Gospel of Peter

Pseudepigraphy covers the false ascription of names of authors to works, even to perfectly authentic works that make no such claim within their text. Thus a widely accepted but incorrect attribution of authorship may make a perfectly authentic text pseudepigraphical. Assessing the actual writer of a text brings questions of pseudepigraphical attributions within the discipline of literary criticism. In a parallel case, forgers have been known to improve the market value of a perfectly genuine 17th-century Dutch painting by adding a painted signature Rembrandt fecit.

On a related note, a famous name assumed by the author of a work is an allonym (a work published under a name that is not that of the author).

In his book, Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament Biblical Scolar F. F. Bruce writes of the Gospel of Peter:

The docetic note in this narrative appears in the statement that Jesus, while being crucified, 'remained silent, as though he felt no pain', and in the account of his death. It carefully avoids saying that he died, preferring to say that he 'was taken up', as though he - or at least his soul or spiritual self - was 'assumed' direct from the cross to the presence of God. (We shall see an echo of this idea in the Qur'an.) Then the cry of dereliction is reproduced in a form which suggests that, at that moment, his divine power left the bodily shell in which it had taken up temporary residence.

Apart from its docetic tendency, the most striking feature of the narrative is its complete exoneration of Pilate from alll responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus. Pilate is here well on the way to the goal of canonisation which he was to attain in the Coptic Church. He withdraws from the trial after washing his hands, and Herod Antipas takes over from him, assuming the responsibility which, in Luke's passion narrative, he declined to accept. Roman soldiers play no part until they are sent by Pilate, at the request of the Jewish authorities, to provide the guard at the tomb of Jesus. The villians of the piece throughout are 'the Jews' - more particularly, the chief priests and the scribes. It is they who condemn Jesus to death and abuse him; it is they who crucify him and share out his clothes among themselves. [29]

These are the basic and original meanings of the terms.

In Biblical studies, the Pseudepigrapha[3] are Jewish religious works written c 200 BC to 200 AD, not all of which are literally pseudepigraphical. They are distinguished from the deuterocanonical (Catholic and Orthodox) or Apocrypha (Protestant), the fourteen books that appear in the Septuagint and Vulgate but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles.

Classical and Biblical studies

Literary studies

Biblical studies

Many such works were also referred to as Apocrypha, which originally connoted "secret writings", those that were rejected for liturgical public reading. An example of a text that is both apocryphal and pseudepigraphical is the Odes of Solomon, pseudepigraphical because it was not actually written by Solomon but instead is a collection of Early Christian (first to second century) hymns and poems, originally written not in Hebrew, and apocryphal because not accepted in either the Tanach or the New Testament.

But Protestants have also applied the word Apocrypha to texts found in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox scriptures which were not found in Hebrew manuscripts. Roman Catholics called those texts "deuterocanonical". Accordingly, there arose in some Protestant Biblical scholarship an extended use of the term pseudepigrapha[3] for works that appeared as though they ought to be part of the biblical canons, because of the authorship ascribed to them, but which stood outside both the biblical canons recognized by Protestants and Catholics. These works were also outside the particular set of books that Roman Catholics called deuterocanonical and to which Protestants had generally applied the term Apocryphal. Accordingly, the term pseudepigraphical, as now used often among both Protestants and Roman Catholics (allegedly for the clarity it brings to discussion), may make it difficult to discuss questions of pseudepigraphical authorship of canonical books dispassionately with an unsophisticated audience. To confuse the matter even more, Orthodox Christians accept books as canonical, that Roman Catholics and most Protestant denominations consider pseudepigraphical or at best of much less authority. There exist also churches that reject some of the books that Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants accept. The same is true of some Jewish sects.

There is a tendency not to use the word pseudepigrapha when describing works later than about 300 CE when referring to Biblical matters. But the late-appearing Gospel of Barnabas, Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius, the Pseudo-Apuleius (author of a fifth-century herbal ascribed to Apuleius), and the author traditionally referred to as the "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite", are classic examples of pseudepigraphy. In the fifth century the moralist Salvian published Contra avaritiam under the name of Timothy; the letter in which he explained to his former pupil, Bishop Salonius, his motives for so doing survives. There is also a category of modern pseudepigrapha.

Examples of Old Testament pseudepigrapha are the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, Jubilees (both of which are canonical in the Abyssinian Church of Ethiopia); the Life of Adam and Eve and the Pseudo-Philo. Examples of New Testament pseudepigrapha (but in these cases also likely to be called New Testament Apocrypha) are the Gospel of Peter which, in modern times, is known from early quotations, especially from a reference by Eusebius of Caesarea to a letter publicly circulated by Serapion, Bishop of Antioch in 190–203, who had found upon examining it that "most of it belonged to the right teaching of the Saviour," but that some parts might encourage its hearers to fall into the Docetist heresy. Serapion's rebuttal of the Gospel of Peter is otherwise lost. The attribution of the Epistle to the Laodiceans to Paul is another example. Further examples of New Testament pseudepigrapha include the aforementioned Gospel of Barnabas, and the Gospel of Judas, which begins by presenting itself as "the secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot".

Biblical Pseudepigrapha

• 1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch

  The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch) is a pseudepigraphic work ascribed to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah and son of Jared (Genesis 5:18).

  While this book today is non-canonical in most Christian churches, it was explicitly quoted in the New Testament (Letter of Jude 1:14-15) and by many of the Early Church Fathers. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church to this day regards it to be canonical.

