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Ephrem the Syrian, also known as Saint Ephrem, Saint Ephraim, Ephrem of Edessa or Aprem of Nisibis, was a prominent Christian theologian and writer who is revered as one of the most notable hymnographers of Eastern Christianity. He was born in Nisibis, served as a deacon and later lived in Edessa.
Metatron, or Matatron, is an angel in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Metatron is mentioned three times in the Talmud, in a few brief passages in the Aggadah, the Targum, and in mystical Kabbalistic texts within Rabbinic literature. The figure forms one of the traces for the presence of dualist proclivities in the otherwise monotheistic visions of both the Tanakh and later Christian doctrine. In Rabbinic literature, he is sometimes portrayed as serving as the celestial scribe. The name Metatron is not mentioned in the Torah or the Bible, and how the name originated is a matter of debate. In Islamic tradition, he is also known as Mīṭaṭrūn, the angel of the veil.
The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters, considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by Beta Israel. Jubilees is considered one of the pseudepigrapha by the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant churches. Apart from the Beta Israel community, the book is not considered canonical within any of the denominations of Judaism.
Samael is an archangel in Talmudic and post-Talmudic lore; a figure who is the accuser or adversary, seducer, and destroying angel.
Shedim are spirits or demons in the Tanakh and Jewish mythology. Shedim do not, however, correspond exactly to the modern conception of demons as evil entities as originated in Christianity. While evil spirits were thought to be the cause of maladies, shedim differed conceptually from evil spirits. Shedim were not considered as evil demigods, but the gods of foreigners, and were envisaged as evil only in the sense that they were not God.
Fallen angels are angels who were expelled from Heaven. The literal term "fallen angel" does not appear in any Abrahamic religious texts, but is used to describe angels cast out of heaven or angels who sinned. Such angels often tempt humans to sin.
The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the patriarch Enoch who was the father of Methuselah and the great-grandfather of Noah. The Book of Enoch contains unique material on the origins of demons and Nephilim, why some angels fell from heaven, an explanation of why the Genesis flood was morally necessary, and a prophetic exposition of the thousand-year reign of the Messiah. Three books are traditionally attributed to Enoch, including the distinct works 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch. None of the three are considered to be canonical scripture by most Jewish or Christian church bodies.
The Testament of Adam is a Christian work of Old Testament pseudepigrapha that dates from the 2nd to 5th centuries AD in origin, perhaps composed within the Christian communities of Syria. It purports to relate the final words of Adam to his son Seth; Seth records the Testament and then buries the account in the legendary Cave of Treasures. Adam speaks of prayer and which parts of Creation praise God each hour of the day; he then prophesies both the coming of the Messiah and the Great Flood; and finally, a description of the celestial hierarchy of angels is given.
3 Maccabees, also called the Third Book of Maccabees, is a book written in Koine Greek, likely in the 1st century BC in either the late Ptolemaic period of Egypt or in early Roman Egypt. Despite the title, the book has nothing to do with the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire described in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Instead it tells the story of a persecution of the Jews under Pharaoh Ptolemy IV Philopator in Ptolemaic Egypt, some decades before the Maccabee uprising in Judea. The story purports to explain the origin of a Purim-like festival celebrated in Egypt. 3 Maccabees is somewhat similar to the Book of Esther, another book which describes how a king is advised to annihilate the Diaspora Jews in his territory, yet is thwarted by God.
4 Maccabees, also called the Fourth Book of Maccabees and possibly originally known as On the Sovereignty of Reason, is a book written in Koine Greek, likely in the 1st or early 2nd century. It is a homily or philosophic discourse praising the supremacy of pious reason over passion. It is a work that combines Hellenistic Judaism with influence from Greek philosophy, particularly the school of Stoicism.
Joseph and Asenath is a narrative that dates from between 200 BCE and 200 CE. It concerns the Hebrew patriarch Joseph and his marriage to Asenath, expanding the fleeting mentions of their relationship in the Book of Genesis. The text was translated widely, including into Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Early Modern German, Latin, Middle English, Old French, Romanian, Serbian and Syriac.
Psalms 152 to 155 are additional Psalms found in two Syriac biblical manuscripts and several manuscripts of Elijah of Anbar's "Book of Discipline", first identified by the orientalist librarian Giuseppe Simone Assemani in 1759. Together with Psalm 151 they are also called the Five Apocryphal Psalms of David or the "Five Syriac Psalms". In addition to Psalm 151, Psalms 154-155 were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls in 11QPsa, though 151-155 all were likely composed in Hebrew.
The Cave of Treasures, sometimes referred to simply as The Treasure, is an apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical work, that contains various narratives related to the Christian Bible. It was written in the Syriac language, approximately at the end of the 6th, or at the beginning of the 7th century. Its authorship was traditionally attributed to Ephrem of Edessa, but modern scholarly analyses have shown that the true author was some other person, who also lived in Upper Mesopotamia, but much later.
Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Turkey, the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa, both founded in the end of the 4th century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was a conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists.
Zosimus the Hermit was an ascetic who resided in the wilds of Cilicia and Palestine in the 3rd century AD.
Ezekiel the Tragedian – also known as Ezekiel the Dramatist and Ezekiel the Poet – was a Jewish dramatist who wrote in Alexandria. Naomi Yavneh dated his work to the 3rd century BCE, while Howard Jacobson estimates the 2nd century BCE. Evidence of the date is not definitive.
Matthias Henze is the Isla Carroll and Perry E. Turner Professor of Hebrew Bible and Early Judaism at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
The Story of Melchizedek or History of Melchizedek is an anonymous apocryphal account of the life of Melchizedek originally written in Greek. Melchizedek is a priest and king mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible and once in the New Testament. The Story is usually classified as part of the Old Testament pseudepigrapha.
The 4Q126 is an ancient Greek fragment and one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The text of this manuscript is unknown and it has not been possible to identify it with any known LXX passage, a biblical verse or from some other literary work. Palaeographically it dates from the first century BCE or early first century CE.
References
- Knights, Chris (1993). "'The Story of Zosimus' or 'The History of the Rechabites'?". Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period. 24 (2): 235–245. doi:10.1163/157006393X00042. JSTOR 24659935.
- Knights, Chris (2014). "The Rechabites Revisited: The History of the Rechabites Twenty-Five Years On". Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha. 23 (4): 307–320. doi:10.1177/0951820714536499. S2CID 163867937.
- McNeil, Brian (1978). "The Narration of Zosimus". Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman Period. 9 (1): 68–82. doi:10.1163/157006378X00049. JSTOR 24656853.
- Minov, Sergey (2019). "Syriac". In Alexander Kulik; Gabriele Boccaccini; Lorenzo DiTommaso; David Hamidovic; Michael Stone (eds.). A Guide to Early Jewish Texts and Traditions in Christian Transmission. Oxford University Press. pp. 95–138.
