apocryphal epistles too, including an alleged correspondence
between Paul and Seneca, the Roman philosopher who was one
of the luminaries of the court of the emperor Nero. Finally, there
are apocalyptic texts, sometimes surviving in multiple versions,
ascribed to Paul, Peter, and Thomas that resemble the New
Testament book of Revelation. Some of these texts will be the
focus of the case study in chapter 5. Here, however, I want to
outline the basic features of these texts which have come to be
regarded as apocryphal.
It is perhaps useful to begin with the very term ‘apocrypha’,
which is a Greek word meaning ‘secret things’, in this context
specifically ‘secret writings’. This means that the apocryphal writ-
ings are sometimes viewed as containing secret teachings that
were suppressed for some reason; some sort of foul play, or even
power struggle, is sometimes suspected (see chapter 5). But this
is an erroneous view. Texts came to be regarded as scripture only
after protracted debates about their use and doctrinal integrity. As
a result, some texts were included in the canon while others were
excluded. It is nothing more sinister than that. Furthermore, it
should be noted that the existence of apocryphal literature is not
a uniquely Christian phenomenon. As we will see, Jewish authors
also produced a large body of non-canonical scripture.
What light can such texts shed on the early history of
Christianity? One popular view – often peddled in sensationalist
works of tabloid history – is that some of them, particularly the
apocryphal gospels, present a ‘true’ version of Christian origins
that has been wilfully suppressed by the church. We have already
seen, however, that the accounts contained in the canonical texts
of the New Testament are far from being transparently true in
terms of historicity. The idea that the apocryphal works are
any more true is, I am afraid, sheer fantasy. Rather, these texts
are useful not for the actual events surrounding the birth of
Christianity, but for the development of early Christian specula-
tions about Jesus and his significance. To put it another way, the
various non-canonical works bear witness to particular early
Christian traditions that flourished in the Roman world, but which
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