ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIAN CHRISTIAN AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS

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1 Apocrypha Apocrypha (Greek apokryphos, hidden ), word coined by the 5th-century biblical scholar Saint Jerome for the biblical books received by the church of his time as part of the Greek version of the Old Testament (see Septuagint), but that were not included in the Hebrew Bible. In the Authorized, or King James, Version, the books are either printed as an appendix or are omitted altogether; they are not considered canonical by Protestants. The Septuagint was received by the Christian church from Hellenistic Judaism. The books included in the Septuagint that were excluded by the non-hellenistic Jews from their canon were Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, and the two books of Maccabees. Of these, Judith and Tobit are best described as edifying historical fiction, and Baruch, as an appendage to the Book of Jeremiah, written in the person of Jeremiah's secretary. Wisdom and Sirach are testimonies to the wisdom tradition of Israel otherwise represented in the books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes. The books of Maccabees are historical works in the tradition of the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Also generally included with the Apocrypha are the two books of Esdras, additions to the Book of Esther (Esther 10:4-10), the Song of the Three Young Men (Daniel 3:24-90), Susanna (Daniel 13), Bel and the Dragon (Daniel 14), and the Prayer of Manasseh. Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christians still follow the Septuagint and include in the canon of the Bible all the Apocrypha, except the two books of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh. They generally refer to the Protestant Apocrypha as deuterocanonical books, however, and reserve the term Apocrypha for those books entirely outside the biblical canon, which Protestants call the pseudepigrapha.

2 Apocrypha Apocryphal New Testament (Greek apokryphos, hidden ), title that refers to more than 100 books written by Christian authors between the 2nd and 4th centuries. The books have two characteristics in common: (1) In general form they resemble New Testament writings, many of them falling into the literary categories of gospel, acts, letter, and apocalypse; (2) they belong neither to the New Testament canon nor to the writings of the recognized Fathers of the Church. Some of the documents were written for initiates in groups such as the Gnostics (see Gnosticism); for those groups, who claimed knowledge derived from a secret tradition, the works were genuinely apocryphal, that is, books kept hidden. Others were written for open and general use in the churches of which their authors were members; they simply failed to become accepted as part of the orthodox canon of the Bible. Some of the writings, such as the Gospel According to the Hebrews, may have held a place of importance in the common life of Jewish Christians. Others were read in Gnostic circles, such as the Letter of Eugnostos found in the Naj Ḩammādī texts, a collection of Gnostic treatises discovered in Still others, such as the Infancy Story of Thomas and the Acts of Pilate, addressed the curiosity of common people in the church at large by filling in tantalizing gaps in the biblical writing with highly fanciful details about the unknown aspects of Jesus' life.

3 Deuterocanonical Books Deuterocanonical Books, writings included in the Roman Catholic canon of the Bible, and with certain exceptions in the canon of the Orthodox Church, but not in the Hebrew canon (see Canon). They were definitively introduced into the Roman Catholic canon by the Council of Trent in Until that time, their place in the Bible had been disputed for about 12 centuries. The Council of Trent decreed that the authentic canon was to be determined by what had been included in the Latin Vulgate translation of the Old Testament. The Vulgate Old Testament, in part a translation of the Greek Septuagint, which was in part an original translation by Saint Jerome of the Hebrew Scriptures, included certain books and parts of books that Jews and most Protestants today know as the Apocrypha. Catholics reserve that term for the works that Protestants call the pseudepigrapha books that stand entirely outside the biblical canon. Many Jewish scholars accepted the books now considered deuterocanonical (a term derived from Greek words meaning second canon ) until about AD 90. Then the Council of Jamnia ruled them to be outside the authentic Hebrew canon. The early Christian church and the Septuagint also accepted these books as part of the Old Testament. The books excluded by the Hebrew canon but included in the Septuagint and Vulgate are Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus, not to be confused with the Book of Ecclesiastes), Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. The Council of Trent designated these books, and parts of Esther and Daniel, deuterocanonical. As the minutes of the council make clear, however, the prefix deutero- was not intended to indicate a secondary canonical status for this literature but rather to note the controversy over these materials during the church s canonizing process. The Orthodox Church has a similar canon, although it rejects the Book of Baruch and tends to include a third book of Maccabees and a 151st Psalm that appear in some manuscripts of the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

