The Apocrypha: The Complete Volume

Including the Books of Enoch, Jubilees, and Jasher

By: Joseph Lumpkin

Narrated by: Mel Jackson

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

Good listen

Many lost books reading audio with commentary. a good addition to any bible and sacred text audio library.

Not the best reader, but still does well. It's worth it!

I'm inspired by what I heard here. These books inspired or not, are inspiring.

Holy Spirit inspired...!!!

I love it and I have a great report on this collection of truly Holy Spirit inspired scriptures... it's a shame that these Books were stripped out of the Holy Bible and that most Christians are very unfamiliar and very misinformed about these Holy Books of the original cannon and were hidden from the masses for centuries... but now they are available to everyone who wants to study these precious Books of the Apacropha... Praise God Almighty for ever more...!!!!

names to chapters

it would have been nice to have the name associated with the chapters. hard to remember which book you're in due to the length of this book.

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.