We often hear the phrase 'religion(s) of the book' and this is always applied to the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The 'book' referred to are the collective scriptures of the aforesaid religions. The Christian Bible incorporates the Hebrew Bible, referred to by Christians as the Old Testament and adds to this the four canonical gospels, the various epistles (letters) and the rather strange Book of Revelation. What is not common knowledge amongst non-Christians and even amongst many Christians is that there is a collection of other scriptural books known collectively as the Apocrypha. The original King James Bible which is also known as the Authorised Version contained the Apocrypha and this was sandwiched between the Old and New Testaments. The same can be said for the Geneva Bible which was published in its entirety in 1560, 51 years before the King James Bible. However this was not the first English Bible for that dubious honour belongs to the Great Bible, authorised by Henry VIII in 1539. Prior to this only parts of the Bible had been translated into English, namely the Tyndale New Testament (1525) and the Pentateuch (1530) which are the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Apocrypha consists of the following books:
1 Esdras
2 Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Rest of Esther
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus
Baruch
Epistle of Jeremiah
Song of the Three Children
Story of Susannah
The Idol Bel and the Dragon
Prayer of Manasseh
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
It is quite rare to find the Apocrypha in later revisions of the English Bible (and there have been many in recent years) and you will struggle to find a King James Bible with one but not impossible and some of the books make for very interesting reading when approached from the perspective of comparative mythology, especially Bel and the Dragon! Whilst the Apocrypha is recognised as deuterocanonical which gives them a secondary status below that of the Old and New Testaments by both the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches it is virtually ignored by those Protestant Churches which broke away from the Church of England.
What is interesting is that the quite well known Book of Enoch is excluded from the Apocrypha and did not form part of the canon of scriptures of either Judaism or most Christian Churches apart from the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches and yet part of the book is referred to in the Epistle of Jude, a book which Martin Luther did not accept as scripture along with the Epistles of James and Hebrews and the Book of Revelation. However his followers ignored him on this point! The Book of Enoch contains much that may be useful for us to study as Armanen or esoteric heathens along with the Epistle of James and the Book of Revelation. Many other initiates have come to the same conclusion including the late David Lane. The biblical books here and there do contain obvious plagiarisms from Indo-European writings, spiritual systems and mythologies which do not fit into a Semitic mindset. In addition to the Apocrypha and the Book of Enoch we have the relatively recent discoveries of gnostic gospels:
Gospel of Thomas
Gospel of Marcion
Gospel of Basilides
Gospel of Truth
Gospel of the Four Heavenly Realms
Gospel of Mary
Gospel of Judas
Greek Gospel of the Egyptians
Gospel of Philip
Pseudo-Gospel of the Twelve
Gospel of Perfection
Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians
There are also many other non-gnostic gospels that did not make it into the canon of biblical scripture but it is abundantly clear that the concept of what is 'scripture' amongst these so-called 'religions of the book' is a moot point and many of these writings are very far removed from traditional Christianity and reveal a gnostic and pagan influence.
As Germanic heathens we too have our own 'scriptures' although there is a general collective tendency to avoid use of this term but I believe that this feeling is more to do with our rejection of the Christian religion than any well thought through analysis. We have of course the Eddas which are divided into two collections of writings; the Poetic Edda also known as the Elder Edda, written down in the 13th century and ascribed to Saemundr the Learned although this is rejected by modern scholars. Apart from anything Saemundr lived from 1056-1133 and the Edda or Codex Regius (which forms part of this Edda) dates back to the 13th century. This Edda is older and distinguished from the Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241) by being poetic in form. It is believed that Snorri either quoted from the Elder Edda or from a common and now lost source. The Elder Edda contains the mythological poems found in the Codex Regius but also additional material such as other mythological poems, e.g. the Rigsthula and also heroic lays such as those based upon Helgi and the Niflung Cycle. Sometimes one may find parts of the Elder Edda published in two volumes; one volume of mythological poetry and one of heroic poetry.
Both Eddas should be studied by heathens and it is advisable to study more than one translation of each Edda. It is even better if one were to study the Eddas in the original Old Norse language. To this end I have recently embarked upon a study of Old Norse as well as Modern Icelandic on which it is based. It is clear to me that from my analysis of various translations of the Eddas that there is at times a clear guesswork involved by the translator and for this reason I prefer to make my own best guess!
We are left with the important question of how do we view the Eddas? Do we view them simply as a useful collection of old writings from which we may gain important information about our Gods or do we ascribe a certain sanctity to them? I have mentioned before in earlier articles on other blogs that there is a certain blasé attitude amongst some heathens today in terms of how they approach the Gods, as if they somehow have less power or deserve less respect that that of the Judeo-Christian god and I believe that this attitude may be explained in two ways. Heathens associate the Judeo-Christian god with a monotheistic, all powerful and universal god. However monotheism does not have its origins in Judaism but in Indo-European religions such as Hinduism and Zoroastrianism and Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten (See A Son of God: The Life and Philosophy of Akhnaton, King of Egypt and Joy of the Sun: The Beautiful Life of Akhnaton, King of Egypt, Told To Young People, both by Savitri Devi). Secondly there is in these modern times a tendency to reject all authority whether this be the authority of the Gods or of man. Consequently the Eddas are seen to lack the authority of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. This may be attributed to a general trend towards the atomisation of individuals who divorce themselves from the notions of community and society. This idea is echoed in the words of the late Margaret Thatcher: "And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families." Whist individualism in itself is not a negative thing it has to be balanced towards our duties towards clan, tribe and race.
When heathens embrace the ancient Gods of their ancestors they do so with an attitude of conscious rejection of the Christian god and all aspects of the Christian religion. This is understandable and to an extent necessary. However we need to consider that the Christian religion underwent fundamental changes when it encountered our ancestors and certain accommodations were made to embrace heathens apart from the use of force, violence and law. This whole subject is analysed very thoroughly in a remarkable book which I read many tears ago by Dr James C. Russell-The Germanization of Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation, 1994. This work has been referred to by Edred Thorsson in his writings and I recommend this book to all my readers. The process of the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples was (contrary to the perception of many heathens) a two way process and ironically we can discover remnants of our pre-Christian beliefs in some of the rituals and practices of the mediaeval Christian Church if we know where to look! Another work which may be useful in this regard is Christianity: The Origins of a Pagan Religion by Professor Philippe Walther, 2006. On the issue of the Christ figure we have the much older work, Aryan Sun-Myths: Origin of Religion by Sarah E. Titcomb with an Introduction by Charles Morris, 1899. The more recent Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled by Acharya S, 2004 is also in my opinion required reading on the subject.
Much of what is written in the Eddas is composed in the third person about the Gods and heroes but some elements of the Eddas, most notably the Havamal and elements of Gylfaginning are in the first person and spoken by All-Father Odin Himself. The Havamal (Sayings of the High One) contains wisdom that has been learned by the God, in part through His many wanderings in Midgarth and thus this part of the Elder Edda deserves special study by the Wodenist/Odinist.
Within Hinduism there are many scriptures or sacred writings and the oldest are to be found in the Rig Veda which I have often quoted from in my blogs. The Hindu approaches these scriptures with reverence and rightly so for they are the oldest Indo-European writings and the oldest religious text in use! I leave you with this one thought to consider as heathens: do not the words of Odin deserve our reverence or is this attitude to be reserved only for the Christian 'god'?
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