A half-century ago, De Jonge (New Testament and early Christian literature, Leiden U.) described The Testaments , as a Christian document incorporating Jewish traditions, rather than as a Christian v
This volume gives extracts from and introductions to twelve writings dealing with prominent Old Testament figures. The writings tell what happened to them, what God revealed to them and try to bring home to their readers what can be learned from their example. They give many explicit exhortations; often there is an outlook on the future intended to comfort and to encourage the readers in difficult circumstances. These writings belong to the so-called 'Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament', a term used, rather loosely, to cover writings connected with biblical books, personalities or themes, which were not included in the Hebrew or Greek Old Testament canon. The various contributions to this volume, written by experts in the field, aim at introducing readers to this fascinating collection of documents and at showing them the ways to explore this area a little further.
The Life of Adam and Eve once belonged to the most popular literature in the Christian world. Retelling the Genesis 3 story, it gives an elaborate description of Adam's death and his assumption to Par
