Paul and Pseudepigraphy (Pauline Studies, Book 8)

the heretics’ apostle and two pauline pseudepigrapha 341

to note that the nag hammadi collection contains (in codex Vi) several

examples of hermetic writings, as well as a scribal note indicating that

this genre of literature was well-known to the copyist of the codex, and

possibly its intended audience. The Prayer does not contain any refer-

ences to paul’s career: it is in its way as timeless and placeless as the Apoc.

Paul, lacking even the reference to a mountain of Jericho to ground it.

Production and Reception of the Pseudepigrapha:

The Codicological Context

There are several fundamental issues that make the study of pseude-

pigrapha so interesting, and so important. one of these issues, that of

composition, has to do with the effect of such work on our understand-

ing of the christian canon. To the degree that we tend to privilege paul’s

views on christianity in our understanding of the religion, it is naturally

important to be able to identify which of the writings that bear his name

actually owe their original versions to him. This issue primarily concerns

the paul-associated writings contained in the new Testament, along with

a few significant other works such as 3 Corinthians.

Beyond this first issue, a second one arises, having to do with the deter-

mination of the significance of these pseudepigraphal writings for their

authors in their contexts of origin or of reception. This issue can be bro-

ken down into several phases. (1) The author of such a pseudepigraphal

writing was, in effect, creating a paul for her own time and place. (2) The

copyists of these pseudepigrapha clearly found some significance—even

if not that intended by the original author—in the paul in question.

(3) The ancient readers of the codices or collections in which these works

have been preserved had their understandings of christianity and paul

affected or nuanced by, or expressed through, the religiously-related mate-

rial that was accessible to them, likewise modern non-scholarly readers.

(4) finally, modern scholars have used such writings, in various ways, to

understand the phenomenon of early christianity as a whole.

As no one, to my knowledge, has ever suggested that paul might actu-

ally have been the author of either the Prayer or the Apocalypse that bears

his name, i will turn in this final section to the second of the two issues,

introducing it with the caveat that all that i will have to say about the

ancient christian context of these works will necessarily be hypothetical.

There are, however, degrees of hypotheticalness, to coin a word. nei-

ther of these works is attested in any extant christian literature outside