Intertestamental Literature (between Old and New Testaments): Old Testament Apocrypha May-June 2010

APOCRYPHA
Week of 20 April 2009

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Apocrypha (as in "cryptic" or hidden) refers to biblical books found only in Greek versions of the Bible, and therefore considered of doubtful canonic status. (Only Hebrew was considered God's language.) Yet the texts below  are considered "deuterocanonical" ("of the second canon") by the Catholic Church, though considered only as wisdom literature by Protestant churches (good for teaching but not doctrine).  But  these books have had great influence among Christians and inspired artists (Handel, for example, set apocryphal texts to music while Rembrandt used those texts for his paintings). These texts were written about 200 years before the birth of Christ, so they're called "intertestamental" (between the two Testaments).

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Tobit

Tobit is a fictional account of Jewish questions about God's justice, similar to the book of Job. Tobit represents an ideal Israel, faithfully observing the Torah (Jewish Law). Yet he's in exile, goes blind and wishes himself dead. In a parallel plot, Tobit's close relation, Sarah, has been unlucky in having seven husbands die on her wedding night (the work of a lustful demon). Unknown to them, the angel Raphael is sent from Heaven to help the family, showing that despite what may seem, God controls human events. Tobit represents exilic Israel, who, seemingly abandoned by God, is under God's care.

2

2: Upon seeing the abundance of food I [Tobit] said to my son [Tobias], "Go and bring whatever poor man of our brethren you may find who is mindful of the Lord, and I will wait for you."
3: But he came back and said, "Father, one of our people has been strangled and thrown into the market place."
4: So before I tasted anything I sprang up and removed the body to a place of shelter until sunset.
7: When the sun had set I went and dug a grave and buried the body.
9: On the same night I returned from burying him, and because I was defiled I slept by the wall of the courtyard, and my face was uncovered.
10: I did not know there were sparrows on the wall and their fresh droppings fell into my open eyes and white films formed on my eyes. I went to doctors, without cure.
Tobit is the ideal faithful Jew, observant of all Jewish dietary laws, caring for the unburied and concerned about ritual cleanliness (he sleeps outside because after touching a corpse he's unclean), the hungry, etc. Yet doing good, he suffers.

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7: On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was scolded by her father's maids,
8: because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon Asmodeus had slain each of them before he had been with her as his wife.
11: So she prayed by her window and said,
15: "Why should I live? Take pity on me."
16: Her prayer and Tobit's [to die] were heard.
Note the irony: though Sarah and Tobit pray for death, their prayers are answered, but to give them a better life, not death. Perhaps their prayers suggest their perfect faith in a just God. Note below we get the Devil as a full character, who needs to be bound, a motif repeated in the Gospels. Also repeated in the  Gospels is the question put to Jesus regarding a woman with seven husbands (Matthew 22:24-28; compare 3:8 above).
17: And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: to scale away the white films of Tobit's eyes; to give Sarah in marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because Tobias was entitled to possess her.

4

1: On that day Tobit remembered the money which he had left in trust with Gabael at Rages in Media, and he said to himself;
2: "I have asked for death. Why do I not call my son Tobias so that I may explain to him about the money before I die?"
3: So he called him and said,
14: "Watch yourself, my son, in everything you do, and be disciplined in all your conduct.
15: And what you hate, do not do to any one.
V. 15 is the famous Golden Rule in negative form (similar to that found in Confucian tradition). Jesus uses the positive form of the rule: "Do unto others," etc.
20: And now let me explain to you about the ten talents of silver I left in trust with Gabael the son of Gabrias at Rages in Media."

5

1: Then Tobias said, "I will do everything you have commanded."
4: So he went to look for a man; and he found Raphael, an angel,
5: but Tobias did not know it. Tobias said to him, "Can you go with me to Rages in Media? Are you acquainted with that region?"
6: The angel said, "Yes; I know the way, and our brother Gabael."
16: And his father said to him, "Go with this man; God who dwells in heaven will prosper your way, and may his angel attend you."
Because the writer narrates the plot to the reader, the reader enjoys the irony of Tobit's remark, "God will prosper your way," because we know that in fact Raphael is God's angel sent to help. On the way, a fish leaps up (sent by God) and Tobias (son of Tobit) is told to use parts of the fish to trap Sarah's demon on their wedding night. Then they arrive at Sara's house.

