Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The object of this Introduction is to provide a short account not only of the books in the Church Apocrypha, but of the other Jewish writings from 200 to a.d. 100, which should be now occupying the attention of those interested in the New Testa ment. For without some knowledge of the con temporary literature of the period, we lose the chief key to the understanding of the world to which Christ came, and the atmosphere in which the Church was born.