Jewish apocrypha


The Jewish apocrypha are religious texts written in large part by Jews, especially during the Second Temple period, not accepted as sacred manuscripts when the Hebrew Bible was canonized. Some of these books are considered sacred in certain Christian denominations and are included in their versions of the Old Testament. The Jewish apocrypha is distinctive from the New Testament apocrypha and Christian biblical apocrypha as it is the only one of these collections which works within a Jewish theological framework.

Apocrypha in Judaism

Some sects of Second Temple Judaism, such as the Essenes in Judaea and the Therapeutae in Alexandria, were said to have a "secret or hidden" literature. The Pharisees were familiar with these texts. The Apocalyptic literature is an example of this secret literature. Because they were based on unfulfilled prophecies, these books were not considered scripture but rather part of a literary form that flourished from 200 BCE to 100 CE. These works usually bore the names of ancient Hebrew worthies to establish their validity among the contemporaries of the true writers.
2 Esdras reinforces this theory. When Ezra was inspired to dictate the sacred scriptures that were destroyed in the overthrow of Jerusalem:
Writings that were wholly apart from scriptural texts were designated as Hitsonim by Chazal in tractate Sanhedrin, and reading them was controversial. The Talmud also generally discourages the reading of apocrypha; it's debated if one should merely avoid elevating apocrypha to the level of scripture, or if one is not to read apocrypha at all. In the following centuries, these apocrypha fell out of use in Judaism.

Books

The Testaments of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron, Nagara Muse, Təʾəzazä Sänbät, Arde'et, Gorgoryos, Barok Mäṣḥafä Sa'atat, fālasfā, Abba Eliyas, Mäṣḥafä Mäla'əkt, Dərsanä Abrəham Wäsara Bägabs, Gadla Sosna and Baqadāmi Gabra Egzi'abḥēr.