Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun plural Spurious writings, especially writings falsely attributed to biblical characters or times.
- noun plural A body of texts written between 200 BC and AD 200 and spuriously ascribed to various prophets and kings of the Hebrew Scriptures.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Spurious writings; specifically, those writings which profess to be Biblical in character and inspired in authorship, but are not adjudged genuine by the general consent of scholars; those professedly Biblical books which are regarded as neither canonical nor inspired, and from their character are not worthy of use in religious worship.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
Writings falsely ascribed tobiblical times, especially to 3rd centuryJudaic scripture .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun 52 texts written between 200 BC and AD 200 but ascribed to various prophets and kings in the Hebrew scriptures; many are apocalyptic in nature
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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The Book of Enoch, which is not included in the Bible, is attributed to the patriarch, but it is considered an example of the body of works known as pseudepigrapha, texts whose claimed authorship is unfounded.
dispatch.com: RSS online@dispatch.com 2010
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There is the physical manufacture of false documents, which is forgery in the strict sense; there is the false attribution of real documents, which then become 'pseudepigrapha'; and there is the invocation and exploitation of invisible documents, which, if they remain obstinately invisible, are designated as 'ghosts.'
The Uses of Fakery Trevor-Roper, Hugh 1990
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In addition to the genuine Aristotelian works, some pseudepigrapha were also either translated in this period, or produced within the circle of al-Kindi: these are of pivotal importance for the rise and development of falsafa.
Greek Sources in Arabic and Islamic Philosophy D'Ancona, Cristina 2009
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Ehrman also has used the terms "pseudonymous writing," "pseudepigraphon," (singular) and "pseudepigrapha," (plural) for books written under a false name.
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This revival can be seen in a series of Pythagorean pseudepigrapha of the same age.
Numenius Karamanolis, George 2009
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While this may be true in regards to later traditions (i.e. the apocrypha, pseudepigrapha) it misappropriates the reality of the literary style of the Gospel of Mark (at the very least) as well as others.
Mistaken Memories James F. McGrath 2009
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All you have are the non-canonical scriptures, the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, both of which are universally rejected by the non-Catholic Evangelical church as fakes and poor imitations of real scripture.
Chris Hitchens meets the Christians | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009
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Conversion in Joseph and Aseneth (Journal for the study of the pseudepigrapha: Supplement series 16).
Asenath: Bible. 2009
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All you have are the non-canonical scriptures, the apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, both of which are universally rejected by the non-Catholic Evangelical church as fakes and poor imitations of real scripture.
Chris Hitchens meets the Christians | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009
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In the past, Roman Catholics often used the term “apocrypha” for the pseudepigrapha.
Archive 2008-01-01 Fr Timothy Matkin 2008
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