Old Testament Legends - being stories out of some of the less-known apochryphal books of the old testament
James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes), 1862-1936
English
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Below is a summary of Old Testament Legends - being stories out of some of the less-known apochryphal books of the old testament
OLD TESTAMENT LEGENDS
BEING STORIES OUT OF SOME OF THE LESS-KNOWN APOCRYPHAL BOOKS
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
BY
M. R. JAMES, LITT.D.
PROVOST OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS BY
H. J. FORD
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1913
All rights reserved
PREFACE
If you read the title-page of this book--a thing which young persons
very seldom do--you will see that it (the book) contains stories
taken "out of some of the less-known apocryphal books of the Old
Testament." You will very possibly not understand what that means;
but if you will read this preface--another thing which young persons
do even seldomer than they read a title-page--you will find the best
explanation that I can give.
I have to begin by talking about the word apocryphal. The newspapers
are fond of saying that a statement made by the Prime Minister (or
the leader of the Opposition, according to which side in politics the
newspaper takes) is apocryphal. By this, the newspaper means to say
that the statement was untrue. Or, you will read that someone
obtained money or goods by saying that he possessed large estates
abroad; and that the estates turned out to be apocryphal. By this is
meant that they did not exist. But when you read of a book being
apocryphal, something rather different is meant: either that it is
"spurious," i.e. that it pretends to be written by someone who did
not write it; or that what is in it is fabulous and untrue, like the
stories of King Arthur; or both.
Now this word apocryphal is specially used, and perhaps most often
used, in connection with the Bible. Probably you have at least heard
of something called "the Apocrypha," even if you have not read it,
and even if you have mixed it up in your mind with another word,
Apocalypse, which has nothing whatever to do with it. Well, what is
"the Apocrypha"? It is to be found in many Bibles, bound up between
the Old and the New Testaments. It is a set of books, looking just
like the other books of the Bible, with chapters and verses. Some of
it is read in church as weekday lessons in the months of October and
November, as you may see by looking at the Table of Lessons in any
Prayer Book. Now, are all these books of "the Apocrypha" fabulous or
spurious? No. Some of them are. The Second Book of Esdras (that is,
Ezra) was not written by Ezra; The Book of Baruch (the companion of
the prophet Jeremiah) was not written by Baruch; The Wisdom of
Solomon was not written by Solomon. These and some others are
spurious. Also, the books of Tobit and of Judith are fabulous
stories. On the other hand, the book Ecclesiasticus was really
written by Sirach (who is mentioned in the Preface), and The First
Book of Maccabees is a true and valuable history.
Then why, if apocryphal means fabulous or spurious, or both, are
these books, some of which are true and genuine, lumped all together
and called "Apocrypha"? I am sorry to disappoint you, but I cannot go
through the whole history. It is long, it is difficult, and though it
interests me, I am inclined to think it would not interest you unless
I spread it over a great many pages, and filled it out with stories;
and for this I have no time. Let me tell you what strikes me as being
the important thing to bear in mind. Nearly all of these books have
been at some time or another read in church and treated as Scripture.
Nearly all of them are now treated as Scripture by the Roman Church,
but not by most of the Protestant, or Reformed, Churches. They are on
the borderland of the Bible. From having been so long kept together
in a group by themselves, they have come to be thought of as being
all of one uniform kind. But they are not so; they are of very
different sorts and merits.
Let us keep the old name for them and call them "the Apocrypha." It
will be convenient to do so, because I have now to speak of other
apocryphal books, which have never been bound up in our Bibles, but
in older times, before Bibles were printed, were (some of them at
least) read in churches and thought to be sacred books. There are a
great many of these: perhaps, if they were all put together, they
would make up a volume as large as the Old Testament itself; but at
present there is no book in which they are all printed together. Some
are stories, others are visions like those in the Revelation of St.
John, others are psalms and prophecies. But all of them, I think, may
fairly be called either fabulous or spurious, or both.
I can give you an example from the Bible itself to show that there
were such books as long ago as the times of the Apostles, and that
they were read and valued. In the 9th verse of the Epistle of Jude,
you read something very curious about Satan contending with Michael
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