• 2 Baruch

  2 Baruch is a Jewish pseudepigraphical text thought to have been written in the late first century CE or early second century CE, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. It is attributed to the Biblical Baruch and so is associated with the Old Testament, but not regarded as scripture by Jews or by most Christian groups. It is included in some editions of the Peshitta. It has 87 sections.

  2 Baruch is also known as the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch. The Apocalypse proper occupies the first 77 chapters of the book. Chapters 78-87 are usually referred to as the Letter of Baruch to the Nine and a Half Tribes.

• 3 Baruch

  3 Baruch or the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch is a visionary, Jewish pseudepedigraphic text thought to have been written after 130 AD, perhaps as late as the early 3rd century CE, after the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 CE. It is one of the Pseudepigrapha and not part of the canon of either the Jewish or most Christian Bibles. It survives in certain Greek manuscripts, and also in a few Old Church Slavonic ones.

  Like 2 Baruch, the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch describes the state of Jerusalem after the sack by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC and discusses how Judaism can survive when the temple is no longer in existence. It frames this discussion as a mystical vision granted to Baruch. Also like 2 Baruch, the Greek Apocalypse argues that the Temple has been preserved in heaven and is presented as fully functional and attended by angels; thus there is no need for the temple to be rebuilt on earth. Third Baruch addresses the question of why God permits good people to suffer, and answering with a vision of the afterlife in which sinners and the righteous get their just rewards.

• 4 Baruch

  Fourth Baruch is a pseudepigraphical text of the Old Testament. Paralipomena of Jeremiah appears as the title in several ancient Greek manuscripts of the work, meaning "things left out of (the Book of) Jeremiah."

  Fourth Baruch is regarded as pseudepigraphical by all Christian churches, except in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

• 3 Esdras

  In Roman Catholicism, following the numbering of the Vulgate, 3 Esdras refers to the book known in the Septuagint and by English-speaking Protestants as 1 Esdras.

  In Slavonic Bibles and some old Latin manuscripts 3 Esdras refers to the book known as 2 Esdras by English-speaking Protestants and 4 Esdras in the Roman Catholic Vulgate. Chapter 3-14 of Latin Esdras are sometimes also referred to as Ezra/Shealtiel or the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra,

• 4 Esdras

  Chapters 3-14, or the great bulk of 2 Esdras, are a Jewish apocalypse also sometimes known as 4 Ezra,[4] or the Jewish Apocalypse of Ezra. The latter name should not be confused with a later work called the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra.

  Among Greek Fathers of the Church, 4 Ezra is generally cited as Προφήτης Εσδρας ("The Prophet Esdras") or Αποκάλυψις Εσδρα ("Apocalypse of Ezra"). Wellhausen, Charles, and Gunkel have shown that the original composition was in Hebrew, which was translated into Greek, and then to Latin, Armenian, Ethiopia and Georgian, but the Hebrew and Greek editions have been lost.

• 3 Maccabees

  The book of the 3 Maccabees is found in most Orthodox Bibles as a part of the Anagignoskomena, while Protestants and Catholics consider it non-canonical[1], except the Moravian Brethren who included it in the Apocrypha of the Czech Kralicka Bible.

  The book actually has nothing to do with the Maccabees or their revolt against the Seleucid Empire, as described in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Instead it tells the story of persecution of the Jews under Ptolemy IV Philopator (222-205 BC). The name of the book apparently comes from the similarities between this book and the stories of the martyrdom of Eleazar and the Maccabeean youths in 2 Maccabees; the High Priest Shimon is also mentioned.

• 4 Maccabees

  The book of 4 Maccabees is a homily or philosophic discourse praising the supremacy of pious reason over passion. It is not in the Bible for most churches, but is an appendix to the Greek Bible, and in the canon of the Georgian Bible. It was in the 1688 Romanian Bible where it was called "Iosip" but is not printed in the Orthodox Bible today. It is included as an appendix in the recently published Eastern Orthodox Bible.

• 5 Maccabees

  Heliodorus Driven from the Temple
  (larger image)

  The Fifth book of the Maccabees is an ancient Jewish work relating the history in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

  The book chronicles the events from Heliodorus' attempt to rob the Temple treasury in 186 BC to the death of Herod the Great's two sons about 6 BC. It is little more than a summary of the events in first and second book of the Maccabees and the relevant chapters in Flavius Josephus. Only chapter 12 is original but also "teems with errors of various kinds".

  Similar to other Books of the Maccabees, this work aims at consoling Jews in their sufferings and encouraging them to be steadfast "in their devotion to the Mosaic law".[1]

• Apocalypse of Abraham

  The Apocalypse of Abraham is a pseudepigraphic (a text whose claimed authorship is unfounded) section of the Old Testament. Probably composed between about 70–150 AD, it is of Jewish origin and is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature. It has survived only in Old Slavonic recensions—it is not regarded as scripture by Jews or any Christian group.

• Apocalypse of Adam

  The Apocalypse of Adam discovered in 1945 as part of the Nag Hammadi library (codex V.5) is a Gnostic work written in Coptic. It has no necessary references to Christianity and it is accordingly debated whether it is a Christian Gnostic work or an example of Jewish Gnosticism. It proclaims one form of Sethian Gnosticism.

