Pseudepigraphy (bible)

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Pseudepigraphy in connection with the Bible refers to either the allegedly false authorship of biblical texts (= pseudepigraphy in the Bible) or the alleged writing of extra-biblical writings by biblical persons (= pseudepigraphy for the Bible). The production of literary-religious works, combined with deliberately wrongly stated authorship, was a phenomenon known in ancient times. Since the early 18th century, some writings in the biblical canon have also been classified or considered as pseudepigraphs in the course of historical criticism . The detection of pseudepigraphy is often methodologically difficult. B. the extensive discussion around the pastoral letters shows.

The qualification of a font as a “pseudepigraph” says nothing about the content or literary quality. Regardless of this, the question of whether a biblical writing comes from the specified author can cause a conflict of loyalty even among scholars and trigger heated debates, because it is about the canon of holy and therefore authoritative scriptures.

Since the churches determine the extent of the Old Testament differently, this can also affect the extent of biblical pseudepigraphy.

Definition

A font with a wrong statement of responsibility is called pseudepigraph (from Greek: ψευδής, pseudēs : "lying", "false" and ἐπιγραφή epigraphē : "name", "inscription"; taken together: "wrong heading / title"). Pseudonymity , on the other hand, exists when an author - mostly for security reasons - speaks under a strange, unknown name.

If the author's name was deliberately given incorrectly by the author (circle), one speaks of primary pseudepigraphy; if the name of the author was incorrectly added by another person, it is called secondary pseudepigraphy (e.g. the Didache was only subsequently assigned to the twelve apostles ). Pseudepigraphs can also include works that do not expressly want to be written by a particular author, but imitate him perfectly and thus give the impression of being written by him. In this way, a widely believed but falsely attributed authorship can make a text pseudepigraphic.

In biblical studies, pseudepigraphs are used to denote those religious writings of Judaism or early Christianity that were written around 200 BC. and written in AD 200. Not all of them are pseudepigraphic in the formal sense. On the evangelical side, they are differentiated from the deutero-canonical writings (as they are called on the Catholic and Orthodox sides) or apocrypha (evangelical names), which appear in the Septuagint and Vulgate , but not in the Hebrew or Evangelical Bible canon . The Roman Catholic Church only differentiates between deuterocanonical and all the other writings that it calls "Apocrypha", which it also uses to designate the pseudepigraphs.

The meaning of biblical pseudepigraphy

Pseudepigraphs were usually attributed or imputed to biblical figures who enjoyed high esteem. Their authority was used to spread their own ideas and ideas or to give them validity. In the area of ​​biblical literature, the possibility must be expected that the intention was to be included in the biblical canon or in the liturgy .

Criteria and probability

Criteria for pseudepigraphy

  • Age determination of the documents ( radiological / palaeographic )
  • Assessment of other writings in the Bible canon (dating, authorship, possibly literary dependence)
  • Assessment of the literary abilities of biblical authors / characters
  • Comparison with the author's recognized writings (style, vocabulary, content)
  • Ideas about developments in the history of religion
  • Assessment of the likelihood that a person wrote anything at all or that it was passed down

probability

As with all historical judgments, statements about the authorship of biblical writings are judgments of probability. The growing insight into historical contexts, the "understanding" of history, can be understood as a spiral process that is inevitably and inevitably determined by prejudices and their dissolution.
Example: While the writing of the letter to the Ephesians by Paul seems impossible to many scholars (especially for internal reasons), but to some others it is quite possible, according to the "almost unanimous opinion of the New Testament scholars" the second letter of Peter is a pseudepigraph.

Classical ancient literature

Greek authors often refer to texts that claim to have been written by Orpheus or his disciple Musaeus but were generally considered not to have been written by them. For example, the collection of Homer's hymns was recognized as pseudepigraphic in ancient times. H. it was known that they did not come from Homer . In secular literary studies, a “pseudo” was placed in front of the traditional author's name if it could be shown that a script was pseudepigraphic. For example, the encyclopedic compilation of Greek myths called " library " is often no longer ascribed to Apollodorus , but to " pseudo-Apollodorus ".

Biblical studies

In biblical texts, the term pseudepigraph refers specifically to works that purport to be written by known authorities of the Old or New Testament or by persons involved in Jewish or Christian research or history. These works can also have biblical subjects as their subject. Often they are written in such a way that they appear as authoritative as the works that have been included in the Jewish or a Christian Bible canon. The church father Eusebius of Caesarea points out that this practice goes back at least as far as the Bishop Serapion of Antioch , and he notes: “But those writings that are incorrectly referred to by their names (τα ψευδεπιγραφία, ta pseudepigraphia ) are referred to as experienced people back ... ".

Conceptual confusion: pseudepigraphic and apocryphal

Many of the works just mentioned were referred to as " Apocrypha ", which originally meant "secret scripts", namely those that were rejected for public use in worship. The Odes of Solomon are an example of a text that is both pseudepigraphic and apocryphal: pseudepigraphic because it was not written by King Solomon but was probably written around 130 AD, and apocryphal because this collection of hymns is neither in the Jewish nor in the Christian Bible canon was included.
The Protestant churches use the term "Apocrypha" for writings that are not found in the Hebrew canon, only in the Septuagint . In more recent times, they have been calling these works more neutrally as " late writings of the Old Testament ". Catholics refer to them as " deuterocanonical ". As a result, some Protestant Bible scholars made extensive use of the term pseudepigraphs for extra-canonical works, where, because of the authorship attributed to them, it seemed as if they should be part of the biblical canon, but which were outside the Protestant or Catholic Bible. Therefore, the term “pseudepigraphic”, as it is now often used among Protestants and Roman Catholic Christians (supposedly to create clarity in the discussion), can make it difficult to openly and objectively address questions of pseudepigraphic authorship of “canonical” scriptures with a lay audience discuss.
Even more confusing is the fact that Orthodox Christians accept as canonical some books that are viewed by the Western churches as pseudepigraphic, or at best viewed as having little authority. There are also churches that reject some biblical writings that are accepted as canonical by Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants.

