Rejected as Canonical for Catholics by the Council of Trent; still included in most Catholic Bibles; the bulk of this book reproduces, with minor differences, Ezra, and parts
of II Chron and Nehemiah; used by Josephus for the basis of his histories
Rejected as Canonical for Catholics by the Council of Trent; still included in most Catholic Bibles; an apocalypse; 7 revelations by Uriel concerning some of the great mysteries of
the moral wold, with an emphasis on theodicy; the beginning and end are thought to be Christian interpolations
One of the most popular books of the Apocrypha; the namesake of the book, a captive in Ninevah and a charitable Jew, becomes blinded and poor; Sarah in faraway Media is
demon possessed; the angel Rapheal is sent to aid them both; they marry
One of Nebuchadnezzar's generals, Holofernes, is laying seige to a Jewish town; the heroine of this book lures him into her tent, gets him drunk, and decapitates him
107 Additional verses appear in the Greek version, spread throughout the original; includes Mordecai saving the king's life, king's letter odering the massacre of the Jews, prayers
of Mordecai and the heroine, and other sections
The first 10 chapters uses the word Wisdom 29 times, but the word is used only twice in the last 9 chapters; Wisdom is personified; purportedly written by a king of Israel;
righteous promised immortality, wicked, judgement; wisdom is praised; God's plagues on Egypt, contrasted with His kindness to His people
The only book of the apocrypha of which the actual name of the author is known; written by a scribe, i.e. a professional teacher of Old Testament law; last great example of the
type of wisdom literature seen in Proverbs; first specimen of the form of Judaism which subsequently developed into the schools of the Pharisees and Sadducees
Supposedly written during the Babylonian Captivity, by the secretary of the Prophet Jeremiah; includes a confession of Israel's guilt; concludes with two poems, one lauding wisdom
as a gift from God, and the other containing themes of comfort and reconciliation
A letter professing to have been written by a prophet of the Old Testament; supposedly written to Jews in 597 BC who were about to be taken captives to Babylon; discourse against
idolatry; in Latin versions, this is not a seperate book, but is attached to another work of the Apocrypha
An interpolation into the Biblical book of Daniel between 3;23 and 3:24; gives further details about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; includes a liturgy to God and a series of
exhortations to all creation
The gem of the extra-Daniel literature, this has been called one of the finest short stories in world literature; the heroine (whose name means 'a lily') is cleared of a false
charge of adultery, through the aid of Daniel; in the Vulgate and the Septuagint, it occurs after the last chapter of Daniel, and is numbered 13; In other texts it occurs before the first chapter, presumably put there because in it, Daniel is described as a young lad
An addition to Daniel; in the Greek text it occurs after chapter 12, just before another addition, in the Latin text it occurs at the very end, following that same addition; tells
of a statue that comes to life every night consuming enormous amounts of food and drink, proving itself to be alive, but Daniel reveals the truth; a second part tells how Daniel kills a beast worshipped by the Babylonians, and is thrown into a lion's den for 6 days
2 Chron 33:11-13 tells of a wicked king of Judah, who while in exile composed a prayer entreating divine forgiveness for his many sins; this book claims to be that prayer
An account is given of the events from the conquest of Alexander the Great to the reign of John Hyrcanus I; an excellent historical source; author, while seeing God's hand in
events refrains from recording miraculous interventions; content substantially overlaps with another book of the Apocrypha
This is an abridgement of a now lost five volume history by Jason of Cyrene; the history of Israel from the time of the high priest Onias III through the defeat of Nicanor's army
(180-161 BC) parallels a portion of another historical book; history is interpreted theologically; first writer known to celebrate martyrs; first to mention that the world was created out of nothing; taught intercession of the saints; Luther rejected the Apocrypha because this work also included prayers for the dead
Rejected as Canonical for Catholics, it is accepted by the Orthodox; this work does not deal with the period one would think from the title, but with the struggles of the Egyptian
Jews under Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-203 BC); Ptolemy IV attempts to enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple, is miraculously repulsed; he takes vengeance against the Jews in his kingdom, until he finally repents and becomes their benefactors
Rejected as Canonical for Catholics, it is honored by the Orthodox; at one time thought to have been written by Josephus, and given the title On the Supremacy of Reason;
it is an interpretation of Judaism in terms of Greek Philosophy, especially Stoicism; and expansion of 2 chapters in another book from the Aporcrypha
A work ascribed to David; In the codex Sinaiticus it is included as part of a canoncial book; but in the codex Alexandrinus it is explicitly stated that it is
not part of that canonical work