“All this is basic dogma, so to speak. In general it’s the platform of the church and
nothing unusual at all. He was saying quite simply: ‘Read the Bible—it will provide
sufficient knowledge and vouches for the true faith.’”
Mikael felt a bit embarrassed.
“Now I have to ask you in what connection this conversation occurred,” she said.
“I was asking him about a person he had met many years ago, someone I’m writing
about.”
“A religious seeker?”
“Something along that line.”
“OK. I think I understand the context. You told me that Pastor Falk said two other
things—that ‘Josef will certainly exclude them’ and that‘ they were never accepted
into the canon.’ Is it possible that you misunderstood and that he said Josefus
instead of Josef? It’s actually the same name.”
“That’s possible,” Blomkvist said. “I taped the conversation if you want to listen to
it.”
“No, I don’t think that’s necessary. These two sentences establish fairly
unequivocally what he was alluding to. Josefus was a Jewish historian, and the
sentence ‘they were never accepted into the canon’ may have meant that they were
never in the Hebrew canon.”
“And that means?”
She laughed.
“Pastor Falk was saying that this person was enthralled by esoteric sources,
specifically the Apocrypha. The Greek word apokryphos means ‘hidden,’ and the
Apocrypha are therefore the hidden books which some consider highly
controversial and others think should be included in the Old Testament. They are
Tobias, Judith, Esther, Baruch, Sirach, the books of the Maccabees, and some
others.”
“Forgive my ignorance. I’ve heard about the books of the Apocrypha but have
never read them. What’s special about them?”