of Dionysius the Areopagite"

Apocryphal Apocalypses

There were also many of them, but only a few survived in their entirety:

"Apocalypse of John" (significantly different from the canonical one);
another "Apocalypse of John" (opened in 1595);

"Apocalypse of Peter";

"Apocalypse of Paul";

"The Revelation of Bartholomew"

Other New Testament Apocrypha

"Shepherd of Herma"

"The Apostle Paul's Walk through Torment"

Late and modern pseudo-church apocrypha

“The Gospel of Afranius” is a novel by Kirill Eskov, written in a genre combining alternative history and detective story.

Apocrypha
[Apocrypha= intimate, secret; V in this case: excluded from liturgical use]

The Apocrypha are works of late Judaism of the pre-Christian period that arose between the OT and NT, existing only in Greek (parts of the Book of Jesus, son of Sirach, were also discovered in Hebrew, see I,B,3). They are included in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT. When the Septuagint became the Bible of Christians, it was distrusted by the Jewish rabbis (after 70). Around 400 A.D. The 12 or 14 works contained in the Greek and Latin OT, but not included in the Jewish canon, came to be called the Apocrypha. In Christian communities, attitudes towards the apocrypha were ambiguous until the era of the Reformation, when Martin Luther, in his translation, placed the apocrypha between the OT and NT and excluded them from the canon. In response to this Rom. The Catholic Church at the Council of Trent declared them an integral part of Scripture. The Apocrypha is widespread and highly valued by Catholics and Orthodox Christians.

The designation “apocrypha” for the above-mentioned books is used only by Protestants, Catholics call them deuterocanonical, and Orthodox call them non-canonical writings; in publications that arise as a result of interfaith cooperation, it was decided to designate them as “late works of the OT.” Catholics apply the term apocrypha to other works, which the evangelists call pseudepigrapha (that is, works published under other people's names). They were published under pseudonyms, and the authorship was always attributed to one of the great men of the Old Testament. The Apocrypha are later works than the "late writings of the OT", and are always in the nature of legends with a predominantly apocalyptic content (for example, the Dormition of Moses; the Martyrdom of Isaiah; the Book of Enoch, specifically quoted in Jude 1:14; the Psalms of Solomon, the Apocalypse of Baruch; the Testament of the Twelve patriarchs and others).