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1: When they had finished eating, [Sara's parents] showed Tobias to Sara.
2: As he went he remembered the words of Raphael and took the live ashes of incense and put the heart and liver of the fish upon them and made a smoke.
3: When the demon smelled the odor he fled to the far parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him.
11: Then Raguel [Sara's father] went into his house
12: and said to his wife Edna, "Send one of the maids to see whether he is alive; and if he is not, let us bury him without any one knowing about it."
Some humor here, since Sarah's father expects Tobias to have died..
13: So the maid opened the door and went in, and found them both asleep.
15: Then Raguel blessed God,

11

5: Now Anna sat looking intently down the road for her son.
6: And she caught sight of him coming, and said to his father, "Behold, your son is coming, and so is the man who went with him!"
7: Raphael said, "I know, Tobias, that your father will open his eyes.
8: You therefore must anoint his eyes with the gall; and when they smart he will rub them, and will cause the white films to fall away, and he will see you."
10: Tobit started toward the door, and stumbled. But his son ran to him
11: and took hold of his father, and he sprinkled the gall upon his father's eyes, saying, "Be of good cheer, father."
12: And when his eyes began to smart he rubbed them.
14: Then he saw his son and embraced him, and he wept and said, "Blessed art thou, O God, and blessed is thy name for ever, and blessed are all thy holy angels.
15: For thou hast afflicted me, but thou hast had mercy upon me; here I see my son Tobias!"
16: Then Tobit went out to meet his daughter-in-law at the gate of Nineveh, rejoicing and praising God.
In many ways, the book of Tobit sums up the attitude of the Jewish faithful during the difficult period when Jews waited patiently for a deliverer.

Susanna
A famous story featuring Daniel. There are many paintings of  "Susanna and the Elders." The story narrates God's power to save the innocent. This story, as well as Bel and the Dragon (also with Daniel) are ranked among the first detective stories.

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1: There was a man in Babylon whose name was Joakim.
2: His wife was Susanna, a beautiful woman who feared the Lord.
5: In that year two elders from the people were appointed as judges. Concerning them the Lord had said: "Iniquity came from Babylon, from elders who were judges, who were supposed to govern the people."
6: These men were frequently at Joakim's house. All who had suits at law came to them.
7: When the people departed at noon, Susanna would go into her husband's garden to walk.
8: The two elders saw her every day and desired her.
14. They planned when they could find her alone.
15: Once she went to bathe in the garden, for it was hot.
19: When her maids left, the elders ran to her, and said:
20: "The garden doors are shut, no one sees us, and we are in love with you; so lie with us.
21: If you refuse, we will say a young man was with you, and this was why you sent your maids away."
24: Susanna cried with a loud voice, and the two elders shouted against her.
36: The elders said, "As we were walking in the garden alone, this woman came in with two maids, shut the garden doors, and dismissed the maids.
37: Then a young man, who had been hidden, came to her and lay with her."
41: The assembly believed them, because they were judges; and they condemned her to death.
42: Susanna cried out, "O God,
43: you know these men have lied. And now I am to die!"
44: The Lord heard her cry.
45: And as she was being led away to be put to death, God aroused the holy spirit of a young lad named Daniel;
46: and he cried with a loud voice,
48: "Are you fools, sons of Israel? Have you condemned a daughter of Israel without examination or learning the facts?
51: And Daniel said, "Separate them, and I will examine them."
52: He summoned one of them and said,
54: "Under what tree did you see them being intimate with each other?" He answered, "Under a mastic tree."
56: Then he put him aside and said to the other,
58: "Under what tree did you catch them being intimate with each other?" He answered, "An oak."
59: And Daniel said, "You have lied against your own head, for the angel of God is waiting to destroy you both."
60: Then the assembly shouted loudly and blessed God, who saves those who hope in him.
61: They rose against the two elders, for out of their own mouths Daniel had convicted them of bearing false witness;
62: and they did to them as they had planned to do to their neighbor.

Wisdom of Solomon
This and Ecclesiasticus (see below) are the two great Wisdom books of the Apocrypha. The writer uses Greek ideas to defend the Jewish law (Torah). Note the increasing sense of doubt about God's justice, which led to the writing of Apocalypses and eschatological ideas (the End Times) (hence Jesus' emphasis on eschatological parables, preaching a near judgment):

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1: [Sinners reason] unsoundly, saying to themselves, "Short and sorrowful is our life.
5: Our given time is the passing of a shadow, and there is no return from our death.
6: "Come, let's enjoy the good things that exist.
10: Let's oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow nor regard the gray hairs of the aged.
11: Let might be right; for what's weak is worthless.
12: So let's lie in wait for the righteous.
Such verses as these, seeming to refer to Jesus, doubtless defended inclusion of this book in the Catholic canon:
13: He claims to have knowledge of God and calls himself the child of God.
14: He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
15: the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.
16: We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.
18: But if the just man be the son of God, God will help him from his enemies.
19: Let us examine him with spite and torture, that we may know if he is meek and try his patience.
20: Let's condemn him with a shameful death; for by his own claim he shall be respected.
21: But their wickedness blinded them,
22: and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls;
23: for God created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own eternity,
24: but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his party experience it.

