We shall now proceed to enumerate the apocryphal books: first the
Apocrypha Proper, and next the rest of the Old and New Testament
apocryphal literature.
1. _The Apocrypha Proper_, or the apocrypha of the Old Testament as used
by English-speaking Protestants, consists of the following books: 1
Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon,
Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Epistle of Jeremy, Additions to Daniel (Song of
the Three Holy Children, History of Susannah, and Bel and the Dragon),
Prayer of Manasses, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees. Thus the Apocrypha Proper
constitutes the surplusage of the Vulgate or Bible of the Roman Church
over the Hebrew Old Testament. Since this surplusage is in turn derived
from the Septuagint, from which the old Latin version was translated, it
thus follows that the difference between the Protestant and the Roman
Catholic Old Testament is, roughly speaking, traceable to the difference
between the Palestinian and the Alexandrian canons of the Old Testament.
But this is only true with certain reservations; for the Latin Vulgate
was revised by Jerome according to the Hebrew, and, where Hebrew
originals were wanting, according to the Septuagint. Furthermore, the
Vulgate rejects 3 and 4 Maccabees and Psalm cli., which generally appear
in the Septuagint, while the Septuagint and Luther's Bible reject 4
Ezra, which is found in the Vulgate and the Apocrypha Proper. Luther's
Bible, moreover, rejects also 3 Ezra. It should further be observed that
the Vulgate adds the Prayer of Manasses and 3 and 4 Ezra after the New
Testament as apocryphal.
It is hardly possible to form any classification which is not open to
some objection. In any case the classification must be to some extent
provisional, since scholars are still divided as to the original
language, date and place of composition of some of the books which must
come under our classification.[4] We may, however, discriminate (i.) the
Palestinian and (ii.) the Hellenistic literature of the Old Testament,
though even this distinction is open to serious objections. The former
literature was generally written in Hebrew or Aramaic, and seldom in
Greek; the latter naturally in Greek. Next, within these literatures we
shall distinguish three or four classes according to the nature of the
subject with which they deal. Thus the books of which we have to treat
will be classed as: (a) Historical, (b) Legendary (Haggadic), (c)
Apocalyptic, (d) Didactic or Sapiential.