Note: For definitions of the terms canon of the Bible, extra-
Below are brief excerpts from English translations of some of the extra-
It may be helpful for anyone who does intend to do such looking to consider the following factors in evaluating the content of the books.
Typical concerns regarding Pseudepigraphal and Apocryphal books:
1. Many contain grandiose descriptions of pointless astounding, elaborate “miracles,” with no evident purpose besides “showiness.” This is not true of the content of the canonical books of the Bible.
2. Many cover extravagant details about matters covered only sparsely in the Bible—with no apparent real purpose to the details outside of satisfying curiosity.
3. Many purport to reveal elaborate details about the spirit world—what scholars refer to as an extensive angelology and demonology—which are not in the Bible. But the character of the rest of the contents often make it clear that the author has no credibility for his claims of special knowledge in this area.
4. Many contain long, drawn-
5. Some may contain a mixture of material which is obviously in harmony with the
content of the books of the Bible, and other material which is questionable at best
and totally contrary to some of the clear content of the Bible at worst. For anyone
who respects the content of the Bible itself as divinely-
Some reasons why extra-
1. They may satisfy a curiosity to know details about Biblical events and characters not provided in scripture.
2. They may satisfy a desire to feel special because the reader then understands “mysteries” hidden from others who have “only” read the Bible.
3. They may satisfy a desire to have evidence and support for a belief that is not validated by the Bible, or perhaps is even contrary to the Bible.
Extracanonical Excerpts
Some of the listings below are summaries of content in the books, with reference citations so that the reader may check the details. Others are actual quotations. Links are provided to online versions of the texts.
The Book of Tobit (from The Apocrypha)
http://www.piney.com/ApocTobit.html
In this excerpt, a young man named Tobias is accompanied on his travels by someone he believes to be a human named Azarias, but who is really an angel named Raphael.
January Massys 1505
Tobit 6:1-
Now as they proceeded on their way they came at evening to the Tigris river and camped there. Then the young man went down to wash himself. A fish leaped up from the river and would have swallowed the young man; and the angel said to him, "Catch the fish." So the young man seized the fish and threw it up on the land. Then the angel said to him, "Cut open the fish and take the heart and liver and gall and put them away safely." So the young man did as the angel told him; and they roasted and ate the fish.
And they both continued on their way until they came near to Ecbatana. Then the young man said to the angel, "Brother Azarias, of what use is the liver and heart and gall of the fish?" He replied, "As for the heart and liver, if a demon or evil spirit gives trouble to any one, you make a smoke from these before the man or woman, and that person will never be troubled again. And as for the gall, anoint with it a man who has white films in his eyes, and he will be cured."
This type of “magical potion,” formulaic approach to dealing with demons or illness has no precedent in the Bible. In the Book of Tobit, Tobias uses this fish gall to heal his father’s blindness.
The Ethiopian Book of Enoch
http://www.ancienttexts.org/library/ethiopian/enoch/index.html
It would appear, from the many websites, sermons, articles, and books which make reference to the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, that its popularity in many circles has been particularly related to the way in which it purports to add details to the obscure Biblical reference in Genesis about the “sons of God” who took wives of the “daughters of men.” The Book of Enoch describes this in great detail as the actual physical intercourse between supernatural beings—fallen angels—and human women, and the resulting evil offspring. It appears that this is one of the primary reasons some use it as documentation. Unfortunately, many such authors and speakers then take the topic one step further and declare that these offspring were the ancestors of one or more racial groups on earth today, usually including Jews and Blacks.
But should the Book of Enoch be taken seriously as inspired of God, or even as “accurate history”? Judge for yourself from the following sample passages, compared to what you know of the Bible:
Chapter 39, verse 3-
3. A cloud then snatched me [Enoch] up, and the wind raised me up at the extremity of the heavens.
4. There I saw another vision; I saw the habitations and couches of the saints. There my eyes beheld their habitations with the angels, and their couches with the holy ones. They were entreating, supplicating, and praying for the sons of men; while righteousness like water flowed before them, and mercy like dew was scattered over the earth. And thus shall it be with them for ever and for ever.
The following is an excerpt from a totally contrived symbolic “prediction” of the history of the world, supposedly given to Enoch, covering the time from Adam to Christ, using the symbolism of cows and other animals. The translator of the version quoted here supplied the parenthetical supposed “Biblical” references to “validate” this “vision.”
