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TheNew Testament apocrypha (singularapocryphon)[1] are a number of writings byearly Christians that give accounts ofJesus and his teachings, the nature ofGod, or the teachings of hisapostles and of their lives. Some of these writings were cited asscripture by early Christians, but since the fifth century a widespread consensus has emerged limiting the New Testament to the27 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]
The wordapocrypha means 'things put away' or 'things hidden', originating from theMedieval Latin adjectiveapocryphus, 'secret' or 'non-canonical', which in turn originated from theGreek adjectiveἀπόκρυφος (apokryphos), 'obscure', from the verbἀποκρύπτειν (apokryptein), 'to hide away'.[4]Apokryptein in turn comes from the Greek prefixapo-, meaning 'away', and the Greek verbkryptein, 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 toGnostic 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 termantilegomena, or 'spoken against', although some canonical books were also spoken against, such as theApocalypse of John in the East. Often used by scholars is the termpseudepigrapha, 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 theGospel of Peter or theEthiopic 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 thedeuterocanonical books: in the Catholic tradition, the termapocrypha is synonymous with what Protestants would call the pseudepigrapha, the latter term of which is almost exclusively used by scholars.[6]
That some works are categorized as New Testament apocrypha is indicative of the wide range of responses to the ministry ofJesus. During the first centuries following Jesus' ministry, considerable debate was held in regards to safeguarding the authenticity of his teachings. Three key methods developed to address this survive to the present day:ordination, where groups authorize individuals as reliable teachers of the message;creeds, where groups define the boundaries of interpretation of the message; andcanons, which list the primary documents certain groups believe contain the message originally taught by Jesus.
The first centuries of Christianity saw substantial debate in regards to which books should be included in the canons. In general, those books that the majority regarded as the earliest books about Jesus were the ones included. Books that were not accepted into the canons are now termedapocryphal; some were vigorously suppressed and survive only as fragments, or only in mention in the writings of those condemning them. The earliest lists of canonical works of theNew Testament were not quite the same as modern lists; for example, theBook of Revelation was regarded as disputed by some Christians (seeAntilegomena), while theShepherd of Hermas was considered genuine by others, and appears (after the Book of Revelation) in theCodex Sinaiticus.[citation needed]
TheSyriac Peshitta, used by all the various Syrian churches, originally did not include 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation. Thiscanon of 22 books is the one cited byJohn Chrysostom (~347–407) andTheodoret (393–466) from theSchool of Antioch.[7] Western Syrians have added the remaining five books to their New Testament canons in modern times[7] (such as theLee Peshitta of 1823). Today, the officiallectionaries followed by theMalankara Syrian Orthodox Church and theEast SyriacChaldean Catholic Church, which is in communion with theHoly See, still only present lessons from the 22 books of the original Peshitta.[7]
TheArmenian Apostolic church at times has included theThird Epistle to the Corinthians in its biblical canon, but does not always list it with the other 27 canonical New Testament books. The church did not accept Revelation into its Bible until 1200 CE.[8]
English translations were made in the early 18th century byWilliam Wake and byJeremiah Jones, and collected in 1820 byWilliam Hone'sApocryphal New Testament.[9] The seriesAnte-Nicene Fathers, volume 8, contains translations by Alexander Walker.[10] New translations byM. R. James appeared in 1924, and were revised by J.K. Eliott,The Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford University Press, 1991. The "standard" scholarly edition of the New Testament Apocrypha in German is that ofSchneemelcher,[11] and in English its translation by Robert McLachlan Wilson.[12]
Constantin von Tischendorf and other scholars began to study New Testament apocrypha seriously in the 19th century and produce new translations. The texts of theNag Hammadi library are often considered separately but the current edition of Schneemelcher also contains eleven Nag Hammadi texts.[13]
Books that are known objectively not to have existed in antiquity are usually not considered part of the New Testament apocrypha. Among these are theLibellus de Nativitate Sanctae Mariae (also called the "Nativity of Mary") and the Latin Infancy gospel. The latter two did not exist in antiquity, and they seem to be based on the earlier Infancy gospels.[citation needed]
Information about the childhood of Jesus was supplied by a number of 2nd-century and later texts, known as infancy gospels, none of which were accepted into thebiblical canon. Despite this, some scholars have noted that the very number of surviving infancy manuscripts attests to their continued popularity.[14]
Most of these manuscripts were based on the earliest infancy gospels, namely theInfancy Gospel of James (also called the "Protoevangelium of James") and theInfancy Gospel of Thomas, and on their later combination into theGospel of Pseudo-Matthew (also called the "Infancy Gospel of Matthew" or "Birth of Mary and Infancy of the Saviour").[citation needed]
The other significant early infancy gospels are theArabic Infancy Gospel, the Georgian Infancy Gospel, the Ethiopian Infancy Gospel / History of Jesus and Mary, theLibellus de Nativitate Sanctae Mariae, theArmenian Infancy Gospel, the Slavonic Infancy Gospel, the Infancy Gospel of the Savior, the Coptic Infancy Gospel, theHistory of Joseph the Carpenter, the Transitus Mariae / Gospel of the Dormition, and theLife of John the Baptist.
