The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
300–201 BC
1 work
c. 300–200 BC
Hebrew or Greek
Anonymous
A warning to exiles bound for Babylon not to fear the idols carried in procession there. Seventy-two verses of relentless mockery, each closing with a refrain: they are not gods, so do not fear them. Their tongues are polished by carpenters, they cannot save themselves from rust, bats and swallows perch on their heads.
200–101 BC
11 works
c. 225–175 BC
Aramaic or Hebrew
Anonymous
A blind exile in Nineveh who buries the dead at night against the king's order, and a young woman in Ecbatana whose seven husbands have each died on the wedding night. The angel Raphael travels with Tobit's son under a false name, and a fish's gall cures the blindness.
c. 180 BC; Greek translation c. 132 BC
Hebrew
Ecclesiasticus
Jesus ben Sira
A Jerusalem teacher's collected wisdom on friendship, money, daughters, physicians, table manners, and the fear of the Lord, ending with a hymn in praise of famous men that runs from Enoch to the high priest Simon coming out of the sanctuary.
c. 200–100 BC
Hebrew and Greek
Attributed to Baruch son of Neriah
Read aloud by the exiles in Babylon and sent home with money for sacrifices: a confession that the disaster was deserved, a poem identifying Wisdom with the book of the commandments, and a lament in which Jerusalem speaks as a widow watching her children led away.
c. 124 BC
Greek
Abridged from Jason of Cyrene
A rhetorical history of the same revolt as First Maccabees, told for effect rather than for the record. Heliodorus is flogged by an apparition in the treasury; Eleazar refuses to pretend to eat pork; a mother watches seven sons die and tells the last that God made the world out of things that did not exist.
c. 150–100 BC
Hebrew
Anonymous
A widow rebukes the elders of her town for setting God a deadline, then dresses to be looked at, walks into the Assyrian camp, flatters the general for four days, and cuts off his head with his own sword while he lies drunk.
c. 150–100 BC
Greek
Anonymous
A Greek retelling of the return from exile, differing from Ezra–Nehemiah in order and content, and containing one episode found nowhere else: three bodyguards of Darius debate whether wine, the king, or women is strongest, and the winner answers that women are strong but truth conquers all.
c. 150–100 BC
Greek
Anonymous
Two elders spy on a wife in her garden, threaten her, and accuse her of adultery when refused. She is condemned on their word until the young Daniel separates the witnesses and asks each under which tree it happened. They name different trees.
c. 150–100 BC
Greek
Anonymous
Daniel proves the idol Bel does not eat by scattering ashes on the temple floor overnight and showing the king the footprints of the priests and their families, then kills a living dragon by feeding it cakes of pitch, fat, and hair.
c. 150–100 BC
Greek
Anonymous
Inserted into the third chapter of Daniel: a confession from inside the furnace that there is no prince or prophet or place to offer sacrifice any more, followed by a litany calling on frost and dew, whales, fowls, and all the works of the Lord to bless him.
c. 130–100 BC
Greek
Anonymous
Six passages the Greek adds to a book whose Hebrew never names God: Mordecai's dream of two dragons, the texts of the royal edicts, prayers from Mordecai and Esther, and the scene where Esther faints and the king's face changes from wrath to gentleness.
c. 110–100 BC
Hebrew
Anonymous
Forty years of revolt told soberly and in order: the desolating sacrilege in the temple, the old priest Mattathias killing a man at the altar, Judas and his brothers, the rededication that became Hanukkah, and the treaty with Rome that would outlast them all.
100–1 BC
3 works
c. 100–50 BC
Greek
Anonymous
Nothing to do with the Maccabees. Ptolemy IV is repelled from the temple by an invisible force, and in revenge herds the Jews of Egypt into the hippodrome to be trampled by five hundred drugged elephants. The plan fails three days running, and the elephants finally turn on his own troops.
c. 150 BC – AD 50
Greek
Anonymous
Fifteen verses supplying the prayer Chronicles says the worst king of Judah prayed in captivity and does not quote. The sins are more in number than the sand of the sea; the knees of the heart are bent; and the God who appointed repentance did so not for the righteous, who never needed it, but for the sinner.
c. 50 BC – AD 20
Greek
Anonymous
Written in Alexandria in the voice of Solomon. The ungodly reason that life is short and set a trap for the righteous man who calls himself a child of God; Wisdom is described as a breath of the power of God and a spotless mirror; and idolatry is traced to a grieving father who made an image of his dead child.
