The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English: With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books

by R.H. Charles

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Genres: Religion, Reference, Nonfiction, Theology

894 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Robert Henry Charles (1855–1931) was an Irish biblical scholar and theologian. He left parochial work in 1889 to devote himself to biblical research and became the greatest authority of his time in matters of Jewish eschatology and apocrypha. He became a canon at Westminster Abbey in 1913 and archdeacon there in 1919. His books include Eschatology (1913, 2nd ed), Between the Old and New Testaments (1914), and his edition of The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament. (1913). He is known particularly for English translations of apocryphal and pseudepigraphal works, and editions including Jubilees (1895), the Book of Enoch (1906), and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1908) which have been widely used. Among his other publications are The Apocalypse (1920), Divorce and Nullity (1927), and The Resurrection of Man (1930). He was educated at the Belfast Academy, Queen's College, Belfast and Trinity College, Dublin. He gained a D.D. and became Professor of Biblical Greek at Trinity College.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

These two volumes, the other being about the Apocrypha, constitute the most expensive purchase I've ever made in a bookstore. They are huge--both the size of dictionaries--and, therefore, have the space for a good-sized typeface.

The texts within them, listed in this edition's description, are not fun to read. Most of them are rather boring. To get through them all I made their reading part of a project: to make a concordance of all numbers greater than two in all the books of all editions of the bible--this inclusive of all the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical books of both the "Old" and "New" Testaments. That hadn't been done yet, though now, with computers and digitalized texts, it would be easy. Still, it got me through all this and impressed my professor, Ray Brown.

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

have to be in a mind set to read it or you learn nothing

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've spent a year reading through this book so you won't have to. Honestly, I do not recommend reading through it unless you're really interested in Jewish literature around the time of Christ, then you might find it interesting. These are books that are "left out of the Bible" (along with the Apocrypha which was volume one in this series which is included in Catholic Bibles, but not Protestant Bibles—I know, I know, it can all be quite confusing).

This book includes titles like: The book of Jubilees; the book of Enoch; The Letter of Aristes; The Sibylline Oracles, etc. etc. The books in and of themselves do not make for riveting reading, indeed whatever the opposite of riveting reading is, that's what these books are. However, if you are REALLY fascinated by Jewish writing around the time of Christ (all 25 of you), then this book is for you.

I am amazed by R. H. Charles who made himself an expert on the Apocrypha and Pseudephigrapha because these are dense, often confusing books and he was definitely an expert on them.

[Brian Koser]

2024
1 Enoch
- Testifies that some Jewish sects before Christ believed Yahweh was one God in two persons (Father and Son), the Messiah was the Son, demons are fallen angels, time will end with a physical resurrection to eternal life, "the meek will inherit the earth", the evil will go to a lake of fire, and more.