Josephus was familiar with the
Apocrypha and used some of them in his research, but he did not consider them
to be inspired Scripture because they were not written by prophets, with the
prophetic succession failing after Artaxerxes I of Persia (464-423 B.C.). (Richard
Bruce Cox, Jr., “The Nineteenth Century British Apocrypha Controversy” [Baylor
University, May 1981], 72)
In the Jewish Antiquities,
I Esdras was used instead of the canonical Ezra-Nehemiah (e.g. XI. iii. 2-8 [Grk.
XI. 33-63]=1 Esd. 3-4) and some of the Additions to Esther were utilized (XI.
vi. 6 [Grk. XI. 216-19]=Add. Est. "B," 13:1-7; XI. vi. 8-9 [Grk. XI.
229-41]=Add. Est. "C," 13:8-14:19, and "D," 15:1-16; XI.
vi. 12 /Grk. XI. 273-83/=Add. Est. "E," 16:1-24); Swete, Old
Testament in Greek, p. 378. First Maccabees was the principal source for
its historical period (Jewish Antiquities XII-XIII); Albright and
Freedman, AB vol. 41 (1976): I Maccabees, by Jonathan A.
Goldstein, pp. 14, 56. (Ibid., 72 n. 2)
