Developed religious institutions with a coherent social structure, a clear hierarchy, a developed cult and thoughtful doctrine, usually also have a set of authoritative texts that serve as a measure and source of all religious life and philosophy. Such texts are called sacred and often claim to be divine revelation. Eloquent examples are the sacred books of Christians, Muslims and Jews - the Bible, the Koran and the Torah, respectively. However, before becoming a sacred revelation, such texts go through a difficult path from writing through a series of subsequent editions to the finished canon, which is proclaimed to be the final and inspired writing. At this stage, another series of texts, called Apocrypha, comes to the fore. In Greek, "apocrypha" is "secret" or "false". According to the translation, there are also two types of apocryphal writings.
Apocrypha is a forgery of revelation
To simplify as much as possible, we can say that the apocrypha is a religious text, the authorship of which is attributed to the founder of the religion, his disciples or other prominent authorities of the tradition. But unlike the canonical texts, the Apocrypha are notare recognized as authentic and are not considered inspired by the official and mainstream. That is why they are called false, that is, apocrypha.
Innermost Knowledge
Some experts also distinguish another kind of apocryphal literature, erected to the second meaning of the Greek term - secret. It is postulated that in most religious systems there is an internal level, open only to advanced adepts and initiated into some secrets of the cult. In contrast to Scripture for all, the Apocrypha play the role of an esoteric companion tradition that interprets Scripture at the highest, mystical level and reveals great truths. These revelations are hidden from the layman, and therefore the books in which they are presented and revealed are secret for him. An example of this kind of literature is the secret gospel of Mark, once kept in the Alexandrian church, as reported by the orthodox teacher Clement.
Apocrypha in Christianity
If we talk about the apocrypha of the Christian tradition, then we can conditionally distinguish four groups of texts:
- Old Testament Apocrypha.
- New Testament Apocrypha.
- Intertestamental Apocrypha.
- Extracherished Apocrypha.
1. The oldest apocrypha are from the Old Testament. Relate to the time of writing the main texts of the Old Testament corpus. Often attributed to prominent biblical characters - Adam, Abraham, Moses, Isaiah and other patriarchs and prophets of the Tanakh. There are such booksgreat multitude. For example, we can recall the Apocryphal Book of Jeremiah or the Psalms of Solomon.
2. The New Testament group of apocrypha includes a number of texts similar in genre and time of writing to the works that make up the canon of the New Testament. Their nominal authors are included in the circle of the closest disciples of Christ - the apostles and some of the disciples of the Savior. An example of this kind of apocrypha is the protevangelium of James.
3. The Intertestamental Apocrypha is another group of texts. The conditional time of their compilation is from 400 BC. for 30-40 years. AD This period is due to the fact that the last book of the Jewish canon was written approximately 400 years BC, and the first book, belonging to the New Testament class, was written in 30-40 years. Their authorship is attributed to Old Testament characters. Intertestamental literature is often apocalyptic in character. Other similar books include the Book of Enoch.
4. Extra-Testamental Apocrypha - this is how you can designate a group of works that, in their scope and significance, clearly represent something more than just religious literature. They have also been postulated by some preachers as inspired books. But because of their nature and content, they cannot be classified in the other three categories. Gnostic writings are a vivid illustration of such writings. Among them is a collection of texts from Nag Hammadi. This is not even a book of apocrypha, but a whole library of esoteric Christian literature.
What characterizes almost any apocrypha? This is what they all at different times claimed to be full-fledgedentry into the official canon of inspired writings. Some even succeeded for a while. Others had a considerable influence on the formation of the generally accepted version of the "Word of God". For example, the apocryphal Book of Enoch is quoted in the canonical epistle of the Apostle Jude. And in the Ethiopian Church, it is still considered sacred, along with the Torah and the four universally recognized Gospels.
Other apocrypha, stubbornly denied by almost everyone at first, were subsequently universally recognized as canonical. In the New Testament, such books are the Revelation of John the Evangelist and a number of apostolic epistles.
Conclusion
At the dawn of the spread of Christianity, when a certain leader had not yet emerged among numerous schools and sects, there was a huge number of texts claiming to be, if not divine revelation, then at least the highest human authority. There were more than fifty gospels alone, and in fact each community had its own collection of authoritative works for itself. Then, in the process of the spread and development of catholic orthodoxy, some texts began to prevail over others, and the leaders of large communities began to forbid their adherents from reading unrecognized works. When in the 4th century the party of Catholics received the full support of the state, a real war was declared on "heretical" texts. By special decrees of the emperor and the orders of the bishops, all works that were not included in the canon were to be destroyed. Among them were even those scriptures that were previously considered sacred among the adherents of orthodoxy themselves. For example, the gospel of Peter. Therefore, today each newly acquired apocrypha is a real sensation in the scientific world. This is confirmed by the recent discovery of the Gospel of Judas, previously thought to be lost. And yet, a significant, and probably most of the Christian apocrypha was destroyed and irretrievably lost.