3
The following verses, on immortality, also helped make this book part of the Catholic canon:

1: But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God.
4: For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.
5: Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself.

4

7: The righteous man, though he die early, will be at rest.
10: There was one who pleased God and was loved by him, and while living among sinners he was taken up.
11: He was caught up lest evil change his understanding or guile deceive his soul.
14: His soul was pleasing to the Lord, who took him quickly from the midst of wickedness.

5

1: Then the righteous man will stand with great confidence in the presence of those who have afflicted him or who make light of his labors.
2: They will fear and be amazed at his unexpected salvation.
3: They will groan, and say,
4: "We fools! We thought his life madness and his end without honor.
8: What has our arrogance profited us? And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?
9: "All those things have vanished like a shadow, and like a rumor that passes by;
10: like a ship that sails through the billowy water, and when it has passed no trace can be found, nor track of its keel in the waves. . . .

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29: [Wisdom] is more beautiful than the sun. Compared with the light she is superior,
30: for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail.

 9

4: Give me the wisdom that sits by your throne.
9: With you is wisdom, who knows your works and was present when you made the world.
As with Proverbs 8, one can see from verses 4, 9 how the incipit (first verses) of John's Gospel emerged by the end of the first century CE.

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3: But when an unrighteous man departed from her in his anger, he perished because in rage he slew his brother.
4: When the earth was flooded because of him, wisdom again saved it, steering the righteous man by a paltry piece of wood.
The motif of the "wood" was also used typologically by Christians to refer to Jesus' Cross, which "saved" men, as the Flood was also used by St. Peter and others as a type of baptism.

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5: It is thy will that works of thy wisdom should not be without effect; therefore men trust their lives even to the smallest piece of wood, and passing through the billows on a raft they come safely to land.
7: For blessed is the wood by which righteousness comes.
In this way (though not intended by the writer of this text), the "wood" of Noah's Ark became, for Christians, a type of the wood of Jesus' cross, "by which righteousness comes."

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
Note the emphasis on Wisdom again in chapter 1. We saw this in Proverbs 8, again in the Wisdom of Solomon above, and now here. It will later appear in the incipit of John's Gospel:

6:

18: My son, from your youth up choose instruction, and until you are old you will keep finding wisdom.
19: Come to her like one who plows and sows, and wait for her good harvest. For in her service you will toil a little while, and soon you will eat of her produce.
Note the image of sowing and reaping in good time, a central image in Jesus' parables.

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11: Do not envy the honors of a sinner, for you do not know what his end will be.

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9: How can he who is dust and ashes be proud? for even in life his bowels decay.
10: the king of today will die tomorrow.

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18: There is a man who is rich, and this is the reward given him:
19: when he says, "I have found rest, and now I shall enjoy my goods!" he does not know how much time will pass until he leaves them to others and dies.
Vv. 18-19 are expressed in Jesus' parable of the Rich Fool and also in Ecclesiastes. V. 21 is typical of Jesus' parables of farming and waiting.

14

12: Remember that death will not delay, and the hour of Death has not been shown you.
14: Do not deny yourself a happy day or your share of good.
Vs. 14, 18 are similar to Ecclesiastes. V. 14 became a Commandment in later Judaism.

19

1: He who despises small things will fail little by little.
Similar to Jesus' parable of the Mustard seed. The next verse, about gossip, is comically phrased. The point is, once people know a secret, they suffer until they gossip about it!

21

10: The way of sinners is smoothly paved with stones, but at its end is the pit of Hades.
Familiar in the English proverb, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

24

1: Wisdom will praise herself, and will glory in the midst of her people.
9: From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall not cease to exist.
Similar to John's "Word": though Jesus was not "created," but "begotten": a theological distinction that must be taken on faith.

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6: The fruit discloses the cultivation of a tree; so the expression of a thought discloses the cultivation of a man's mind.
Also similar to Jesus' parable: "By their fruits ye shall know them."

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33: The works of the Lord are all good, and he will give every need in its hour.
34: And no one can say, "This is worse than that," for all things will prove good in their season.
The next chapters are among the most famous in the Bible. While praising the leisure of the wise man, the writer nonetheless captures the work of each artisan or laborer.

40

24: The wisdom of the scribe depends on the opportunity of leisure; and he who has little business may become wise.

 44
What may be the most famous chapter in this book; the first phrase of v. 1 was used as the title of a James Agee book.

1: Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers.
4: leaders of the people in understanding, wise in their words of instruction;
5: those who composed musical tunes, and set forth verses in writing. . . .

