In Introduction to the Apocrypha: Jewish Books in Christian Bibles, Lawrence M. Wills makes two important claims. The first is that the Jewish texts that comprise the Apocrypha should not be read through the lens of the Christian Bibles that preserved them. The second is that they should also not be read through the lens of later rabbinic texts that ignored them. The Apocrypha, Wills suggests, must be read on its own terms. Once this is done, however, something unexpected happens: it ceases to exist as a distinct category.This thoughtful review also amounts to a brief introduction to the Old Testament Apocrypha, with some comments on the Pseudepigrapha thrown in.
I noted the publication of the book here.
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