What is the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha?

 

The Old Testament pseudepigrapha is a title given by scholars to group together various Jewish writings roughly contemporary with the New Testament many of which take the form of pseudepigrapha, texts claiming to be written by a named Old Testament figure. These texts overlap with the Dead Sea Scrolls and early rabbinical documents found in Alexandria and other Greek-speaking Jewish centres. There is no agreed ‘canon’ of what constitutes OTP, the edition edited by James Charlesworth in 1983 is something of a benchmark for the the category. Therefore the first quantitative answer to this question is probably simply to just list, initially at least, the contents of the two volumes of 1983.

We have done that below.

But what kind of texts are they?

As to the qualitative answer to the question, that varies slightly for each text. From the point of view of the apostles Jewish myths in general are condemned as false and even dangerous. The theological content of these books is not only, inevitably and mainly unwittingly, anti-New Testament, but also anti-Old Testament in that the myths generally present a changed theology about God and man which we only gain glimpses of in the New Testament.

The three main windows on the world of the OTP in the New Testament come in three aspects.

Firstly the confrontations with the Pharisees, where the Pharisees’ theology and in particular superstitions about demons and souls can be seen to have much in common with the demons and ideas about souls found in the OTP. Not surprisingly as what we have in OTP is the nearest thing to the pre-Bar Kokhba revolt (pre-AD 132) Judaism which opposed the Lord Jesus, the apostles and then the immediately following two generations of Christians.

Secondly there are a handful of specific text-to-text conflict points. The significant examples include: (a) the picture of the rich man and Lazarus in Hades in Luke 16 which is a parody by Jesus of Pharisee beliefs confirmed among a couple of OTP texts featuring journeys to Hades.  (b) the Testament of Moses material in 2 Corinthians 11  where Paul parodies a series of Jewish myth teachings taught by the so-called ‘Superapostles’. (c) the 1 Enoch 1:9 midrash of Deuteronomy 33:2 in Jude 1:14, where Jude refutes the Enoch legends using a section of words of “Enoch” in fact originating with Moses. These are the three main incidences.

Thirdly there is a small amount of useful linguistic and cultural information which can learned from some of the OTP texts if read as background cultural data. However most of that kind of information is also available in more useful form in the writings of Josephus, Philo and pagan Greek authors of the period.

Against this the other effect of the OTP can be seen in the damage it does among those who rather than studying it clinically, as students would have done with Charlesworth’s original editions, many people – particularly isolated individuals with no church support network – take these myths literally and run away believing in them as scripture. So in sum Paul’s warning to Titus was right:

 

Appendix – contents lists of J.H. Charlesworth ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Doubleday 1983

VOLUME 1 Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments

CONTENTS

Foreword George W. MacRae, SJ. ix
Foreword for Christians James T. Cleland x
Foreword for Jews Samuel Sandmel xi
Editor’s Preface James H. Charlesworth xv
Board of Advisors xviii
Contributors xviii
Introduction for the General Reader James H. Charlesworth xxi
Explanation of Typographical and Reference Systems xxxv
List of Abbreviations xxxvii

DOCUMENTS
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE AND RELATED WORKS
Introduction J. H. Charlesworth 3
1 (Ethiopic Apocalypse of) Enoch (Second Century B.C.-First Century A.D.) E. Isaac 5
2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch (Late First Century A.D.) with Appendix: 2 Enoch in Merilo Pravednoe F. I. Andersen 91
3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch (Fifth to Sixth Century A.D.) P. Alexander 223
Sibylline Oracles (Second Century B.C.-Seventh Century A.D.) J. J. Collins 317
Treatise of Shem (First Century B.C.) J. H. Charlesworth 473
Apocryphon of Ezekiel (First Century B.C.-First Century A.D.) J. R. Mueller and S. E. Robinson 487
Apocalypse of Zephaniah (First Century B.C.-First Century A.D.) O. S. Wintermute 497
The Fourth Book of Ezra (Late First Century A.D.) B. M. Metzger 517
Greek Apocalypse of Ezra (Second to Ninth Century A.D.) M. E. Stone 561
Vision of Ezra (Fourth to Seventh Century A.D.) J. R. Mueller and G. A. Robbins 581
Questions of Ezra (Date Unknown) M. E. Stone 591
Revelation of Ezra (prior to Ninth Century A.D.) D. A. Fiensy 601
Apocalypse of Sedrach (Second to Fifth Century A.D.) S. Agourides 605
2 (Syriac Apocalypse of) Baruch (early Second Century A.D.) A. F. J. Klijn 615
3 (Greek Apocalypse of) Baruch (First to Third Century A.D.) H. E. Gaylord, Jr. 653
Apocalypse of Abraham (First to Second Century A.D.) R. Rubinkiewicz 681
Apocalypse of Adam (First to Fourth Century A.D.) G. MacRae 707
Apocalypse of Elijah (First to Fourth Century A.D.) O. S. Wintermute 721
Apocalypse of Daniel (Ninth Century A.D.) G. T. Zervos 755

