The best Christian Bible Apocrypha & Pseudepigrapha books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels addresses this topic quite well. I'd try to summarize it here, but as a non-academic I'm afraid I'll distort a fairly complicated (and certainly arcane) subject. It's an enjoyable read, too and well worth your time.

A History of the Devil is a much more colloquial, less rigorous, and more opinionated book that I personally loved, but would be wary of ever using in citations. We're not taking Graham Hancock territory, it's just less serious than the Pagels book. It is also much broader in scope.

If you're genuinely interested, I recommend either The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels. Or if you want something a little less dry and academic, then check out A History of the Devil by Gerald Messadie.

But briefly, I would say that the "Christian cults got the notion that he's the 'enemy of God'" through the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 11 and Mark 3:25 are two quick examples of this.

The two volume set edited by James Charlesworth is probably the best collection of the pseudepigrapha in English. Each entry contains an intro with more into on the books included. It was published in the early 1980s so its a bit dated but a good point of entry into the literature.

Welcome! I haven't found any good gnostic Facebook groups. They're either unhelpful, full of conspiracies or weirdly orthodox with some stuff about chakras thrown in. This subreddit is small but good for discussion and learning.

If you don't already have one, get a print copy of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures. The introductions to each text, as well as the footnotes throughout, are invaluable and provide insight that is sometimes lacking when reading online.

For general books, check the list in the sidebar.

I think you need to look for the Nag Hammadi Library and the Berlin Codex. You can search around on Amazon for some others; here is a copy of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures

Depends on the religion.

Personally I'd recommend Elaine Pagels orgin of satan.

https://www.amazon.com/Origin-Satan-Christians-Demonized-Heretics/dp/0679731180

Basically the concept of satan started as a generic term for a critic or adversary (which clears up a massive issue with the story of Job) and evolved into what we think of him today.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, Revised Standard Version is one I like. It's a bit more conservative than the later New Revised Standard Version Oxford Annotated Bible, but still includes modern scholarship.

Edit: Amazon lies. This Bible is not made by Nintendo.

I got it for about 30 bucks on Amazon. So it’s more expensive than your standard pocket bible but it’s not bad as far as study bibles go. Considering the use I’ve gotten out of it and how much it’s helped me with both my studies and my faith, I would’ve gladly paid twice that. As a brother in Christ (sorry mods, I know that kind of language is kinda frowned upon here), I’d encourage you to splurge on it.

That doesn’t sound like a bad price for the ESV student bible if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for, but I wouldn’t consider that and the New Oxford as alternatives to each other. They’re really trying to accomplish two different things. If you already have a decent grasp on fundamental Christian theology, I don’t think you’ll gain a lot from the ESV student bible, unless you just want to keep it around to compare certain passages, which I do still use it for occasionally.

Link on amazon: The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version https://www.amazon.com/dp/019027607X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_nqH6CbC9THYR6

If you're set on RSV instead of NRSV, you're not likely to find one other than the 1977 New Oxford Annotated that's still in print.

The RSVCE is really an oddball. It's approved by the RCC for personal reading but not public reading. It's basically a mild revision of the RSV, edited out all the thee/thous, and 'corrected' the non-evangelical readings like Isaiah 7:14: "a virgin will conceive" (RSVCE) instead of "a young woman will conceive" (RSV). Similar to the ESV, which is obviously much more popular, but which is rarely printed with the Apocryphal books.

But if you're willing to buy a vintage Bible on eBay, you'll find a wealth of options. The RSV was one of the most popular Bibles in print from 1950-1990, so there are plenty of used copies out there. I'd pick up a vintage Nelson or Oxford edition, but the Nelson editions probably don't include the Apocrypha.

If you just want a decent one to have and read, and care about the Apocrypha, get a used hardcover copy of the 1977 New Oxford Annotated for about $10. It's a readable edition, there are millions of them out there, and it includes all Apocryphal books that exist in Latin or Greek (including Psalm 151).

For all 4 of those groups there are differences in the number of books translated, this is only in the Old Testament though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon#Table

I can only speak for the English language but 'most' Christians generally use the same couple of bible translations which became the most popular, with Catholics/Orthodox adding their own books when printed. For example the NKJV which was originally made by Protestants for Protestants is also very popular with Orthodox Christians (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orthodox-Study-Bible-OE-Some-NKJV/dp/0718003594). Likewise the RSV while being 70 years old is still used and updated by all groups of Christians, the Orthodox really like it because it was the first English translation with the whole Orthodox canon, there is also the RSV Catholic edition in print and the ESV revision for Protestants which is currently super popular.

