Legends and National Epics

Later legendary retellings of biblical history — not scripture, but read for centuries.

Some of the best-known books built around biblical figures and events aren't scripture at all, and don't claim to be part of any church's canon — they're later legendary or folkloric retellings, written to entertain, to embellish a bare biblical mention into a full story, or to ground a nation's own identity in the biblical past.

This collection includes the Kebra Nagast ("Glory of Kings"), the Ethiopian national epic recounting the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon and the birth of their son Menelik I, who is said to have brought the Ark of the Covenant to Ethiopia; and the Book of Jasher (Sefer haYashar), a medieval Hebrew midrash retelling Genesis through Judges with added narrative detail — not the lost "Book of Jasher" quoted in Joshua 10:13 and 2 Samuel 1:18, and not the well-known 18th-century English forgery that circulates under the same title.

2 books