The Canon
The OT & Ezra pt 1
What is the Canon of scripture?
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According to the Church Fathers, the Dead Sea Scrolls, even the Pharisees and Sadducees, the prophet Ezra closed the canon of the Old Testament.
Funny enough, the canon we have today were not the only books known to the ancient world. What did Ezra have to say about it? What did Ezra know about these extra books?
2 Esdras, otherwise known as The Ezra Apocalypse, is an apocryphal book banned by the Catholic Church that shows up in the KJV 1611. Here is an interesting excerpt:

2 Esdras 14:38-48 from KJV
"And the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, Esdras, open thy mouth, and drink that I give thee to drink.
Then opened I my mouth, and, behold, he reached me a full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it was like fire.
And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit strengthened my memory:
And my mouth was opened, and shut no more.
The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and they wrote the wonderful visions of the night that were told, which they knew not: and they sat forty days, and they wrote in the day, and at night they ate bread.
As for me. I spake in the day, and I held not my tongue by night.
In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.
And it came to pass, when the forty days were filled, that the Highest spake, saying, The first that thou hast written publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it:
But keep the seventy last, that thou mayest deliver them only to such as be wise among the people:
For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.
And I did so."

If 204 books were recorded,
70 of those books were kept for the wise men,
Leaving 134 books for public knowledge.
Are these 134 books supposed to be the canon?
We have 39 books of the Old Testament, but the Hebrew consolidates these 39 books into 24. This leaves 115 missing books. Is this accurate?

Other translations of 2 Esdras 14:44 are as follows:
• Anglicanized NRSV "So during the forty days, ninety-four books were written."
• RSV "So during the forty days ninety-four books were written."
• WEB "So in forty days were written fourscore and fourteen books."
• KJV 1611 “In fourty dayes they wrote two hundred and foure bookes.”
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So what's the deal? Did Ezra copy 94 books or 204?

If Ezra copied 94 books, that would leave 24 (today 39) books in the canon, which is the exact number of books in the Old Testament.

How did translators come up with 94 and 204? This gap in translation must be explored, as it is of most importance.
God Bless

Claims of the tradition of Ezra and the scripture canon will be explored later on

Apocryphal Texts
Prayer of Manasseh
Addition to Esther
Baruch & Epistle of Jeremy
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The Prayer of Manasseh is a 15 verse prayer of King Manasseh of Judah after being captured by the Assyrians supposedly said in II Chronicles 33:19 -
"His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers."
It says here this prayer was recorded by the seers (prophets). Is the Prayer of Manasseh the same prayer supposedly said?

Within the Dead Sea Scrolls there is a psalm in 4Q381 attributed to King Manasseh, but this is a different composition than the one within the Catholic Apocrypha.

One thing people have an issue with within the book is verse 8 -
"..for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who did not sin against you.."
Implying Abraham Isaac and Jacob were sinless.
Most scholars believe this prayer was first written in Greek during the first or second century BC.
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The book of Esther is the only book of the Old Testament where God specifically works in the background, instead of the forefront. In fact, the name of God YHWH does not even show up in the entire book, but this addition to Esther added the name of God over fifty times. Based on the literary style, theology, and anti-gentile sentiment, and the fact that the additions do not show up in the Hebrew texts, which probably were not composed at the same time by the same person, can be dated to the second or first centuries BCE.
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Baruch was the scribe of Jeremiah, the prophet of ancient Israel during the rule of Babylon. The Book of Baruch is a scattered collection of writings attributed to Jeremiah and his scribe, Baruch. It contains two chief parts (Chapter 1-3, and Chapters 4-5) followed by the letter of Jeremiah which is included as Chapter 6. The Epistle, or Letter, of Jeremiah (“Jeremy”) is sometimes included at the end of the second part of the text, and in other cases the book and the letter are separated.
All modern translations are derived from a central Greek book, as Jerome stated there was no authoritative Hebrew text of Baruch in existence, thus he controversially did not include it in his Vulgate.
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Womp womp.
Three more books down, many more to come.
God Bless

And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. - Genesis 1:11

It was the word of God, the sound of God, that created the Earth.