The term "pseudepigraphs" is avoided in works that were written after 300 AD and refer to biblical subjects. Nevertheless, there are classic examples of pseudepigraphy from this period: the Gospel of Barnabas written in the late Middle Ages , the Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius , the Pseudo-Apuleius (author of a book on herbs from the 5th century, attributed to Apuleius) and the author, who traditionally is called "pseudo-areopagite". In the 5th century the moralist Salvian published the book "Against Greed" ( Contra avaritiam ) under the name of Timothy; the letter in which he describes his motives to his former pupil, Bishop Salonius, has been preserved.

Examples

Clear examples of pseudepigraphs with allegedly Old Testament authors:

Clear examples of pseudepigraphs with alleged New Testament author:

Pseudepigraphy in the Old Testament

Psalms

In many psalms that King David are ascribed, is expected to pseudepigraphy. However, the Hebrew expression "l e dawid" (Heb .: לְדָּוִיד) in the psalm headings not necessarily be translated as "David". It can also mean “for David”, meaning “dedicated to King David”. The naming of Moses and Solomon as psalm writers underlines the authority and importance of the texts and places them in the tradition of Israel.

Pseudepigraphy in the New Testament

The following letters are often referred to as pseudepigraphs by historical-critical theologians:

The three letters of John are a topic of their own. Tradition has assigned them to the apostle John . The Apostle's authorship is not expressly claimed in the letters. So there may be a mix-up with a presbyter of the same name.

Extra-canonical pseudepigraphs

Old Testament pseudepigraphs

Between 200 BC Numerous religious works were created that were ascribed to important figures in the Bible. Most of them are Jewish in terms of origin and character, and some are believed to have come from Christians. Psalm 151 represents a special case, which is recognized as canonical by the Eastern Churches.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church recognizes the following six scriptures as canonical:

Scriptures generally considered non-canonical:

New Testament pseudepigraphs

Gospel texts and secret revelations of Jesus

Childhood gospels
Partly handed down gospels
Reconstructed Gospels

Acts of the Apostles

Letters

Apocalypses

Further

Extra-canonical writings (without author)

Scriptures or fragments of scriptures that present biblical material and neither bear an author's name nor want to give the impression of having been written by someone specific (see without the section definition) are independent of the authenticity or historicity of the traditional words as apocryphal or extra-canonical to call. These include:

See also

literature

See the detailed list of references in the article Pseudepigraphie.

  • Armin Daniel Baum : Pseudepigraphy and literary forgery in early Christianity. With selected source texts including German translation (WUNT; 2/138). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2001.
  • James H. Charlesworth (Ed.): The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha , Vol. 1, Peabody: Massachusetts 1983/2010, ISBN 978-1-59856-491-4 .
  • James H. Charlesworth: Art. Old Testament pseudepigraphs . In: TRE 27 (1997), pp. 639–649 (overview of individual pseudepigraphe writings)
  • Richard Bauckham : Pseudo-Apostolic Letters , in: Journal of Biblical Literature , Vol. 107, No. 3, September 1988, pp. 469-494.
  • Kurt von Fritz (Ed.): Pseudepigrapha I , Geneva 1972. (Collection of articles)
  • Emil Kautzsch : The Apocrypha and Pseudoepigraphs of the Old Testament. 2 volumes, Tübingen 1898 and 1900, volume 2 ( The Pseudepigraphs of the Old Testament ), Tübingen 1900.
  • Bruce M. Metzger : "Literary forgeries and canonical pseudepigrapha", in: Journal of Biblical Literature No. 91: 3-24 (1972).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the various possible explanations for the library of Apollodorus .
  2. ↑ LSJ entry for ψευδεπίγραφος
  3. ↑ Stephen L. Harris: Understanding the Bible , Palo Alto 1985.
  4. ↑ Rudolf Eisler : Dictionary of Philosophical Terms , 2 vol., Historical-source-wise edit. v. Rudolf Eisler, Berlin 1904.
  5. ↑ Hans-Georg Gadamer: Truth and Method. Fundamentals of a philosophical hermeneutics , Tübingen 1990, pp. 271-276 (Ges. Werke, Vol. 1, Hermeneutics I).
  6. ↑ Jürgen Becker , Ulrich Luz : The letters to the Galatians, Ephesians and Colossians (NTD 8/1), Göttingen 1998 (1st edition), p. 108f.
  7. ^ So Heinrich Schlier , 1971, and Markus Barth, 1974 and 1994.
  8. ^ Richard Bauckham: "Pseudo-Apostolic Letters", in: Journal of Biblical Literature (Sept. 1988), p. 469.
  9. ↑ Eusebius: Church history ("Historia Ecclesiastica"), 6.12.
  10. ^ Michael Lattke: Oden Salomos , Freiburg 1995. Following him, Klaus Berger , Christiane Nord: Das Neue Testament und earlychristliche Schriften , Frankfurt 1999, p. 935.
  11. ^ Salvian of Marseilles: Epistle , IX.