Anagignoskomena

The Anagignoskomena—ἀναγιγνωσκόμενα (Greek, "those which are to be read" [to a gathering], that is, those which are to be read aloud to the congregation)—are those books which are part of the Biblical Canon of the Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church read by them in public worship, which are not included in the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible:

• 1 Esdras,
• 2 Esdras,
• Prayer of Manasseh,
• Psalm 151,
• 3 Maccabees,
• and the appended 4 Maccabees.

The Protestant canon of The Apocrypha omits in silence Psalm 151 and the 3rd and 4th Books of the Maccabees, perhaps because these were not part of the Vulgate.

Martin Luther regarded the 7 books and parts of 2 other books of the Old Testament which he had segregated and placed into the Apocrypha, and the 4 books of the New Testament which he had placed into an appendix, as "anagignoskomena", that is, as "useful for reading", but he did not discuss Psalm 151 and the 3rd and 4th Books of the Maccabees, and he did not include them in his German Bible.

The three Anagignoskomena not included by Luther were never part of the Apocrypha of the King James Bible.

Originally the Greek term anagignoskomena generically designated all of the scriptures of the Old and New Testament which were read to the Christian congregation in public gatherings for worship. All of the books of the Bible were and still are "those which are to be read" to the people.

See Bible

External links

• Studying the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonicals/Anagignoskomena, by Chuck Grantham. November 12, 2009 (goulablogger.wordpress.com)

—a useful overview of the subject for beginners * Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. "The Apocrypha, Early Church Councils, and Martin Luther". January 13, 2011 BY PASTORRICH

• Septuagint (simplebibletruths.net)

—a very dense and detailed compilation of source materials which includes brief discussions of the Anagignoskomena—worth careful and patient reading