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The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) 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. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant churches generally do not view the New Testament apocrypha as part of the Bible. Definition The word apocrypha means 'things put away' or 'things hidden', originating from the Medieval Latin adjective apocryphus, 'secret' or 'non-canonical', which in turn originated from the Greek adjective ἀπόκρυφος (apokryphos), 'obscure', from the verb ἀποκρύπτειν (apokryptein), 'to hide away'. Apokryptein in turn comes from the Greek prefix apo-, meaning 'away', and the Greek verb kryptein, meaning 'to hide'. The general term is usually applied to the books that were considered by the church as useful, but not divinely inspired. As such, to refer to Gnostic writings as "apocryphal" is misleading since they would not be classified in the same category by orthodox believers. Often used by the Greek Fathers was the term antilegomena, or 'spoken against', although some canonical books were also spoken against, such as the Apocalypse of John in the East. Often used by scholars is the term pseudepigrapha, meaning 'falsely inscribed' or 'falsely attributed', in the sense that the writings were written by an anonymous author who appended the name of an apostle to his work, such as in the Gospel of Peter or the Ethiopic Apocalypse of Enoch: almost all books, in both Old and New Testaments, called "apocrypha" in the Protestant tradition are pseudepigrapha. In the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, what are called the apocrypha by Protestants include the deuterocanonical books: in the Catholic tradition, the term apocrypha is synonymous with what Protestants would call the pseudepigrapha, the latter term of which is almost exclusively used by scholars. 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 apocryphal; some were virgorously suppressed and survive only as fragments, or only in mention in the writings of those condemning them. The earliest lists of canonical works of the New Testament were not quite the same as modern lists; for example, the Book of Revelation was regarded as disputed by some Christians (see Antilegomena), while the Shepherd of Hermas was considered genuine by others, and appears (after the Book of Revelation) in the Codex Sinaiticus. The Syriac Peshitta, used by all the various Syrian churches, originally did not include 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation. This canon of 22 books is the one cited by John Chrysostom (~347–407) and Theodoret (393–466) from the School of Antioch. Western Syrians have added the remaining five books to their New Testament canons in modern times (such as the Lee Peshitta of 1823). Today, the official lectionaries followed by the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church and the East Syriac Chaldean Catholic Church, which is in communion with the Holy See, still only present lessons from the 22 books of the original Peshitta. The Armenian Apostolic church at times has included the Third 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. The New Testament of the Coptic Bible, adopted by the Egyptian Church, includes the two Epistles of Clement. Modern scholarship and translation English translations were made in the early 18th century by William Wake and by Jeremiah Jones, and collected in 1820 by William Hone's Apocryphal New Testament. The series Ante-Nicene Fathers, volume 8, contains translations by Alexander Walker. New translations by M. 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 of Schneemelcher, and in English its translation by Robert McLachlan Wilson. 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. 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. 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. Most of these manuscripts were based on the earliest infancy gospels, namely the Infancy Gospel of James (also called the "Protoevangelium of James") and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, and on their later combination into the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (also called the "Infancy Gospel of Matthew" or "Birth of Mary and Infancy of the Saviour"). 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 gospels of a Jewish Christian character quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Epiphanius, Jerome and probably Didymus the Blind. Most modern scholars have concluded that there existe.... Discover the Stephen J Patterson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Stephen J Patterson books.