Jewish texts preserved by Christian Bibles and Monasteries  

From THE JEWISH  ANNOTATED NEW TESTAMENT

...individual who composed the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, while probably not Jewish themselves, were profoundly influenced by first- and second-century Jewish thought and by the Jewish translation of Tanakh into Greek, the Septuagint. 

Source in Hebrew Apocrypha Kahana A 1 : Abraham Kahana : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive 

Second Temple, Apocrypha | Sefaria  English and Hebrew Source text. List of Books.

to get; Ancient Jewish Sectarianism by Albert I. Baumgarten

  click Rishon - articles 

Talmudic references:

Tractate Sefer Torah 1:8     Jerusalem Talmud Megillah 1:9:15   Megillah 9a:10-13  Tractate Soferim 1:8 Megillah 8b:20  Megillah 9b:1-3

Chronology of 2nd Temple history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple_period

 The Second Temple period is divided into different periods:

Persian period (586-332 BCE)

Hellenistic period (332-63 BCE)

Roman period (63 BCE-324 CE)

The Neo-Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. 539 BCE  

Soon after the Persian king Cyrus the Great issued a proclamation known as the Edict of Cyrus, encouraging the exiles to return to their homeland as an autonomous Jewish-governed province.     Under the Persians (circa. 539–332 BCE), the returned Jewish population restored the city and rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem. 

In 332 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire fell to Alexander the Great. The region was later incorporated into the Ptolemaic Kingdom (circa. 301–200 BCE) and later into the Seleucid Empire (circa. 200–167 BCE).

Between 301 and 219 BCE the Ptolemies ruled Judea in relative peace. Jews often found themselves working in the Ptolemaic administration and army, which led to the rise of a Hellenized Jewish elite class (e.g. the Tobiads, who enriched themselves as tax collectors). This period also saw the rise of a Hellenistic Judaism, which first developed in the Jewish diaspora of Alexandria and Antioch and then spread to Judea. The major literary product of this cultural syncretism is the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible from Biblical Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic to Koiné  Greek (a dialect of the time). The reason for the production of the Septuagint seems to be that many of the Alexandrian Jews had lost the ability to speak Hebrew and Aramaic.

 Philo יְדִידְיָה  (20 BCE-CE 40) never quoted from the Apocrypha . Philo lived in Alexandria, where the Septuagint was originally translated. While Philo quoted from the Tanach over two thousand times, he “never once quotes an uncanonical Jewish book.”

The Letter of Aristeas, called so because it was a letter addressed from Aristeas of Marmora to his brother Philocrates  deals primarily with the reason the creation of the Septuagint as well as the people and processes involved. The letter's author claims to be a courtier of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (reigned 281-246 BC).   Letter of Aristeas | Sefaria 

At the turn of the 2nd-century BCE, a successful military campaign in Coele-Syria led by the Seleucid Antiochus III finally brought the region into the Seleucid empire, with Jerusalem falling under his control in 198 BCE 

Antiochus IV aided the Hellinizers Antiochus | My Jewish Learning and issued decrees forbidding many traditional Jewish practices and began a campaign of persecution against devout Jews. Menelaus, a non-priestly Tobiad, purchased the position of Kohen Gadol. This led to fighting between Moderate and extreme Hellenists. 

The Maccabean Revolt against Seleucid rule and Jewish Hellinizers  led to the establishment of a nominally independent Jewish kingdom under the Hasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE). See Hasmonean dynasty - Wikipedia 

 In 167 BCE, Mattathias, a Hasmonean-lineage Jewish priest, killed a Jew in his hometown Modi'in who stepped forward to offer sacrifice to the Greek gods; he then killed a Seleucid official who ordered the sacrifice. 

When Mattathias died, his son Judas Maccabeus took over as leader of the revolt. He used guerrilla tactics to defeat several small Seleucid armies while Antiochus IV was fighting a war in the east. 

Excerpts from 1 Maccabees

( 4:46) “And they laid up the stones in the mountain of the temple in a convenient place, till there should come a prophet, and give answer concerning them.”

(14:41) “And that the Jews, and their priests, had consented that he should be their prince, and high priest forever, till there should arise a faithful prophet.”

The Maccabean cause was aided further in 164 BCE when Antiochus IV died and his generals fought over guardianship of his young son Antiochus V; this turmoil ended when Antiochus IV's nephew, Demetrios I, returned from exile in Rome, deposed Antiochus V, and ascended to the Seleucid throne. Demetrios continued the war against the Maccabees and backed their Jewish opponents. Around this time Judas was able to make a treaty with the Romans. Around 161 BCE, a Roman–Jewish Treaty was signed. In 160 BCE, the Seleucid general Bacchides defeated the Maccabees at the Battle of Elasa in 160 BCE; Judas' death during the battle dealt a blow to the rebels.

