fragments or in quotations. The MOTP collection is casting its net more
widely to include pseudepigrapha composed by Jews and Christians all the
wayupto600c.e.and the rise of Islam. With some notable exceptions
(e.g.,Aramaic Levi Document, Book of Giants, Hebrew Naphtali, Balaam
Text[from Deir Alla],Hebrew Apocalypse of Elijah, Geniza Wisdom Text,
Sword of Moses, Massekhet Kelim, Midrash Vayissa}u, Eighth Book of Moses,
Sepher ha-Razim, Sepher Zerubbabel), many of the additional works in
MOTP are Christian compositions and face the same issues regarding the
relation between Jewish and Christian tradition outlined above. Accord-
ingly, the net has been cast more widely here to include some pseud-
epigraphal documents in the Dead Sea Scrolls, but also works composed
until 600c.e.Thus the significance of each work for the Second Temple
period varies widely and will require analysis on a case-by-case basis.
The problems that beset the terms “Apocrypha” and “Pseudepigrapha”
have not prevented scholars from applying them to discrete collections of
ancient works that stand alongside other recognized collections of works
such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature, the Hekhalot texts, the
Nag Hammadi Library, and the works of Philo and Josephus. These differ-
ent, though sometimes overlapping classifications of texts cannot hide the
fact that in order to be interpreted, they need to be read together for a
more comprehensive understanding of the diversities of Judaism that
flourished during the centuries leading up to and after the turn of the
Common Era.bibliography
Baum, Armin Daniel. 2001.Pseudepigraphie und literarische Fälschung im frühen
Christentum.Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.
Charles, Robert H., ed. 1913.The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testa-
ment.2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon.
Charlesworth, James H., ed. 1983-1985.The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.2 vols.
New York: Doubleday.
Chazon, Esther G., and Michael E. Stone, eds. 1997.Pseudepigraphic Perspectives:
The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls.Leiden:
Brill.
Collins, John J. 1998.The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apoc-
alyptic Literature.2d ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Davila, James R. 2005.The Provenance of the Pseudepigrapha: Jewish, Christian, or
Other?Leiden: Brill.202loren t. stuckenbruckEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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