Bel and the Dragon
This charming fiction has claim to be the world's first detective story. It features Daniel. (Most scholars believe the "dragon" is really a snake.)

1

3: The Babylonians had an idol called Bel.
4: The king worshiped it. But Daniel worshiped God.
5: And the king said, "Why do you not worship Bel?
6: "Do you not think Bel a living God? Do you not see he eats and drinks every day?"
7: Then Daniel laughed. "This is but clay inside and brass outside, and it never ate or drank anything."
8: The king was angry and called his priests and said, "If you do not tell me who is eating this food, you shall die.
9: But if you prove Bel is eating them, Daniel shall die, because he cursed Bel."
11: And the priests of Bel said, "See, we are going outside; you yourself, O king, shall place the food and wine, and shut the door and seal it.
12: And when you return in the morning, if you do not find that Bel has eaten it all, we will die; or else Daniel will, who is telling lies about us."
13: They were unconcerned, for beneath the table they had made a hidden entrance, through which they used to go in regularly and eat the food.
14: When they had gone out, the king set forth the food for Bel. Then Daniel ordered his servants to bring ashes and they dropped them throughout the whole temple in the presence of the king. Then they went out, sealed the door, and left.
15: In the night the priests came with their wives and children, as they were accustomed to do, and ate and drank everything.
16: Early in the morning the king came with Daniel.
17: And the king said, "Are the seals unbroken, Daniel?" He answered, "They are."
18: As soon as the doors were opened, the king looked at the table, and shouted in a loud voice, "You are great, O Bel; and with you there is no deceit."
19: Then Daniel laughed and said, "Look at the floor, and notice whose footsteps these are."
20: The king said, "I see the footsteps of men and women and children."
21: Then the king was enraged and seized the priests and their wives and children; and they showed him the secret doors through which they were accustomed to enter and eat what was on the table.
22: So the king put them to death, and gave Bel over to Daniel, who destroyed it and its temple.
23: There was also a great dragon, which the Babylonians revered.
24: And the king said to Daniel, "You cannot deny this is a living god; so worship him."
25: Daniel said, "I will worship the Lord my God, for he is the living God.
26: But if you give me permission, I will slay the dragon without sword or club." The king said, "I give you permission."
27: Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and boiled them together and made cakes, which he fed to the dragon. The dragon ate them, and burst open. And Daniel said, "See what you have been worshiping!"

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Prayer of Manasseh 1
Because Manasseh was an evil ruler but had a successful reign, Bible writers had to show him repenting before God (we are told in Chronicles that he prayed to God); hence this prayer, supposedly spoken by Manasseh, explaining why he was successful in his reign:

12: I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I know my transgressions.
14: In me you will show your goodness; for, unworthy as I am, you will save me in your mercy.
15: I will praise always. For all the host of heaven sings your praise, and yours is the glory for ever. Amen.

1 Maccabees
The books of the Maccabees were very popular among early Christians (later "Catholics:) because of the ideas of expiatory suffering and atoning prayers for the dead. Hence the canonic status of 1 & 2 Maccabees for Catholics. The texts concern the "Abomination" of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BCE and its purification and dedication in 164, on 25 December, now called the Jewish Feast of Lights, or Chanukah, an eight-day holiday.

1

7: After Alexander had reigned twelve years, he died.
8: Then his officers began to rule, each in his own place.
10: From them came forth a sinful root, Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus the king.
Just like people today are attracted by American culture, the writer here speaks of "Hellenization," or modeling one's conduct on Greek norms. This was scorned by faithful Jews. Some Jews howver went so far as to undergo "epispasm," reversing the appearance of circumcision to look Greek. (Gymnasiums were basic to Greek culture, where youth appeared nude; so circumcision would be easily noticed among Jews [v. 15].)
11: In those days lawless men came forth from Israel, and misled many, saying, "Let us go and make a covenant with the Gentiles round about us, for since we separated from them many evils have come upon us."
14: So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, according to Gentile custom,
15: and removed the marks of circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant. They joined with the Gentiles and sold themselves to evil.
20: After subduing Egypt, Antiochus went up against Israel.
21: He arrogantly entered the sanctuary and took the golden altar, the lampstand for the light, and its utensils.
44: He sent letters to Jerusalem and Judah; he directed them to follow customs strange to the land,
45: to forbid burnt offerings and sacrifices and drink offerings in the sanctuary, to profane sabbaths and feasts,
47: to build altars and shrines for idols, to sacrifice unclean animals,
48: and to leave their sons uncircumcised.
This is the "Abomination" Daniel and Jesus refer to:
54: They erected a desolating sacrilege upon the altar of burnt offering. They also built altars in the surrounding cities of Judah,
55: and burned incense at the doors of the houses and in the streets.
56: The books of the law which they found they tore to pieces and burned with fire.
60: They killed women who had their children circumcised,
61: and they hung the infants from their mothers' necks.
62: But many in Israel stood firm.
63: They chose to die than be defiled.

