Please read through a portion (one or two chapters is enough) of any of the Deuterocanonical books (the books included in Catholic and Greek Orthodox Bibles, but not usually included in Protestant Bibles). I recommend especially Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), but the other books are worth looking at as well.Note what you find particularly interesting in the selection you read. Would you ever read through the Deuterocanonicals on your own? Why, or why not?
If you have fallen behind on the blogs, you meet do additional entries on other Deuterocanonical books. [Please note: the link I give here has a pretty idiosyncratic list of the Apocrypha. "Bel and the Dragon" and "Susannah" are usually just called "additions to Daniel" and that's where you will find them in most Catholic Bibles.]
As a history major, the Macabees books always stuck out too me. It gives a good historical narrative of that intertestamental period. As a Protestant, you can sometimes feel lost when you jump straight into the New Testament from the Old and not know what's going on in Jewish culture. Obviously there is still a big gap missing, but even to see the shift of power from Greeks to Romans.
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