1746 Antique Bible - APOCRYPHA - EXQUISITE BINDING

Title: Das ist, Die gantze Heil. Schrift Altes und Neues Testaments, nach der Teutschen Uebersetzung M. Luthers Mit iedes Capitels kurtzen Summarien, auch... Parallelen. Mit Fleiß übersehen und gegen einige ... Editiones des sel. Mannes gehalten... Nebst der Vorrede Des ...

[The Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments, after the Translation of Martin Luther...]

Printed: Halle, Germany: 1746.    

8vo. 402 pages, set in double columns, gilt edged. Title page in red and black. Text is in German. Contemporary full calf binding, ornately tooled and titled in gilt, with five raised bands. Lovely period floral gilt endpapers. Peface and summaries by C.H. von Canstein. Also includes list of list of celebrations, etc. Annotations from a contemporary hand, to front end paper. Occasional foxing, otherwise in Near Fine condition. A beautiful antique Lutheran Bible, including the Apocrypha - constituting a rare piece of Christian history, remarkably well preserved.

Featuring the Elusive and Controversial Apocrypha!

Includes complete, rarely seen and original printing of the deuterocanonincal scriptural texts together known as Apocrypha, named from the Greek term "things hidden away", written centuries before the birth of Jesus. The Apocrypha here includes Judith, Sapientia (Wisdom of Solomon), Tobit, Syrach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1 Meccabees, 2 Meccabees, Additions to Esther, Additions to Daniel.

During sixteenth-century controversies over the biblical canon, the word "apocrypha" acquired a negative connotation, and became a synonym for "spurious" or "false." Its meaning has fluctuated over time: from referring to writings undisclosed and containing esoteric knowledge considered too profound or sacred to be disclosed to anyone other than the initiated, to writings that were believed to be hidden not because of their divinity but because of their questionable value to the church. It was in Luther's original German Bible that the books were entitled "Apocrypha" for the first time. Controversy and debate further surrounds the authenticity and authorship of the writings: Origen, Clement and others cited some apocryphal books as "scripture", "divine scripture", "inspired" etc. Another view was that the books were not as valuable as the canonical scriptures of the Hebrew collection, but were of value for moral uses, as introductory texts for new converts from paganism, and to be read in congregations.

Das ist, Die gantze Heil. Schrift Altes und Neues Testaments, nach der Teutschen Uebersetzung M. Luthers Mit iedes Capitels kurtzen Summarien, auch... Parallelen. Mit Fleiß übersehen und gegen einige ... Editiones des sel. Mannes gehalten... Nebst der Vorrede Des ... C.H. von Canstein.

3 Tle. in 1 Bd. Halle, Waisenhaus 1746. 14 S., 1 Bl., 666 S.; S. 667-1079; 308 S., 3 Bl. Dekorat., brauner Kalbsldr. d. Zt. mit reicher ornament. u. flor. Goldpräg., goldgepr. Mittelstück (Lamm mit Kreuzfahne im Sonnenkranz) auf beiden Deckeln sowie mit Monogr. I.A.K. u. Datum 1747, Rverg., punz. Goldschn. u. Innenspiegel aus Brokatpapier. Mit anweisung der sonn-und festäglichen.