Sunday, April 30, 2006

MORE ATTENTION is given to the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in a piece by Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo in the B.C. Catholic, again inspired by the Gospel of Judas:
The Gospel of Judas
'Much ado about nothing'


By Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo

The publication of the Gospel of Judas has made much noise for nothing, because this apparently new information about Judas, the villain, and the other disciples, the heroes, was already known and pronounced heretical about 150-180 years after the death of Jesus by the Church Fathers.

There were many other gospels similar to this that more or less resembled the inspired books of the Old and New Testament; they appeared about 40 to 60 years after Jesus rose from the dead. There were the gospels of James, of Bartholomew, of Nicodemus, of St. Thomas, of Mary, and a myriad more.

These books are called apocrypha, and include those books written by Jews for the purpose of continuing their tradition, for instance, the Assumption of Moses, the Sibylline Oracles, etc. Christians also wanted to complete other facts or miracles of the New Testament. Many heresies were scattered through these books. I want to describe, briefly, three of the most deplorable at the beginning of Christianity.

[...]
Actually, those Jewish books are technically called "pseudepigrapha" (see here). Christians wrote such Old Testament-related books too.

The three heresies he proceeds to discuss are Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and Docetism.