Abstract: Latter-day Saints are often aware that the Apocrypha contains valuable sacred material along with some "interpolations of men," but few know how to approach those ancient texts and what they could learn from them. A new book by Jared W. Ludlow provides a helpful tool to guide LDS readers in appreciating the Apocrypha and exploring the material in these highly diverse sacred documents.

Review of Jared W. Ludlow, Exploring the Apocrypha from a Latter-day Saint Perspective (Springville, Utah: CFI, 2018). 234 pp. $16.99.

Never repeat a conversation, and you will lose nothing at all. With friend or foe do not report it, and unless it would be a sin for you, do not reveal it; for someone may have heard you and watched you, and in time will hate you. Have you heard something? Let it die with you. Be brave, it will not make you burst! Having heard something, the fool suffers birth pangs like a woman in labor with a child. Like an arrow stuck in a person's thigh, so is gossip inside a fool.

— Ecclesiasticus, aka The Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira,
aka Sirach 19:7–12.

The above passage is one of many treasures discussed in a new book aimed at helping Latter-day Saints better appreciate the Apocrypha, Jared W. Ludlow's Exploring the Apocrypha from a Latter-day Saint Perspective. Ludlow's book is a valuable resource for Latter-day Saints (and others) seeking to better understand an important part of the sacred texts respected by many in Christianity and Judaism. Though not part of our [Page 58]official canon, they have been a part of the canon in other faiths and are included in a majority of the Bibles used by Christians around the world. For Latter-day Saints, according to a canonized statement regarding the Apocrypha, we are told that "There are many things contained therein that are true" (D&C 91:1) and that "whoso is enlightened by the Spirit shall obtain benefit therefrom" (D&C 91:5), in spite of the "interpolations by the hands of men" that are also at play (D&C 91:2).

Latter-day Saints, unfortunately, have tended to ignore the Apocrypha, but there is value that we should be extracting. Ludlow's book is precisely the kind of guide that many of us need in order to know where the richest sources of value can be found and what the key lessons are that we can learn.

Ludlow begins with a helpful overview of what the Apocrypha is. The 183 chapters in that collection come from early Jewish writers well after the latest books in our current Old Testament were written (ca. 400 bc), with many dated to around the first and second centuries bc. These texts were circulated among Greek-speaking Jews as the Septuagint translation from Hebrew to Greek was created. Many appear to be original Greek compositions rather than translations from Hebrew or Aramaic to Greek. Ludlow groups them according to three categories and considers each text in this order:

Biblical Expansions

* The Additions to the Book of Esther

* Daniel Stories: Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon

* First Book of Esdras (Greek form of the name Ezra)

* Second Book of Esdras (the only Apocrypha text not from the Greek Septuagint but found in several Old Latin manuscripts)

* Prayer of Manasseh

* Baruch and Letter of Jeremiah

Heroic Stories

* Tobit

* Judith

* 1 Maccabees

* 2 Maccabees

Wisdom Literature

* Wisdom of Solomon

* Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach

[Page 59]As Ludlow reviews each of the books of the Apocrypha, he thoroughly illustrates how "the Apocrypha can be a valuable tool for helping us understand the political, cultural,