The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes

I enjoyed reading this because first off; it’s ESV. I like to understand what I’m reading rather than to come to vague conclusions based off of ancient translations. It includes all 14 books Luther translated, and it also includes all of the apocryphal texts from other church’s. Complaints? The book is smaller than it looks, nearly 2/3’s of the text are just reference notes. Otherwise it’s exactly what I expected. The Prayer of Manasseh is my personal favorite.

Note bene: This review is from a decidedly Lutheran perspective (also bringing in the German heritage of many Lutherans). After all, this edition of the Apocrypha calls itself, "The Lutheran Edition."In 397 AD, at Carthage (today in Tunisia), the Church gathered to resolve an issue: what books being read in the Church are Scripture? Throughout the New Testament Church's history, there was never complete unanimity on what books made up the Scriptures; yet, there was general agreement.But now, two controversies demanded the Church to speak with one voice. First, some began to add and take away from what the Church had generally recognized as Scripture. Second, a debate arose on how to treat the books that the Lutheran Church today calls "The Apocrypha." Some viewed those books as secondary canon (Deuterocanon), books of the Bible that would take a secondary role in making Church doctrine. Some viewed those books as "worthy of being read" (anagignoskomena): they were to be read in Church and preached from, but not used to make doctrine. Others said, such as Jerome, those books should no longer be used in the Church.What resulted at Carthage? The Council provided a list of the books of the Bible that the entire Christian Church would recognize and use. And what were those books? It is what today would be the Protestant Bible--including the Apocrypha!So, why is it now that Concordia Publishing House is printing the Apocrypha apart from the rest of the Scriptures? That's a long story, including the greater-Protestant worldview influencing the Lutheran Church and our transition to speaking, reading, and worshiping in English.When we North American Lutherans stopped using our German Bibles--which always had the Apocrypha in them--we adopted the Protestant English-language Bibles, which by then, already had the Apocrypha excised from them. Today, almost 100 years later, most Lutherans simply see the Apocrypha as not part of the Bible. After all, do you own any Bibles that have the Apocrypha in them?Yet, if we were to go back to the Reformation, we would find that the Lutheran Confessions do not even list what books make up the Bible. That's because we had no disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church on what the books of the Bible were. And the few places where the Lutheran Confessions refer to the Apocrypha, they refer to them and even call them "Scripture" (for instance, Ap, V, 158 and Ap XXI, 9). And when the Lutheran Church first listed the books of the Bible, the Apocrypha is listed among them (Chemnitz, An Enchiridion). The one time our Lutheran Confessions use the term "canonical Scriptures" is when they quote St. Augustine, who said that we must not "hold anything contrary to the canonical Scriptures of God" (AC, XXVII, 28). And what were the Scriptures for Augustine when he said that? They included the Deuterocanon, which we Lutherans call the Apocrypha.So, now I get to my only serious gripe with The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition. It's an edition with excellent notes and background. All Lutherans should have a copy and read it. Where this edition errs is that it calls itself "Lutheran" yet disagrees with the Lutheran Confessions. For Lutherans, the Apocrypha is Scripture. So say our Confessions. Case closed.That being said, the Lutheran Church has never recognized the Apocrypha as canon--that which the Church uses to make doctrine. So, when one reads in this Lutheran Edition that the Apocrypha is not "canon," that is true. Unfortunately, what the writers leave out is that Scripture contains books the Lutheran Church has never considered to be canon.All the canonical books of the Bible are Scripture, but not all the Scriptures are canonical. Revelation is a prime example--it is Scripture but not canonical. Because of its disputed status in the early Church, the Lutheran Church chooses not to use Revelation to make doctrine. Yet, we have not tossed out the book of Revelation from our Bibles. (Luther might have, with the Apocrypha, Esther, Song of Songs, and James. Yet, he knew such a decision was not his to make and so he left those books in his translation of the Bible.)So, here we are. What are we to do with this deficient edition of the Apocrypha that calls itself "Lutheran"? Buy it, read it, and study it. You will find much that points to Christ. You will find much that makes the New Testament more understandable. You will even find Jesus uphold the Apocrypha book of Tobit in His discussion with the Sadducees (Matthew 22:23-28).As a Lutheran, you will find even more. You will find passages that some Lutheran hymns use as their scriptural source (Lutheran Service Book 359, 895, 930). You will find saints in the Apocrypha the Lutheran Church used to remember and celebrate (Tobias, Susanna, and Judith). You will find introits and graduals in our liturgy that comes from those books. And if you were to read sermons that our Lutheran fathers preached, you would find Apocrypha texts they read and preached from during worship. Now, if the Lutheran Church didn't consider the Apocrypha as Scripture, she surely had a schizophrenic way of showing that!And so I leave you with this--buy this edition and study it. Read the historical, background information. But ignore all the commentary that refuses to accept these books as part of Scripture. If you approach the Apocrypha in that way, you will be much the richer for it.

I absolutely recommend this magnificent work to anyone who is interested in the books of the OT that are called deutero-canonical or apocrypha. Even though this work is centered around Lutheranism's views on and interpretation of these books, Anglicans, Orthodox, and Roman Catholics will each gain a great deal from study of this masterpiece.The "Table of Contents" to this magnum opus immediately alerts the reader to the vast scope and erudition within. It is too voluminous to list in full detail. But here are the sections and many of their components:- Front Matter, including Contributors, Acknowledgements, Foreward, The Engravings, Editor's Preface, Preface to ESV Apocrypha, Features, and Reading Guide.- An Introduction to the Apocrypha and the Time Between the Testaments, covering 13 areas starting with "Getting Started" and ending with "Theological Teachings of the Time Between..."- The Appocrypha: Arrangement of Books and Title Variations- The Compositions: Judith, Wisdom, Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah- The Histories: 1 & 2 Maccabees- The Additions: Eshter, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon- The Prayers and Songs: Prayer of Azariah, Song of the Three Holy Children, Prayer of ManassehNOTE: Each of the above books, the books in Luther's Bible, has extensive footnotes, while those listed below do not. The same applies for the lovely engravings which are only in the books above; they are by Julius Schnorr von Carlsfeld out of his engravings for Luther's translation of the Bible (1860).- The Apocryphal Books in Other Christian Traditions: starting with three short essays and then 1 & 2 Esdras, 3 & 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151.Each of the individual books has an introduction with timeline: consisting of an "Overview", "Summary", "Gerhard on...", "Challenges for Readers", and "Outline". The books in Luther's Bible also include "Luther on..." and "Blessings for Readers".- Appendices (10): starting with "The Elephantine Papryi" (p. 334) and ending with "The Nag Hammadi Codices" (p. 357)- Reference Guide: covering 15 areas starting at "Abbreviations" (p. 360) and ending with "Apocrypha Topics" (p. 406)The paper is high quality, the binding is outstanding, and the type is moderately easy to read. The book has 417 numbered pages (1-417), preceded by about 100 pages in Roman numerals (starting without numerals and ending with c). There are eight maps scatted throughout, and even a detailed drawing of Herod's Temple along with Herodian Family Tree and lists of Judean procurators and High Priests. This work has it all! The source for the text is the Oxford University's 2009 ESV Appocrypha.I cannot say enought good things about this work. Study it at your leisure and pleasure! [I write as an Eastern Orthodox Christian whose Church includes these books as part of its "official" canon of scripture. And Tobit is my "favorite" book of the entire bible.]

All satisfactory thank you.Why do you always have to be buttered up? I will soon tell you if there is anything amiss.