2

17: Then the king's officers spoke to Mattathias as follows: "You are a leader, honored and great in this city, and supported by sons and brothers.
18: Now be the first to come and do what the king commands, as all the Gentiles and the men of Judah and those that are left in Jerusalem have done. Then you and your sons will be numbered among the friends of the king, and you and your sons will be honored with silver and gold and many gifts."
19: But Mattathias answered and said in a loud voice:
22: "We will not obey the king's words by turning aside from our religion to the right hand or to the left."
23: When he had finished speaking these words, a Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice upon the altar in Modein, according to the king's command.
24: When Mattathias saw it, he burned with zeal and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and killed him upon the altar.
25: At the same time he killed the king's officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar.
27: Then Mattathias cried out in the city with a loud voice, saying: "Let every one who is zealous for the law and supports the covenant come out with me!"
28: And he and his sons fled to the hills.
42: There united with them a company of Hasideans, mighty warriors of Israel, every one who offered himself willingly for the law.
44: They organized an army, and struck down sinners; the survivors fled to the Gentiles for safety.
45: Mattathias and his friends tore down the altars;
46: they forcibly circumcised all the uncircumcised boys that they found within the borders of Israel.

4

[After several victories in battle comes the Dedication of the Temple, which became the Jewish holiday called Chanukah, whose date, the 25th of December, influenced the dating of Christ's birthday. Another influence for the dating of Christ's birthday was the Persian celebration of the revived sun (solstice) around that date, as well as the final verses in the book of Malachi, which predicts the coming of a "sun of righteousness with healing in its wings" (4:2)]

36: Then said Judas Maccabeus [son of Mattathias who has died] and his brothers, "Behold, our enemies are crushed; let us go up to cleanse the sanctuary and dedicate it."
47: Then they took unhewn stones, as the law directs, and built a new altar like the former one.
50: Then they burned incense on the altar and lighted the lamps on the lampstand, and these gave light in the temple.
59: Then it was decided that every year at that season the days of dedication of the altar should be observed with gladness and joy for eight days, beginning with the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev.

2 Maccabees
This book continues the story of the conflict between orthodox and Hellenized Jews:
4

7: When Seleucus died and Antiochus who was called Epiphanes succeeded to the kingdom, Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption. . . .

7

1: It happened that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and compelled by the king to eat unlawful swine's flesh.
2: One of them, acting as their spokesman, said, "What do you intend to ask and learn from us? For we are ready to die rather than disobey the laws of our fathers."
3: The king fell into a rage, and gave orders that pans and caldrons be heated
4: and he commanded that the tongue of their spokesman be cut out and that they scalp him and cut off his hands and feet, while the rest of the brothers and the mother looked on.
5: When he was utterly helpless, the king ordered them to take him to the fire, still breathing, and to fry him in a pan. The smoke from the pan spread widely, but the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying,
6: "The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, as Moses declared in his song which bore witness against the people to their faces, when he said, `And he will have compassion on his servants.'"
7: After the first brother had died in this way, they brought forward the second for their sport. They tore off the skin of his head with the hair, and asked him, "Will you eat rather than have your body punished limb by limb?"
8: He replied in the language of his fathers, and said to them, "No." Therefore he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.
This is the resurrection motif that appealed to early Christians:
9: And when he was at his last breath, he said, "You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because we have died for his laws."
10: After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands,
11: and said nobly, "I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again."
14: And when he was near death, he said, "One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him. But for you there will be no resurrection to life!"
20: Though their mother saw her seven sons perish in a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord.
21: She encouraged each of them:
23: The Creator will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you die for the sake of his laws."
27: [L]eaning close to [her son], she spoke in their native tongue as follows:
29: "Accept death, so in God's mercy I may get you back again with your brothers."
41: Last of all, the mother died, after her sons.

12
In one battle, Judas Maccabeus, the leader of the rebellion against Hellenization of the Jews, gathers up the dead and prays for them. This is used by the writer of the book to prove the resurrection of the dead in the following way (a point cherished by the early Catholic church, which believed in prayers for the dead, hence the book's canonical status in the Catholic Bible):

44: [I]f he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead.
45: Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin.

