Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 1 - Article 30

Article 30 – Brief Analysis of the Apocrypha: Judith, Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Three Holy Children, Bel and the Dragon, and Maccabees.

Addendum – First and Second Book of Adam and Eve.

It is important to know that the Bible Canonization process is a part of the preservation of the Scriptures. And thus, out of interest I have analyzed these extra-canonical books in the OT, particularly those in the Apocrypha.

On the Book of Tobit - This is part of the Septuagint and Apocrypha, and it records the account of a Jew named Tobit during the Babylonian exile. It is clearly not included in the 66 book Canon because of the intervention of angels that teach superstition in holy objects which contradicts the teaching of the rest of canonized books. It is deemed to add no clear "new knowledge" in terms of prophecy or understanding of God, nor of the spiritual things. Nonetheless, it does shed some light on the life in that period.

As Tobit is easily accessible and can be found and is a very short read, one can easily read this book at one's own leisure.

On Judith - It is a story about a widow who used her beauty to her advantage and eventually behead the captain of Nebuchadnezzar, who was about to invade Israel. It reminds me of the story of Jael and Sisera. Nonetheless, the account, even if true, adds very little to the theme of the Bible. In reality, the book had only one learning point, that is when the leaders of Israel were dying of thirst from enemy encampment, they gave God five days to deliver them and Judith told them off for putting God to a test, and themselves sinning in the process.

My review for Judith: Good to read, but certainly not Scripture.

Esther is a difficult book, because it adds elements of God to the book which otherwise did not even mention God. The additions are from the Septuagint, and added to the end of chapters. However, my issue with it is this: what are added are weird descriptions and dreams that it makes me wonder that no one would have known other than Esther and Mordecai themselves. There was an account where Esther supposedly tore out her hair before she went to meet the King, and she described that she saw the King as an angel of the Lord. That raises an odd point and areas of disbelief for me. She was even described putting dung on her head before she met the King. I seriously doubt that unless they had shower heads and really good shampoo at that time. It is funny to consider this together with the fact the Lord delighted when we humble ourselves. I really doubt the credibility of this book; it reeks of Gnostic ideas of body and soul to me.

My review for the additional book of Esther: Highly doubtful that it is even factual, much less its inclusion in Scripture.

Wisdom of Solomon is a very interesting book. It has the feel of Proverbs and wisdom literature. However, my discernment is that it was glorifying wisdom much more than God. Many of the acts of God were attributed to Wisdom. According to the book. it was Wisdom that destroyed Egypt and saved Israel. This is a very thin line bordering on heresy. Wisdom is given to man by God. Apart from the confusion of gender, where Wisdom is female and God is not, there are areas that it was Aaron who stopped the destroyer of firstborns in Egypt. It was not wisdom working through Aaron. It was the obedience of God's commandments to put the blood of the lamb on the door. There were many other examples, but they were all odd to me. It certainly was not written by Solomon as Solomon's Ecclesiastes and Proverbs taught the importance of wisdom in seeking God, but this book had nothing similar to that. Certainly not God coming as personified wisdom to save us. God is wise, He is the source of wisdom, but He was not wisdom when He did what He did to the Israel. He was the wise God.

My review for this book is: Good to read, many learning points, but difficult to separate the odd and weird parts if one is not familiar with the accounts. Maybe better to avoid if one is not clear on canonized scripture, for it certainly is not Scripture.