In this centuries old biblical text, Solomon tells of his search for wisdom. He addresses the rulers of the earth, urging them to love righteousness and seek wisdom. In it he explains that the wicked people believe that all is mere chance and that they should enjoy each day unconcerned, but they are deluded.

While no other text can claim this same unique authority, Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal literature such as contained in the first volume of The Researchers Library of Ancient Texts (Volume One—The Apocrypha: Includes the Books of Enoch, Jasher, and Jubilees; also available on Kindle), provides literature that often precedes or follows the chronology of biblical texts, which frequently are used or assigned as supplemental works within academic settings to help students and scholars discover or better understand cultural and historical context within the Word of God. Whether or not the information contained in the apocryphal literature is entirely precise—as is the canon of Scripture—these ancient texts provide commentators’ valuable insight into what many ancient Jews and early Christians believed when, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1). "The First book of Maccabees is a book written in Hebrew by a Jewish author after the restoration of an independent Jewish kingdom, about the latter part of the 2nd century BC. The original Hebrew is lost and the most important surviving version is the Greek translation contained in the Septuagint... The setting of the book is about a century after the conquest of Judea by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, after Alexander's empire has been divided so that Judea was part of the Greek Seleucid Empire. It tells how the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to suppress the practice of basic Jewish religious law, resulting in a Jewish revolt against Seleucid rule. The book covers the whole of the revolt, from 175 to 134 BC, highlighting how the salvation of the Jewish people in this crisis came through Mattathias' family, particularly his sons, Judas Maccabeus, Jonathan Maccabaeus, and Simon Maccabaeus, and Simon's son, John Hyrcanus." "2 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible, which focuses on the Jews' revolt against Antiochus IV Epiphanes and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work." —Wikipedia The Books of Maccabees are available in The Researchers Library of Ancient Texts (Volume One—The Apocrypha: Includes the Books of Enoch, Jasher, and Jubilees; also available on Kindle), as well as The Book of Enoch, The Book of Jasher, The Book of Jubilees, 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Susanna, Prayer of Azariah, Prayer of Manasseh, Bel and the Dragon, and Laodiceans.

Biblical Studies This course is an introduction to the literature of the Bible. The Bible conveys the Word of God in many literary historical narrative, poetry, prophetic exhortation, wisdom sayings, and novellas (edifying stories). We will be reading three novellas’s as written in the bible (Good News Translation). We will explore its literary genres, forms, and motifs, many of which are important to English and American literature—for example, origin stories and hero stories.

The Bible, as we hold it today, is esteemed by many religious institutions and especially Conservative Christians to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God. This doctrinal position affirms that the Bible is unlike all other books or collections of works in that it is free of error due to having been “given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). While no other text can claim this same unique authority, Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal literature such as contained in the first volume of The Researchers Library of Ancient Texts (Volume One—The Apocrypha: Includes the Books of Enoch, Jasher, and Jubilees; also available on Kindle), provides literature that often precedes or follows the chronology of biblical texts, which frequently are used or assigned as supplemental works within academic settings to help students and scholars discover or better understand cultural and historical context within the Word of God. Whether or not the information contained in the apocryphal literature is entirely precise—as is the canon of Scripture—these ancient texts provide commentators’ valuable insight into what many ancient Jews and early Christians believed when, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets” (Heb. 1:1). "The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book, included in the Septuagint and the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian Old Testament of the Bible, but excluded by Jews and Protestants. The book contains numerous historical anachronisms, which is why many scholars now accept it as non-historical; it has been considered a parable or perhaps the first historical novel." —Wikipedia The book of Judith is available in The Researchers Library of Ancient Texts (Volume One—The Apocrypha: Includes the Books of Enoch, Jasher, and Jubilees; also available on Kindle), as well as The Book of Enoch, The Book of Jasher, The Book of Jubilees, 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Tobias, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Susanna, Prayer of Azariah, Prayer of Manasseh, Bel and the Dragon, and Laodiceans.

A inspirational story of a corrupt king who defies God and by way of being dethroned, he turns to God and is restored.

