Information AboutPseudepigraphy |
|
Pseudepigrapha, from , the question of whether a text is pseudepigraphical or not elicits sensations of loyalty and can become a matter of heavy dispute. The authenticity or value of the work itself, which is a separate question for experienced readers, often becomes sentimentally entangled in the association. Though the inherent value of the text may not be called into question, the weight of a revered or even apostolic author lends authority to a text: in Antiquity pseudepigraphy was "an accepted and honored custom practiced by students/admirers of a revered figure".Kiley 1986:12.This is the essential motivation for pseudepigraphy in the first place. Pseudepigraphy covers the false ascription of names of Author s to works, even to perfectly authentic works that make no such claim within their text. Thus a widely accepted but incorrect attribution of authorship may make a perfectly authentic text pseudepigraphical. Assessing the actual writer of a text brings questions of pseudepigraphical attributions within the discipline Literary Criticism . In a parallel case, Forgers have been known to improve the market value of a perfectly genuine 17th-century Dutch painting by adding a painted signature '' Rembrandt Fecit ''. On a related note, a famous name assumed by the author of a work is an allonym. For instance, a famous work perhaps written earlier than the fourth century CE, offers itself as if by " Dictys Cretensis ", (Dictys of Crete), and consists of a purported diary of events of the Trojan War. These are the basic and original meanings of the terms. CLASSICAL AND BIBLICAL STUDIES There have probably been pseudepigrapha almost from The Invention Of Full Writing . For example ancient Greek authors often refer to texts which claimed to be by Orpheus or his pupil Musaeus but which attributions were generally disregarded. Already in Antiquity the collection known as the " Homeric Hymn s" was recognized as pseudepigraphical, that is, not actually written by Homer. In secular literary studies, when works of Antiquity have been demonstrated not to have been written by the authors to whom they have traditionally been ascribed, some writers apply the prefix ''pseudo-'' to their names, showing the reader that they are in the know. Thus the encyclopedic compilation of Greek myth called '' Bibliotheke '' is often now attributed, not to Apollodorus , but to " Pseudo-Apollodorus " and the '' Catasterismi '', recounting the translations of mythic figure into '' Asterism s'' and constellations, not to the serious astronomer Eratosthenes , but to a "pseudo-Eratosthenes". The prefix may be abbreviated, as "ps-Apollodorus" or "ps-Eratosthenes" In Biblical studies, ''pseudepigrapha'' refers particularly to works which purport to be written by noted authorities in either the Old and New Testaments or by persons involved in Jewish or Christian religious study or history. These works can also be written about Biblical matters, often in such a way that they appear to be as authoritative as works which have been included in the many versions of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Eusebius Of Caesarea ''Historia ecclesiae'' 6,12 indicates this usage dates back at least to Serapion (which Serapion?) whom he records to have said: "But those writings which are falsely inscribed with their name (''ta pseudepigrapha''), we as experienced persons reject...." Many such works were also referred to as or the New Testament . But Protestant s have also applied the word ''Apocrypha'' to texts found in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox scriptures which were not found in Hebrew manuscripts. Roman Catholics called those texts " Deuterocanonical ". Accordingly, there arose in some Protestant Biblical scholarship an extended use of the term ''pseudepigrapha'' for works that appeared as though they ought to be part of the Bibical canon, because of the authorship ascribed to them, but which stood outside both the Biblical Canon s recognized by Protestants and Catholics. These works were also outside the particular set of books that Roman Catholics called ''deuterocanonical'' and to which Protestants had generally applied the term Apocryphal. Accordingly, the term ''pseudepigraphical'', as now used often among both Protestants and Roman Catholics, allegedly for the clarity it brings to discussion, may make it difficult to discuss questions of pseudepigraphical authorship of canonical books dispassionately with an unsophisticated audience. To confuse the matter even more, Orthodox Christians accept books as canonical, that Roman Catholics and most Protestant denominations consider pseudepigraphical or at best of much less authority. There exist also churches that reject some of the books that Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants accept. The same is true of some Jewish Sects . These are matters more appropriately discussed at Apocrypha . There is a tendency not to use the word ''pseudepigrapha'' when describing works later than about 300 CE when referring to Biblical matters. But the'' Gospel Of Barnabas '', '' Apocalypse Of Pseudo-Methodius '', the Pseudo-Apuleius — author of a fifth-century Herbal ascribed to Apuleius— and the author traditionally referred to as the " Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite "& are classic examples of pseudepigraphy. In the fifth century the moralist Salvian published ''Contra avaritiam'' under the name of Timothy; the letter in which he explained to his former pupil, Bishop Salonius, his motives for so doing survives.Salvian, ''Epistle'' ix.)> There is also a category of Modern Pseudepigrapha . Examples of Old Testament pseudepigrapha are the Ethiopian '' Book Of Enoch '', '' Jubilees '' (both of which are canonical in the Abyssinian Church of Ethiopia); the '' Life Of Adam And Eve '' and the Pseudo-Philo . Examples of New Testament pseudepigrapha (but in these cases also likely to be called New Testament Apocrypha ) are the Gospel Of Peter , the attribution of the '' Epistle To The Laodiceans '' to Paul, and '' Acts Of Thomas '', which few would claim was actually written by Thomas. Other examples of New Testament pseudepigrapha are the '' Shepherd Of Hermas '', written as by a former slave named Hermas and '' Gospel Of Barnabas '', and perhaps the '' Gospel Of Judas ''. SEE ALSO NOTES FURTHER READING
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|