• Greek Apocalypse of Daniel

  The Greek Apocalypse of Daniel is an Christian pseudepigraphic text (one whose claimed authorship is unfounded) attributed to the Biblical Daniel and so associated with the Old Testament, but not regarded as scripture by Jews or any Christian group. The canonical Book of Daniel has much apocalyptic imagery, and this apocalyptic-style text deals with a similar subject. It was rediscovered and published at the end of 19th century. It shall not be confused with numerous other medieval works ascribed to Daniel or to Methodius, as the Syriac Apocalypse of Daniel of the seventh century, the Hebrew Apocalypse of Daniel of the twelfth century or the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius.

• Apocalypse of Elijah

  The Apocalypse of Elijah refers an anonymous apocryphal work presenting itself as a revelation given by an angel. Two versions are known today, a Coptic Orthodox Christian fragmentary version and a Hebrew Jewish version. The title derives from mentions of Elijah within the text, although there is no other reason to assume that he is meant to be the author.

• Apocalypse of Sedrach

  The Apocalypse of Sedrach, also known as the Word of Sedrach, is an ancient apocryphal text. The name of the titular figure, Sedrach may simply be the Greek form of Shadrach, the name of one of the three individuals put into the fiery furnace in the Book of Daniel. It may however simply be a corruption of Esdras, the Greek form of Ezra, particularly since the text has much similarity with other apocryphal texts attributed to Ezra, such as the Apocalypse of Ezra.

  Like much other apocalyptic literature, the text narrates how Sedrach was given a vision of heaven, first describing someone being sent by God take him there. In the Apocalypse of Sedrach, it is Jesus himself who comes to take Sedrach, but while the text seems superficially Christian, it appears to be a corruption of an earlier Jewish text, with Jesus simply having been substituted in place of the name of an archangel.

• Apocalypse of Zephaniah

  The Apocalypse of Zephaniah (or Apocalypse of Sophonias) is an ancient pseudepigraphic text (one whose claimed authorship is unfounded) attributed to the Biblical Zephaniah and so associated with the Old Testament, but not regarded as scripture by Jews or any Christian group. The canonical Book of Zephaniah has much mystical and apocalyptic imagery, and this apocalyptic-style text deals with a similar subject. It was rediscovered and published at the end of 19th century.

• Apocryphon of Ezekiel

  Apocryphon of Ezekiel is an apocryphal book, written in the style of the Old Testament, as revelations of Ezekiel. It survives only in fragments including quotations in Epiphanius, Clement of Rome and Clement of Alexandria, and the Chester Beatty Papyri 185. It is likely to have been composed circa 50 BC - 50 AD.

  4Q Pseudo-Ezekiel, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is possibly further fragments of this text, or it may be a different work concerning Ezekiel, but it is difficult to tell.

• Book of Noah

  The Book of Noah is currently thought to be a non-extant Old Testament pseudepigraphal work, attributed to Noah. It is quoted in several places in another pseudepigraphal work, 1 Enoch[3], as well as mentioned in another, Jubilees[2]. There have also been fragments attributed to a Book of Noah in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

  Though this book has not come down to us independently, it has in large measure been incorporated in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch, and can in part be reconstructed from it.

  The Book of Noah is mentioned in Jubilees x. 13, xxi. 10. Chapters lx., lxv.-lxix. 25 of the Ethiopic Enoch are without question derived from it. Thus lx. 1 runs:

  "In the year 500, in the seventh month ... in the life of Enoch."

• Greek Apocalypse of Ezra

  The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra, also known as The Word and Revelation of Esdras, is an pseudepigraphal work written in the name of the biblical scribe Ezra. It survived in only two Greek copies and is dated between the 2nd century and the 9th century AD.

  According to R. H. Charles, the text of the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra was influenced by the book of 2 Esdras. The extant version of the Greek Apocalypse is thought to have undergone extensive reworking, if not having been totally written by, Christian editors, mentioning the Apostles Paul and John, King Herod, etc.

• History of the Rechabites

  The History of the Rechabites is an ancient apocryphal account of an island nation led by Jonadab, the son of Rechab, which appears to be based on a brief account in the Book of Jeremiah.

  The book shows heavy Hellenic influence, and the narrative is much like a typical Hellenic myth, particularly showing similarity to the tales of the Therapeutae. It begins with Zosimus, a hermit, continually begging God to show him the land of the Rechabites, until God finally relents and sends an angel to him to lead him there. The Rechabites are described as enjoying the company of angels, leading an aescetic life, and eating only the luxurious fruits that grow on their fragrant island, and wearing no clothes.

• Jannes and Jambres

  Jannes and Jambres, or sometimes Johanai and Mamre, or Iannes and Mambres, are names given to the magicians who contended with Moses and Aaron and were discomfited by the Hebrew leaders in the Hebrew Bible Book of Exodus. These names were not given in the book of Exodus itself. Origen says that there was an apocryphal book called The Book of Jannes and Jambres, containing details of their exploits, and that St Paul's epistle 2 Timothy was quoting from it.

  Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 2 Timothy 3:8 ESV

  This book has not been rediscovered. Jannes and Jambres are mentioned in the Old Testament Targum Jonathan Exodus 7:11-8:19.

   

• Joseph and Aseneth

  Joseph and Aseneth (alternatively spelled Asaneth) is an ancient apocryphal expansion of the Book of Genesis's account of the patriarch Joseph's marriage to Aseneth.

  According to Genesis 41:45, Pharaoh gives Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah (Pentephres in the Septuagint) priest of On to Joseph as a wife. Genesis 41:50-52 narrates that Asenath bore Joseph two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. No more is said of her. Like many narratives in Genesis, the biblical story is tantalizingly brief, and raises questions that were to fascinate later interpreters. Why would an upstanding Jewish patriarch marry the daughter of a pagan priest, and how could it be justifiable? How could two of the eponymous tribes be descended from union with an outsider, otherwise prohibited by the Jewish Law? The story of Joseph and Aseneth sets out to answer some of those questions.

