authorship and pseudepigraphy in early christian literature 13
apocalypse of Paul, Syriac Addition
In its syriac version, the Apocalypse of Paul ends with a fictitious section
that relates how in the first century the apostle Paul deposited his apoca-
lypse under a wall where it was found in the fourth century. the claim
that an apocalyptic text carrying the name of Paul had been rediscov-
ered after more than three centuries demonstrates that the name “Paul”
was meant as an authorial attribution. had the author of the Apocalypse
of Paul wanted his readers to infer that his books did not claim to have
originated with the apostle Paul (but was, for instance, a mere interpreta-
tion of Pauline thoughts) he would, in all probability, have abstained from
such a historical claim.6
I, Paul, however, came to myself and I knew and understood what I had seen
and I wrote it in a roll. and while I lived, I did not have rest to reveal this
mystery, but I wrote it (down) and deposited it under the wall of a house of
that believer with whom I was in tarsus, a city of Cilicia.
and when I was released from this temporal life (and stood) before my
lord, he spoke thus to me: Paul, have I shown everything to you so that
you should put it under the wall of a house? rather send and reveal it for
its sake so that men may read it and turn to the way of truth that they
may not come into these bitter torments. and thus this revelation was
discovered.
Athanasius, epistulae festales 39.2
In his famous 39th easter letter of 367 ce, athanasius of alexandria pre-
supposed that ordinary church people were misled by the authorial names
of pseudepigraphical apocrypha:7
since we have spoken of heretics as dead, but of ourselves as possessing
the divine scriptures for salvation; and since I fear that, as Paul wrote to
the Corinthians (2 Cor 11:3), some few of the simple should be led astray
from their simplicity and purity, by the subtleties of certain men, and should
henceforth read other books—those called apocryphal—being deceived by
the similarity of their names with the genuine books; I exhort you to bear
patiently, if I also write, by way of remembrance, influenced by the need and
advantage of the Church.
6 trans. by duensing and de santos otero, “apocalypse of Paul,” 2:743.
7 trans. in NPNF 2 4:551.