I also think there are some traditional Catholics who would advocate only translating and reading the Latin Vulgate over the original Greek also but they are a pretty small minority today.

This is the Orthodox Study Bible. It was based on earlier English translations (mainly the NKJV) that were edited in places where they disagreed with the standard Orthodox Bible. So it's not perfect, but it's the best full Orthodox Bible available in English.

On the other hand, for the New Testament - not the entire Bible, just the New Testament - there is a better Orthodox translation available. You really should start reading with the New Testament anyway, not the Old, so I suggest buying this one first.

The best way to read the Bible is to start with the New Testament (minus the Book of Revelation; that will make no sense without extensive study), then read the Old Testament, then read the New Testament again.

The reason to do it this way is because the NT contains the core message of Christianity, so you need to read it first in order to get the main points first. The OT is important background information, so read that second. Then read the NT again because you will understand more of it after you've gone through the background information.

Well the problem is that we really have to have annotations instead of commentary...

There are so many self-referential elements to the text that to not explain them is to do a disservice to the audience.

It's just that we're 200 years ahead of our time... If you get an annotated Bible now the annotations are all you know college level discussions of language and time and place and person and you get a massive amount of scholarship crammed in there.

we just don't have people who are willing to do that for Zen texts in the academic world... What we get is religious people trying to put their spin on what it means to practice mu.

That doesn't mean that the information isn't out there and that putting it in one place wouldn't be useful.

If you've never seen the Oxford... https://www.amazon.com/dp/0190276088/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_sAqaGbY9HG5WQ

The issue there is of course that this text is aggressively secular to the point of being almost insulting to lots of different religions.

It is this one. Amazon has been kind enough to tell me I purchased it in February 2013. When I bought it I did google search on (oxford study bible site:amazon.com) and it was the first result and I clicked twice more and naively proceeded onward like that is now taken care of forever.

I did this at the encouragement of Dale Martin's New Testament Yale U. videos. I have this weird memory that he said something about the NRSV being a more politically correct translation; maybe like in this example the Proverb we began with NRSV has "person" and the RSV has "man". I have a clear memory of him reading from his version in front of the class in at least one instance and his oxford study bible is materially different from his students' oxford study bibles.

In retrospect I am not happy that I paid Amazon their retail and I could have gotten a good second hand copy for five bucks. :(

I highly recommend you try 'Lost Christianities' (Amazon URL) by Bart Ehrman. Prof. Ehrman is a renowned scholar of the new testament and in this text he describes the theological beliefs and history of the earliest christian communities, with a special focus on the competing gospels, epistles, and history of the very early christian communities whose beliefs did not end up making it into the mainstream christian tradition later on. This book was eye opening and set me on a path of serious discovery and interest in scholarship of early Christianity and late antiquity.

This is the one to go for, all the translations in here are pretty reliable and the scholarly commentary for them is spot on and generally quite detailed.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nag-Hammadi-Scriptures-Translation-Complete/dp/0061626007

You won't find any better than the New Oxford Annotated Bible. For just the Hebrew Bible you also won't go wrong with the Jewish Publication Society's translation of the Tanakh or Robert Alter's translation with commentary.

Satan/Lucifer being considered evil is a post-Biblical invention of Christianity. You seem to be thinking of Paradise Lost in your post.

The answer is complicated, but a great telling of how Satan became the Great Evil Opposer of God can be found in https://smile.amazon.com/Origin-Satan-Christians-Demonized-Heretics/dp/0679731180#ace-2093936695 if you are a reader.

This one: https://www.amazon.com/Orthodox-Study-Bible-Hardcover-Christianity/dp/0718003594/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2AS0ADST544Z0&keywords=orthodox+study+bible&qid=1671575403&sprefix=orthodox+%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1

As a layperson, I find the Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) to be an excellent resource.

Amazon link

I use the Orthodox Study Bible, it's based on the NKJV, but with the Old Testament translated from the Septuagint instead of the Masoretic Text (The Hebrew bible written by the Jewish clan of Scribes known as the Masorets, it was probably translated between the 7th-10th century AD, That is the Most Common source for most Protestants' Bibles' Old Testament.

Wereas the Septuagint was written in 300 AD, when the King of Alexandria wanted a scripture in the common language of Greek. So, he has 70 Scholars (Septuagint is Latin for 70) each translate the entire Old Testament alone. And when they were complete and they compared their copies they were completely identical, this is why I said it was divinely inspired Greek translation.