• Jubilees

  The Book of Jubilees (Hebrew: ספר היובלים Sefer haYovelim), sometimes called the Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work, considered one of the Pseudepigrapha by most Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christians. It was well known to Early Christian writers in the East and the West, as well as by the Rabbis. Later it was so thoroughly suppressed that no complete Hebrew, Greek or Latin version has survived. It is considered canonical for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, where it is known as the Book of Division (Ge'ez: Mets'hafe Kufale). In the modern scholarly view, it reworks material found in the biblical books of Genesis and Exodus in the light of concerns of some 2nd century BC Jews.

• Ladder of Jacob

  The Ladder of Jacob is a pseudepigraphic writing (a text whose claimed authorship is unfounded) of the Old Testament. It is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature. The text has been preserved only in Slavonic, and it is clearly a translation from a now lost Greek version. It is not regarded as scripture by Jews or any Christian group.

• Letter of Aristeas

  The so-called Letter of Aristeas or Letter to Philocrates is a Hellenistic work of the second century BCE, one of the Pseudepigrapha.[1] Josephus[2] who paraphrases about two-fifths of the letter, ascribes it to Aristeas and written to Philocrates, describing the Greek translation of the Hebrew Law by seventy-two interpreters sent into Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria, resulting in the Septuagint translation. Though its story of the creation of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible is fictitious,[3] it is the earliest text to mention the Library of Alexandria.

  Over twenty manuscripts of this letter are preserved and it is often mentioned and quoted in other texts. Its supposed author, purporting to be a courtier of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (reigned 281-246 BCE) is most often referred to as pseudo-Aristeas[8]

• Life of Adam and Eve

  The Life of Adam and Eve, also known, in its Greek version, as the Apocalypse of Moses, is a Jewish pseudepigraphical group of writings. It recounts the lives of Adam and Eve from after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden to their deaths. It provides more detail about The Fall of Man, including Eve's version of the story. Satan explains that he rebelled when God commanded him to worship Adam. After Adam dies, he and all his descendants are promised a resurrection.

  The ancient versions of the Life of Adam and Eve are: the Greek Apocalypse of Moses, the Latin Life of Adam and Eve, the Slavonic Life of Adam and Eve, the Armenian Penitence of Adam, the Georgian Book of Adam,[1] and one or two fragmentary Coptic versions. These texts are usually named as Primary Adam Literature to distinguish them from subsequent related texts, such as the Cave of Treasures that includes what appears to be extracts.

• Ascension of Isaiah

  The book Ascension of Isaiah is one of the Pseudepigrapha,[3] dating probably the second half of the 2nd century AD and compiled by an unknown Christian scholar.

• Odes of Solomon

  The Odes of Solomon is a collection of 42 odes attributed to Solomon. Various scholars have dated the composition of these religious poems to anywhere in the range of the first three centuries AD. The original language of the Odes is thought to have been either Greek or Syriac, and to be generally Christian in background.

• Prayer of Joseph

  Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
  (larger image)

  The Prayer of Joseph is a pseudepigraphic writing (a text whose claimed authorship is unfounded) of the Old Testament. It was composed either in Aramaic (if Jewish) or in Greek (if Christian) in the first century AD[9]. The text is almost lost and only a few fragments have survived in ancient quotations concerning the Biblical patriarch Jacob. The Prayer of Joseph narrates that Jacob was the incarnation of the angel Israel who competed with Uriel over their rank in heaven[9].

  The Prayer of Joseph was well known in the early 3rd century by Origen who speaks of it as a writing not to be despised, and expressly states that it was in use among the Jews[10]. The Prayer of Joseph is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature.

• Prayer of Manasseh

  The Prayer of Manasseh is a short work of 15 verses of the penitential prayer of the Judean king Manasseh. Manasseh is recorded in the Bible as one of the most idolatrous (X2 Kings 21:1-18XX); however, after having been taken captive by the Assyrians, he prays for mercy (2 Chronicles 33:10-17) and turns from his idolatrous ways.

  The Prayer of Manasseh is included in certain editions of the Greek Septuagint; for example, the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus includes the prayer among fourteen Odes appearing just after the Psalms.[1] It was printed at the end of 2 Chronicles in the 1599 Geneva Bible and the Latin Vulgate; it also appears in the Biblical apocrypha of the King James Bible. Currently, it is considered apocryphal by Catholics, Jews and Protestants alike. Clement VIII included the book in an appendix to the Vulgate stating that it should continue to be read "lest it perish entirely." In some editions of the Septuagint, it forms a part of the Book of Odes. It is accepted as a deuterocanonical book by some Orthodox Christians, though it does not appear in Bibles printed in Greece. In the Ethiopian Bible, this text appears within 2 Chronicles.

• Psalms of Solomon

  One of the Pseudepigrapha,[3] the Psalms of Solomon is a group of eighteen psalms (religious songs or poems) that are not part of any scriptural canon (they are, however, found in copies of the Peshitta and the Septuagint[2]). They are distinct from, but may be modeled after or derived from the Book of Psalms of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, which are traditionally attributed to David rather than Solomon. The 17th of the 18 Psalms has a similarity to Psalm 72 from the Book of Psalms, which claims attribution to Solomon, and hence may be the reason that the Psalms of Solomon have their name. (An alternate view is that the psalms were so highly regarded that Solomon's name was attached to it to keep them from resting in the ash heaps of history.)