After Judas died, his brother Jonathan Apphus took over as the leader of the revolt. He benefited from another internal Seleucid struggle between King Demetrius I Soter and an usurper, Alexander Balas. Both turned to Jonathan, attempting to win him over with concessions, and Alexander Balas even elevated him to the position of high priest. Alexander Balas was eventually able to assert himself, but he was quickly defeated by Demetrios' son Demetrios II. The battle for the throne was now between him and the general Diodotos Tryphon, which strengthened Jonathan's position even more. This did not change when Tryphon was able to capture and murder Jonathan in Acre through treachery.

In 142 BCE, Simon Thassi, the last of Mattathias' sons, took over as rebellion leader and high priest. He was eventually successful in destroying the Acra, a fortified complex in Jerusalem that was the last symbol of Seleucid rule in Judea.[52]

Alexander Jannaeus (r. 103–76 BCE) waged a series of expansionist wars, primarily against the Hellenistic cities surrounding Judea. Unlike his predecessors, who were focused on the concentration of the Jewish population in one country, his military efforts were motivated by a desire to control key economic points such as ports and trade routes. On the same time, he carried on his predecessors' conversion policy, and destroyed Pella because its inhabitants refused to convert. During his reign, the Hasmonean kingdom expanded to its greatest extent, now including the coastal plain, the northern Negev, and western parts of Transjordan.[6][4][5] Jannaeus' dual role as king and high priest, his inclination towards the Sadducees, the high cost of the wars in both money and lives threatened the governmental balance and sparked opposition to his rule, resulting in the Judean Civil War, which Jannaeus brutally suppressed.

Salome Alexandra (r. 76–67 BCE), Jannaeus' widow, ascended to power following her husband's death. Under her rule, the priesthood was separated from the other powers of government for the first time since the rise of the Hasmoneans. Salome appointed her son, Hyrcanus II, as high priest and his brother, Aristobulus II, as army commander, and pursued a moderate, mostly defensive policy that included the formation of a large and deterring army. Her nine-year reign is described as one of peace and economic prosperity, during which the country recovered from wars. The queen clearly supported the Pharisees, even allowing them to persecute and punish the Sadducees. 

During the ensuing Rabbinic period, the Jewish demographic center shifted to Galilee, where the Mishnah was compiled, and later to Babylonia

In 63 BCE, the Roman Republic conquered the kingdom. In 37 BCE, the Romans appointed Herod the Great as king of a vassal Judea. In 6 CE, Judea was fully incorporated into the Roman Empire as the province of Judaea. Growing dissatisfaction with Roman rule and civil disturbances eventually led to the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, which ended the Second Temple period.

Jewish society was deeply polarized along ideological lines, and the sects of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, and early Christianity were formed then. Important Jewish writings were composed during the period, including portions of the Hebrew Bible, such as the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther and Daniel and writings that are a part of the Apocrypha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among the major sources for the time period are the writings of Josephus, Philo, the Books of the Maccabees, Greek and Roman writers and later Rabbinic literature. Timeline of the Second Temple period - Wikipedia 

There is an absence of disputes about the Apocrypha in the rabbinical literaturet. Not a trace of disputes has been left in all the voluminous records of rabbinical tradition. We established, last time, that the Rabbis were familiar with the Septuagint and some external books like Ben Sira. However, they were not deemed important enough to preserve.

Not until the Council of Trent (CE 1545-1563) was the Apocrypha declared to be Scripture by the Roman Catholic Church

The Septuagint account of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith is given in the apocryphal Book of Judith and is the subject of many paintings and sculptures from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Here is Judith slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi, 1614–18.  Judith, a beautiful widow, is able to enter the tent of Holofernes because of his desire for her. Holofernes was an Assyrian general who was about to destroy Judith's home, the city of Bethulia. Overcome with drink, he passes out and is decapitated by Judith; his head is taken away in a basket.  In this picture  Judith pins him down on a bed. With one hand, Judith holds his head; with the other, she slices his throat with a long sword. The intensity of the scene is highlighted by the dripping blood soaking the white bed sheets and the man's eyes wide open — conscious, but helpless. 

Historically it is nonsense. its structure mirrors the book of Maccabees and Judith is analogous to Judah. Also, like Devorah. God works through those who take action. The pseudohistorical setting may be a safety device for the author against possible persecution. Below are two different later artistic representations of Judith in action .