Pseudepigrapha

Jewish Writings not included in the OT or Apocrypha, published under assumed names. They give information which is important for understanding the background of the NT. Prophecy had ceased, and interpretations of the will of God were offered in apocalypses which tried to reconcile the prophetic hopes and promises with the realities of national sufferings. Some of these writings emerged from within Palestine: the Psalms of Solomon, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the book of Jubilees. These works contain legends and alleged revelations; the Martyrdom of Isaiah explains that the prophet was sawn in two (cf. Heb. 11:37); the book of Enoch is a vision of judgement and a prophecy of events down to the Messianic age (cf. Jude 6), and the Assumption of Moses (which is referred to in Jude 9) has a view of world history. The Apocalypse of Ezra and the Apocalypse of Baruch offer hope of future Messianic blessings to those suffering in the present. Writings from the Hellenistic environment commend the Law to Gentiles. The Letter of Aristeas (c.100 BCE) and the Sibylline Oracles, written in Alexandria (c.140 BCE), invite Gentiles to abandon their pagan worship; 4 Macc. is not concerned with the Maccabean war but with the sufferings of Jews and the use of reasoning. These works share a spirit of universalism different from the post-exilic nationalism which marks some of the literature of that epoch.