• Questions of Ezra

  The Questions of Ezra is an ancient Christian apocryphal text, claimed to have been written by the biblical Ezra. The earliest surviving manuscript, composed in Armenian, dates from 1208 CE. It is an example of the Christian development of topics coming out from the Jewish Apocalyptic literature.[15] Due to the shortness of the book, it is impossible to determine the original language, the provenance or to reliably date it. This text has had no influence outside the Armenian Church.

  Two recension's of this text are known: the longer, known as version A, was first published in 1896 by Yovsep'ianc, and translated into English in 1901 by Issaverdens[16] and it is based on a manuscript dated 1208.[17] The shorter recension B was published in 1978 by Stone.[18]

  The text can be related with 2 Esdras and with the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra. It is a dialogue between Ezra and an angel of the Lord about the fate of human souls after death.[19] The text includes a description of the throne of God surrounded by the angelic host, though the impossibility of seeing the face of God is strongly emphasized. It also mentions the possibility of freeing souls from the hands of Satan by prayers in Church.

• Greek Apocalypse of Ezra

  The Greek Apocalypse of Ezra, also known as The Word and Revelation of Esdras, is an pseudepigraphal work written in the name of the biblical scribe (Sofer) Ezra. It survived in only two Greek copies and is dated between the 2nd century and the 9th century AD.

  According to R. H. Charles, the text of the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra was influenced by the book of 2 Esdras. The extant version of the Greek Apocalypse is thought to have undergone extensive reworking, if not having been totally written by, Christian editors, mentioning the Apostles Paul and John, King Herod, etc.

  Like much apocalyptic literature, the Apocalypse of Ezra portrays its author as being granted visions of heaven and of hell, where the punishments meted out to sinners are witnessed in detail. Ezra is first described as visiting heaven, where Ezra raises a question of theodicy - he asks God why humans were given the ability to sin. Unusually, although God argues that humans are to blame if they do sin, due to their having free will, the text has Ezra respond that ultimately the fall of man must be up to God, particularly since God created both Eve and the Serpent and the forbidden tree. Ezra goes on to accuse God of having an appalling idea of justice, to which God doesn't respond, even when Ezra petitions on behalf of sinners. After his petitions and argument with God, Ezra is shown a vision of the tortures in hell, as well as the Antichrist. Finally, when Ezra protests that no one is without sin and hence none will escape such torture, God reveals that he endured the cross in order to save mankind, forgive those who believe, and vanquish death.

• Sibylline Oracles

  The Sibylline Oracles (sometimes called the "pseudo-Sibylline Oracles") are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Twelve books of Sibylline Oracles survive. These are not considered to be the famous Sibylline Books of Roman history, which have been lost, but a collection of utterances that were composed under various circumstances from the middle of the second century to the fifth century AD.

  The pseudo-Sibylline texts are a valuable source for information about Classical mythology and early first millennium Gnostic, Jewish and Christian beliefs. Some apocalyptic passages scattered throughout seem to adumbrate themes of John's Book of Revelation and other Apocalyptic literature. In places the oracles have also undergone extensive editing, re-writing, and redaction, as they came to be exploited in wider circles.

  In one instance a passage has a Christian code-phrase in successive first letters on each line (an 'acrostic').

• Testament of Abraham

  The Testament of Abraham a pseudepigraphic text of the Old Testament. Probably composed in the first or second century CE, it is of Jewish origin and is usually considered to be part of the Apocalyptic literature. It is not regarded as scripture by Jews or any Christian group. It is often treated as one of a trio of very similar works, the other two of which are the Testament of Isaac and Testament of Jacob, though there is no reason to assume that they were originally a single work. All three works are based on the Blessing of Jacob, found in the Bible, in their style.

• Testament of Adam

  The Testament of Adam is a Jewish pseudepigraphical work extant in Syriac and Arabic. The earliest manuscript is dated to the 6th century, but the text is 4th century AD in origin, probably composed in Edessa. It purports to relate the final words of Adam to his son Seth in which he speaks of prayer and then prophesies both the coming of the Messiah and the Great Flood.

  For other accounts of the last words of Adam see Apocalypse of Adam, Life of Adam and Eve and Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan.

• Testament of Isaac

  The Testament of Isaac is a work now regarded as part of the Old Testament apocrypha. It is often treated as one of a trio of very similar works, the other two of which are the Testament of Abraham and Testament of Jacob, though there is no reason to assume that they were originally a single work. All three works are based on the Blessing of Jacob, found in the Bible, in their style.

  The Testament of Isaac has heavy Christian themes, though the Christian elements are usually regarded as later additions to what was originally a purely Jewish work. The Testament begins with Isaac being told of his impending death by an angel, and his message to his son in response. Isaac here is portrayed as foretelling both the Twelve Tribes of Israel and Jesus, the latter being a later Christian addition to the text. When a crowd assembles, Isaac gives a sermon about harmonious behaviour, as well as instruction on how to confess.

  At this point, the angel returns and takes Isaac to heaven, first seeing the torture of sinners (occurring in heaven not some underworld hell according to the author), and then meeting the deceased Abraham. At this point Isaac is not quite dead, and so returns to earth, and on the instruction of Abraham, writes down his Testament, and then dies and returns to heaven in a flying chariot, much like Abraham in his Testament.

• Testament of Jacob

  The Testament of Jacob is a work now regarded as part of the Old Testament apocrypha. It is often treated as one of a trio of very similar works, the other two of which are the Testament of Abraham and Testament of Isaac, though there is no reason to assume that they were originally a single work. All three works are based on the Blessing of Jacob, found in the Bible, in their style.