Chapter 84
1. After this I saw another dream, and explained it all to thee, my son. Enoch arose and said to his son Mathusalah: To thee, my son, will I speak. Hear my word; and incline thine ear to the visionary dream of thy father. Before I married thy mother Edna, I saw a vision on my bed;
2. And beheld a cow sprung forth from the earth (cattle a symbol of mankind—Ezek. 34:22);
3. And this cow was white (white=righteous—Rev. 19:8)
4. And afterwards a female heifer sprung forth; and with it another heifer; one of them was black and one was red.
5. The black heifer then struck the red one, and pursued it over the earth (Cain killed Abel).
6. From that period I could see nothing more of the red heifer; but the black one increased in bulk, and a female heifer came with him (Cain married Sister Aswan).
7. After this I saw that many cows proceeded forth, resembling him and following after him.
8. The first female young one also went out in the presence of the first cow; and sought the red heifer; but found him not.
9. And she lamented with a great lamentation, while she was seeking him.
10. Then I looked until that first cow came to her, from which time she became silent, and ceased to lament.
11. Afterwards she calved another white cow (Seth).
12. And again calved many cows and black heifers.
13. In my sleep also I perceived a white bull, which in like manner grew, and became a large white bull.
14. After him many white cows came forth, resembling him.
15. And they began to calve many other white cows, which resembled them and followed each other (Noah’s family).
Chapter 85
1. Again I looked with my eyes, while sleeping, and surveyed heaven above.
2. And behold a single star fell from heaven (fallen angels).
3. Which being raised up, ate and fed among those cows.
4. After that, I perceived other large and black cows; and beheld all of them
changed their stalls and pastures, while their young began to lament one with another.
Again I looked in my vision and surveyed heaven; when behold I saw many stars which
descended, and projected themselves from heaven to where the first star was (Gen.
6:1-
5. Into the midst of those young ones; while the cows were with them, feeding in the midst of them.
6. I looked and observed them; when behold, they all protruded their parts of shame like horses, and began to ascend the young cows, all of whom became pregnant, and brought forth elephants, camels and asses.
7. At these all the cows were alarmed and terrified; when they began biting with their teeth, swallowing and striking with their horns.
8. They began also to devour the cows; and behold all the children of the earth trembled, shook with terror at them, and suddenly fled away.
This kind of rambling goes on for ten more pages. There is no attempt to “interpret” the dream. It is just left to the reader to do what the translator did—be amazed at how “accurate” the prediction was. It would be wise for readers to compare this whole section with the type and nature of the visions included in the canonical books of the Bible.
Here is a description of the birth of Noah, from near the end of the book:
Chapter 105
1. After days, my son Mathusalah took a wife for his son Lamech (Lk. 3:36-
2. She became pregnant by him, and brought forth a child, the flesh of which was white as snow and red as a rose; the hair of whose head was white like wool, and long; and whose eyes ere beautiful. When he opened them, he illuminated the whole house, like the sun; the whole house abounded in light.
3. And when he was taken from the hand of the midwife, opening also his mouth, he spoke of the Lord of righteousness. Then Lamech his father was afraid of him; and flying away came to his own father Mathusalah, and said: I have begotten a son, a changed son. He is not human; but resembling the offspring of the angels of heaven, is of a different nature from ours, being altogether unlike to us.
4. His eyes are bright as the rays of the sun; his countenance glorious, and he looks not as if he belonged to me, but to the angels.
Surely an astounding miracle of this order, a newborn infant talking and having eyes that glowed so brightly they illuminated a whole house, would have been included in the Biblical accounts of the life of Noah … if it were truth.
The Book of Jasher : Sefer ha Yashar (translated in 1840)
http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/pseudepigrapha/jasher.html
The following list excerpts are from a 1999 article, “The Book of Jasher Debunked” by Lloyd Hohertz.
Other “Gems” from Jasher
Following are a few other interesting statements made by the Book of Jasher:
1. An angel tells Enoch that he is to be taken to heaven to rule over the sons of God (Jasher 3:23).
2. The Book of Jasher states that Abraham was reared by Noah and Shem for many
years and yet for a while he worshipped the sun as God (Jasher 9:11-
3. The builders of the Tower of Babel shot arrows from its top and all the arrows fell back covered with blood. So they said, “Surely we have slain all those that are in heaven” (Jasher 9:29).
