The Apocrypha: The Complete Volume

Including the Books of Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher

By: Joseph Lumpkin

Narrated by: Mel Jackson

Length: 44 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

The official editions of the King James contained the books of the Apocrypha until 1796. Most printers did not clear inventories and change to the 66-book version we know today until the mid 1800's.

Etymologically, the word "apocrypha" means "things that are hidden", but why they were hidden is not clear. Some have suggested that the books were "hidden" from common use because they contained esoteric knowledge, too profound to be communicated to any except the initiated...others have suggested that such books were hidden due to their spurious heretical teaching.

The Apocrypha: The Complete Volume contains the following: A Brief History, 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, Letter (Epistle) of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Azariah, Baruch, Prayer of Manasseh (Manassas), Bel and the Dragon, Wisdom of Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon, Additions to Esther, Tobit, Judith, Susanna, Psalm 151, Enoch, Jubilees, 1 Clements, Shepherd of Hermas, Book of Jasher, and an Overview of Books.

©2018 Joseph B. Lumpkin (P)2019 Joseph Lumpkin

Glad for this Title but Editor Needed

I applaud Mr. Lumpkin for taking on this project and would not dissuade him from doing more. However I would suggest he have an editor get involved to double check his work as it seems as though he transposes a lot of words as he reads and I read the text along with him.

In many instances this actually changes the meaning of the text for someone who is only listening and not reading along.

For example in Sirach 47:4 Mr Lumpkin reads in reference to King David "In his youth he did not kill a giant" when the actual text reads "In his youth did he not kill a giant."

There are at least 40 or 50 of these misreads that I have found that actually change the meaning of the text. Just make sure you read along with the audio if you listen.

not worthy of the original

when you change words you change context wish I never wasted money on it. I'm deleting this it's crap

Proper pronunciation, please!

I can’t imagine the magnitude of recording 50+ hours of narration, but it behooves the narrator to proper pronunciation. I’m frequently bothered by how often common words are repeatedly mispronounced. One in particular in this volume, “cavalry” is not pronounced “calvary”. There are sufficient unfamiliar words with which one can take liberties, but this should not be one of them. That aside, it is well read and flows nicely. Moves along quickly.

SPECTACULAR CHALLENGE!!

American Ninja Warriors, Marvel Heros, DC Bad Boys, and the WWF are ALL CREAM PUFFS and CHOIRBOYS compared to the HEROs of these Ancient Texts, and the VILLIANS of these Ancient Historical Events make the CIA Torturers look like rank AMATEURS. It’s INCOMPREHENSIBLE to me the HORRORS that were inflicted on the Jews that would not defile themselves by turning away from the One True God and the COURAGE THEY EXHIBITED is HUGELY INSPIRING!! Glory to GOD!! Hallelujah! SELAH!

Historical, tedious, and terrible narrator

Please re-record this. The narrator mispronounces SO MANY WORDS. You can still understand the content, but you will feel scarred afterwards. Also, they need to provide reasonable chapter titles (list the book at a minimum). The content is very repetitious of the Bible's Old Testament. You will find a few interesting tidbits along the way though.

excellent reader & info

excellent reader & info. thank you. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... ..

Meant only for the serious student of scripture.

This is a very strange collection of questionable extra-canonical scriptural works. Some are generally accepted as proto-canonical works (Books of Enoch and Jasher), while others are virtual fairy tales, such as Daniel, Bel and the Dragon.

In fact, the final section, which is not scripture at all but the author's notes on the individual books, may be the most useful part of this collection, as it considers the timeline of each book, the possible or probable author(s), and how and where each apocryphal book fits within the accepted structure of canonical scriptures.

There are two major issues with this work: first is the author's extremely annoying habit of interjecting 'author's note(s)' into the narrative, oftentimes completely destroying the flow of the narrative; second, and perhaps even more irritating, is the narrator's inability to correctly pronounce biblical names and locations. One would hope that someone chosen by the producers of this audio-book to narrate the work would be required to have at least a passing familiarity with biblical history and the associated languages and geographic locations. Sadly, this apparently was not the case, resulting in a very negative impact on the clarity of the work and an almost constant irritation of the listener's sensibility to biblical history.

Overall, the work is interesting to those who truly desire this information. For potential casual listeners, it is not worth the investment of either money, credits or time.

Sadly, not recommended.

Read the book

I have to agree with other listeners. The book might be great, but the narration is absolutely PAINFUL to listen to. His inability to pronounce names and places is bad, but common use words as well? Please, please, I beg you, rerecord it with a qualified narrator.

no titles only chapters

it's impossible to figure out how to get to the books you want as they only list chapters.

Chapters are not titled appropriately!

it would be immensely helpful if the chapters were titled by the book that is being read, rather than 'chapter 17'. Chapter 17 is which book? How can one go and reference it again?

This was a fine experience.

I wanted to get a passing familiarity with these texts and achieved my goal. I especially liked parts of Maccabees, as well as Judith, Bel and the Dragon, Susanna, Jubilees and Jasher. Maybe even the best is last, the overview of books, but that could have done with being more detailed.

The language of the translations is quaint, littered with such wince-inducing philological faux pas as "you wilt" or you mixed up with thou sometimes in the same sentence with the same attribution. Expressions like "afraid of their lives" for "afraid for their lives" abound as well as "gave birth to Jacob" when Jacob is the father.

Mel Jackson also introduces his fair share of quaintness with his interesting pronunciations of such words as "Calvary" for cavalry, "excaped" for "escaped", etc. But as a British listener I feel that this accent is American as it is meant to be spoken. If I had an American uncle, I would want him to talk just like Mel Jackson, bless him. I felt a lot of affection for the old guy as I listened to him plough manfully through forty four hours of ancient text with consistent delivery. In the end, his quaint speech added to the work and he has my gratitude for undertaking it.

Fantastic

I really enjoyed listening to this book. I also bought the Kindle edition so that I could follow along. The narrative was quirky at times but overall it was a good performance.