Apocryphal insertions to the Book of Daniel, in which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who have been cast into a fiery furnace by Nebuchadnezzar, call upon the angels, all things in nature, and people to praise the Lord.

The Ezra Apocalypse is the only non-Catholic book included in the KJV 1611 Apocrypha. It contains many prophecies about the end times. Quoted often by the church fathers of the first and second century AD, this apocalypse reveals the rise of Islam. In chapters 11-12 there is a prophecy of a three-headed eagle symbolizing how the Roman Empire would split into three empires. The empires would die out and leave three kingdoms ruling in the last days. Chapters 15-16 contain a prophecy of the Dragon Nations of Arabia. This Islamic power devastates Syria to the point that Russia must step in to control the issue. This Syrian war sets the stage for the beginning of the Last Days. The book also contains numerous prophecies about the signs of the birth pangs and details about the Rapture of the church, revealing that the end is near. Brought to you by Bible Facts Ministries.

Taken from the pages of the Apocrypha are words of faith and wisdom, which can serve to encourage us in our most trying times, and enlightenment us as we search for God. Selected for this book are four texts. Two are short but powerful prayers uttered while in the depths of immediate and seemingly hopeless circumstances. Supported only by a firm faith and total trust in God, the individuals cried out to and waited for a divine response. We offer these to listeners who may feel entrapped in their circumstances. The other two texts are books of wisdom. One purports to be written by Solomon and the other by Sirach. Both books offer the listener words of wisdom, insight, and guidance for both our inner and external journey in life.

1 Maccabees Although the book presents the Jewish leaders Judas, Jonathan, and Simon as devout people and has little sympathy for people who favor hellenization, but it must be noted that he nowhere mentions divine intervention. The contents of the book can be summarized as Chapter 1-2: The hellenization of Judah and the non-violent resistance by Mattathias; Chapter 3-9: Military actions by Judas the Maccabaean ('battle hammer'): after 166, he defeats the Seleucid armies three times and liberates Jerusalem, where the temple is purified; more operations; Judas' defeat and death in 161; Chapter 9-12: Continued warfare, led by Judas' brother Jonathan (160-143), who, benefiting from wars of succession in the Seleucid Empire, restores the fortunes of the Jewish nationalists and adds to their territories; Chapter 13-16: The third brother, Simon, achieves political independence and founds the Hasmonaean dynasty. 2 Maccabees 2 Maccabees has a much greater interest in theology than I Maccabees. 2 Maccabees is not as well written and has a less polished form. The pagans are defined as 'blasphemous and barbarous nations' in 10.4, but there are also severe censures of apostate Jews, of whom there must therefore have been considerable numbers. We find a theological features in 2 Maccabees such as the resurrection of the body in 7.11; 14.46. This stand in stark contrast first to Wisdom and Philo, both of which teach the immortality of the soul. In 7.28 there appears for the first time in Hebrew thought the doctrine which will later be called creatio ex nihilo, which is the belief that creation, and thus all things created, was brought about out of nothing. That is to say that God made the world not from things which were, which is not identical with 'nothing' in the philosophical sense of the term. In 7.9, 14 (cf. 14.46; 12.43) we have concepts of eternal life and death, and in 12.43 the intercession of the living for the dead, an element on which the Catholic church has sometimes sought to found the doctrine of Purgatory.3 Maccabees The title of 3 Maccabees is a misnomer because the book has nothing to do with the Maccabees, who are never mentioned in it. The book is a story about a situation in which the Jewish people, this time in Egypt, were in danger of being annihilated by a Hellenistic monarch, who was attempting to top their religious convictions and practices. The book was composed in Greek and relates a story set in the time of Ptolemy IV Philopater (221-203 B.C.E).4 Maccabees 4 Maccabees belongs to the Maccabees series only because it deals with the beginning of the persecution of Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. It possibly was written during the reign of the emperor Caligula (C.E. 37.) The work's main religious theme is that the martyr's sufferings expunged the sins of the entire Jewish people through a type of propitiation. The Maccabees books were preserved only by the Christian church. Augustine wrote in The City of God that they were preserved for their accounts of the martyrs.