  In a similar manner to the other two Testaments, the Testament of Jacob begins with Jacob being visited by the archangel Michael and told of his impending death, and then being taken on a visit to heaven, where he first sees the torture of the sinful dead, and then meets the deceased Abraham. In this Testament it is the angels that Jacob meets who deliver the bulk of the sermonising passages.

• Testament of Job

  The Testament of Job is a book written in the 1st century BC or the 1st century AD (thus part of a tradition often called "intertestamental literature" by Christian scholars). The earliest surviving manuscript is in Coptic, of the 5th century; other early surviving manuscripts are in Greek and Old Slavonic.

  In folktale manner in the style of Jewish haggada [1], it elaborates upon the Book of Job making Job a king in Egypt. Like many other Testament of ... works in the Old Testament apocrypha, it gives the narrative a framing-tale of Job's last illness, in which he calls together his sons and daughters to give them his final instructions and exhortations. The Testament of Job contains all the characters familiar in the Book of Job, with a more prominent role for Job's wife, given the name Sitidos, and many parallels to Christian beliefs that Christian readers find, such as intercession with God and forgiveness.

  Unlike the Biblical Book of Job, Satan's vindictiveness towards Job is described in the Testament as being due to Job destroying a non-Jewish temple, indeed Satan is described in a far more villainous light, than simply being a prosecuting counsel. Job is equally portrayed differently; Satan is shown to directly attack Job, but fail each time due to Job's willingness to be patient, unlike the Biblical narrative where Job falls victim but retains faith.

• Assumption of Moses

  The Assumption of Moses (otherwise called the Testament of Moses) is a Jewish apocryphal pseudepigraphical work. It is known from a single sixth-century incomplete manuscript in Latin that was discovered by Antonio Ceriani in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan in the mid-nineteenth century and published by him in 1861[20].

  The two titles of this manuscript are due to different identifications with lost texts. The Stichometry of Nicephorus and some other ancient lists refer to both a Testament of Moses and an Assumption of Moses, apparently as separate texts.

  • Ceriani, and recently Tromp with him, identified the manuscript with the Assumption of Moses (which is also called the Ascension of Moses) due to a match of verse 1:14 with a quotation included in the Historia Ecclesiastica of Gelasius of Cyzicus[21]. This apocryphal work, entitled השמִ תריטפ in Hebrew, and ᾽Ανάληψις or ᾽Ανάβασις Μωυσέως in Greek, is also mentioned by other ancient writers, including Athanasius (in his Synopsis Sacræ Scripturæ) and Origen;
  • Charles, in his edition of 1897[22] suggests that the manuscript shall be identified with the Testament of Moses because the extant text does not describe any assumption of Moses to heaven, but simply contains the last exhortations of Moses (thus his testament). Charles furthermore suggests that these two separate texts were later united to form a single work.

• Testament of Solomon

  The Testament of Solomon is an Old Testament pseudepigraphical work, the authorship of which is ascribed to King Solomon. It describes how Solomon was enabled to build the Temple by commanding demons by means of a magical ring entrusted to him by the Archangel Michael.

• Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs

  The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a constituent of the apocryphal scriptures connected with the Torah. It is a pseudepigraphical work comprising the dying commands of the twelve sons of Jacob. It is part of the Oscan Armenian Orthodox Bible of 1666. Fragments of similar writings were found at Qumran, but opinions are divided if these are the same texts. It is considered Apocalyptic literature.

  The Testaments were written in Greek, and reached their final form in the second century CE. In the 13th century that they were introduced into the West through the agency of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, whose Latin translation of the work gained immediately became popular. He believed that it was a genuine work of the twelve sons of Jacob, and that the Christian interpolations were a genuine product of Jewish prophecy; he accused Jews of concealing the Testaments "on account of the prophecies of the Saviour contained in them."

  With the critical methods of the 16th century, Grosseteste's view of the Testaments was rejected and the book was unjustly disparaged as a mere Christian forgery for nearly four centuries. Presently, scholarly opinions are still divided as to whether the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs are an originally Jewish document that has been retouched by Christians or are a Christian document written originally in Greek but based on some earlier Semitic material.[23] Scholarship tends to focus on this book as a Christian work, whether or not it has Jewish original (Vorlage).

• The Lives of the Prophets

  The Lives of the Prophets is an ancient apocryphal account of the lives of the prophets from the Old Testament. It is not regarded as scripture by any Jewish or Christian denomination. The work may have been known by the author of some of the Pauline Epistles, as there are similarities in the descriptions of the fates of the prophets, although without naming the individuals concerned.

• Treatise of Shem

  James Charlesworth writes: "It is significant that the Treatise of Shem was composed about the time that the vernal equinox (the traditional beginning of the year, the start of spring) moved from Aries to Pisces, where it has been ever since, although it is about to move into Aquarius. This change, G. de Santillana has argued, would have evoked strong 'astrological emotion' since one age was succeeding another. It is certainly not clear, however, that this phenomenon was perceived or comprehended in antiquity. If it was, then the Treatise of Shem would be an unparalleled record of this monumental shift, the Precession of the Equinoxes." (The Old Testament Pseudepigraph, vol. 1, p. 480)[24]

• Vision of Ezra

  The Vision of Ezra is an ancient apocryphal text, claiming to have been written by the biblical Ezra. The earliest surviving manuscripts, composed in Latin, date to the 11th Century AD, though textual peculiarities strongly suggest that the text was originally written in Greek. Like the Greek Apocalypse of Ezra, the work is clearly Christian, and features several apostles being seen in heaven. However, the text is significantly shorter than the Apocalypse.

