The apocrypha is composed of ancient Hebrew or Christian religious books, which were left out of the Bible. The writings of the Old and New Testaments, because they shaped the minds of ancient Jews and Christians, often inspired other books, letters, “gospels,” apocalypses, and so on. The authors of these books are unknown to us, but some of the books claim (falsely) to have been written by famous Old Testament characters or members of the Christian church. Many of these writings come from the period between the Old and New Testaments, when many Jewish writers felt that their faith and lifestyle was under attack and wrote apocryphal works to protect it.
Most of the apocryphal books are also pseudepigrapha—that is, they were written by someone who assumed the name of a famous biblical figure. Apocryphal books exist that claim to be written by Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Bartholomew, and Thomas. Other books claim to be the record of events that befell such famous Bible characters as Adam, Eve, or Isaiah. In subject matter, these books often deal with such issues as the creation of the world, the future of Israel and the nations, the glory of God and his angels, the messianic kingdom, and life after death. Many of the pseudepigrapha are Jewish writings that were never accepted by the Jewish or Christian communities. They were written about the time of the Apocrypha (about 200 BC– AD 110), but they were only taken seriously by certain groups.
Other religious writings from that period were written to preserve the histories, traditions, myths and legends of Jews and early Christians. In that time, hundreds of years before the printing press was invented, very few books existed, and people read any book they could get their hands on. Stories of Jews who kept their faith under persecution or pagans punished for their unbelief were very attractive to the pressured people of God. These readers always believed the Laws of Moses to be the final authority in faith and in life, but needed other books as well, for inspiration and pleasure.
In the same way, although the early Christians believed that the Gospels and Epistles—along with the Old Testament—were to be the holy Scriptures, they read other books as well, which added to the Gospels and Acts with (probably fictional) stories of Jesus’ life and the lives of the disciples. There were, as well, books of revelations, martyrdoms, and spiritual teachings. Some works contained material that was not only fictional but downright bizarre, but others reflected the spirit of Christ and the apostles. It’s likely that these early Christians put together the Bible as we know it partly because they wanted to separate the true books from the false.
Writings that did not make it into the Bible were called the “apocrypha.” This is a Greek word meaning “hidden things.” Before Christians began using it, Greek leaders used it to describe those books that they wanted to keep away from the average reader. Such books were thought to contain mysteries or secrets that would be meaningful only to members of small religious groups or cults. But the word “apocrypha” also described books that deserved to be hidden, because they contained harmful doctrines or false teachings that would hurt rather than help readers.
By the end of the first century AD, Jewish thinkers and readers had made a clear boundary line between books that were suitable for the general public and books that were only for the specially trained reader. Thus in 2 Esdras 14:1-6, Ezra is told by God to publish certain writings openly, and to keep others secret (that is, apocalyptic books dealing with the coming end of the world). Second Esdras 14:42-46 mentions seventy such books after a list of the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible.
When the Hebrew Bible began to be translated into Greek in Egypt during the reign of Ptolemy II (285–246 BC), the translators used a number of books that were not part of the generally accepted list of Hebrew scripture, still influenced Jewish history and society. The books the Jews regarded as being specifically outside the Scripture included: 1 Esdras; 2 Esdras; Tobit; Judith; the additions to Esther; the Wisdom of Solomon; Ecclesiasticus; Baruch; the Letter of Jeremiah; the additions to the book of Daniel (the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon); the Prayer of Manasseh; 1 Maccabees; and 2 Maccabees. Several Greek manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible included some other writing under the titles of 3 and 4 Maccabees. Among early Christian scholars there was also some difference of opinion about which Hebrew books were apocryphal.
In the fifth century AD, Christians began using the word “apocryphal” to describe books left out of the Bible. Jerome, the great translator who put the Bible into Latin, urged that the books found in Greek and Latin Bibles that were not in the Hebrew Old Testament should be treated as apocryphal. Jerome did not want these books to be used to decide Christian doctrine, but they could be read alongside the Bible for inspiration and entertainment. But Augustine, the great theologian, argued that the books of the Apocrypha had authority equal to that of the other writings of the Scriptures. Augustine’s view was taken up by the Council of Trent (1546) and became official Roman Catholic teaching. Protestant theologians generally have followed Jerome in rejecting the Old Testament Apocrypha.
Christians of the New Testament period were familiar with Jewish apocryphal works, and they wrote books of their own that were inspired by the Gospels and the Epistles just as the Old Testament apocryphal books were inspired by the Torah. As things turned out, this apocryphal New Testament literature defeated the purposes it was intended to serve.
APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS
Apocryphal gospels make up one important group of apocryphal writings. These writings give stories about Christ and his teachings, but were left out of the Bible because of their make-believe quality. There are three broad classes:
1. Gospels similar to the synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke), such as the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of the Egyptians, as well as papyrus fragments including Oxyrhynchus 840 and Papyrus Egerton 2.
2. Gospels written by the Gnostics, a second-century AD religious group who claimed to have special philosophical knowledge (gnosis) of the cosmos and man. They are often written as dialogues between Jesus and his disciples, such as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas, the Apocryphon of John, the Wisdom of Jesus Christ, and the Dialogue of the Redeemer. This category also includes those “gospels” that claim to have been written by the Twelve Disciples as a group, such as the Memoirs of the Apostles. (To see what Paul thought of the Gnostics, look at the book of Colossians, where he directly attacks them.)
