New Testament apocrypha
The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon)[1] are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cited as scripture by early Christians, but since the fifth century a widespread consensus has emerged limiting the New Testament to the 27 books of the modern canon.[2][3] Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant churches generally do not view the New Testament apocrypha as part of the Bible.[3]
Definition[edit]
The word apocrypha means 'things put away' or 'things hidden', originating from the Medieval Latin adjective apocryphus, 'secret' or 'non-canonical', which in turn originated from the Greek adjective ἀπόκρυφος (apokryphos), 'obscure', from the verb ἀποκρύπτειν (apokryptein), 'to hide away'.[4] Apokryptein in turn comes from the Greek prefix apo-, meaning 'away', and the Greek verb kryptein, meaning 'to hide'.[5]
The general term is usually applied to the books that were considered by the church as useful, but not divinely inspired. As such, to refer to Gnostic writings as "apocryphal" is misleading since they would not be classified in the same category by orthodox believers. Often used by the Greek Fathers was the term antilegomena, or 'spoken against', although some canonical books were also spoken against, such as the Apocalypse of John in the East. Often used by scholars is the term pseudepigrapha, meaning 'falsely inscribed' or 'falsely attributed', in the sense that the writings were written by an anonymous author who appended the name of an apostle to his work, such as in the Gospel of Peter or the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch: almost all books, in both Old and New Testaments, called "apocrypha" in the Protestant tradition are pseudepigrapha. In the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, what are called the apocrypha by Protestants include the deuterocanonical books: in the Catholic tradition, the term apocrypha is synonymous with what Protestants would call the pseudepigrapha, the latter term of which is almost exclusively used by scholars.[6]
Several texts concern themselves with the subsequent lives of the apostles, usually with highly supernatural events. Almost half of these, anciently called The Circuits of the Apostles and now known by the name of their purported author, "Leucius Charinus" (supposedly a companion of John the apostle), contained the Acts of Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas, and Paul. These were judged by the Patriarch Photios I of Constantinople in the ninth century to be full of folly, self-contradiction, falsehood, and impiety. The Acts of Thomas and the Acts of Peter and the Twelve are often considered Gnostic texts. While most of the texts are believed to have been written in the 2nd century, at least two, the Acts of Barnabas and the Acts of Peter and Paul are believed to have been written as late as the 5th century.
There are also non-canonical epistles (or "letters") between individuals or to Christians in general. Some of them were regarded very highly by the early church. Those marked with a lozenge (♦) are included in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers:
Several works frame themselves as visions, often discussing the future, afterlife, or both:
Several texts (over 50) consist of descriptions of the events surrounding the varied fate of Mary (the mother of Jesus):
These texts, due to their content or form, do not fit into the other categories:
In addition to the known apocryphal works, there are also small fragments of texts, parts of unknown (or uncertain) works. Some of the more significant fragments are:
Several texts are mentioned in many ancient sources and would probably be considered part of the apocrypha, but no known text has survived:
While many of the books listed here were considered heretical (especially those belonging to the gnostic tradition—as this sect was considered heretical by Proto-orthodox Christianity of the early centuries), others were not considered particularly heretical in content, but in fact were well accepted as significant spiritual works. Those marked with a lozenge (♦) are also included in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers.
While some of the following works appear in complete Bibles from the fourth century, such as 1 Clement and The Shepherd of Hermas, showing their general popularity, they were not included when the canon was formally decided at the end of that century.
Evaluation[edit]
Present day[edit]
Among historians of early Christianity, the books are considered invaluable, especially those that almost made it into the final canon, such as Shepherd of Hermas. Bart Ehrman, for example, said:
