THE UNCANONICAL AND APOCRYPHAL SCRIPTURES BEING THE ADDITIONS TO THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON WHICH WERE THE ANCIENT GREEK AND LATIN VERSIONS THE ENGLISH TEXT OF THE AUTHORISED VERSION TOGETHER WITH THE ADDITIONAL MATTER FOUND IN THE VULGATE Introductions to the Several Books and Fragments And a General Introduction to the Apocrypha BY THE REV. W. R. CHURTON B.D. FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE CANon of the CATHEDRAL OF S. ALBAN'S LONDON J. WHITAKER 12 WARWICK LANE PATERNOSTER ROW S. Th. 151° PREFACE. THE object of this little work is to combine in a convenient and concise form a few helps to the study of the Apocrypha, gathered from sources which have not been hitherto brought within the reach of English readers. With this view an attempt has been made, in the case of the books which shew the greatest variations, to construct a comprehensive text, which, without pretending to possess any critical value, may include all the more important matter contained in the Versions. It is sometimes remarked that the study of the Apocrypha has been strangely neglected in England. An interest is, however, being now awakened in the subject, especially as connected with Talmudic research, and other Jewish literature. The value of the Apocrypha is also being recognised in the testimony which it gives to the Canon of the Old Testament, and to the antiquity and authority of the Hebrew Books, at a time when the received tradition is assailed by so much destructive criticism. Apocryphal writers, who claim no inspiration for themselves, manifest the profoundest reverence and faith towards the Books of the Law and the Prophets as given by Divine inspiration. Their words shew forth their wise understand'ing, and their lips utter the purest knowledge, and yet they are 'fain sundry ways to excuse themselves; sometimes ending their 'talk, as doth the history of the Maccabees: "If we have done well, ""and as the cause required, it is that we desire; if we have spoken "slenderly and barely, we have done what we could" (Hooker). The study of the Apocrypha leads to the conclusion that it has for its foundation a strong belief in the Hebrew Scriptures, and thus it confirms the traditions recorded by Josephus concerning the completion of the Canon. Others again may be drawn to the study of the Apocrypha by the important ecclesiastical authority attached to certain portions of it, especially by the use of it as Scripture in the Breviary Offices and elsewhere. The sublime passages in Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and Baruch, will maintain them in that high rank among uninspired writings which many who hesitate to give them |