Sage’s Reviews > Holy Bible: NRSV XL with Apocrypha > Status Update

It is better to die than be chronically ill.
Be ashamed of leaning on your elbow at meals.
Do not be ashamed of drawing blood from the back of a wicked* slave.

* i.e. bad, as opposed to evil

WTF Jesus ben Sirach? This whole book encapsulates the worst of western culture. Gah!

2 Maccabbees. Fighting the Hellenization of Jerusalem and Judea. Antiochus era. Martyrs get a divine afterlife, contrary to prior beliefs. Dissidents win.

So I Maccabees mentions "God" maybe once. The rest is military and political history. It's important and interesting context for c140 BCE, but it's hard to call it "scripture" in the sense of religious texts.

Skipping the Hebrew Bible (OT) and reading the Apocrypha. Currently in 1 Edras while reading Oegema's Handbook to the Apocrypha in tandem.