Truth Be Told..

Home Inspiration Bible Topics About Me

Often described as "the lost book" of the Bible, The Book of Enoch seems to have been written in Palestine by several different authors in the first and second centuries B.C. For hundreds of years it was accepted by the early church fathers, but it was rejected by the council of Laodicea in A.D. 364. Today, it remains a written remnant of the Apocalypse — an ardent testament to hope and the triumph of good over evil in the dawning of a world to come. Rife with concepts of original sin, fallen angels, demonology, resurrection, and the last judgment, it is a vital document to the origins of Christianity. The Book of Enoch is comprised of various monumental works: The Book of Enoch, The Parables, The Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries, The Dream Visions, The Concluding Section, and The Noah Fragments. Each work is independent, but all the works are bound by a common theme: the punishment of the wicked and the blessedness of the righteous. This edition, complete with analysis and notes, is an indispensable resource for the study and understanding of both the Old and New Testaments.

The Book of Jasher is one of 13 ancient history books that are recommended reading by the Bible….If we are to believe the text itself, this history book was written over 3,500 years ago. It is approximately the same age as the biblical book of Genesis. It covers about the same time period as Genesis and Exodus but has about twice as much information in it than Genesis. It answers a lot of questions raised in Genesis and it provides a history beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve and ending with the Canaanites being driven out of the Promised Land. It is not surprising that this ancient document confirms the Scripture and the chronology given in the Hebrew version of the Old Testament, once and for all settling the chronology differences between the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek Septuagint. In many ways, the book of Jasher is a great aid in better understanding the Word of God; and its' value is made clear by the fact that Holy Write itself encourages people to study from it and I believe most readers will find Jasher enlightening. Accounts in the Bible can be made more lucid and easier to understand with the background of Jasher in mind.

The Book of Jubilees, or, as it is sometimes called, The Little Genesis, purports to be a revelation given by God to Moses through the medium of an angel and contains a history, divided up into "jubilee periods" of 49 years, from creation to the coming of Moses. Although the actual narrative of events is only carried down to Moses's birth and early career, its author envisages the events of a later time and in particular certain events of special interest at the time he wrote, which was probably in the latter years of the 2nd century B.C. This work, though containing one or two passages of an apocalyptic character, is quite unlike the typical apocalypses. It is largely based upon the historical narratives in Genesis and Exodus, interspersed with legends and emphasizing certain legal practices (such as the strict observance of the Sabbath, circumcision, etc..) It was well known to Early Christians, as evidenced by the writings of Epiphanius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, Isidore of Alexandria, Isidore of Seville, Eutychius of Alexandria, John Malalas, George Syncellus, and George Kedrenos. The text was also utilized by the community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. No complete Greek or Latin version is known to have survived, but the Ge'ez version has been shown to be an accurate translation of the versions found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.