Pseudepigrapha

The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha are a loosely-defined set of Jewish writings from  250 B.C. to about 250 A.D., and generally refer to books outside the Apocrypha. These encompass books such as the “Book of Adam and Eve,” “Apocalypse of Abraham,” “Assumption of Moses,” The Book of Jubilees,” “Odes of Solomon,” “The Book of Enoch” and many more. 

The New Testament Pseudepigrapha or more commonly known as the “New Testament Apocrypha” are a larger body of texts that date from 150 A.D. to 650 A.D. These are fake books that purport to be true. They can be broken down into categories. There are what is called “Infancy Gospels,” writings purporting to cover some aspect of Jesus’ birth and early years as well as Joseph and Mary. Another category of texts are grouped into “Gospels.” These are texts that purport to be written by famous people like Bartholomew, Phillip, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene and others. Another category of texts are called “Acts.” These are texts falsely attributed to Peter, John, Paul, Thomas and a whole host of other well know biblical men. A fourth category are called, “Apocalypses.” These again are falsely said to be written by famous Apostles such as Peter, Paul, James and even Old Testament Prophets like Isaiah. Two other categories called “Epistles” and “Narratives” suffer the same problem, namely they are made up material that was written hundreds of years after the person died whose name is associated with the text.