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In the Hellenistic era, the center of Christian learning shifted to Alexandria. Philo effects a synthesis of Platonic and Hebraic ideas, including preexistence. The idea persists through numerous apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal traditions, associated with Enoch, Moses, Joseph, Ezra, and Solomon. It also appears in Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi, often in connection with the figure of Sophia. In Paul, the preexistent church and Christ's preexistence are important.

This chapter describes the development of the myth during the time of the Persian and Roman empires after the “sealing” of the Bible and, later, the destruction of temple in 70 CE. The return of the Judahite exiles from Babylonia under the leadership of Ezra presented the Jews of the Second Temple period with a serious theological problem: if, as promised, God allowed the return of Two tribes of Judah from exile, why didn't He bring back the remaining Ten Tribes. The problem was also geographical: if they did not return, where are they “now”? These two questions gave rise to two paralleling sets of discussions among Jewish and Christian authors and thinkers. The theological one explained that Ten Tribes were exiled to a special place “beyond” the boundaries of this world as part of their special punishment. The geographical discussion delineated the location of that special place. Both Christian and Jewish thinkers promised the return of the tribes, but framed the ultimate return from exile as part of the “end of the days.” In both discussions geographical knowledge produced in the wake of Roman and Persian imperial expansion played a key role.

An introduction and translation of Greek Esther, or Esther as it appears in the Old Testament Apocrypha. This novel deals with Esther and Mordecai in the court of the King of Persia. It includes the motifs of prayer, penitence, the competition of ethnic groups, the role of women, and the construction of gender.

An introduction and translation of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon (also called Bel and the Serpent), added to the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament Apocrypha. Bel and the Dragon is a satire or parody of worship of idols. These stories include the motifs of penitence and prayer, competition of ethnic groups, the role of women, and the construction of gender.

An introduction and translation of Tobit, one of the books of the Old Testament Apocrypha, which is set in Israel and Persia. It is a family drama with a fairy‐tale‐like quality; the characters are beset by evil demons and protected by angels who perform miracles in human guise. It also includes interesting references to Jewish customs.

An introduction and translation of Judith, one of the books of the Old Testament Apocrypha. Judith is a heroine who chops off the head of Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, thus saving Jerusalem from his attacking armies. She is a pious widow who lives a life of prayer and penitence; her example is also transitional to asceticism. This satire includes the motifs of irony, penitence and prayer, competition of ethnic groups, the role of women, and the construction of gender.

This chapter offers a Catholic view of divine revelation, the response of human faith, the tradition that hands on belief in God, and the scriptures that are inspired by the Holy Spirit. The saving self-revelation of God comes through an interplay of deeds and words, is centred on Christ, and is a past, present, and future reality. Tradition should be understood both as a process (the act of tradition) and as a living heritage (tradition as content). Being an inspired, written record, the Bible is not to be simply identified with revelation. Biblical truth is progressive, personal, and salvific. The canon of scriptures, the closed list of inspired books, arose through their subsequent recognition by the Church.

Written by Harrington from a Catholic perspective, this chapter notes the presence of the so-called Apocrypha in the Catholic (and Orthodox) Old Testament. Next it explains modern Catholic biblical interpretation in light of official documents from popes (Divino afflante Spiritu), church councils (Dei verbum) and the Pontifical Biblical Commission. Then it shows how Catholics have come to accept biblical criticism as indispensable (but within limits), while insisting also on the importance of the spiritual sense of Scripture, the patristic tradition, and the challenges posed by actualization and inculturation. It illustrates the Catholic approach with reference to Exodus 3–4.

Many have already encountered the Septuagint, even if they have never heard of it. This chapter introduces the book, and gives a preview of what readers can expect. There are at least four major reasons why the Septuagint deserves our attention.

This chapter summarizes the contents of the so-called Apocrypha. These books were included in later Septuagint manuscripts, so became part of Christian Scripture, and were considered to have spiritual value for Jews before the finalization of the Hebrew canon in the second century CE. Many other books which modern scholars refer to as pseudepigrapha were influential in shaping Jewish and Christian theological expression, but most seem never to have been considered authoritative. Nonetheless, all of these writings are essential for understanding the context in which early Judaism and the writing of the New Testament flourished. The question of canonical or authoritative status is in many cases posed only much later, so that the lines between Scripture and not-Scripture in the ancient period are blurred, if they existed at all.

The New Testament authors were heavily indebted not only to the Scriptures canonized in the Hebrew Bible but also to the Jewish religious literature written between the third century BCE and the second CE that was not later canonized. This chapter discusses that background, but also takes up the question of how the New Testament authors encountered the Scriptures. Whatever the availability of textual resources in the first century, the authors of the New Testament demonstrate a close familiarity with the contexts of the Jewish Scriptures from which they quote. Even when the citation is short, or a string of citations is inserted into the new text, the New Testament author's knowledge of the larger context is clear. This means that most of the citations of the Jewish Scriptures in the New Testament reflects not the use of testimony sources or excerpts, but the authors’ engagement with the entire or with much larger portions of the Jewish Scriptures. The chapter concludes with a look at how the Septuagint influenced the language and theology of the New Testament, particularly with reference to certain theologically significant words or teachings that came via the Septuagint.

This chapter investigates Brown’s engagement with Mariology in three ways. First, the chapter discusses Brown’s creative use of the Virgin Mary’s various iconographical depictions and cults, in order to restore her image to Orkney’s landscape. The chapter examines Brown’s ‘apocryphal’ texts, which reveal that he was more politically-engaged than is often thought. Last, this chapter provides a new reading of enculturation in Time in a Red Coat (1984), the novel that represents the high point of Brown’s Marian corpus.

This chapter considers the ways in which Brown adapts, develops, and treats the cult of St Magnus in literary terms. It examines Brown’s creative use of history, hagiography, and the cult of St Magnus as first seen in the Icelandic Sagas. It discusses Brown’s complex fusion of hagiographic, apocryphal, biblical and saga writings in his novel Magnus (1973) and in other devotional poetry. The chapter contends that Brown resituates a largely forgotten Norse saint within a Scottish and Scandinavian hagiographical context, while simultaneously reintroducing St Magnus into twentieth century Scottish literature.

The book’s epilogue revisits the key features of Brown’s Catholic sacramental universe. It notes the significance of biblical echo, allusion, and Brown’s saints, martyrs, reformers, and transformative moments of grace. The epilogue stresses the importance of Brown’s use of ceremony and ritual, and emphasises his interest in (and create use of) apocrypha, midrash, and folklore. The epilogue contends that Brown’s work has been critically framed in incomplete and even damaging ways, but that Brown was a Scottish Catholic artist whose grammar of devotion was global.