4 Maccabees
3 & 4 Maccabees are not canonical in the Catholic church (and not in Protestant churches) but were studied by early Christians for the idea of "expiatory suffering" (that another, like Jesus, can die for the sins of others). There is Stoic influence here. Stoicism believed in controlling the emotions through Reason; it believed that man was part of the just order of Nature and should live in harmony with Nature's Law. The philosophy survives in the English word, "stoic," used of people who control their emotions:

1

1: The subject I am about to discuss is whether devout reason is master over the emotions.

2

2: Joseph is praised, because by mental effort he overcame sexual desire.
4: Not only is reason proved to rule over the frenzied urge of sexual desire, but every desire.

5
The stories of Eleazor and the mother's seven sons in the previous book are retold as types of Reason over the emotions for the sake of God's Law. Eleazor is old; the mother is a woman; her sons are young; yet they defy natural emotions (fear, weakness, motherly love) because Reason tells them to obey God's Law:

14: When the tyrant [Antiochus] urged Eleazar to eat meat unlawfully, he said,
22: "You mock our philosophy as though living by it were irrational,
23: but it teaches us self-control, so that we master all pleasures and desires, and it also trains us in courage, so that we endure suffering;
24: it instructs us in justice, so in all our dealings we act fairly, and it teaches us to worship the only real God.
34: I will not play false to you, O law that trained me, nor will I renounce you, beloved self-control."

6

26: When he was burned to his very bones and about to expire, he lifted up his eyes to God and said,
27: "You know, O God, that though I might have saved myself, I am dying in burning torments for the sake of the law.
Here appears the motif of expiation, or dying for another's sins, which became dear to early Christian martyrs, as in Jesus' own expiatory death (that is, death for the sake of others):
28: Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them.
29: Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs."
31: Devout reason is therefore master of the emotions.

17
Note the Resurrection and Expiation motifs:

17: The tyrant himself [Antiochus] and all his council marveled at their endurance,
18: because of which they now stand before the divine throne and live through blessed eternity.
22: And through the blood of those devout ones and their death as an expiation, divine Providence preserved Israel that previously had been afflicted.

18

23: The sons of Abraham with their victorious mother are gathered together into the chorus of the fathers, and have received pure and immortal souls from God.

Judith
The book of Judith has been influential in literature and art, but it's fiction, Judith =Judah, representing an ideal Israel. Historical facts are wrong: Nebuchadnezzar was king of the Babylonians, not the Assyirans. By this time, Jews had lost touch with their history. Many bible motifs should be apparent: the weak woman destroying, through God's grace, the strong warrior (as Jael killed Sisera in the book of Judges); the motif of faithfulness (the widow Judah remains faithful to her dead husband), obeying the Law (Torah), the motif of God's reversal (Hannah's prayer; Mary's Magnificat), etc.

2

1: The people of Israel in Judea heard everything Holofernes, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians, had done to the nations, and how he had destroyed their temples;
11: And they bowed before the temple
13: So the Lord heard their prayers.

7

1: Holofernes ordered his army to make war on the Israelites.
19: The people of Israel cried out to the Lord their God.

 8

1: Judith heard about these things
4: Judith lived as a widow.
7: She was beautiful and
8: feared God.
10: She sent her maid to call the elders of her city.
11: They came to her, and she said, "Listen to me, rulers of Bethulia! What you have said to the people today is not right, promising to surrender the city to our enemies unless the Lord turns and helps us within so many days.
33: I will go with my maid; and within the days after which you have promised to surrender the city to our enemies, the Lord will deliver Israel by my hand."

9

1: Then Judith cried out to the Lord,
Typical of the prayers of Hannah (Samuel's mother) and Mary (Jesus' mother):
11: "For you are God of the lowly, helper of the oppressed, upholder of the weak, savior of those without hope.

 10

3: Then she took off her widow's garments, and bathed her body with water, and anointed herself with ointment, and combed her hair and put on a tiara, and arrayed herself in her gayest apparel, which she used to wear while her husband was living.
For v. 3b, above, compare Isaiah 52:1ff.: "Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendour, O Jerusalem, the holy city."
4: And she put sandals, anklets, bracelets, rings, and her earrings and all her ornaments, and made herself beautiful, to entice the eyes of men who might see her.
11: The women went straight on through the valley; and an Assyrian patrol met her
12: and asked her, "To what people do you belong, and where are you coming from, and where are you going?" She replied, "I am a daughter of the Hebrews, but I am fleeing from them, for they are about to be handed over to you to be destroyed.
13: I am on my way to Holofernes, commander of your army. I will show him how he can capture the hill country without losing one of his men."

12

16: Then Judith came in and lay down, and Holofernes' heart was moved with desire.
20: And Holofernes drank more than he had ever drunk since he was born.