  The text has a strong dependence on 2 Esdras, an earlier Apocalypse, and portrays God as answering the prayer of Ezra to have courage by sending him seven angels to show him heaven. In the Latin Vision of Esdras, the holy beloved prophet walks down three floors or 72 steps and is shown hell. When arriving in hell, a soul approaches Esdras and says your coming here has granted us some respite. From there he is taken to the fourth underworld where the sinners are shown hanging by their eyelashes.The righteous he sees in heaven are portrayed as passing through a vast scene of flames, and fire-breathing lions, unharmed. The wicked are also seen to be in heaven, but are quickly ripped apart by vicious dogs, and burnt in the fire. Ezra is told by a nearby angel that the crimes of the wicked were that they had heterosexual sex on the sabbath.

• Ogias the Giant

  Ogias the Giant, also known as The Book of Giants, is an apocryphal book concerning the Old Testament. Its discovery at Qumran dates the text's creation to before the 2nd century BC.

  The text relates how before the Biblical deluge, a giant named Ogias fought a great dragon. A brief mention of this giant, "Ohia" is found in the Babylonian Talmud (Nidah, Ch 9), where it is said "סיחון ועוג אחי הוו דאמר מר סיחון ועוג בני אחיה בר שמחזאי הוו" ("Sihon and Og [from the book of Numbers] were brothers, as they were the sons of Ohia the son of Samhazai [one of the leaders of the fallen angels in the Book of Enoch]"). The version found at Qumran also describes the hero Gilgamesh and the monster Humbaba as two of the giants accompanying Ogias.

  Ogias the Giant is thought to have been based on the Book of Enoch, itself based on an obscure passage from Genesis 6:1-4 concerning Nephilim, which became "fallen angels". The book concerns itself with filling in the details about the giants and their offspring that the book of Enoch misses out. Aramaic fragments of it, along with other fragments of the Book of Enoch, were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. In the version of the Book of Giants which was spread by the Manichaean religion, the book became well traveled, and exists in Syriac, Greek, Persian, Sogdian, Uyghur, and Arabic, although each version is somewhat distorted, incorporating more local myths.

  In 1904, German expeditions to Central Asia (Turpan in present North-west China) brought back many fragments of Manichaean holy texts, some of which were identified as belonging to The Book of Giants.

• Book of Assaf

  The Book of Assaf is the earliest medical book written in Hebrew. According to the book it was written by Assaf (or Assaph) Ben Berhiyahu (son of Birhiyahu) and Johanan Ben Zabda, who lived in Israel between the fourth and sixth century CE. The book discusses illnesses, treatments and prevention. Some of the ideas are still used today, such as exercise, eating healthy food, and staying clean. The Book of Assaf includes Assaf's Oath[1], which in many aspects resembles the Hippocratic Oath. The Israeli hospital Assaf ha'rofe (Hebrew Assaf the Physician), is named after him. Excerpts from the book appear in a modern Hebrew edition by Suessman Muntner[25]

• Cave of Treasures

  The Cave of Treasures, sometimes referred to simply as The Treasure, is a book of the New Testament apocrypha. This text is attributed to Ephrem Syrus, who was born at Nisibis soon after A.D. 306 and died in 373, but it is now generally believed that its current form is 6th century or newer.

  The assertion that the "Cave of Treasures" was written in the 4th century is supported by the general contents of the work. These reproduce Ephraim's quaint and sometimes fanciful methods of exegesis and supply many examples of his methods in religious argument, with which we are familiar from his other writings. His pride in the antiquity of the Syriac language also appears in this work. That it was written in Mesopotamia by a Syrian, there is no doubt, and if Ephraim was not the author, the original author, or perhaps later editor, belonged to the school of Ephraim.

  The oldest Christian work on the history of God's dealing with man from Adam to Christ is probably the anonymous Book of Adam and Eve, which, in its original form, is from the 5th or 6th century AD. The writer of the Cave of Treasures borrowed largely from the Book of Adam and Eve, or shared a common source with it.

• Words of Gaz the Seer

  The Words of Gad the Seer was first discussed, its name, together with the other extra biblical books from Cochin, was already printed in three languages - German, Hebrew and English. These publications were made in several editions and places: 1) Eichhorn's Bibliothek, Goettingen 1787-89; 2) HaMeasef, Berlin 1790; 3) Igeret Orhot Olam, Prague 1793; 4) Igeret Orhot Olam, Prague 1810; 5) The Jewish Chronicle, New York 1846; 6) Miqve Israel, Lemberg 1847; 7) Miqve Israel, Lemberg 1870; 8) Miqve Israel, Warsaw 1873; 9) HaMitspeh, Petersburg, 1886. It is quite plausible that after more research in older scholarly literature, even more evidence might come to the surface.[26]

• Genesis Apocryphon

  The Genesis Apocryphon, originally called the Apocalypse of Lamech, is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Cave 1 near Qumran in the West Bank. Composed in Aramaic, this document consists of four sheets of leather, and is the least well preserved document of the original seven.[27] The document records a pseudepigraphal conversation between the biblical figure Lamech, son of Methuselah, and his son, Noah. It serves as an example of an expanded and rewritten biblical story.

