The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Ancient Writings Beyond the Bible (Lost Scriptures Library) by Culver J. Russell, Culver J. Russell
About this book
The Bible left questions. Ancient readers answered them.
What happened to Adam and Eve after they were driven from Eden? What did Enoch see when he was taken into heaven? Where did later traditions about angels, demons, Satan, resurrection, and the Last Judgment come from? And how did the brief biblical encounter between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba become the foundation of an entire Ethiopian sacred history?
For centuries, Jewish and Christian writers explored the stories the Bible left unfinished. Their answers survive in the extraordinary body of literature known as the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha—visionary, mystical, legendary, philosophical, apocalyptic, and sometimes wonderfully strange.
This expansive volume brings together some of the most important and fascinating of these ancient and medieval writings, including The Books of Adam and Eve, 2 and 3 Enoch, The Martyrdom of Isaiah, The Letter of Aristeas, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Sibylline Oracles, The Assumption of Moses, 2 and 3 Baruch, The Psalms of Solomon, Pirke Avot, The Story of Ahikar, The Testament of Solomon, The Cave of Treasures, and the Ethiopian Kebra Nagast.
Presented in clear, contemporary prose, each work is accompanied by a new introduction explaining its origins, historical setting, major themes, influence, and significance for readers today.
These are not simply “lost books of the Bible.” They are something richer: a record of generations wrestling with scripture, filling its silences, challenging empires, imagining the heavens, confronting evil and suffering, and asking questions that remain with us still.
Discover the vast world of sacred story beyond the biblical canon.