13

1: When evening came, his slaves left.
2: So Judith was alone with Holofernes on his bed, for he was overcome with wine.
3: Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber.
6: She went up to the post at the end of the bed, above Holofernes' head, and took down his sword that hung there.
7: She came close to his bed and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, "Give me strength this day, God of Israel!"
8: And she struck his neck twice and severed it from his body.
9: She went out, and gave Holofernes' head to her maid,
10: who placed it in her food bag. Then the two of them went up the mountain to Bethulia and came to its gates.
11: Judith called, "Open the gate! God is still with us, to show his power in Israel, and his strength against our enemies!"

Additions to the Book of Esther, 13
These verses, omitted from the canonical book of Esther, were added to compensate for the fact that Esther and Mordecai seem too godless in that book. These verses show that she and he were God-fearing. The following explains why Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman:

14: I will not bow down to any one but to thee, who art my Lord; and I will not do these things in pride.

14
These verses show that Esther did not really adapt to Persian culture, and, in fact, did not even eat non-Kosher food at King Xerxes' table!

15: You know all things; you know I hate the splendor of the wicked and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and of any alien.
16: I abhor the sign of my proud position, which is upon my head on the days when I appear in public.
18: I have had no joy since the day I was brought here until now, except in thee, O Lord God of Abraham."

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1 Esdras 3
Esdras is the Greek version of the name, Ezra.  1 Esdra is a redaction of parts of Chronicles and Nehemiah,  and all of the canonical Ezra. The sole addition is an interesting parable, set in the Persian period, about the power of Truth:

1: King Darius gave a banquet for the nobles of Media and Persia.
4: Then the three young men of the bodyguard, who kept guard over the person of the king, said to one another,
5: "Let each state what one thing is strongest; to him whose statement seems wisest, Darius the king will give rich gifts."
10: The first wrote, "Wine is strongest."
11: The second wrote, "The king is strongest."
12: The third wrote, "Women are strongest, but truth is victor over all things."
13: They took the writing and gave it to the king, and he read it.
16: And he said, "Call the young men, and they'll explain their statements."
17: Then the first said:
18: "Gentlemen, how is wine strongest? It leads astray.
19: It makes equal the mind of the king and the orphan, of the slave and the free, of the poor and the rich.
20: It turns every thought to feasting and mirth, and forgets sorrow and debt.
24: Gentlemen, is not wine the strongest, since it forces men to do these things?" When he had said this, he stopped speaking.

4

1: Then the second began to speak:
2: "Gentlemen, are not men strongest, who rule over land and sea and all that is in them?
3: But the king is stronger; he is their lord and master, and whatever he says they obey.
4: If he tells them to make war on one another, they do it.
5: If they win the victory, they bring everything to the king.
6: Likewise those who till the soil, when they sow, they reap the harvest and bring some to the king."
13: Then the third, that is Zerubbabel, who had spoken of women and truth, began to speak:
14: Gentlemen, is not the king great, and are not men many, and is not wine strong? Who then is their master, or who is their lord? Is it not women?
15: Women gave birth to the king and to every people that rules over sea and land.
18: If men gather gold and silver or any other beautiful thing, and then see a woman lovely in appearance and beauty,
19: they let all those things go, and gape at her, and with open mouths stare at her, and all prefer her to gold or silver or any other beautiful thing.
22: Hence you must realize that women rule over you! "Do you not labor and toil, and bring everything and give it to women?
28: "Is not the king great in his power? Do not all lands fear to touch him?
29: Yet I have seen him with his concubine; she would sit at his right hand
30: and take the crown from his head and put it on her own, and slap him with her left hand.
31: At this the king would gaze at her with mouth agape.
34: So are not women strong?
35: But truth is great, and stronger than all things.
36: The whole earth calls upon truth, and heaven blesses her. All God's works quake and tremble, and with him there is nothing unrighteous.
37: Wine is unrighteous, the king is unrighteous, women are unrighteous, all the sons of men are unrighteous, all their works are unrighteous, and all such things. There is no truth in them and in their unrighteousness they perish.
38: But truth endures for ever and ever!"
42: Then the king said to him, "You have been found to be the wisest. And you shall sit next to me, and be called my kinsman."*

2 Esdras, 1
Dated to the first century CE, this is a Jewish apocalypse, with Christian additions at the beginning and end, as seen in the following verses. Jesus compares himself to a mother hen protecting her young. These additions are "dispensationalist," telling why God rejected Jews, as in Jesus' parable of the vineyard:

28: "Thus says the Lord Almighty:
30: I gathered you as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. But now I will cast you out from my presence.
32: I sent to you my servants the prophets, but you have taken and slain them.
35: I will give your houses to a people that will come, who without having heard me will believe.
38: "And now, father [Ezra], look with pride and see the people coming from the east [=Gentiles: now it is Gentiles who will have the Patriarchs and the Prophets! Chapter 2 refers to the Diaspora, or Dispersion of the Jews, from the conquest of Northern Israel in 722 on.];
39: to them I will give as leaders Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Hosea and Amos and Micah and Joel and Obadiah and Jonah
40: and Nahum and Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, who is also called the messenger of the Lord.