• Assumption of Moses

  The Assumption of Moses (otherwise called the Testament of Moses) is a Jewish apocryphal pseudepigraphical work. It is known from a single sixth-century incomplete manuscript in Latin that was discovered by Antonio Ceriani in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan in the mid-nineteenth century and published by him in 1861[28].

• Sword of Moses

  The Sword of Moses is the title of a apocryphal Hebrew book of magic edited by Moses Gaster in 1896 from a 13th or 14th century manuscript. Gaster assumed that the text predates the 11th century, based on a letter by Rav Hai Gaon (939-1038) which mentions the book alongside the Sefer ha-Yashar, and that it may even date to as early as the first four centuries CE. Besides the medieval manuscript used by Gaster, only a short fragment of the text survives in Cod. Oxford 1531.

Notes

1. «  Bauckham, Richard; "Pseudo-Apostolic Letters", Journal of Biblical Literature, Vo. 107, No. 3, September 1988, pp.469–494. Retrieved 11/14/2009
2. «  It is written by a man who identifies himself only as "the presbyteros".
3. «  Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985.
4. «  Bauckham 1988, op. cit., pp. 469: "New Testament scholars are now nearly unanimous in the opinion that at least one NT letter, 2 Peter, is pseudepigraphical."
5. «  Colossians as Pseudepigraphy (Bible Seminar, 4 Sheffield:JSOT Press) 1986, p 12.
6. «  Harris, Stephen L., Understanding the Bible. Palo Alto: Mayfield. 1985. Retrieved 11/14/2009
7. «  Eusebius, Historia ecclesiae 6,12. Retrieved 11/14/2009
8. «  The works of Nathaniel Lardner in five volumes, Volume 3, "Credibility of the Gospel History" CHAP. CXLI. SALVIAN, By Nathaniel Lardner, Andrew Kippis
9. «  Prosographia Ptolemaica 6 (Leuven 1968: §14588) considers him probably fictitious.
10. «  NetBible: The 3rd, 4th, and 5th boks of the Maccabees
11. «  Evans, Craig A. (2005). Ancient texts for New Testament studies: a guide to the background literature. Hendrickson Publishers. p. 59. ISBN 9781565634091. http://books.google.com/books?id=Wf6BzO6TkyUC&lpg=PP1&hl=it&pg=PT96#v=onepage&q=&f=false.
12. «  Emil Schürer, The Literature of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus, pp. 127-128 EarlyJewishWritings
13. «  NET Bible Retrieved 11/14/2009
14. «  The shorter books of the Apocrypha: Tobit, Judith, Rest of Esther, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, additions to Daniel and Prayer of Manasseh. Commentary by J. C. Dancy, with contributions by W. J. Fuerst and R. J. Hammer. Cambridge [Eng.] University Press, 1972. ISBN 16230423
15. «  Stone, M.E. (1983). "Questions of Ezra, a new Translation and Introduction". in Charlesworth, James. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 1. ISBN 0385096305.
16. «  Issaverdens, J. (1901). The uncanonical writings of the Old Testament. Venice. pp. 695-703. http://books.google.it/books?id=xgQXAAAAIAAJ. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
17. «  manuscript n. 570 of Library of Mechitarists Monks in Venice
18. «  Stone, M.E. (1978). "Two new discoveries concernings the uncanonical Erza books". Sion 52: 54-60.
19. «  Fahlbusch, E.; Bromiley, G.W. (2004). The Encyclopedia of Christianity: P-Sh. p. 412. ISBN 0802824161.
20. «  Manuscript "C. 73 inf" published by A. Ceriani with the title of Fragmenta Assumptionis Mosis in Monumenta sacra et profana 1,1, Milano 1861 pag 55-66
21. «  verse 2,17,17 critical edition: G.C. Hansen, Gelasius Anonyme Kirchengeschichte (hansen) Gcs Nf 9 ISBN 3110174375 pag 58
22. «  R.H Charles The Assumption of Moses, Translated from the Latin Sixth Century MS., the Unemended Text of Which Is Published Herewith, Together with the Text in Its Restored and Critically Emended Form, London 1897
23. «  J. Davila. "A Difficult Case: The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs." Summary of lecture delivered on Feb. 20, 1997. Accessed Mar. 10, 2008.
24. «  Treatise of Shem on Early Jewish Writings, First Century B.C. Retrieved 11/14/2009
25. «  Introduction to The Book of Assaph the Physician, 1957.
26. «  The Discovery of The Words of Gad the Seer Retrieved 11/14/2009
27. «  Davies, Philip R., George J. Brooke, and Phillip R. Callaway, The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: Thames & Hudson, 2002), 100.
28. «  Manuscript "C. 73 inf" published by A. Ceriani with the title of Fragmenta Assumptionis Mosis in Monumenta sacra et profana 1,1, Milano 1861 pag 55-66
29. «  Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, Frederick Fyvie Bruce ISBN-10: 0802815758, ISBN-13: 978-0802815750 Retrieved 11/14/2009

References

1. von Fritz, Kurt, ed. Pseudepigraphica. 1 (Geneva:Fondation Hardt). Contributions on pseudopythagorica (the literature ascribed to Pythagoras), the Platonic Epistles, Jewish-Hellenistic literature, and the characteristics particular to religious forgeries.
2. Kiley, Mark. Colossians as Pseudepigraphy (Bible Seminar, 4 Sheffield:JSOT Press) 1986. Colossians as a non-deceptive school product
3. Metzger, B.M. "Literary forgeries and canonical pseudepigrapha", Journal of Biblical Literature 91 (1972).
4. "allonym." The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 18 Nov. 2008. Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/allonym.