PREFACE
For students both of the Old and New Testaments the value of the non-Canonical Jewish literature from 200 B.C. to A.D. 100 is practically recognized on every side alike by Jewish and Christian scholars. But hitherto no attempt has been made to issue an edition of this literature as a whole in English.[1] Indeed, such an undertaking would have been all but impossible at an earlier date, seeing that critical editions of some of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha have not been published till within the last few years.
The method observed in this work.
In all the contributions one and the same method has been observed. Each contribution consists of an introduction, an English translation from the best critical text—in a few cases the Revised Version has been adopted and emendations suggested in the notes—and of a critical and exegetical commentary.[2] As regards the introductions, the subjects dealt with in them have, so far as possible, been treated in the same order to facilitate the use of the work. Though a large discretion has naturally been given to the various editors, the following order has more or less been observed as a guide or been actually carried out.
- § 1. Short account of the book, embodying its leading features and the editor's chief conclusions.
- § 2. Title of the book.
- § 3. The MSS.
- § 4. The Ancient Versions.
- § 5. Date of (a) the original text, (b) of the Ancient Versions.
- § 6. Integrity or composite nature of the text.
- § 7. Authorship.
- § 8. Influence of the book on later literature—(a) Jewish; (b) Christian.
- § 9. Theology of the book.
- § 10. Bibliography—
- (a) Chief editions of the text (and of the Ancient Versions).
- (b) Chief critical inquiries.
- (c) Chief editions of the book.
- ↑ Kautzsch published an edition in German in 1900, but on a smaller scale than the present work and embracing fewer books of this literature (vol. i. 1–507; vol. ii. 1–540).
- ↑ In the case of Sirach and Tobit the editors have been allowed much beyond the normal number of pages for their critical apparatus, which they have used to good purpose.
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