2

7: Let them [Jews] be scattered among the nations, let their names be blotted out from the earth, because they have despised my covenant.
10: Thus says the Lord to Ezra: "Tell my people [Christians] that I will give them the kingdom of Jerusalem, which I was going to give to Israel.
11: I will take back their glory, and will give to these others the everlasting habitations, which I had prepared for Israel.
15: "Mother [the "new" Israel, or the Chuch], embrace your sons; bring them up with gladness, as does the dove; establish their feet, because I have chosen you, says the Lord.
The Resurrection motif again:
16: And I will raise up the dead from their places, and will bring them out from their tombs, because I recognize my name in them.
23: When you find any who are dead, commit them to the grave and mark it, and I will give you the first place in my resurrection."
Ezra represents the Law. The Christian symbolism is clear: the young man is Jesus:
42: I, Ezra, saw on Mount Zion a great multitude, which I could not number, and they all were praising the Lord with songs.
43: In their midst was a young man of great stature, taller than any of the others, and on the head of each of them he placed a crown, but he was more exalted than they.
44: Then I asked an angel, "Who are these, my lord?"
45: He answered and said to me, "These are they who have put off mortal clothing and have put on the immortal, and they have confessed the name of God; now they are being crowned, and receive palms."
46: Then I said to the angel, "Who is that young man who places crowns on them and puts palms in their hands?"
47: He answered and said to me, "He is the Son of God, whom they confessed in the world."

4
In the Jewish part of this book (the part above was a Christian addition), Ezra has dialogues with an angel, Uriel. The book is in the form of a theodicy and apocalypse (why righteous Israel suffers and how things will be set right in the second of the "two ages" that Jews and Christians believed in (the age of this life and the age of the afterlife):

22: Then I said, "I beseech you, my lord,
23: why the people whom you loved has been given over to godless tribes, and the law of our fathers has been made of no effect and the written covenants no longer exist;
24: and why we pass from the world like locusts, and our life is like a mist."
26: He [the angel Uriel] answered me and said, "The age is hastening swiftly to its end.
28: For the evil about which you ask me has been sown, but the harvest of it has not yet come.
Note images familiar in Jesus' eschatological parables: the harvest will be reaped in the face of suffering: a way to deal with suffering:
30: For a grain of evil seed was sown in Adam's heart from the beginning, and how much ungodliness it has produced until now, and will produce until the time of threshing comes!"

8
More eschatological commentary:

1: He answered me and said, "The Most High made this world for the sake of many, but the world to come for the sake of few.

9

10: And as many as did not acknowledge me in their lifetime, although they received my benefits,
11: and as many as scorned my law while they still had freedom, and did not understand but despised it while an opportunity of repentance was still open to them,
12: these must in torment acknowledge it after death.
20: So I considered my world, and behold, it was lost, and my earth, and behold, it was in peril because of the devices of those who had come into it.
22: So let the multitude perish which has been born in vain, but let my grape and my plant be saved, because with much labor I have perfected them.

12

31: "As for the lion whom you saw roaring and speaking to the eagle and reproving him for his unrighteousness,
32: this is the Messiah whom the Most High has kept until the end of days, who will arise from the posterity of David; he will denounce them for their wickedness.
33: For first he will set them living before his judgment seat, and when he has reproved them, then he will destroy them.
34: But he will deliver in mercy the remnant of my people.

14

23: "Go and gather the people, and tell them not to seek you for forty days.
25: and you shall come here, and I will light in your heart the lamp of understanding, which shall not be put out until what you are about to write is finished.
Ezra takes the place of Moses, writing the Holy Law by inspiration. V. 25 above was famously quoted by the martyr Latimer in the 16th century before his death.
34: If you, then, will rule over your minds and discipline your hearts, you shall be kept alive, and after death you shall obtain mercy.
The Resurrection motif again. Note the symbolic number, "40 days," during which Ezra writes the 24 books of the Jewish canon:
35: For after death the judgment will come, when we shall live again; and then the names of the righteous will be shown, and the deeds of the ungodly will be disclosed.
45: And when the forty days were ended, the Most High spoke to me, saying, "Make public the twenty-four books that you wrote first and let the worthy and the unworthy read them.
47: For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge."

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