Apocrypha from Judeo-Christianity

If you believe that the current bible is the word of God and anything having to do with Judeo-Christianity outside of canon is not worth reading or heretical that is cool. But anyone who just loves anything spiritual and reads everything having to do with Judaism and Christianity I am going to provide some links with enough Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha in addition to early Catholic church writings to keep you busy for a long time.

Apocrypha doesn't mean fake it means secret or hidden away. Now people think it means uninspired but who is to say what is and isn't inspired. I think that is a decision one should make for ones self. Nothing wrong with having a set of books called canon and they aren't hidden anymore. Some are really worth reading and fill in holes of the bible. Others are pretty dull. Some are hard to understand and you need certain knowledge to get the meaning.

I have no doubt some of these books were for the so called elite of the church and are studied by Catholics today as secondary canon. The Catholic bible has 17 extra books and an extra psalm than the protestant and Hebrew. The Book of Enoch and many other thought lost books come from Ethiopia. Qumran Israelites and certainly others considered it a revelation from God through inspired writing.

On the subject of pseudepigrapha that means the author is not Enoch or whoever the stated author is. This is the case with a great deal of biblical texts and scholars are more than aware of this. No reputable scholar thinks Genesis was written by Moses or a revelation from God because Mesopotamia has many similar stories about creation and the flood. Clearly the old myths were given a new spin with a Hebrew flavor. This trend continues throughout the history of religion. So I wouldn't be worried about who wrote it because it isn't a problem when the bible stories attribute authorship to a name with authority so it shouldn't be for the other books.

Here are the links:

Massive library of Apocrypha

Gnosis archive

Sacred Texts

Nazarenes

This las one I threw in because it has some insights into biblical interpretation that will help you better understand the deeper meaning of scripture that can't be gained from literal interpretation.

This last one is a theory about historical persons who were used as inspiration for the new testament and who they were.

Secrets of the Bible


hopefully you enjoy the extra biblical texts that survived despite the best efforts of the Catholic church to destroy history and books that weren't approved history. And bury them in a huge library that hardly anyone gets access to.

Thank Qumran, Nag Hammadi and Ethiopia and various monasteries.

All links have been fixed

a reply to: Capstone Pendulum

I really enjoy the reading the Apocrypha.Alot of the books can add flavor and perspective to the traditional canon.The Shepard Of Hermas is one I particularily enjoy.The visions and parables shared in the book are inspiring and the way Hermas inquires shows a kind of innocence that I can relate to.

I wanted to add two more books the:

Testament of Solomon

And the Zohar

The Zohar is not a demonic book of sorcery. It is simply Hebraic interpretations and insight into the Tanakh. Unfortunately I could only find the Torah portion. I have read it and it explains things like the meaning of the tower of Babel story that no Christian pastor can provide.

a reply to: dffrntkndfnml

I have the whole Lost books of the Bible and Eden and one of the few I have yet to read is Hermas. I will check it out.

It always struck my attention because Hermas is similar to Hermes, the Greek Thoth and God of wisdom.

I like the infancy Gospels and Paul and Thecla.

originally posted by: CapstonePendulum
I have read it and it explains things like the meaning of the tower of Babel story that no Christian pastor can provide.

Can you give the gist of that meaning?

a reply to: CapstonePendulum

Apocrypha doesn't mean fake it means secret or hidden away.

Yep, not a single cataclysmic event, just 'to be revealed'.

originally posted by: ImaFungi

originally posted by: CapstonePendulum
I have read it and it explains things like the meaning of the tower of Babel story that no Christian pastor can provide.

Can you give the gist of that meaning?

Stabbing in the dark…
The tower of babel is mans reaching for the heavens by building these huge structures, taller than anything else, loftier than thou, ego aggrandizement through magnificence and awe of accomplishment through super demonstration of money, power and control.

Really useless and whoa is me, the world's cities are full of them.

a reply to: intrptr

My thought about it is well, the quite obvious, intuitive standard seeming one;

That humans have to invent their own languages to describe the one singular Truth that is the totality of reality and possible reality, which exists in eternal potential.

So much of our potential experience is filtered through language; think about your internal monologue, your thoughts, think about how much your knowledge of language shapes your knowledge of self and world, and your ability to become your self, to know yourself, to feel comfortable and confident;

Think about how an animal does not have a massive dictionary of symbols relating to a massive list of all the variously nuanced details of the world;

And well yeah, our differences in thinking separate us; different language in the past, and perhaps today, cause human conflict; few years and with smart phones and everything translation technology at the speed of light should should reerect the tower of united understanding;

It depends if one believes the story is a true historical event, or made up fiction; the reasoning and results of which for either case ought be intuitive enough.

a reply to: ImaFungi

It depends if one believes the story is a true historical event, or made up fiction; the reasoning and results of which for either case ought be intuitive enough.

