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.
1–100
1 work
c. 70
Hebrew, surviving in Latin
Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum
Pseudo-Philo
A retelling of the Bible from Adam to the death of Saul that fills every silence — naming Cain's wife, giving Jephthah's daughter a lament and a name, inventing whole speeches for judges the book of Judges dismisses in a line.
201–300
1 work
c. 3rd century
Hebrew
The school of Rabbi Ishmael
A running halakhic and narrative commentary on Exodus from the plagues to the covenant, arguing every law out of the wording and telling the crossing of the sea as a debate among the tribes over who would enter the water first.
301–400
1 work
c. 400–450
Hebrew and Aramaic
The academies of Galilee
A verse-by-verse midrash on Genesis, reading the book as a set of openings rather than a narrative: why it begins with the second letter of the alphabet, what God consulted before making man, and repeated disputes with those who argue from in our image that there is more than one power in heaven.
401–500
1 work
c. 400–500
Hebrew and Aramaic
The academies of Galilee
Thirty-seven homiletic units on Leviticus, each built outward from a verse elsewhere in scripture and arriving at the reading by a long route. It is preaching rather than commentary, and much of it is about poverty, charity, and the body.
501–600
1 work
c. 500–600
Hebrew and Aramaic
The academies of Galilee
Sermons for the festivals and the special sabbaths rather than for the weekly cycle, including a sequence of seven for the weeks of consolation after the fast of the ninth of Av, working through Isaiah's comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
701–800
2 works
c. 7th–8th century; date disputed
Aramaic
Anonymous
An Aramaic Torah that translates and rewrites at once, filling every gap: Cain and Abel argue theology before the murder, the names of Ishmael's wives are given, and a passage on Muhammad's wife and daughter dates the text after the conquests.
c. 750–800
Hebrew
Anonymous
A retelling of Genesis and Exodus as continuous narrative rather than verse-by-verse comment, full of material found nowhere earlier: the ten trials of Abraham, Samael riding the serpent, the sun and moon quarrelling, and Ishmael's descendants as a kingdom of the writer's own day.
7 of 1774 works