This story is also repeated in the Jewish Talmud, which is why it used to be that you could read from either the Hebrew Tanack, or the Greek Tanack, both were fine. But when the Christians started using the Greek Tanach, they stopped that practice and only reading from the Hebrew Tanach was acceptable. Christians used the Septuagint explicitly, until St. Jerome, when he was writing the Vulgate, chose to translated the Vulgate's Old Testament from Hebrew.

They’re completely different things. The NRSV, or more recently the NRSVue, is just a translation. It’s just a Bible. That’s it. It has footnotes and some extras, but it’s not really a study Bible.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible is what is called a “study” bible. It has lots of essays and introductions by well established scholars in the field. It has colorful maps and charts and timelines and indexes.

The “study” bibles are more like an encyclopedia than just a translation. Does that make sense? The only unfortunate thing is that I don’t think any of the study bibles have released an updated edition to reflect the new NRSVue updates, but that’s not a huge deal, since most of the translation remained the same anyway.

>I've recently been getting in to orthodoxy and I've been doing things that I have knowledge on like using my prayer rope and saying morning prayers

Glory be to God! It's always nice to hear of a new convert.

>I want to go to my local church for liturgy but my parents are Jehovah's Witnesses and they won't take me to church also I'm 17 and can't drive yet

Can you walk to the nearest Orthodox Church, there might be people willing to give you a ride. Alternatively, you could be able to take the bus. I also don't drive, it's way too expensive. So those are methods that I've used to get to Church.

>I don't know what kind of bible to use

There is a wonderful translation in English known as The Orthodox Study Bible. You can order it Here if you live in Canada like me, or Here if you live in America. If you don't have a credit card, no sweat, most Orthodox parishes will have a copy that you can buy.

Satans were originally a category of angel assigned the task of obstructing man's waywardness and to act as a debate partner with YHWH. They didn't lose this identity until Hellenization gave the world a new way of thinking. Christians conflated "Satan" with Lucifer.

https://www.amazon.com/Origin-Satan-Christians-Demonized-Heretics/dp/0679731180

It might have been common knowledge that Peter, a fisherman by trade, would have had no ability to read or write, so assigning Peter's story to Mark might have been the most logical invention for creating apostolic tradition of the stories in Mark.

Also, be mindful of your reasoning here - just because there are no extant counter-traditions doesn't mean they didn't exist. Nearly all competing literature from early Christian tradition has completely vanished. The most we know about competing traditions tends to come from what was gainsaid in preserved 'orthodox' literature. Check out Erhman's primer "Lost Christianities" https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Christianities-Battles-Scripture-Faiths/dp/0195182499. Remember that every group of Christians believed their sect held the orthodox view that preserved the sacred tradition of the real Jesus as handed down by the original apostles. Every sect thinks that they are orthodox, and that their canon has merit.

We only have the preserved corpus of one sect - and only mentions or vanishing traces of the countless others.

AcademicBiblical subreddit consensus is the New Oxford Annotated Bible, which uses the NRSV as its base translation. NIV is popular, but not as impartial as its promotors would like you to think.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version

https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Annotated-Bible-Apocrypha/dp/019027607X

Don't miss out on the apocrypha and scholarly notes!

First of all, it is very nice that you are interested in Christianity, even if you don't become a Christian. If you need to learn more about Christianity, you must do a lot of reading. I would recommend buying the Orthodox Study Bible which contains many notes about the biblical passages. You might also be interested in a book by Fr. Kallistos Ware titled The Orthodox Way, which explains much of the basic history and doctrines of Eastern Orthodoxy specifically.

Of course, as an Orthodox Christian, I have only recommended Orthodox books. You should also study other, non-Orthodox sources.

A professor of religion at an Ivy League school wrote a groundbreaking book on this very subject.

It received a lot of positive feedback by religious scholars. I stopped digging after reading it because I was satisfied with the explanations and it helped me have some context for the contradictions I found by providing the political explanation for what was going on.

Here is what I was given when my parents thought I was going to end up a priest. Has notes for old and new testament. Used it for RCIA and it was extremely helpful. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0190276088/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_GTVSPRJEYRQKXVAMW0QV

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels was helpful to me.

https://www.amazon.com/Gnostic-Gospels-Elaine-Pagels/dp/0679724532

Be blessed!