Introduction to the Apocrypha: Jewish Books in Christian Bibles

by Lawrence M. Wills

Publisher:

Yale University Press

, 2021

Overview

An ambitious introduction to the Apocrypha that encourages readers to reimagine what “canon” really means

Challenging the way Christian and non-Christian readers think about the Apocrypha, this is an ambitious introduction to the deuterocanonical texts of the Christian Old Testaments. Lawrence Wills introduces these texts in their original Jewish environment while addressing the very different roles they had in various Christian canons. Though often relegated to a lesser role, a sort of “Bible-Lite,” these texts deserve renewed attention, and this book shows how they hold more interest for both ancient and contemporary communities than previously thought.

Praise for Introduction to the Apocrypha

• Introduces these texts in their original Jewish environment.
• Shows how they hold more interest for both ancient and contemporary communities.
• Challenges the way Christian and non-Christian readers think about the Apocrypha.

Product Details

• Title: Introduction to the Apocrypha: Jewish Books in Christian Bibles
• Author: Lawrence M. Wills
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2025
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Bible › Apocrypha; Bible › Apocrypha--Introductions
• Resource ID: LLS:NTRDCTNPCRYBBLS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-06-24T18:33:16Z

About Lawrence M. Wills

Dr. Lawrence M. Wills, combines studies in Hebrew Bible, ancient Judaism, and New Testament as a way of addressing religious and social interaction in the ancient world and today. Published in each of these fields, he continues to write and teach on their interrelations, and is active in the Society of Biblical Literature in a number of interdisciplinary areas. Professor Wills’ book, Jewish Novels in the Ancient World, was named an Outstanding Academic Book of 1995 by CHOICE magazine for academic librarians. His present research involves two different areas: identity and the construction of the “other” in biblical texts, both the outside other based on ethnicity or religion and the internal other defined by race, gender, class, or ability, and also the social world of popular literary genres in Judaism and Christianity. Education: AB, Harvard College; MTS, ThD, Harvard Divinity School. Current positions: EDS faculty, 1994-present. Past positions: Director of Language Studies, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Harvard Divinity School; Visiting Assistant Professor of New Testament Recent publications include: Ancient Jewish Novels: An Anthology from the Greco-Roman Period (Toby) (Oxford); The Quest of the Historical Gospel: Mark, John and the Origins of the Gospel Genre (Routledge); The Jewish Novel in the Ancient World (Myth and Poetics) (Cornell); Jew in the Court of the Foreign King: Ancient Jewish Court Legends (Harvard Dissertations in Religion, No. 26) (Augsburg/Fortress); “The Depiction of the Jews in Acts” in the Journal of Biblical Literature; and “Judith” commentary in The New Interpreter’s Bible. Areas of interest and research: The social history of ancient Judaism and early Christianity, Jewish and Christian literature in the ancient world, and religion and critical theory.