New Testament apocrypha
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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
The word
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
History
Development of the New Testament canon
That some works are categorized as New Testament apocrypha is indicative of the wide range of responses to the ministry of Jesus. 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; and canons, 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 termed
The
The
Modern scholarship and translation
English translations were made in the early 18th century by
Constantin von Tischendorf and other scholars began to study New Testament apocrypha seriously in the 19th century and produce new translations. The texts of the Nag 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 the Libellus 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]
Gospels
Infancy gospels
The rarity of information about the childhood of Jesus in the canonical gospels led to a hunger of early Christians for more details about the early life of Jesus. This information was supplied by a number of 2nd-century and later texts, known as infancy gospels, none of which were accepted into the biblical 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 the
The other significant early infancy gospels are the Syriac Infancy Gospel, the History of Joseph the Carpenter, and the Life of John the Baptist.
Jewish-Christian gospels
The Jewish–Christian Gospels were
None of these gospels survive today, but attempts have been made to reconstruct them from references in the
- 1) The Gospel of the Ebionites ("GE") – 7 quotations by Epiphanius.
- 2) The Gospel of the Hebrews ("GH") – 1 quotation ascribed to Cyril of Jerusalem, plus GH 2–7 quotations by Clement, Origen, and Jerome.
- 3) The Gospel of the Nazarenes ("GN") – GN 1 to GN 23 are mainly from Jerome; GN 24 to GN 36 are from medieval sources.
Some scholars consider that the two last named are in fact the same source.[18]
Non-canonical gospels
- Gospel of Marcion (mid-2nd century)
- Gospel of Mani (3rd century)
- Gospel of Apelles(mid–late 2nd century)
- Gospel of Bardesanes(late 2nd–early 3rd century)
- Gospel of Basilides (mid-2nd century)
- Gospel of Thomas (1st century; sayings gospel)
Passion Gospels
A number of gospels are concerned specifically with the "Passion" (from the Latin verb patior, passus sum; "to suffer, bear, endure", from which also "patience, patient", etc.)[19]) of Jesus:
- Gospel of Peter
- Acts of Pilate")
- Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Life and the Passion of Christ
- Gospel of Bartholomew
- Questions of Bartholomew
- Book of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, by Bartholomew the Apostle
Although three texts take Bartholomew's name, it may be that either the Questions of Bartholomew or the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is in fact the unknown Gospel of Bartholomew.
Harmonized gospels
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 the Diatessaron.
Gnostic texts
In the modern era, many Gnostic texts have been uncovered, especially from the Nag 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 the Epistula Apostolorum, which is a polemic against Gnostic esoterica, but written in a similar style as the Gnostic texts.
Dialogues with Jesus
- James")
- Book of Thomas the Contender
- Dialogue of the Saviour
- Gospel of Judas (also called the "Gospel of Judas Iscariot")
- Gospel of Mary
- Gospel of Philip
- Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians)
- The Sophia of Jesus Christ
General texts concerning Jesus
- Coptic Apocalypse of Paul (distinct from the Apocalypse of Paul)
- Gospel of Truth
- Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter (distinct from the Apocalypse of Peter)
- Letter of Lentulus
- Pistis Sophia
- Second Treatise of the Great Seth
Sethian texts concerning Jesus
The
- Apocryphon of John (also called the "Secret Gospel of John")
- Coptic Gospel of the Egyptians (distinct from the Greek Gospel of the Egyptians)
- Trimorphic Protennoia
Ritual diagrams
Some of the Gnostic texts appear to consist of diagrams and instructions for use in religious rituals:
Acts
Several texts concern themselves with the subsequent lives of the apostles, usually with highly
- Acts of Andrew
- Acts of Barnabas
- Acts of John
- Acts of Mar Mari
- Acts of the Martyrs
- Acts of Paul
- Acts of Paul and Thecla
- Acts of Peter
- Acts of Peter and Andrew
- Acts of Peter and Paul
- Acts of Peter and the Twelve
- Acts of Philip
- Acts of Pilate
- Acts of Thomas
- Acts of Timothy
- Acts of Xanthippe, Polyxena, and Rebecca
- The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles
Epistles
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:
- Epistle of Barnabas ♦
- First Epistle of Clement ♦
- Second Epistle of Clement ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp ♦
- Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians ♦
- Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus♦
- Martyrdom of Polycarp ♦
- Epistle to the Laodiceans (an epistle in the name of Paul)
- Epistle to Seneca the Younger(an epistle in the name of Paul)
- Armenian Orthodoxchurch.
