Books that Didn't Quite Make it into the Bible

There's a lot of material out there that didn't quite make it into the Bible over the course of the second and third centuries. Some of this material, called apocryphal or pseudepigriphal, is stuff that fits in with the tone of the rest of scripture and is edifying. Other material, though, gives us giants and wizards, dragons and lions, and a boy Jesus who is quite frankly terrifying. That's what we'll be discussing in this episode.

Further Reading

Elliott, J.K. The Apocryphal Jesus: Legends of the Early Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

A brief introduction to the apocryphal literature of the New Testament like infancy gospels and apocalypses, together with translations.

1 Enoch. Edited and translated by George W.E. Nickelsburg and James C. VenderKam. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012.

The text itself. Here, you'll read about the Watchers, about Enoch's journey to the ends of the earth, the fates of the righteous and the wicked, and more besides.

Knibb, Michael. Essays on the Book of Enoch and Other Early Jewish Texts and Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

A really excellent, in-depth collection of scholarly essays on the Book of Enoch.

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