The book of Judith, originally written in Hebrew, is a typical Greek novella or romance, complete with a heroine in distress, narrow escapes, and a happy ending. The Genesis Apocryphon, an elaboration in Aramaic of the stories of Genesis, employs Hellenistic literary techniques (warning dreams, the pathos of the hero) to dress up its narrative. One member of the Maccabean circle in Jerusalem wrote an epic poem in Greek, apparently paraphrasing the Bible.
