__________

And their souls will cleave to Me and to all My commandments, and they will fulfil My commandments, and I will be their Father and they shall be My children.

And they all shall be called children of the living God, and every angel and every spirit shall know, yea, they shall know that these are My children, and that I am their Father in uprightness and righteousness, and that I love them.

Book of Jubilees 1:23-24

__________

CHARLO, New Brunswick, February 28, 2024 – If you haven’t yet done so, you should start reading the apocrypha. Many of the books that are excluded from the Bible are as important as those that are included. At the very least, these “rejected” writings (i.e., rejected centuries ago by the worldly church and more recently by profit-driven publishers) fill in a lot of blanks and so paint a more detailed picture of the people and events in scripture. If you say you read the Bible but your reading doesn’t include the apocrypha, you’re missing out on countless blessings and insights that God wants to give you through his Word.

I’m currently working my way through as much of the apocrypha as I can find on the Internet. Yes, there are hard-copy books that have different collections of the apocrypha, but nothing I’ve found so far has all of the publicly available apocryphal books in one volume or in a set of volumes. I guess I’m holding out for the impossible (a book with all the apocrypha, including the “nonexistent” texts hidden in the Vatican and in private collections). In the meantime, I read whatever apocryphal books I can find online, and I’m deeply grateful for the efforts of the people who posted them.

Also, if you’re so inclined (and have the technology), you might want to consider printing off each book as you find it (inkjet, not laser!). There’s a good chance that the apocrypha, along with the Bible, will one day vanish from the Internet due to the looming “hate speech” laws in former Christian nations. If (when) that happens, your printed copies will be a precious gift to the future Church.

The beautiful verse at the start of this article is from the first page of the first chapter of the Book of Jubilees. I include it here as an example of the richness of the prose and the force of the Spirit that is characteristic of many of the apocryphal texts. The setting for this verse is one of God’s conversations with Moses on Mount Sinai when he was giving him the Ten Commandments. I do not consider these words “uninspired”, which is the measure used to include or exclude books from the official canon (that, and the publishers’ bottom line). When I say in my blog articles that “the Bible’s been messed with”, this in part is what I’m referring to.

I’ve posted links below to some of the better-known apocryphal books as well as to a few that are less well known. I’ve also included links to their descriptions.

Note that the books appear here in no particular order.

May you be as blessed in reading the spiritual treasure trove of the apocrypha as you are in reading the Bible!

__________

The Book of Jubilees

Description: Book of Jubilees – Wikipedia

Online text: Jubilees (pseudepigrapha.com)

__________

2 Esdras

Description: 2 Esdras – Wikipedia

Online text:  The Apocrypha: 2 Esdras: 2 Esdras Chapter 1 (sacred-texts.com)

__________

1 Enoch

Description: Book of Enoch – Wikipedia

Online text: The Book of Enoch: The Book of Enoch: Chapter I (sacred-texts.com)

__________

Apocalypse of Abraham

Description: Apocalypse of Abraham – Wikipedia

Online text: box.pdf (marquette.edu)

__________

Apocalypse of Elijah

Description: Apocalypse of Elijah – Wikipedia

Online text: apocalypse-of-elijah.pdf (wordpress.com)

__________

Life of Adam and Eve (Apocalypse of Moses)

Description: Life of Adam and Eve – Wikipedia

Online text: Apocalypse Of Moses (scriptural-truth.com)

__________

Book of Giants

Description: The Book of Giants – Wikipedia

Online text: The Book of Giants • The Lost Books of The Bible

__________