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The Encyclopedia of Lost and Rejected Scriptures: The Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha
The Encyclopedia of Lost and Rejected The Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha - 40 books contained in a single volume. This tome is huge. - Section One - Lost Scriptures of the Old Testament - First Book of Adam and Eve, Second Book of Adam and Eve, First Book of Enoch, Second Book of Enoch (Secrets of Enoch), Third Book of Enoch (Hebrew Enoch), Jubilees, Jasher - Section Two - Apocalyptic Writings and the End of Days - Apocalypse of Abraham, Apocalypse of Thomas, 2 Baruch, War Scroll (Sons of Dark vs. Sons of Light) - Section Three - Lost Scriptures of the New Testament - Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Apocryphon of John, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Judas, Acts Chapter 29 - - Section Four - The Life and Times of Jesus - Infancy Gospel of James, Infancy Gospel of Thomas, Life of Joseph The Carpenter, Letters of Pilate, Life of Saint Issaa - Section Five - The Apocrypha - 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, Letter (Epistle) of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah, 1 Baruch, Prayer of Manasseh (Manassas), Bel and the Dragon, Wisdom of Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Additions to Esther, Tobit, Judith, Susanna, Psalm 151, 1 Clements, Shepherd of Hermas, The Didache (820 pages measuring 8x11, this is a massive tome and a wonderful reference book.)
2362 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 9, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 12, 2019
This book is over 800 pages long so I'll just point out a few things about it.
The book starts out with a Table of Contents and then an Introduction. The author notes that some of these rejected scriptures may not be a part of the traditional Bible but some of them are actually mentioned by name in the Bible. He gives specific examples of this.
He says that the Pseudoepigrapha are religious books written around 200 BC to 200 AD whose authorship is attributed to another person, usually a saint or a patriarch, but whose real author is unknown.
The Apocrypha are a body of hidden or esoteric work of questionable authorship. Basically, not much difference between the two.
1. Books that were based on the "Oh, I'm such a terrible sinner. Woe is me." Writers keep saying this over and over to the point where it gets bothersome. Either the person is faking it or they have an incredibly negative self-image, seeing virtually nothing good about themselves.
2. Writers that are totally obsessed with numbers and names. Over and over you see these long list of names of sons (never daughters!). Also, some of them must think they are reporters, listing (over-inflated, I'm sure) death statistics for battles. In one case the number of enemy killed was over 30 billion according to the writer.
3. Utter boredom. To say something once or twice is all right but when you go on and on and on and basically just repeat yourself (throwing in some different names at times) it makes the reader have a tough time plowing on.
4. Then there's the braggers. 'Gee, we killed x thousands of the enemy. And we killed x thousands more. Look how great we are.' If they were so successful so often then why did Israel basically cease to exist as a country until the 20th century?
5. Some books basically duplicate what is already in the Bible.
Again, commenting on only some of the books. The books of Adam and Eve are fascinating. Adam appears to be a complete idiot and Eve is only slightly better than him. They keep dying and coming near to death and each time God 'shows mercy' and brings them back only to see them foul things up yet again.
The Second Book of Enoch talks about 10 heavens, Archons, the creation of the Earth and a section where God kills angels because he doesn't like the way they sing. (Really. It's there.)
There's also The Apocalypse of Abraham which lists ten plagues and The Apocalypse of Thomas which mentions only 8 plagues. The two lists don't agree, either. Let's add Syria Apocalypse of Baruch which lists 12 plagues which also generally don't agree with either of the other books. Then there's a battle mentioned where some 39.225 billion people die. That's billion. It's not a typo. The current population of the earth is over 7.5 billion.
The book then talks about Gnosticism and the Gospel of Mary (which is one I particularly like.)
There's a fascinating section about letters Pilate wrote which gives his view of what was going on at the time.
The Maccabees books are big on numbers of the enemy killed in various battles. According to the numbers the Jewish people killed around 759,600 of the enemy.
One of the best books is Son of Sirach which has some very plain, very practical advice. The problem it has, though, is when it has anything to say about women it's very sexist. Fortunately it doesn't say anything about women very much.
There's a lot of other books although a few of them are very short. The Gospel of Mary is missing sections and one or two of the other books are also missing bits and pieces.
