Developed at SPbU Faculty of Philology
by charitable donation from the Russkiy Mir Foundation
Russkiy Mir Foundation
Lectures
Literary environment of the Bible
Compared to the Tanakh, the Septuagint has a broader content. It is composed of the Books of Tobit and Judith, the Books of the Maccabees, the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon and the Book of the All-Virtuous Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira, the Book of Ezra and substantial additions to the Books of Daniel and Esther. It was thought for a long time that they had been written in Greek but the Qumran artifacts have proved that these books existed in Hebrew, too. According to the Protestant tradition these books are called the Apocrypha. The Catholics call them Deuteronomic books. Along with these books a broad range of other literary works existed. They were not included into the canon but they exist in translation. These books are divided into several groups: a popular retelling of the Bible (the Book of Jubilees and the Book of Genesis in Qumran), testaments (the testament of the Twelve Patriarchs) and apocalypses (the Book of Enoch). These books' ideology has some common traits: a particular attention to the Messiah's figure that judges the mankind, angelology and the concept of life after death. Biblical characters who were, according to the legend, taken to Heaven alive become the central figures of these books. These are Moses, Elijah, Enoch, and Melchizedek.
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