Apocrypha

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Not necessary to translate.

Notes

For the purposes of this page, I am interested in all apocryphal texts.

The Apocalypse of Abraham

Scholars believe it originated around 70-150 A.D.

The Book of Enoch

Scholars believe it originated between 200 B.C. and 100 B.C.

The Book of Jasher

I have a copy purporting to be the Book of Jasher, published by J.H. Parry & Company, 1887. (It's a 2000 printing.) The Wikipedia article asserts that the book has not been found, but never directly discusses this version, which Joseph B. Lumpkin seems to believe to non-fraudulent. The discussion on the Wikipedia page, however is mixed. Apparently, having been translated so long ago, the original it was translated from is not extant and some take it to be questionable because it was translated by Mormons.

Wikipedia does appear to have an article for this version, however, and according to that article, there is a 1625 text in Hebrew extant, which claimed to be a reprinting of a 1552 edition. Scholarly analysis of the Hebrew has suggested that the book was probably written in the 1500s.

Personally, I do see some Mormon cultural bias in the translation. eg. "Helpmeet" is not a word, and it doesn't mean anything. To join those two words into one demonstrates a fundamental inability to understand what they mean. It is a pet peeve of mine that few people of my faith seem to recognize this. That a translator could be so daft as to put this in their translation from an original text seems almost beyond comprehension. However, it is also true that since this book was introduced to Mormons early on, the irritating use of the word "helpmeet" in this translation may have been the way in which the term was introduced into LDS culture. Indeed, it has been suggested that many elements of LDS culture and ceremony may have been introduced by this book. In talking about Abraham, Joseph Smith made reference to this baook and stated "the book of Jasher, which has not been disproved as a bad author, says he was cast into the fire of the Chaldeans."

This version of the Book of Jasher seems to be held in some significant regard only by the LDS.

The Book of Jubilees

A book claiming to have been written by Moses, but probably penned between 200 B.C. and 100 B.C.

Cross-References