Introducing the Apocrypha and The Old Testament Apocrypha: An Introduction.

Introducing the Apocrypha by David A. deSilva (Baker Academic, $27.99) and The Old Testament Apocrypha: An Introduction by Otto Kaiser (Hendrickson, $16.95) are paperback books that offer complementary access to current understandings of the apocrypha or deuterocanonical literature. While the books covered are largely the same, deSilva adds 3 and 4 Maccabees and 4 Ezra (2 Esdras) while Kaiser adds 1 Enoch and the Psalms of Solomon. Both offer historical background to this literature, but the books are arranged differently, DeSilva dedicates a chapter to each book, but Kaiser arranges them by genre: historical works, narratives, prophetic books, postbiblical psalms, and wisdom books. DeSilva is three times as long as Kaiser and more accessible to an American audience; Kaiser cites primarily German works in his bibliography and has the advantage of giving up-to-date information about German research. In the Foreword to deSilva, James Charlesworth cites six outstanding features of the book: its use of information from the Dead Sea Scrolls; its employment of social-scientific and other current methodologies; its explanation of theodicy in this literature; its demonstration that these works are commentaries on Scripture; its proof that the New Testament was often responding to contemporary Jewish works; and its argument that the roots of Jesus' teaching lead back into the soil of this Early Jewish theology.