Phenomenology
of World Religions ©
Chapter
67
Testament
of Abraham
This
text is part of the group of Jewish scripture that is part of a group
of falsely attributed works in the pseudepigrapha
category, usually Jewish religious texts that were written between
200 BC to 200 AD. This and other texts of its type are not part of
the canonical Bible nor is it accepted in canonical Hebrew
scriptures; but appear in the Septuagint
and Vulgate
versions of the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles. Catholics
categorize these books as Apocrypha
or Apocalyptic literature and whose works were popular
among early Christians, but later excluded by the Roman Catholic Church as part of the legitimate canon for various reasons. Some
Apocalyptic scriptures were included among the canonical books:
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel,
Zechariah, and Daniel. All are in common with the
themes of being prophetic scriptures.
Some
pseudepigrapha texts were either discovered or produced after the
final canonization of scriptures of the Hebrew Bible and before the
production of the Christian canon by the Roman Catholic Church and
the edition authorized by King James of England. The list
is quite extensive. Some feel that the exclusion of some books
was only on a decision based upon size of the canonical Bible.