3. Infancy gospels, which tell stories about Christ’s earliest years, or passion gospels, written to satisfy curiosity about Christ’s birth and childhood or to add information to the biblical stories of his crucifixion and resurrection.
Because the Bible gives us so little information on Christ’s youth, the “infancy” gospels tried to fill in the blanks with fairy tale-like scenes, such as the one in the Gospel of Thomas where the five-year-old Jesus makes a clay bird come to life by clapping.
“Passion” gospels were written to embellish the story of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. Many of these apocryphal writings seem to preach ideas that were actually against New Testament doctrine. Attempts to fill in the “hidden years” of Christ’s life had no basis whatever in the Gospels. Works dealing with the fate of unbelievers speculated wildly in excess of anything the New Testament actually says. Sometimes the authors set out deliberately to preach ideas contradictory to the teachings of the New Testament, as in the Gospel of Thomas, which was discovered around 1945 near the Nile River, and tries to give curious teachings an authority they don’t have by crediting them to Jesus.
APOCRYPHAL ACTS
There are also some apocryphal acts, books that tell of acts done by the Apostles that weren’t recorded in Scripture. Many traditions about the Apostles come from these books, such as the belief that Peter was crucified upside down and that Thomas preached in India. It is hard to know how seriously to take these stories because the writings contain material that does not seem to fit with Christianity. But small fragments of truth may be hidden in the fiction.
The church often attacked these books for heresy, sometimes even demanding that they be burned (for example, at the Nicene Council of 787). The Acts of John, for example, shows Jesus talking to John on the Mount of Olives during the Crucifixion, explaining that his death was only a show, an illusion. In the Acts of Thomas, Jesus appeared in the form of Thomas, telling a newly married couple to stay virgins. Many of these gospels encourage married Christians to avoid sex, which reflects the ideas of the Greek philosopher Plato (who thought that the physical body was mostly evil).
Many scholars date the earliest apocryphal book of acts, the Acts of John, before AD 150. The major Acts (of John, Paul, Peter, Andrew, and Thomas) were probably written during the second and third centuries. These inspired other such books that were mainly miracle stories, written more to entertain than to teach.
APOCRYPHAL EPISTLES
A host of apocryphal works are classified as epistles. These come from many periods of time, and include the Gnostic compositions found at Nag Hammadi, which give “secret” instructions to disciples. The Epistle of the Apostles and the Epistle of Barnabas are examples of this kind of apocryphal book.
APOCALYPTIC APOCRYPHA
Another group could be called apocalyptic apocrypha. “Apocalypse” means “revelation,” and was used to describe Christian literature that resembled the biblical book of Revelation. Most of these authors wrote under the names of famous persons from the past: thus we have Jewish apocalypses that claim to be from Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Ezra, and others, and Christian apocalypses that claim to be written by Peter, Thomas, James and others.
In New Testament times, a Jewish group emerged who held an apocalyptic view of history. Their works include such books as 1 Enoch, the Assumption of Moses, 4 Ezra, and the Apocalypse of Baruch. These books provide a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament ideas of the kingdom of God.
The apocalypses were written to answer questions about the justice of God. After Ezra, and throughout New Testament times, Israel was more obedient to the law than ever before, worshiping God faithfully. Still the kingdom did not come. Instead, the church faced Roman persecution, war and pressure from the pagan kingdoms around them, and, in AD 66-70, the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. Where was God? Why did he not deliver his faithful people? Why did the kingdom not come? The apocalypses were written to answer questions like these.
One of the most important aspects of apocalyptic religion is dualism: reality is divided into “this age” and “the age to come.” The prophets contrasted the present time with the future when the kingdom of God would come; the apocalypse writers radicalized this contrast. “The Most High has made not one age but two” (2 Esdras 7:50); “the day of judgment shall be the end of this age and the beginning of the immortal age that is to come” (2 Esdras 7:113); “this age the Most High has made for many but the age to come for few” (2 Esdras 8:1; see also Baruch 14:13; 15:7; Pirke Aboth 4:1, 21-22; 6:4-7). Furthermore, only a cosmic act of God can bring us from this age to the age to come. In the apocryphal Assumption of Moses there is no Messiah; God alone comes to redeem Israel. In the Similitudes of Enoch a heavenly, preexistent Son of Man appears to usher in “the age to come.” In 4 Ezra, we find the ideas of the Messiah and the Son of Man yoked together in one figure.
Apocalyptic religion is pessimistic about the present age. In the apocryphal apocalypses, God has removed himself from history; the present age is under the power of demonic forces. God has abandoned this age to evil. Salvation can be expected only in the age to come.
The apocalyptists expected no deliverance in this age. God had, in fact, become the God of the future, not of the present.
In the dream-visions of Enoch (1 Enoch 83-90), God faithfully guided Israel throughout its history, then withdrew, surrendering his people to be torn and devoured. God “remained unmoved, though he saw it, and rejoiced that they were devoured and swallowed and robbed, and left them to be devoured in the hand of all the beasts” (1 Enoch 89:58). History was surrendered to evil. All salvation was thrust into the future.
When compared to the spiritual richness of the Gospels and epistles, the apocryphal writings seem historically questionable and, in some ways, totally alien to New Testament spirituality. Nevertheless, the New Testament apocryphal compositions help us to see what was attractive to ordinary early Christians. Some of the stories in these books are vivid and imaginative, and others, such as the apocalypses, provided readers with an escape from harsh realities. At any rate, the New Testament apocryphal writings had an influence much greater than what they probably deserved.