An Atheist Explores The Apocrypha Part One: Introduction

Welcome An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Apocrypha version).
In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the Biblical Apocrypha, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

I’m returning to the Bible for a bit to look at the Apocrypha, the kind of DVD extras of the Bible.

These, I should clarify, are all the Old Testament Apocrypha, not the New Testament ones with the fun stuff like the Gospel  of Thomas or Paul and Thecla. Maybe at some point in the future I’ll look at those. But for now, these are various books that aren’t in the Protestant versions of the Bible, but which can be found in Catholic, Orthodox and Jewish Bibles. Although, obviously, there are differences between which books make it into which tradition’s Bible, and to what extent. Because I’m lazy trying to look at this with a minimum of foreknowledge, I couldn’t tell you offhand which books are in whose Bibles, and why (or why not). As near as I can tell, it seems to come largely down to if any extant Hebrew/Aramiac texts exist(ed) when they were included, or if there were only Greek versions, something technical like that. I suspect also that some of them contain messages that weren’t wanted in the canon.

Which ought to make one consider the notion of the Bible as the inerrant word of God, if humans can decide which bits to include. Having read these books, I can say that they all contain interesting stories or theological musings on the nature of God, as within the KJV canon. They’re a mix of Wisdom, Poetry and History traditions, and worth a read even if they’re not in your canon, if you’re a believer.

Having learned a bit more on Biblical history and exegesis since my Bible readthrough, these thoughts might be marginally less crashingly naïve in interpretation, but don’t hold your breath. As before, even though I’m approaching this from the point of view of a non-believer, it’s not my intent to ridicule or mock. And as before, if you feel the need to comment, keep it civil.


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