4. Abraham placed meat in front of his father’s idols thinking perhaps they might eat (Jasher 11:29).
5. During the time that Abraham was on his way to sacrifice Isaac, Satan turns himself into a large brook and almost drowns Abraham and Isaac (Jasher 13:34). …
7. Rebecca marries Isaac when she is only ten years old (Jasher 24:39). God directed Abrahams’ servant in finding Rebecca as a bride for Isaac, and the entire episode [in the Bible] depicts her as a grown woman (Genesis 24). Nowhere in the Bible do you find God promoting child marriages!
8. Animals are described that from the middle down are the shape of men, but the top half are like bears and other animals and some had tails that reached from their upper back to the ground (Jasher 36:32). …
15. During the time that the Egyptians were killing the male Israelite newborns,
the Israelite women were delivering their babies in the fields. The Israelite women
would leave their male babies in the field, and God took care of them. God gave the
babies a rock in each hand. From the one rock they sucked milk, from the other rock
they sucked honey. God ordered the earth to receive the babies until they were full
grown, at which time they returned to their families (Jasher 67:54-
20. When the Egyptians locked their doors to keep the insects and beasts out, God ordered the Sulanath which was in the sea, to come up and go into Egypt. This animal took the roofs off the houses and with its 15 foot long arms removed the locks and bolts from the door so the beasts and insects could come into the houses.
21. The Israelites fight the Egyptians and give them a severe beating before crossing
the Red Sea (Jasher 81:17). This is completely contrary to the Bible (Exodus 14:10-
Another section of Jasher deals with adding elaborate details to the account of the life of Jacob’s son Joseph in Egypt. This section begins with the wife of Potipher (unnamed in the Bible, but given the name Zelicah in the Book of Jasher) attempting to seduce Joseph.
Jasher 44
26 And when she could not prevail over him, to persuade him, and her soul being still
fixed upon him, her desire threw her into a grievous sickness.
27 And all the women
of Egypt came to visit her, and they said unto her, Why art thou in this declining
state? thou that lackest nothing; surely thy husband is a great and esteemed prince
in the sight of the king, shouldst thou lack anything of what thy heart desireth?
28 And Zelicah answered them, saying, This day it shall be made known to you, whence
this disorder springs in which you see me, and she commanded her maid servants to
prepare food for all the women, and she made a banquet for them, and all the women
ate in the house of Zelicah.
29 And she gave them knives to peel the citrons to eat
them, and she commanded that they should dress Joseph in costly garments, and that
he should appear before them, and Joseph came before their eyes and all the women
looked on Joseph, and could not take their eyes from off him, and they all cut their
hands with the knives that they had in their hands, and all the citrons that were
in their hands were filled with blood.
30 And they knew not what they had done but
they continued to look at the beauty of Joseph, and did not turn their eyelids from
him.
31 And Zelicah saw what they had done, and she said unto them, What is this
work that you have done? behold I gave you citrons to eat and you have all cut your
hands.
32 And all the women saw their hands, and behold they were full of blood,
and their blood flowed down upon their garments, and they said unto her, this slave
in your house has overcome us, and we could not turn our eyelids from him on account
of his beauty.
33 And she said unto them, Surely this happened to you in the moment
that you looked at him, and you could not contain yourselves from him; how then can
I refrain when he is constantly in my house, and I see him day after day going in
and out of my house? how then can I keep from declining or even from perishing on
account of this?
34 And they said unto her, the words are true, for who can see this
beautiful form in the house and refrain from him, and is he not thy slave and attendant
in thy house, and why dost thou not tell him that which is in thy heart, and sufferest
thy soul to perish through this matter?
35 And she said unto them, I am daily endeavoring
to persuade him, and he will not consent to my wishes, and I promised him everything
that is good, and yet I could meet with no return from him; I am therefore in a declining
state as you see. ...
62 And Potiphar heard the words of his wife, and he ordered Joseph to be punished
with severe stripes, and they did so to him.
63 And whilst they were smiting him,
Joseph called out with a loud voice, and he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and he
said, O Lord God, thou knowest that I am innocent of all these things, and why shall
I die this day through falsehood, by the hand of these uncircumcised wicked men,
whom thou knowest?
64 And whilst Potiphar's men were beating Joseph, he continued
to cry out and weep, and there was a child there eleven months old, and the Lord
opened the mouth of the child, and he spake these words before Potiphar's men, who
were smiting Joseph, saying,
65 What do you want of this man, and why do you do this
evil unto him? my mother speaketh falsely and uttereth lies; thus was the transaction.
66 And the child told them accurately all that happened, and all the words of Zelicah
to Joseph day after day did he declare unto them.