4 Esdras Esdras, the first two books of the Old Testament Apocrypha. Although the books are not included in the canon of the Bible, they are intimately connected with the Old Testament (see Canon). Except for one section (1 Esdras 3:1-5:6), which is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, 1 Esdras is a Greek paraphrase of a Hebrew text containing the canonical Book of Ezra, part of chapters 7 and 8 of the canonical Book of Nehemiah, and 2 Chronicles 35:1-36:21. Starting abruptly with an account of the Passover of the Judean king Josiah, 1 Esdras tells of the subsequent decline of Judah; of the Babylonian exile, or Babylonian Captivity, from the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC to the reconstruction in Palestine of a new Jewish state after 538 BC; and of events in Jerusalem during the immediate postexilic period. It ends abruptly with a description of the Hebrew priest and reformer Ezra, reading the book of the law (1 Esdras 9:45). The section that is independent of other Old Testament sources (1 Esdras 3:1-5:6) describes a competition between three Jewish youths at the Persian court. Each youth speaks in favor of what he believes to be the strongest thing. The victor, who argues in favor of truth, gains the king's permission for the Jews to return to Jerusalem. First Esdras is thought by most scholars to be the work of a single, unknown translator who produced it sometime between 150 and 50 BC. Second Esdras is an apocalypse (see Apocalyptic Writings). The main part of the book (chapters 3-14) records Ezra's lamentations over the fall of Jerusalem and the visions that appear to him in seven dreams. These visions, interpreted by the archangel Uriel, reveal that the evil existing in this world despite God's omnipotence is to end with the coming of the Messiah, who will restore the just and destroy the ungodly. The author of this main section is not known; nor is it known whether the original was written in Aramaic, Greek, or Hebrew. It is thought by most scholars to have been composed toward the end of the 1st century AD. Chapters 1-2, written in Greek, were added soon after, either by an unknown Greek or by an unknown Jewish Christian. The apocalyptic passages of these chapters show a Christian bias (particularly 2 Esdras 1:24-40). Chapters 15-16, also written in Greek, were appended, perhaps as late as 270, by another unknown Christian. They are considerably less important than the earlier portion, valued for its similarity in parts to certain possibly contemporaneous books of the New Testament, such as Revelation (see Revelation). Second Esdras became particularly popular with the Christian church, as evidenced by the many versions in which it was rendered (Latin, Syriac, and Coptic); by its frequent quotation by the Fathers of the Church; and by the fact that several phrases including lux perpetua (Latin, perpetual light ) were drawn from its text into the Christian liturgy.

5 Pseudepigrapha Pseudepigrapha (Greek pseudepigraphos, falsely ascribed ), Jewish and Christian writings that began to appear about 200 BC and continued to be written well into Christian times; they were attributed by their authors to great religious figures and authorities of the past. Pseudepigrapha were composed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and they include apocalyptic writings, legendary histories, collections of psalms, and wisdom literature. In most cases, Pseudepigrapha are modeled on canonical books of a particular genre: For example, Judith is inspired by the historical books of the Old Testament; Ecclesiaticus, by Proverbs; and the Psalms of Solomon, by the biblical Psalms. Pseudepigrapha, in the narrow sense of pseudonymous writings, are present in the canon of the Old Testament for example, Ecclesiastes (traditionally attributed to Solomon), the Song of Solomon, and Daniel. Protestants and Jews, however, customarily use the term Pseudepigrapha to describe those writings that Roman Catholics would term Apocrypha that is, late Jewish writings that all scholars consider extracanonical. Such works include the Book of Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Fourth Book of Maccabees, the Book of Enoch, the Fourth Book of Ezra, the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, all of which are ascribed to canonical worthies of the Old Testament, date from intertestamental times, and have not been preserved in their original Hebrew or Aramaic. Fragments of other, hitherto unknown Pseudepigrapha, preserved in Hebrew or Aramaic, have turned up among the Qumrān material (see Dead Sea Scrolls). See also Bible; Biblical Criticism.