...
And that sound is Christ

Apocryphal Texts
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus of Sirach
In the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament and other Jewish writings, the Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach are listed alongside Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon as the seven books of wisdom. What are they really?
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The Wisdom of Solomon is packed full of wisdom contributed to King Solomon.
In 1 Kings 3:12-13 the Lord gave Solomon "a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee."

Is Wisdom therefore Solomon's wisdom? It is doubtful. The Wisdom of Solomon was most likely authored in Greek rather than in Hebrew. Second, the date of writing is uncertain, but is generally not believed to be before the second century BC, approximately 800 years after the lifetime of Solomon. Third, the early church determined that Solomon was not the author. An early manuscript called the Muratorian fragment notes the book was written by "the friends of Solomon in his honor."
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Ecclesiasticus or Sirach is a second century BC writing by a Jewish scribe named Shimon ben Yeshua ben Eliezer ben Sira who was from Jerusalem. Ecclesiasticus was originally written in Hebrew though it also existed in Greek after being translated in Egypt by the author's grandson Joshua. It is believed Shimon was living in Alexandria, Egypt, where he had started a Jewish school, at the time of the book's compilation. Ecclesiasticus is the only book found in the Apocrypha whose writer signed the writing. The book was also found among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

There are some passages that resemble the New Testament such as...
Sirach 29:11 -
"Lay up thy treasure according to the commandments of the most High, and it shall bring thee more profit than gold."
Matthew 6:19-20 -
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:"
and Sirach 10:14 -
"The Lord hath cast down the thrones of proud princes, and set up the meek in their stead."
Luke 1:52 where Mary is glorying in her pregnancy -
"He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree."

This book specifically is one of the few apocryphal writings with legitimacy concerning its authorship and when it was written.
Jerome believed it was best considered among the ecclesiastical books (writings of the church) rather than as one of the canonical biblical books. This evaluation reflected the earlier church councils and leaders and remains the best evaluation of the Book of Ecclesiasticus for today.
While this work is not a forgery, it can be assumed the book was not inspired or God-breathed.

Here is a couple lists of different Apocryphal texts, including a huge portion of Gnostic works. I dont agree 100% with the categories of the books but its a list of works nonetheless.
https://biblefacts.org/canon/

Apocryphal Texts
Beta Israel
This is some of the canonical Old Testament books of Beta Israel in Ethiopia translated into English.
Falasha Anthology by Wolf Leslau
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.188774/mode/2up

Apocryphal Texts
Judith
Tobit
Both of these books are regarded in the Catholic and Orthodox churches as deuterocanonical. What are they about and is there any legitimacy?
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The Book of Judith is about a widow named Judith who uses her beauty and charm to destroy Assyrian general and save Israel from oppression. Already, this short summary shows some problems morally and doctrinally.

The Hebrew versions name important figures directly such as the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, thus placing the events in the Hellenistic period when the Maccabees battled the Seleucid monarchs.
The Greek version uses deliberately cryptic and non-historic references such as "Nebuchadnezzar", a "King of Assyria", who "reigns in Nineveh", for the same king. The adoption of that name, though unhistorical, has been sometimes explained either as a copyist's addition, or an arbitrary name assigned to the ruler of Babylon.

This book is not historically accurate. Neither Greek nor Hebrew writings confirm when it is taken place or certain things that take place. Because of these inconsistencies, some scholars believe the book to be a historic novel or a historic drama meant to be acted out on stage.
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The Book of Tobit is a story about two different Israelite families:
-Tobit, a blind but wealthy Israelite man, is deported to Nineveh while his wealth is left behind. His son, Tobias, is sent to retrieve silver from Media for his father with the aide of the angel Raphael.
-A demon named Asmodeus falls in love with a woman named Sarah, a woman from Media, and kills any man who gets too close with Sarah.
On the journey, Tobias meets Sarah and falls in love. With help of the angel Raphael, the demon is exorcized and Tobias marries Sarah. They journey back to Nineveh and the father Tobit is healed of his blindness.

Five copies of the book were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QTob 196-200) in both Hebrew and Aramaic. The book was also found in Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Syriac in their respective areas.
Because of its discovery in the Dead Sea Scrolls we can confirm Tobit was part of the second temple library. Based on the story, we can assume the book was first written around 700.BCE. The oldest copies found are dated from 225 and 175.BC.

After we get through the KJV 1611 apocryphal books we'll get to the real meat and potatoes I promise

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