The author of the book does a good job going into the history of some of these. Overall it's a very interesting book.
The book starts out with a Table of Contents and then an Introduction. The author notes that some of these rejected scriptures may not be a part of the traditional Bible but some of them are actually mentioned by name in the Bible. He gives specific examples of this.
He says that the Pseudoepigrapha are religious books written around 200 BC to 200 AD whose authorship is attributed to another person, usually a saint or a patriarch, but whose real author is unknown.
The Apocrypha are a body of hidden or esoteric work of questionable authorship. Basically, not much difference between the two.
1. Books that were based on the "Oh, I'm such a terrible sinner. Woe is me." Writers keep saying this over and over to the point where it gets bothersome. Either the person is faking it or they have an incredibly negative self-image, seeing virtually nothing good about themselves.
2. Writers that are totally obsessed with numbers and names. Over and over you see these long list of names of sons (never daughters!). Also, some of them must think they are reporters, listing (over-inflated, I'm sure) death statistics for battles. In one case the number of enemy killed was over 30 billion according to the writer.
3. Utter boredom. To say something once or twice is all right but when you go on and on and on and basically just repeat yourself (throwing in some different names at times) it makes the reader have a tough time plowing on.
4. Then there's the braggers. 'Gee, we killed x thousands of the enemy. And we killed x thousands more. Look how great we are.' If they were so successful so often then why did Israel basically cease to exist as a country until the 20th century?
5. Some books basically duplicate what is already in the Bible.
Again, commenting on only some of the books. The books of Adam and Eve are fascinating. Adam appears to be a complete idiot and Eve is only slightly better than him. They keep dying and coming near to death and each time God 'shows mercy' and brings them back only to see them foul things up yet again.
The Second Book of Enoch talks about 10 heavens, Archons, the creation of the Earth and a section where God kills angels because he doesn't like the way they sing. (Really. It's there.)
There's also The Apocalypse of Abraham which lists ten plagues and The Apocalypse of Thomas which mentions only 8 plagues. The two lists don't agree, either. Let's add Syria Apocalypse of Baruch which lists 12 plagues which also generally don't agree with either of the other books. Then there's a battle mentioned where some 39.225 billion people die. That's billion. It's not a typo. The current population of the earth is over 7.5 billion.
The book then talks about Gnosticism and the Gospel of Mary (which is one I particularly like.)
There's a fascinating section about letters Pilate wrote which gives his view of what was going on at the time.
The Maccabees books are big on numbers of the enemy killed in various battles. According to the numbers the Jewish people killed around 759,600 of the enemy.
One of the best books is Son of Sirach which has some very plain, very practical advice. The problem it has, though, is when it has anything to say about women it's very sexist. Fortunately it doesn't say anything about women very much.
There's a lot of other books although a few of them are very short. The Gospel of Mary is missing sections and one or two of the other books are also missing bits and pieces.
The author of the book does a good job going into the history of some of these. Overall it's a very interesting book.
January 3, 2025
Not what I originally thought when I bought it and it's not easy to go through. I pretty much use it for added context. This is why I don't belong to a church. They tell you don't read this, don't read that. Nah how about I read it and pray about it and make up my own mind. I can only imagine the material/lost knowledge the Vatican is sitting on and it's just criminal IMO! But anyway it is definitely not sorted, I pretty much bought it because I wanted to know more about the book of Enoch and then I also bought the book of Enoch 😂 if you're into historical stuff or biblical stuff or just any kind of knowledge that any kind of church tells you you shouldn't read, well then I highly suggest this book.
February 9, 2024
It is amazing what could have been included in the Bible but wasn't. Very interesting from a literary and spiritual perspective.
November 11, 2020
So far this book has been great! Though if you’ve read through the Bible it can feel as though you’re re-reading the same thing again at times. But it does provide a more detailed picture. Can’t wait to get further along. Would definitely recommend for those who already enjoy bible reading.
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January 31, 2014Too much at one time to read.
Read
August 2, 2018Excellent Book
I learned a lot about God that I didn't know. I have not found anything that contradicts the Canonical Scriptures. I would suggest this to everyone that longs to know God better.
I learned a lot about God that I didn't know. I have not found anything that contradicts the Canonical Scriptures. I would suggest this to everyone that longs to know God better.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews