The Literature of Judaism

The Religious Calendar

Closely related to worship in the temple were the religious restivals and holy days of the Jews. Their civil year began approximately in September-October, their religious year approximately in March-April. The Mosaic law prescribed the first six items on the calendar (Passover-Tabernacles). The remaining two (Hannukkah and Purim) arose later and apart from scriptural command. Pilgrims thronged to Jerusalem from elsewhere in Palestine and also from foreign countries for the three main festivals: Passover-Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.

The Literature of Judaism: Old Testament

The Old Testament existed in three linguistic forms for Jews of the first century: the original Hebrew, the Septuagint (a Greek translation), and the Targums 9oral paraphrases in Aramaic, which were just beginning to be written down). The Targums also contained traditional, interpretatitve, and imaginative material not found in the Old Testament itself.

Apocrypha

Written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and dating from the interestamental and New Testament periods, the apocryphal books of the Old Testament contain history, fiction, and wisdom. The Jews and later the early Christians did not generally regard these books as sacred Scripture. Thus apocrypha, which originally meant "hidden, secret" and therefore "profound," came to mean "noncanonical." The apocrphal books include the following:

1 Esdras
2 Esdras (or 4 Ezra, apocalyptic in content)
Tobit
Judith
Additons to the Book of Esther
Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach
Baruch
Letter of Jeremiah
Prayer of Azariah
Song of Three Young Men
Susanna
Bel and the Dragon
Prayer of Manasseh
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees

Pseudepigrapha and Apocalyptic

Other Jewish books dating from the same era are labeled pseudepigrapha ("falsely inscribed"), because some of them were written under the falsely assumed names of long-deceased Old Testament figures to achieve an air of authority. Some pseudepographal writings also fall into the class of apocalyptic literature, which describes in highly sumbolic and visionary language the end of present history with the coming of God's kingdom on earth. By promising the soon arrival of that kingdom, apocalyptists encouraged the Jewish people to endure persecution. Repeated disappointment of the hopes built up in his way eventually stopped the publication of apocalytpic literature.

The pseudepigraphal literature, which has no generally recognized limits, also contains anonymous books of legendary history, psalms, and wisdom. A list of well-known pseudepigraphal books follows:

1 Enoch
2 Enoch
2 Baruch, or the Apocalypse of Baruch
3 Baruch
Sybylline Oracles
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Testament of Job
Lives of the Prophets
Assumption of Moses
Martyrdom of Isaiah
Paralipomena of Jeremia
Jubilees
Life of Adam and Eve
Psalms of Solomon
Letter of Aristeas
3 Maccabees
4Maccabees

In addition, the Qumral scrolls discovered in caves near the Dead Sea include literature similiar to the traditiona pseudepigrapha:

Damascus (or Zadokite) Document (fragments of which were known before)

Rule of the Community, or Manual of Discipline

War Between the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness

Description of the New Jersusalem

Temple Scroll

Psalms of Joshua

Pseudo-jeremianic literature

Apocruphal Danielic literature

Various commentaries (pesherim) on the Psalms, Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah

Various books of laws, liturgies, prayers, blessings, mysteries, wisdom, and astronomical and calendrical calculations