67 And all the men heard the words
of the child and they wondered greatly at the child's words, and the child ceased
to speak and became still.
68 And Potiphar was very much ashamed at the words of
his son, and he commanded his men not to beat Joseph any more, and the men ceased
beating Joseph.
It would be astonishing if this amazing event, of an eleven month old child giving testimony to the innocence of Joseph, was left out of the Bible … if it truly happened. That would be almost as astonishing as the Bible leaving out the fact of the newborn infant Noah speaking, as reported in the Book of Enoch.
The Gospel of Thomas
http://www.misericordia.edu/users/davies/thomas/Trans.htm
The Gospel of Thomas is another non-
Sample excerpts from the Gospel of Thomas (this book is not divided into chapters, just verses):
7 Jesus said, “Lucky is the lion that the human will eat, so that the lion becomes human. And foul is the human that the lion will eat, and the lion still will become human.”
12 The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being."
13 Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."
Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like." Jesus said, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended." And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?” Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you.”
18 The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us, how will our end come?”
Jesus said, “Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death.”
22 Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples, “These nursing babies are like those who enter the kingdom.” They said to him, “Then shall we enter the kingdom as babies?” Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].”
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas
http://www.gnosis.org/library/inftoma.htm
The kind of fabulous claims made in the Book of Enoch for Noah at his birth also
show up in some of the New Testament non-
The stories of Thomas the Israelite, the Philosopher, concerning the works of the Childhood of the Lord.
I. I, Thomas the Israelite, tell unto you, even all the brethren that are of the Gentiles, to make known unto you the works of the childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ and his mighty deeds, even all that he did when he was born in our land: whereof the beginning is thus:
II. 1 This little child Jesus when he was five years old was playing at the ford of a brook: and he gathered together the waters that flowed there into pools, and made them straightway clean, and commanded them by his word alone. 2 And having made soft clay, he fashioned thereof twelve sparrows. And it was the Sabbath when he did these things (or made them). And there were also many other little children playing with him.
3 And a certain Jew when he saw what Jesus did, playing upon the Sabbath day, departed straightway and told his father Joseph: Lo, thy child is at the brook, and he hath taken clay and fashioned twelve little birds, and hath polluted the Sabbath day. 4 And Joseph came to the place and saw: and cried out to him, saying: Wherefore doest thou these things on the Sabbath, which it is not lawful to do? But Jesus clapped his hands together and cried out to the sparrows and said to them: Go! and the sparrows took their flight and went away chirping. 5 And when the Jews saw it they were amazed, and departed and told their chief men that which they had seen Jesus do.
III. 1 But the son of Annas the scribe was standing there with Joseph; and he took a branch of a willow and dispersed the waters which Jesus had gathered together. 2 And when Jesus saw what was done, he was wroth and said unto him: O evil, ungodly, and foolish one, what hurt did the pools and the waters do thee? behold, now also thou shalt be withered like a tree, and shalt not bear leaves, neither root, nor fruit. 3 And straightway that lad withered up wholly, but Jesus departed and went unto Joseph's house. But the parents of him that was withered took him up, bewailing his youth, and brought him to Joseph, and accused him 'for that thou hast such a child which doeth such deeds.'
IV. 1 After that again he went through the village, and a child ran and dashed against his shoulder. And Jesus was provoked and said unto him: Thou shalt not finish thy course (lit. go all thy way). And immediately he fell down and died. But certain when they saw what was done said: Whence was this young child born, for that every word of his is an accomplished work? And the parents of him that was dead came unto Joseph, and blamed him, saying: Thou that hast such a child canst not dwell with us in the village: or do thou teach him to bless and not to curse: for he slayeth our children.
V. 1 And Joseph called the young child apart and admonished him, saying: Wherefore doest thou such things, that these suffer and hate us and persecute us? But Jesus said: I know that these thy words are not thine: nevertheless for thy sake I will hold my peace: but they shall bear their punishment. And straightway they that accused him were smitten with blindness. 2 And they that saw it were sore afraid and perplexed, and said concerning him that every word which he spake whether it were good or bad, was a deed, and became a marvel. And when they (he ?) saw that Jesus had so done, Joseph arose and took hold upon his ear and wrung it sore. 3 And the young child was wroth and said unto him: It sufficeth thee (or them) to seek and not to find, and verily thou hast done unwisely: knowest thou not that I am thine? vex me not.
Readers need to decide if these passages line up with what they know of the character of Jesus Christ from the Bible.
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