Old Testament Legends: Being stories out of some of the less-known apocryphal books of the Old Testament

by M.R. James

M R James was a well regarded English scholar who studied the medieval period (he also wrote great ghost stories!). Apocryphal books are ancient literatures about biblical events and characters but these books are not included in the Bible. (Some books regarded as apocryphal by Protestant tradition are included in Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Bibles.) They are sources of stories and legends that were elaborated about the beloved biblical narratives. The Preface contains a good explanation of apocryphal literature. In this 1913 book Dr. James has collected and edited eight of those legends. He intended his book for a youth audience but more mature readers will find the stories no less interesting.

Genres: Religion, Ebooks, Christian, Short Stories

72 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Montague Rhodes James, who used the publication name M.R. James, was a noted English mediaeval scholar & provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–18) & of Eton College (1918–36). He's best remembered for his ghost stories which are widely regarded as among the finest in English literature. One of James' most important achievements was to redefine the ghost story for the new century by dispensing with many of the formal Gothic trappings of his predecessors, replacing them with more realistic contemporary settings.

Librarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

M.R.^James

Reviews

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this on my Kindle and I think it had languished there for some years after being downloaded from the public domain Project Gutenberg site.

M R James is more familiar to me as the author of some very atmospheric ghost stories. He was an academic at a university also, and in this guise produced this book for younger readers (children were expected to be able to read books that these days would be regarded as far too 'dry') which is a translation of various tales, connected with Biblical stories. Some were taken from books that at one time were treated as part of the Bible. Several of them feature familiar characters such as King Solomon or Adam and Eve. They do have quite a bit of similarity and I found some a bit repetitive. It was also a bit tiresome that e.g. Adam and Eve were repeatedly deceived by Satan after being ejected from the Garden of Eden; they just never seemed to learn from previous mistakes. The stories are quite formulaic, and it is probably a good thing that they aren't part of the official Bible. So for me they only rated an OK 2 stars.

[Shelia Timmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had never heard of these stories from the Old Testament of the Bible. Some of them were very interesting. If you have ever wondered what happened to Adam and Eve after they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, you should read this book.

[Holly Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining

Enjoyed the read! While definitely not scriptural, these stories have good moral meanings and keep you wanting to read more.

[Michael Grogan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contents include:
ADAM
THE DEATH OF ADAM AND EVE
ABRAHAM
THE STORY OF ASENETH, JOSEPH'S WIFE
JOB
SOLOMON AND THE DEMONS
THE STORY OF EBEDMELECH THE ETHIOPIAN, AND OF THE DEATH OF JEREMIAH
AHIKAR

[Dale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes interesting, mostly tedious

M.R. James has collected additional stories from the Old Testament era. None of these is included in the canon books. These are not stories from the Apocrypha but even more stories. In times past, some churches actually treated some of these stories as scripture.

According to M.R. James, some of these are quite ancient and some are newer. The stories are arranged chronologically and feature Adam, Eve, Cain, Abraham, Job, Joseph ,Jeremiah and Solomon. A new, non-Biblical character is Ahiker, advisor to the King of the Chaldeans.

The stories about Adam and Eve mostly concern how they deal with being sent from the Garden of Eden. The story of Job is a re-telling of his book in the Bible, but it is more satisfying than the original....

Read more at: http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/...

[Steve Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

M.R. James was known primarily for his ghost stories, but he was also an academic who had the ability to make his scholarship accessible to the average reader.

Here in "Old Testament Legends" he presents translations of stories taken from Judeo-Christian apocrypha. The stories are perfectly readable, the work itself quite brief. I enjoyed it.

This work is free and probably can be downloaded through iTunes or the Gutenberg project.