TESTAMENTS (OFTEN WITH APOCALYPTIC SECTIONS)
Introduction J. H. Charlesworth 113
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (Second Century B.C.) H. C. Kee 775
Testament of Job (First Century B.C.-First Century A.D.) R. P. Spinier 829

Testaments of the Three Patriarchs
Introduction E. P. Sanders 869
Testament of Abraham (First to Second Century A.D.) E. P. Sanders 871
Testament of Isaac (Second Century A.D.) W. F. Stinespring 903
Testament of Jacob (Second to Third Century A.D.? ) W. F. Stinespring 913

Testament of Moses (First Century A.D.) J. Priest 919
Testament of Solomon (First to Third Century A.D.) D. C. Duling 935
Testament of Adam (Second to Fifth Century A.D.) S. E. Robinson 989

 

The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 2: Expansions of the Old Testament and Legends, Wisdom

CONTENTS
Foreword George W. MacRae, SJ. ix
Foreword for Christians James T. Cleland x
Foreword for Jews Samuel Sandmel xi
Editor’s Preface James H. Charlesworth xv
Board of Advisors xviii
Contributors xviii
Introduction for the General Reader James H. Charlesworth xxi
Explanation of Typographical and Reference Systems xxxv
List of Abbreviations xxxvii

DOCUMENTS
EXPANSIONS OF THE “OLD TESTAMENT ” AND LEGENDS
Introduction J. H. Charlesworth 5
Letter of Aristeas (Third Century B.c-First Century A.D. ) R. J. H. Shutt 7
Jubilees (Second Century B.C. ) O. S. Wintermute 35
Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah (Second Century B.C.-Fourth Century A.D. ) M. A. Knibb 143
Joseph and Aseneth (First Century B.c.-Second Century A.D. ) C. Burchard 177
Life of Adam and Eve (First Century A.D. ) M. D. Johnson 249
Pseudo-Philo (First Century A.D. ) D. J. Harrington 297
The Lives of the Prophets (First Century A.D. ) D. R. A. Hare 379
Ladder of Jacob (c. First Century A.D.? ) H. G. hunt 401
4 Baruch (First to Second Century A.D. ) S. E. Robinson 413
Jannes and Jambres (First to Third Century A.D. ) A. Pietersma and T. R. Lutz 421
History of the Rechabites (First to Fourth Century A.D. ) J. H. Charlesworth 443
Eldad and Modad (prior to Second Century A.D. ) E. G. Martin 463
History of Joseph (prior to Fourth Century A.D.) G. T. Zervos 467

WISDOM AND PHILOSOPHICAL LITERATURE
Introduction J. H. Charlesworth 477
Ahiqar (Seventh to Sixth Century B.C. ) J. M. Lindenberger 479
3 Maccabees (First Century B.C.)  H. Anderson 509
4 Maccabees (First Century A.D. ) H. Anderson 531
Pseudo-Phocylides (First Century B.C-First Century A.D. ) P. W. van der Horst 565
The Sentences of the Syriac Menander (Third Century A.D. ) T. Baarda 583

PRAYERS, PSALMS, AND ODES
Introduction J. H. Charlesworth 607
More Psalms of David (Second Century B.C-First Century A.D. ) J. H. Charlesworth with 7. A. Sanders 609
Prayer of Manasseh (Second Century B.C-First Century A.D. ) J. H. Charlesworth 625
Psalms of Solomon (First Century B.C.) R. B. Wright 639
Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers (Second to Third Century A.D. ) D. R. Darnell andD.A. Fiensy 671
Prayer of Joseph (First Century A.D. ) J. Z. Smith 699
Prayer of Jacob (First to Fourth Century A.D. ) J. H. Charlesworth 715
Odes of Solomon (Late First to Early Second Century A.D. ) J. H. Charlesworth 725

SUPPLEMENT
FRAGMENTS OF LOST JUDEO-HELLENISTIC WORKS
Editor’s Introduction J. H. Charlesworth 775
General Introduction, with a Note on Alexander Polyhistor. J. Strugnell 111

POETRY
Philo the Epic Poet (Third to Second Century B.C.) H. Attridge 781
Theodotus (Second to First Century B.C.) F. Fallon 785

ORACLE
Orphica (Second Century B.c-First Century A.D. ) M. Lafargue 795

DRAMA
Ezekiel the Tragedian (Second Century B.C.) R. G. Robertson 803

OTHER
Fragments of Pseudo-Greek Poets (Third to Second Century B.C.) H. Attridge 821

PHILOSOPHY
Aristobulus (Second Century B.C.) A. Yarbro Collins 831

CHRONOGRAPHY
Demetrius the Chronographer (Third Century B.C.) J. Hanson 843

HISTOR Y
Aristeas the Exegete (prior to First Century B.C.) R. Doran 855
Eupolemus (prior to First Century B.C.) F. Fallon 861
Pseudo-Eupolemus (prior to First Century B.C.) R. Doran 873
Cleodemus Malchus (prior to First Century B.C.) R. Doran 883

ROMANCE
Artapanus (Third to Second Century B.C.) J. J. Collins 889

APPENDIX
Pseudo-Hecataeus (Second Century B.c-First Century A.D. ) R. Doran 905

INDEX 921