The Jewish–Christian Gospels weregospels of aJewish Christian character quoted byClement of Alexandria,Origen,Eusebius,Epiphanius,Jerome and probablyDidymus the Blind.[15] Most modern scholars have concluded that there existed one gospel in Aramaic/Hebrew and at least two in Greek, although a minority argue that there were only two: one Aramaic/Hebrew and one Greek.[16]
None of these gospels survive today, but attempts have been made to reconstruct them from references in theChurch Fathers. The reconstructed texts of the gospels are usually categorized under New Testament Apocrypha. The standard edition ofSchneemelcher describes the texts of three Jewish–Christian gospels as follows:[17]
Some scholars consider that the two last named are in fact the same source.[18][full citation needed]
A number of gospels are concerned specifically with the "Passion" (from the Latin verbpatior, passus sum; "to suffer, bear, endure", from which also "patience, patient", etc.)[22]) of Jesus:
Although three texts take Bartholomew's name, it may be that either theQuestions of Bartholomew or theResurrection of Jesus Christ is in fact the unknownGospel of Bartholomew.
A number of texts aim to provide a single harmonization of the canonical gospels, that eliminates discordances among them by presenting a unified text derived from them to some degree. The most widely read of these was theDiatessaron.
In the modern era, manyGnostic texts have been uncovered, especially from theNag Hammadi library. Some texts take the form of an expounding of the esoteric cosmology and ethics held by the Gnostics. Often this was in the form of dialogue in which Jesus expounds esoteric knowledge while his disciples raise questions concerning it. There is also a text, known as theEpistula Apostolorum, which is a polemic against Gnostic esoterica, but written in a similar style as the Gnostic texts.
TheSethians were a gnostic group who originally worshipped the biblicalSeth as amessianic figure, later treating Jesus as a re-incarnation of Seth. They produced numerous texts expounding their esoteric cosmology, usually in the form of visions:
Some of the Gnostic texts appear to consist of diagrams and instructions for use in religious rituals:
Several texts concern themselves with the subsequent lives of the apostles, usually with highlysupernatural events. Almost half of these, anciently calledThe 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 thePatriarch Photios I of Constantinople in the ninth century to be full of folly, self-contradiction, falsehood, and impiety. TheActs of Thomas and theActs 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, theActs of Barnabas and theActs 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 theApostolic 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 ofMary (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 byProto-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 theApostolic 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.
Among historians of early Christianity, the books are considered invaluable, especially those that almost made it into the final canon, such asShepherd of Hermas.Bart Ehrman, for example, said:
The victors in the struggles to establish Christian Orthodoxy not only won their theological battles, they also rewrote the history of the conflict; later readers then naturally assumed that the victorious views had been embraced by the vast majority of Christians from the very beginning ... The practice of Christian forgery has a long and distinguished history ... the debate lasted three hundred years ... even within "orthodox" circles there was considerable debate concerning which books to include.[24]
The historical debate primarily concerned whether certain works should be read in the church service or only privately. These works were widely used but not necessarily consideredCatholic or 'universal.' Such works include the Didache, Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement, 2 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and to a lesser extent theApocalypse of Peter.
Considering the generally accepted dates of authorship for all of the canonical New Testament works (c. 100 CE), as well as the various witnesses to canonicity extant among the writings of Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, etc., the four gospels and letters of Paul were held by the gentile Christian community as scriptural, and 200 years were needed to finalize the canon; from the beginning of the 2nd Century to the mid-4th Century, no book in the final canon was ever declared spurious or heretical, except for the Revelation of John which theCouncil of Laodicea in 363–364 CE rejected (although it accepted all of the other 26 books in the New Testament). This was possibly due to fears of the influence ofMontanism which used the book extensively to support their theology. SeeRevelation of John for more details.
Athanasius wrote hisEaster letter in 367 CE which defined a canon of 27 books, identical to the current canon, but also listed two works that were "not in the canon but to be read": The Shepherd of Hermas and theDidache. Nevertheless, the early church leaders in the 3rd and 4th Centuries generally distinguished between canonical works and those that were not canonical but 'useful,' or 'good for teaching,' though never relegating any of the final 27 books to the latter category. One aim with establishing the canon was to capture only those works which were held to have been written by the Apostles, or their close associates, and as theMuratorian fragment canon (c. 150–175 CE) states concerning the Shepherd of Hermas:[citation needed]
...But Hermas wrote The Shepherd very recently, in our times, in the city of Rome, while bishop Pius, his brother, was occupying the chair of the church of the city of Rome. And therefore it ought indeed to be read; but it cannot be read publicly to the people in church either among the Prophets, whose number is complete, or among the Apostles, for it is after their time.[25]
There are both Old and New Testament Apocrypha [singular: Apocryphon],
216.
The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas public domain audiobook atLibriVox| Overview and canon | |||||||||
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| Authorship and interpolation debates | |||||||||
| Deuterocanon and Apocrypha |
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| Old Testament pseudepigrapha | |||||||||
| New Testament apocrypha |
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