As far as having been done, look at the pyramids of Egypt. They existed back then, monuments to power and wealth, and but headstones, the biggest and best money could buy.

'Monumental'

a reply to: ImaFungi

The tower is a place of worship for their gods that they make up. It says let us make a name for ourselves but in the Hebrew it is let us make a god for ourselves. It is the beginning of polytheism . Go to the link on the Zohar and read it.

originally posted by: intrptr

As far as having been done, look at the pyramids of Egypt. They existed back then, monuments to power and wealth, and but headstones, the biggest and best money could buy.

'Monumental'

The story of the tower of babel is less about 'the fact that a tower is involved in the story', and more about it represented that all humans were united;

1.Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

2.They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

3 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

4 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.

5 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.

6 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

7 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.

8 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
— Genesis 11:4–9




So either; Aliens/gods created man, or man created the idea of aliens/gods (creating man, and being scary and powerful and desiring humility)

a reply to: ImaFungi

That's one interpretation. Not the Hebrew one but interesting. The scattering of peoples and confounding of tongues are explanatory myths. The tower represents the capabilities of a united world and the start of the worship of other gods. And the desire of mankind to be gods. It is central to the story as an allegory for making earth like heaven. It isn't like they thought they could get to heaven but they wanted to make earth like heaven.

As above, so below.

Let us make a name for ourselves

Should be let us make a god for ourselves

Ha Shem is a word for god. Shem means name. Ha Shem is in the Hebrew and it is a wrong translation.

Nothing to do with aliens

originally posted by: CapstonePendulum


That's one interpretation. Not the Hebrew one but interesting. The scattering of peoples and confounding of tongues are explanatory myths. The tower represents the capabilities of a united world and the start of the worship of other gods. And the desire of mankind to be gods. It is central to the story as an allegory for making earth like heaven. It isn't like they thought they could get to heaven but they wanted to make earth like heaven.

As above, so below.

Let us make a name for ourselves

Should be let us make a god for ourselves

Ha Shem is a word for god. Shem means name. Ha Shem is in the Hebrew and it is a wrong translation.

Ok so you are saying, the people of babel, began forgetting the old God/god/gods; and started worshipping themselves, started to wanted to be worshipped (making a name for oneself); and/or wanted to 'make a god?' for ourselves?

a reply to: CapstonePendulum

Have you read the New Atlantis?
A Utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon... generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit" are the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of the mythical Bensalem. The plan and organization of his ideal college, Salomon's House.

originally posted by: Hex1an
a reply to: CapstonePendulum

Have you read the New Atlantis?
A Utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon... generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit" are the commonly held qualities of the inhabitants of the mythical Bensalem. The plan and organization of his ideal college, Salomon's House.

I have not but I imagine it would be worth reading and full of allegory about history. Wasn't he in the Rosicrucian fellowship?

originally posted by: ImaFungi

originally posted by: CapstonePendulum


That's one interpretation. Not the Hebrew one but interesting. The scattering of peoples and confounding of tongues are explanatory myths. The tower represents the capabilities of a united world and the start of the worship of other gods. And the desire of mankind to be gods. It is central to the story as an allegory for making earth like heaven. It isn't like they thought they could get to heaven but they wanted to make earth like heaven.

As above, so below.

Let us make a name for ourselves

Should be let us make a god for ourselves

Ha Shem is a word for god. Shem means name. Ha Shem is in the Hebrew and it is a wrong translation.

Ok so you are saying, the people of babel, began forgetting the old God/god/gods; and started worshipping themselves, started to wanted to be worshipped (making a name for oneself); and/or wanted to 'make a god?' for ourselves?

Not so much themselves but Nimrod/Osiris and then him ressurected as Tammuz/Horus. In addition to many lesser gods.

a reply to: ImaFungi

You can't get distracted by thinking they were trying to ascend to heaven. They were trying to make earth like heaven and if heaven has a god to rule then earth would get one too. Remember "Nimrod was the first potentate" and he was a Rephaim meaning a descendant of the Nephilim. Well he organized the ancient world in many legends under many names and was the leader at Babel too.

It is the Hebrews declaring all religions false but theirs.

a reply to: ImaFungi

The story of the tower of babel is less about 'the fact that a tower is involved in the story', and more about it represented that all humans were united

More like living in a city; controlled, subdued, fleeced, trapped. Dependent on the authorities and infrastructure, instead of independent and self reliant.

a reply to: CapstonePendulum

There Is much speculation about Bacon... Lets put It that way.

The talks of cultural Hebrew traditions like those of the Essenes,(although not mentioned directly) Christianity... They talk of their technology, Marriage, horticulture, way of life etc...

It discusses North American Civilization and It's Island Connection to Atlantis.
6 day creation mythos.

It's a voyagers description of an Hidden tribe and an Hidden Island.

I think you will enjoy the (Audio)Book.