The Library
1774 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.
200–101 BC
1 work
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.
100–1 BC
1 work
c. 100 BC
Hebrew
4QShirShabb
Anonymous
Thirteen songs for the first thirteen sabbaths of the year, describing the worship of the angelic priesthood in a heavenly sanctuary — seven chief princes, seven blessings, and the bricks of the wall and the chariot-throne itself joining in the praise.
1–100
2 works
c. AD 20–40
Greek
De Gigantibus
Philo of Alexandria · c. 20 BC – c. AD 50
On the sons of God who came down to the daughters of men, read not as a myth of fallen angels but as an account of souls that sank into bodies and stayed there, against those that rose.
c. 100
Greek
Anonymous
Michael is sent to tell Abraham he is dying and cannot bring himself to say it. Abraham stalls, asks for a tour of the world first, starts calling down fire on sinners, and has to be stopped — and at the judgement scene Abel weighs each soul on scales.
4 of 1774 works