Apocalypses
Several works frame themselves as visions, often discussing the future, afterlife, or both:
- Apocalypse of the Virgin)
- Apocalypse of Peter (distinct from the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter)
- Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
- Apocalypse of Thomas (also called the Revelation of Thomas)
- Apocalypse of Stephen (also called the Revelation of Stephen)
- First Apocalypse of James (also called the First Revelation of James)
- Second Apocalypse of James (also called the Second Revelation of James)
- Second Apocalypse of John (also called the [First] Apocryphal Apocalypse of John)
- The Shepherd of Hermas (also included in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers)
Fate of Mary
Several texts (over 50) consist of descriptions of the events surrounding the varied fate of Mary (the mother of Jesus):
- The Home Going of Mary
- The Falling Asleep of the Mother of God
- The Descent of Mary
Miscellany
These texts, due to their content or form, do not fit into the other categories:
- Apostolic Constitutions (church regulations supposedly asserted by the apostles)
- Book of Nepos
- Canons of the Apostles
- Cave of Treasures (also called The Treasure)
- Clementine literature
- Didache (possibly the first written catechism) (also included in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers.)
- Liturgy of St James
- Penitence of Origen
- Prayer of Paul
- Sentences of Sextus
- Physiologus
- Book of the Bee
Fragments
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:
- The Gospel of the Saviour
- The Naassene Fragment
- The Fayyum Fragment
- The Secret Gospel of Mark, whose authenticity has been challenged
- The Oxyrhynchus Gospels
- The Egerton Gospel
Lost works
Several texts are mentioned in many ancient sources and would probably be considered part of the apocrypha, but no known text has survived:
- Gospel of Eve (a quotation from this gospel is given by Epiphanius (Haer. xxvi. 2, 3). It is possible that this is the Gospel of Perfection he alludes to in xxvi. 2. The quotation shows that this gospel was the expression of complete pantheism)
- Gospel of the Four Heavenly Realms
- Gospel of Matthias (probably different from the Gospel of Matthew)
- Gospel of Perfection (used by the followers of Basilides and other Gnostics. See Epiphanius, Haer. xxvi. 2)
- Gospel of the Seventy
- Gospel of Thaddaeus (This may be a synonym for the Gospel of Judas. The name Thaddeus was often used to not to confuse Jude the Apostle for Judas Iscariot)
- Gospel of the Twelve
- Memoria Apostolorum
Close candidates for canonization
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.
- Epistle of Barnabas ♦
- First Epistle of Clement ♦
- Second Epistle of Clement ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians ♦
- Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp ♦
- Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians ♦
- Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus♦
- Martyrdom of Polycarp ♦
- Shepherd of Hermas ♦
- Didache ♦
- Apocalypse of Peter
- Third Epistle to the Corinthians[citation needed]
Evaluation
Present day
Among historians of early Christianity, the books are considered invaluable, especially those that almost made it into the final canon, such as
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.[20]
Historical development towards today's canon
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 considered Catholic or 'universal.' Such works include the Didache, Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement, 2 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, and to a lesser extent the Apocalypse 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 the
...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.[21]
Published collections
- Cumberlege, Geoffrey (1926) [1895]. The Apocrypha: translated out of the Greek and Latin tongues: being the version set forth A.D. 1611 compared with the most ancient authorities and revised A.D. 1894 (reprint ed.). Oxford: University Press.
- Michel, Charles; Peeters, Paul (1924) [1911]. Évangiles Apocryphes (in French) (2nd ed.). Paris: A. Picard.
- James, Montague Rhodes (1953) [1924]. The Apocryphal New Testament (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- González-Blanco, Edmundo, ed. (1934). Los Evangelio Apócrifos (in Spanish). Vol. 3 vols. Madrid: Bergua.
- Bonaccorsi, Giuseppe, ed. (1948). Vangeli apocrifi (in Italian). Florence: Libreria Editrice Fiorentina.
- Aurelio de Santos Otero, ed. (1956). Los Evangelios Apócrifos: Colección de textos griegos y latinos, versión crítica, estudios introductorios y comentarios (in Spanish). Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Christianos.
- Kekeliże, Korneli, ed. (1959). Kartuli versiebi aṗoḳripebis mocikulta šesaxeb [Georgian Versions of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles]. Tbilisi: Sakartvelos SSR mecnierebata akademiis gamomcemloba.
- Moraldi, Luigi, ed. (1994) [1971]. Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento (in Italian). Translated by Moraldi, Luigi (2nd ed.). Turin: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese.
- Robinson, James M. (1977). The Nag Hammadi Library in English. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
- Erbetta, Mario, ed. (1966–1981). Gli Apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento (in Italian). Vol. 3 vols. Translated by Erbetta, Mario. Turin: Marietti.