101–200
13 works
c. 130–150
Greek
Anonymous
A guided tour of the places of punishment and reward, with torments matched precisely to the sins that earned them.
c. 100–150; date disputed
Greek
Anonymous
A hundred and fourteen sayings of Jesus with no narrative, no passion, and no resurrection, some close to the canonical gospels and others enigmatic in a way that invites an inner, secret reading.
c. 150; survives in fragment
Greek
Anonymous
A passion narrative that exonerates Pilate, blames Herod and the Jewish leaders, and stages the resurrection itself with two angels and a walking, talking cross.
c. 120–180; survives in fragment
Greek
Anonymous
After the Saviour departs, Mary Magdalene comforts the frightened disciples and reports a vision she alone received; Andrew and Peter object that he would not have spoken privately to a woman.
c. 150
Greek
Anonymous
The story of Mary before the gospels begin: her miraculous birth to Joachim and Anna, her upbringing in the temple, her betrothal to an older widower, and a defence of her virginity after Jesus's birth.
c. 140–170
Greek
Epistula Apostolorum
Anonymous
A post-resurrection dialogue in which the risen Christ answers the eleven, written in the form the Gnostics favoured but arguing hard for a real body and a real resurrection.
c. 150–200
Greek
Anonymous
Travel tales of the apostle John including a hymn danced in a circle before the passion, and a Christ whose body leaves no footprints and changes shape.
c. 160–190
Greek
An elder of Asia
Paul's travels from Damascus to his beheading in Rome, including the baptised lion that later refuses to eat him in the arena, and the description of the man himself — small, bald, bandy-legged, eyebrows meeting, nose slightly hooked, full of grace.
c. 150–200
Greek
Anonymous
Episodes from the childhood of Jesus between the ages of five and twelve, including sparrows made from clay and brought to life, and a schoolmaster who regrets his lesson.
c. 160–190
Greek
Anonymous
A young woman of Iconium breaks her engagement after hearing Paul preach chastity, survives fire and wild beasts, baptises herself, and goes off to teach.
c. 180–190
Greek
Anonymous
Peter's contest with Simon Magus in Rome, ending with the sorcerer's flight and fall, and with Peter's own crucifixion head downward after meeting Christ on the road out of the city.
c. 150–200; survives in fragments
Greek
Anonymous
The preaching, imprisonment, and crucifixion of Andrew in Patras, framed by long speeches urging converts to withdraw from marriage and the body.
c. 200; survives in a fragment
Greek
Serapion of Antioch · d. c. 211
A bishop who had allowed a congregation at Rhossus to read the Gospel of Peter without looking at it first writes back, having now read it, to withdraw permission — receiving Peter and the other apostles as Christ, but rejecting what falsely bears their names.
201–300
2 works
c. 200–250
Syriac
Anonymous
Thomas is sold as a slave and carried to India, where he builds a palace in heaven for a king who paid for one on earth — and where the Hymn of the Pearl tells of a prince sent to Egypt who forgets who he is.
c. 3rd century; reported by Eusebius from the Edessa archives
Syriac
Anonymous
King Abgar of Edessa writes to Jesus asking him to come and heal him, having heard he cures without herbs or drugs. Jesus replies that he cannot come but will send a disciple afterwards — and blesses those who have not seen and yet believed.
301–400
2 works
c. 350–400; earlier traditions behind it
Greek
The Acts of Pilate
Anonymous
A trial record and its sequel. In the first part the standards bow of their own accord as Jesus is brought in, and witnesses the gospels only name — Nicodemus, the bleeding woman, the man born blind — come forward to testify. In the second, two sons of Simeon rise from the dead to describe what happened below: Hades and Satan quarrelling as a voice orders the everlasting gates lifted up, and Adam led out by the hand.
c. 380–385; recovered at Würzburg in 1885
Latin
Priscillian of Ávila · c. 340 – 385
Eleven pieces by a Spanish ascetic accused of Manichaeism and magic: a defence answering the charges point by point, an argument that apocryphal books may be read with discernment rather than banned outright, and instruction on fasting and scripture for a lay movement of men and women studying together.
401–500
3 works
c. 400–500; several recensions
Greek and Syriac
Transitus Mariae
Anonymous
The apostles are carried on clouds from wherever they are preaching to Mary's bedside in Jerusalem. She dies without pain, her soul is received by her Son, and the body is taken up before it can be buried — in some versions after a hostile bystander's hands are severed at the bier.
c. 400–500
Coptic
Anonymous
Jesus tells the apostles on the Mount of Olives how his foster father died at a hundred and eleven, afraid at the last, with Mary holding his feet and Jesus his hands, and Death waiting at the door until permitted to enter.
c. 500; attribution disputed
Latin
Anonymous
A Roman list of the canonical scriptures, the approved councils and fathers, and a long catalogue of books to be rejected as apocryphal.
501–600
1 work
c. 500–600; older material within it
Syriac
Anonymous
Sacred history from Adam to Pentecost, hung on one idea: Adam was buried with gold, myrrh, and frankincense in a cave beneath Eden, Noah carried the body onto the ark, and it was finally laid at Golgotha — so that Christ's blood ran down onto Adam's skull.
36 of 1780 works