Some editions of the Bible offer a certain set of apocrypha borrowed from the Septuagint. Luther wrote: “These are those books which do not belong to the Holy Scriptures, but are still useful and good to read.” Some of these books are still used in worship today. This applies even to pseudepigrapha (e.g. Jude 1:4, compare Enoch 10:4 and following; Jude 1:9, compare with the Dormition of Moses). To the reader of the Bible, much in the apocrypha will seem strange; on the other hand, he will be struck by the similarity of many sayings with the Old Testament. Historians can glean from some apocryphal books valuable information about the life of the Jews, their way of thinking, and the forms of their religiosity in the period between the OT and NT. Some of these books may not be of true interest, since the events described in them are taken out of historical context, but they can say a lot about the religious and philosophical thought of the historical period that precedes the NT.
1) Less significant (with the exception of the Book of Tobit) are works whose feature is the embellishment of known events biblical history or dressing certain biblical characters in the veil of legend: Book Judith, a song of praise to a God-fearing Jewish widow, ready to sacrifice her feminine honor for the sake of the temple and her people; Book Tobit, a wonderful, naive story about two young people who, despite the hardest blows of fate, do not deviate from their faith, and the reward for piety is not long in coming. The book gives a clear picture of the life of the Jewish diaspora in the East around 200 BC. She apparently appeared at this time; the original language was probably Aramaic. Susanna and Daniel, About Vila of Babylon, About the Dragon of Babylon- three stories about Daniel. Two of them are simultaneously pamphlets ridiculing idolatry.
2) The above-mentioned stories about Daniel constitute in the Septuagint additions to the canonical Book of the Prophet Daniel, preceding it or immediately following it; further in the Book of the Prophet Daniel are found Azariah's Prayer And Song of the Three Youths in a fiery furnace. In the Septuagint there is also whole line additions and insertions into the text of the OT, of little reliability, but of great value due to their internal connection with the Bible. Book Esther contains six inserts of different content (following the verse Esther 1:1 and after the verse Esther 3:13; Esther 4:17; Esther 5:1,2; Esther 8:12; Esther 10:3). Prayer of Manasseh is an appendix to 2 Chronicles 33:11 et seq.
3) Three works related or approaching the books of wisdom probably deserve special attention: Book Varucha, with the exception of its introduction, which is questionable from a historical point of view, is a collection of repentant prayers, mournful and consoling songs, as well as edifying verses, similar in style to those of the Old Testament. The same applies to the form and content of the so-called Epistles of Jeremiah, which appears in the Vulgate and in Luther as the 6th chapter of the Book of Baruch. Written at a high level Book Jesus son of Sirach. It is distinguished by a wealth of literary forms, contains numerous instructions for practical and spiritual life, and concludes with heartfelt praise of the forefathers of Israel from Enoch to Nehemiah. At the same time, this is the only book of this kind whose author is known to us. This is Jesus, son of Sirach, who wrote it around 190 BC. in Hebrew (more than two-thirds of the text of this book has been found among Hebrew manuscripts since 1896). His grandson about 132 BC. translated the book into Greek (Sir, preface; Sir 50:27 et seq.). In addition, the preface to this work indicates the time before which the Old Testament canon existed in three parts. Book Wisdom of Solomon(it could not have been written by Solomon!) is an attempt, on the one hand, to reconcile Greek-Hellenistic thinking with Jewish thinking, and on the other, to dissociate itself from it. It was written to strengthen the faith of the Jewish community in view of the danger of paganism. Wisdom, as the educated Greeks understood it, and justice, as the pious Jews thought of it, under the sign of Judaism enter into an alliance with each other to resist godlessness and idolatry; there are several like this artificially Judaism and Hellenism become allies in the fight against a common enemy. The rulers of the earth are called to realize the wisdom thus understood. Then follows a broad overview of the workings of wisdom in Sacred history, starting from Adam and up to the time of the possession of the Promised Land.
4) Two prose works: books of Maccabees. 1 Mac may be of value to those interested in history because it introduces the historical setting of Palestine during the struggle of the Maccabees against the Syrian king Antiochus IV Epiphanes (175-163 BC, Dan 11; → , II,1). This period is important for understanding the political, ethnic and religious balance of power in Palestine at the time of Jesus and the NT. The first part of 2 Mac, which probably belongs to another author, reflects the same situation. But historical accents noticeably give way to theological ones. It covers more short period than the first, and unlike it has pronounced features of legend-making. The book contains rich material for familiarization with the way of life and thinking of Pharisaism, which has already taken stable forms. Thus, the connection with the NT lies on the surface here. (Compare → ). All the apocrypha discussed here arose in the period from about 200 BC. to 100 A.D. Most of them were originally written in Greek, while the rest were translated into Greek from Hebrew or Aramaic. [The above apocrypha is contained in the Septuagint, Vulgate and Slavic Bible. In addition to them, such books as the Second Book of Ezra, the Third Book of Maccabees (included in the Septuagint and Slavic Bible) are also known; Third Book of Ezra (in the Slavonic Bible and Vulgate); The fourth book of Maccabees (in the appendix to the Septuagint). – Editor's note]

1) It is difficult to make a clear distinction between apocryphal materials. Let us agree to designate as New Testament apocrypha those books that, in their claims and characteristics, are close to the books included in the NT. They were mostly published under the names of the apostles (pseudepigrapha), but were not included in the canon (the writings of the so-called “apostolic men” should be distinguished from them, see below). The time of appearance of pseudepigrapha falls on the 2nd-4th centuries AD.
2) The following categories of New Testament apocrypha are distinguished: apocryphal gospels, which in their content are more or less related to the personalities of Jesus or His parents and quote those sayings of Jesus that are not attested to by the canonical gospels. A number of these kinds of gospels are known to us by their titles (for example, Gospel of the Jews, Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth). Some of them are practically lost (with the exception of quotations found in the works of the Church Fathers); however in modern period a number of apocrypha were rediscovered (for example, in Nag Hammadi). IN large quantities there were apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. They depict in relative detail the life and ministry of the apostles and their disciples (for example, Peter, Paul, Thomas, Andrew and others). In most cases they are of later origin than the apocryphal gospels and have also survived only in fragments. Only a few of the apocryphal messages have survived to this day. One such epistle is even attributed to Christ, three to Paul, one to Barnabas (in the form of epistles there are also writings by “men of the apostles”, see below). Apocryphal apocalypses (revelations) were attributed to Peter, Paul, Thomas, Stephen, John, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, among others. The NT apocrypha contains virtually no reliable historical material; with the apocrypha of the Old Testament the situation is different. In any case, they allow you to get acquainted with the religious culture of Judeo-Christianity in period II-IV century A.D. The writings of the “apostolic men” should be distinguished from the New Testament apocrypha, i.e. works of the disciples of the apostles, dating from the end of the 1st century and the 2nd century AD. (appearing partly in parallel with the last books of the New Testament), which are mentioned here only because they are sometimes classified as apocrypha. We are talking primarily about epistles and apologetic treatises, from which one can learn about the relations between the churches in the 2nd century and which are quite reliable in their information. →