6 Tobit Tobit, book of the Old Testament in those versions of the Bible following the Greek Septuagint (generally Roman Catholic and Orthodox versions). It does not appear in the Hebrew Bible and is placed with the Apocrypha in Protestant versions of the Bible. The narrative is set in the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh sometime between the latter part of the 8th century BC, after the defeat of the kingdom of Israel by Assyria, and the destruction of Nineveh in 612 BC. Modern scholars generally agree, however, that Tobit reflects little that can be considered genuine history, except perhaps the names of some of the characters. A type of wisdom literature, the book was probably written as late as the 2nd or even the 1st century BC in Palestine. The author is unknown. The language of the original was either Aramaic or Hebrew; the oldest surviving complete text is, however, in Greek. In 1955 fragments of the book in Aramaic and in Hebrew were recovered at Qumrān (see Dead Sea Scrolls). The narrative begins with Tobit, a pious Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali, who has become blind in Nineveh despite his good works and uprightness. Sorely afflicted, he asks God to let him die (see 1:1-3:6). On the very day of Tobit's prayer, Sarah, a young relative of Tobit living in the Median capital, Ecbatana, also prays for death. She has been married seven times, and every one of her husbands has been killed on their wedding night by the jealous demon Asmodeus. The prayers of both are heard, and the archangel Raphael is sent to help them (see 3:7-17). At this point, Tobit decides to send his son Tobias to the Median city of Rages (now Shahr-e Rey, near Tehrān, Iran) to recover money left there in trust with a friend. Raphael (disguised as Azarias, another of Tobit's relatives) appears, to accompany and guide Tobias. En route, Tobias catches a large fish in the Tigris River and is advised by his heavenly guide to keep its heart, liver, and gall because of their magical healing properties (see 6:1-8). When they reach Ecbatana, the archangel persuades Tobias to marry Sarah. On the wedding night, Tobias, using the heart and liver of the fish as instructed by the archangel, routs Asmodeus (see 6:9-8:21). The next four chapters relate Raphael's journey to Rages, to recover the money held in trust. Tobias, Sarah, and Raphael return to Nineveh, where Tobias uses the gall of the fish to restore his father's sight. Raphael then reveals his identity and departs. Immediately afterward, inspired by the archangel's final exhortation, Tobit composes and recites a hymn of praise to God (chap. 13). In chapter 14, the last, Tobit lives 100 years more in great happiness and, before dying, predicts the destruction of Nineveh. Tobias departs with Sarah for Ecbatana, where they eventually hear of and rejoice over the fall of Nineveh before Tobias dies at the age of 127.

7 Wisdom (book of Bible) Wisdom (book of Bible) or Wisdom of Solomon, book of the Old Testament in those versions of the Bible following the Greek Septuagint (generally Roman Catholic and Orthodox versions). It does not appear in the Hebrew Bible and is placed with the Apocrypha in Protestant versions of the Bible. The book purports to be a work of the Hebrew king Solomon, but scholars have long doubted Solomon's authorship. On the basis of internal evidence, many today regard the book as the work of an unknown Jew, probably in the Greco-Egyptian city of Alexandria, during the latter half of the 1st century BC. The language of the original is almost universally believed to have been Greek. The author may have used Palestinian and Greco-Egyptian sources, including material originally in Hebrew. He seems to have written for Greek-educated Jews. The first five chapters of the book urge the reader to love righteousness and to seek God, that thereby they may acquire wisdom and immortality. The miserable fate of the ungodly, that is, the unwise, is contrasted with the expected blessedness of the righteous. Chapters 6-9 are a further commendation of wisdom as the guide of humanity. The nature of wisdom, its importance, and how one may find it are described, and in the first person, ostensibly that of Solomon, the writer describes his own search for wisdom. Throughout the first ten chapters, wisdom usually is personified as a woman. In the rest of the book, however, the word wisdom scarcely appears, and the concept of it is quite abstract. Chapters 10-19, the remainder of the book, chiefly describe the way in which Israel and Israel's ancestors were saved through wisdom. Thus, chapters illustrate the saving power of wisdom from the time of the legendary father of humanity, Adam, to the time of Moses; chapters illustrate the importance of behaving wisely, or piously, through God's contrasting treatment of the Egyptians and the Israelites. Chapters 13-15, a digression, reflect on the origin and folly of various forms of idolatry. The book seems to end abruptly; it is possible that the author's inspiration failed, or that the original conclusion of the book was lost.