The Apocryphal New Testament

Have you ever read the Apocryphal New Testament? If not, let me say right away that the term Apocryphal New Testament is misleading. It gives the impression that it is fixed body of literature written at about the same time as the other New Testament documents, but that for some reason it was not selected to be the true account of Christianity. One might be tempted to think that the early church circulated various versions of Jesus and that one version (not necessarily the true one) ended up winning the day, as popular books such as The DaVinci Code suggest.

But that is a distortion of the picture. “Unlike the Apocrypha to the Old Testament,” says J. K. Elliott in the Preface to his translation of the Apocrypha, “which is in general universally identifiable, the texts included under a title such as The New Testament Apocrypha represent an amorphous and wide-ranging group. Unlike the New Testament, which is distinct and stable, and was written over only a short period of time, a collection of ‘apocryphal’ texts such as the present one does not constitute an agreed, settled entity written within a defined time scale.

“In fact one noteworthy feature of this literature—possibly because it lacked the sanctity of texts afforded canonical status—is that the contents of its books were frequently revised, expanded, epitomized, and rewritten. Thus several texts re-emerge in a new guise. (…) One may even take exception to the words ‘New Testament’ in the title. Many of the texts translated here have no obvious link with the genres of literature to be found in the canonical New Testament.”[1]

The Apocrypha were written later than the New Testament, many of them much later. Even the internal evidence makes this clear, since the books are for the most part embellished constructions around the New Testament records. They were written to satisfy the curiosity of those who wanted to know about all the “gaps” in the New Testament: more background information about Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ youth, what happened during the three days of His death, etc.

As J. K. Elliott writes, many of the Apocrypha “have been inspired by events, or gaps, in the New Testament narratives, or, at the very least, have made use of the New Testament’s dramatis personae. But, from the theological and literary point of view, the linking of these Apocryphal works to the New Testament has suggested some common identity between the two sets of texts thus making their interrelationship closer and more significant than it sometimes ought to be.”[2]

And M. R. James points out that the authors of the Apocrypha “do not speak with the voices of Paul or of John, or with the quiet simplicity of the three first Gospels. It is not unfair to say that when they attempt the former tone, they are theatrical, and when they essay the latter, they are jejune. In short, the result of anything like an attentive study of the literature, in bulk and in detail, is an added respect for the sense of the Church Catholic, and for the wisdom of the scholars of Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome.”[3]

This means that the Apocrypha are not at all on the same level as the New Testament writings. They actually underline the reliability of the latter, because they show what the canonical Gospels would have looked like if they had been made up mostly of legends. The Apocrypha furnish a good contrast of legend as opposed to reportage.

If the Gospels had been mere legends, they would not have left all those gaps in the narrative (gaps which are filled in the Apocrypha). If they had been legends, they would have furnished more eye-witnesses for the resurrection (the Apocrypha add more witnesses). It is clear that whereas the Gospel writers at least tried to record history—though certainly filtered through their unique perspectives and not entirely without an agenda—the writers of the Apocrypha only wrote to fulfill a certain agenda.

Read more about this in The C. S. Lewis Book on the Bible.

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[1] Elliott, The Apocryphal New Testament, Preface.

[2] Ibid.

[3] As quoted by Elliott in The Apocryphal New Testament, Preface.