New Testament Apocrypha
From Wikinfo
- For criticism see Criticism of New_Testament_Apocrypha
The New Testament apocrypha strictly defined - books accepted neither by Catholic nor Protestant readers - includes several extra gospels and lives of apostles. Some of these books were clearly produced by Gnostic authors or by members of other groups later defined as heterodox, or outside the body of the Church. Many of these writings were discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries, and have produced lively speculation about the state of affairs in Early Christianity.
Though Protestants, Catholics and most Orthodox agree on the canon of the New Testament the Ethiopian Orthodox are an exception. They add I & II Clement, and Shepherd of Hermas to the New Testament.
Originally however, Martin Luther considered the epistle of James as apocryphal, because it contained the line which seemed to contradict his teachings of salvation by faith alone: "Faith without works is dead". He nevertheless included the book of James in his translation of the Bible.
The most famous apocryphal book of the New Testament is without doubt the Gospel of Thomas. Most of the codices found in Nag Hammadi, including the only complete text of the Gospel of Thomas, are also considered as apocrypha of the New Testament. Also see the entry on Gnosticism for a list of other recovered works considered to be of Gnostic origin.
Some specific books of the New Testament apocrypha:
- The Acts of Paul
- The Acts of Peter
- The Acts of Pilate
- The Apocalypse of Peter
- The Book of Henoch
- The Didache
- The Epistle of Barnabas
- The Gospel of the Egyptians
- The Gospel of the Hebrews
- The Gospel of Peter
- The Gospel of Thomas
- The Shepherd of Hermas
- The Sophia of Jesus Christ
For Papyrus Egerton 2, a famous unknown (fragmentary) Gospel compare: http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/Egerton/Egerton_home.html
For the so called Secret Gospel of Mark, mentioned in a letter of Clement of Alexandria discovered in 1958 by Morton Smith compare: http://www-user.uni-bremen.de/~wie/Secret/secmark_home.html
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