New Testament Field Guideનમૂનો

Second Temple Period Sources: Behind the Text

To understand the differences between the Bibles of Jews, Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants, we’ll need a quick introduction to some other terms.

Deuterocanonical Texts

The sixty-six books that make up the core of these two testaments are typically referred to as the canonical books. Additional texts, beyond the first 66 that have also been received as authoritative, are known as the deuterocanonical books, meaning “second” or “later on.” Many of these books are related to the Second Temple period, between the time the Jews returned from Babylon and the coming of Jesus. The specific time of about 400 years between the final Old Testament books and the New Testament books is called the “Intertestamental Period.”

For Protestants, these texts may be less familiar than canonical ones. They often focus on events in the Intertestamental Period, but some overlap with Old Testament history. Here is a list of more familiar books describing their setting or author:

• Wisdom [of Solomon] (from Israel’s king in the 10th c. BC)
• Tobit (a righteous Israelite who lived in Nineveh in the late 8th c. BC)
• Judith (a courageous Israelite who outwits and kills a Babylonian general in the early 6th c. BC)
• Baruch (from Jeremiah’s scribe in the 6th c. BC)
• [Wisdom of] Sirach or Ben Sira (from this Jewish scribe in 2nd c. BC)
• 1 & 2 Maccabees (describing wars in the 2nd c. BC)

Deuterocanonical writings also include additions to the book of Daniel and Esther. Eastern Orthodox Christians have additional deuterocanonical texts in their Bibles, depending on the branch of Orthodox tradition to which they belong. Most Orthodox Christians also have 3 and 4 Maccabees, The Prayer of Manasseh, and an additional Psalm that tells the story of David’s defeat of Goliath—Psalm 151. Some Orthodox Bibles also include 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, and others.

Pseudepigrapha

It’s easy to confuse the deuterocanonical texts with the Bible’s Pseudepigrapha, especially for Protestants who don’t have either type of text in their Bible. The first part of the word, “pseude,” means “false,” and “grapha” means “writing.” These are books that have an author’s name falsely attributed to them. They were written by someone other than the person they claim to be written by. This is an intentional forgery that was recognized in the Second Temple Period.

A good example would be the Assumption of Moses, or the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. These books tend to contain “first-hand” accounts from biblical figures that have actually been written on their behalf at later dates. Not all of these books are pseudonymous but the label of “Pseudepigrapha” is applied generically to them all. Some of these works are listed below.

• Assumption of Moses
• Slavonic Second Book of Enoch
• 3 Baruch
• Letter of Aristeas
• Life of Adam and Eve
• Ascension of Isaiah
• Psalms of Solomon
• Sibylline Oracles
• 2 Baruch
• Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs

Another major puzzle piece was only accessible to modern Bible students in 1948. Some call this the greatest archeological discovery of all time.

Dead Sea Scrolls

One of the most important archeological finds in history was the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (abbreviated DSS). These were found in a desert location in modern-day Israel at a place called Qumran. They belonged to an ancient Jewish community with a focus on the apocalypse and extreme faithfulness to tenets of Old Testament law. Shepherds first discovered them in the 1940s. The scrolls discovered there have had an enormous influence on the way we study the Bible.

These texts have been dated to as early as the centuries before the birth of Jesus and more than a third of them are from the Old Testament. They are by far the earliest biblical record for many books of the Old Testament. Before they were found, the earliest known manuscripts of the Old Testament were dated to approximately the 10th century.

Other texts include deuterocanonical books and manuscripts that were specific to the Qumran community who lived in this place. No New Testament texts have been found at the site. At this point, eleven different caves at Qumran have had ancient texts recovered from them. The image above shows a Dead Sea Scroll text called the “Psalm Scroll.”