- Aurelio de Santos Otero (1978–1981). Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der altslavischen Apokryphen (in German). Vol. 2 vols. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- Herbert, Máire; McNamara, Martin (1989). Irish Biblical Apocrypha: Selected Texts in Translation. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
- Elliott, J. K. (1993). Apocryphal New Testament.
- Bovon, François; Geoltrain, Pierre; Kaestli, Jean-Daniel, eds. (1997–2005). Écrits apocryphes chrétiens (in French). Paris: Gallimard.
- Ehrman, Bart D.; Pleše, Zlatko (2011). The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973210-4.
- Markschies, Christoph; Schröter, Jens, eds. (2012). Antike christliche Apokryphen in deutscher Übersetzung (in German). Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck.
- Burke, Tony; Landau, Brent, eds. (2016). New Testament apocrypha: More noncanonical scriptures. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids. MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-7289-0.
- Burke, Tony, ed. (2020). New Testament apocrypha: More noncanonical scriptures. Vol. 2. Grand Rapids. MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-7290-6.
- Burke, Tony, ed. (2023). New Testament apocrypha: More noncanonical scriptures. Vol. 3. Grand Rapids. MI: Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-7793-2.
See also
- Apostolic Fathers
- Authorship of the Pauline epistles
- Biblical apocrypha
- Biblical canon
- Books of the Bible
- List of early Christian writers
- History of Christianity
- Historicity of Jesus
- List of Gospels
- Nag Hammadi library
- The
- Textual criticism
References
- ISBN 978-0-8146-8379-8.
There are both Old and New Testament Apocrypha [singular: Apocryphon],
- ISBN 9780521865784.
- ^ ISBN 9780199756681.
- ^ "Apocrypha – Definition". merriam-webster.com.
- ^ "apocrypha | Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-59856-489-1.
- ^ a b c Peshitta
- ^ Reliability Archived October 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The apocryphal New Testament, being all the gospels, epistles, and other pieces now extant. London, W. Hone. 1820.
- ^ ANF08...Apocrypha of the New Testament.
- ^ James McConkey Robinson, Christoph Heil, Jozef Verheyden, The Sayings Gospel Q: Collected Essays, Leuven, Peeters 2005, p. 279 "Not only has a third, fourth, fifth, and sixth edition of the standard German work by Edgar Hennecke and Wilhelm Schneemelcher prepared under the editorship of Schneemelcher appeared, but independent editions are being produced ..."
- ^ New Testament Apocrypha, Vol. 1: Gospels and Related Writings (1990), Vol. 2: Writings Relating to the Apostles Apocalypses and Related Subjects (1992), Westminster John Knox Press.
- ^ Stephen J. Patterson, James McConkey Robinson, Hans-Gebhard Bethge, The fifth Gospel: the Gospel of Thomas comes of age. 1998. pg. 105. quote: "The current edition of Wilhelm Schneemelcher's standard New Testament Apocrypha contains eleven Nag Hammadi tractates."
- ISBN 9781598035964.
- ^ Elliott 2005, p. 3.
- ^ Ehrman & Pleše 2011, p. 199.
- ^ Vielhauer & Strecker 1991, pp. 134–78.
- ^ Craig A. Evans
- ^ Cassell's Latin Dictionary, Marchant, J.R.V, & Charles, Joseph F., (Eds.), Revised Edition, 1928, p.396
- ^ Ehrman, Lost Scriptures pp. 2, 3
- ^ The Muratorian Fragment : 74–76
Sources
- JSTOR 23962351.
- Brock, Sebastian P. (1969). "A Syriac Version of the Letters of Lentulus and Pilate". Orientalia Christiana Periodica. 35: 45–62.
- ISBN 978-0-664-24428-6.
- ISBN 978-0-19-973210-4.
216.
- Elliott, James Keith (2005) [1993]. The Apocryphal New Testament. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-826181-0.
- Schlarb, Egbert; Lührmann, Dieter (2000). "Hebräerevangelium". Fragmente apokryph gewordener Evangelien in griechischer und lateinischer Sprache (in German). N.G. Elwert Verlag. OL 6868179M.
- ISBN 0-664-22721-X. (6th German edition, translated by George Ogg)
- ISBN 978-0-8028-3781-3.
External links
- New Testament Apocrypha texts
- New Testament Apocrypha resources
- New Testament Apocrypha histories
- New Testament Apocrypha - Tabulation includes Gnostic Gospels (23) and Gnostic Acts (29), linked to English translations.
- The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas public domain audiobook at LibriVox