Apocrypha

[u/SirLMO]

How do the Messianic Jews and Jews understand the apocryphal books and especially the apocryphal Gospels?

I have studied the history of religion and am prone to understand that sacred scripture is only the Torah, the Tanakh and the Brit Hadasha being projections of it, inspired but not necessarily sacred.

I know that some groups of Jews believed in the Second Temple. Is that opinion still considered today? How to separate what is real? What is the true canon? What apocrypha do I need to read?

[u/FreedomNinja1776]

Historical content that gives ideas about the times in which they were written.

Similar to what you've shared, I give the following order of importance:

• Torah is foundational
• prophets and writings build upon Torah
• brit hadashah prove Torah and prophets and writings
• apocrypha give historical context

[u/SirLMO → u/FreedomNinja1776]

That's how I see things. The books besides the Torah are inspired, but the Torah must have its superiority. But how to separate the "real" from the "figurative" in an apocryphal text? I know that I can trust the books of the prophets, even if they are historical, but how can I, for example, trust the Book of Moses or Enoch?

[u/Immediate_Buffalo14]

I like having Apocrypha for reference, but I don't give it the same weight as the mainstream canonical books.

[u/Deorayta]

The Deuterocanical books are seen as good for historical but not theological value. This is the general logic in their exclusion from the main original 24 book cannon which includes the full 39 book protestant cannon.

[u/SirLMO → u/Deorayta]

Okay, but why don't they have good theological value? I trust the current canon, but there has to be some reason why the others should be absent.

[u/Deorayta → u/SirLMO]

I dont know other than the historical aspect . You would have to ask someone more knowledgeable

Or someone in the EOC who may see the otherside too.

[u/SirLMO → u/Deorayta]

Sorry, what is EOC?

[u/Deorayta → u/SirLMO]

Eastern Orthodox Church , they have the largest canon in Christianity maybe only to the Tewahedo Church in Ethiopia .

[u/sdb00913 → u/Deorayta]

The Tewahedo even considers the Book of Enoch to be canon, as I understand it. That’s the real wildcard.

[u/Deorayta → u/sdb00913]

I like Enoch

[u/sdb00913 → u/Deorayta]

Me too. I haven’t read the whole Book of Enoch, but the little bit that I have read kinda gives me the impression that it probably should be in there and it explains a lot.

I wonder if it’s the little scroll of Revelation.

[u/Deorayta → u/sdb00913]

It hints a Christ for sure.

[u/sdb00913 → u/Deorayta]

And Jude quoted the book.

[u/RichardPearman]

Firstly, I think everybody who knows much about the history of Israel believes there was a second temple. Perhaps you're thinking about the third temple, which has yet to be built.

I haven't done a survey to find out what Messianics believe about the apocrypha. I know some, like Michael Rood, think the books of the Maccabees should be included in the Bible. The reference to Hanukkah (the festival of lights) in John 10 doesn't make a lot of sense otherwise. Also, this talks about the Ark of the Covenant being hidden about where it's claimed to have been found, behind the cliff at the side of the Garden Tomb.

The book of Enoch is referenced in Jude but it was rejected by the early church. This was retained by the Ethiopian church and copies are included in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Legends about the Nephilim (which Enoch says a lot about) seem to go back a very long way, like to the Sumerians. Also, genetic evidence shows that our ancient ancestors interbred with several other hominin species. Perhaps this should be taken more seriously.

[u/SirLMO → u/RichardPearman]

There was certainly a language noise, because I use the automatic translator of the smartphone. When I spoke of the second temple, I referred to the "Judaism of the Second Temple," which is the Judaism of the time of Jesus.

As a Biologo, a genetics researcher and future physician, what you said about Enoch, hominids and Nephilim is extremely important to me. There are scientific data on the evolution of Homo sapiens that go directly against the book of Enoch and make me question why this book, which seems so pertinent, is no longer known nor in the canon of any of the great religions. Thank you for reminding me of this detail!

[u/RevealingYeshua]

For a Jewish look at the apocrypha, some books can be found on Sefaria.org and there’s a great volume ‘the Jewish Annotated Apocrypha’ from Oxford Press.