THE PSEUDEPIGRAPHA APPEARS IN GOOGLE NEWS AGAIN - and the Apocrypha too. This is a press release from the African News Agency:

From Worldwide Faith News
Date Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:00:52 -0700

ALL AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
P. O Box, 66878, 00800 Westlands,
NAIROBI, Kenya
Tel: 254-2-4442215 or 4440224; Fax: 254-2-4445847, or 4443241;
Email: aanaapta@nbnet.co.ke

AANA Bulletin Bulletin APTA
Editor -Elly Wamari Editor - Silvie Alemba

AANA BULLETIN No. 38/03 September 29, 2003 (b)

FEATURES SECTION

Discovering The Origin And Meaning Of Apocrypha

At the recent state-funeral held for the Late Kenyan Vice-President, Michael Wamalwa, many Kenyans were baffled when a Biblical text was read from the Roman Catholic Bible's book of Wisdom. Understandably in a country where 43 percent of citizens are Protestant, this was bound to cause curiosity. The book of Wisdom is contained in the little known Apocrypha, which our Correspondent Janet Adongo, explains.

In Africa, where Christians are the majority, the major versions of the Bible that are in use are the New International Version, the King James Version, the Revised Standard Version and the Good News Bible.

All these translations exclude the Apocrypha, in which the book of Wisdom is contained. It is in this regard that an attempt is made to discover the origin of the Apocrypha, and why some religions choose to erase them from their versions of the Bible.

According to the Encarta Reference Library, Apocrypha (Greek apokryphos, "hidden"), is a word coined by the 5th Century biblical scholar, Saint Jerome, for the biblical books received by the Church of his time, as part of the Greek version of the Old Testament, but which were not included in the Hebrew Bible.

[...]

Protestants and Jews customarily use the term "Pseudepigrapha" to describe those writings that Roman Catholics would term Apocrypha, that is, late Jewish writings that all scholars consider extra-canonical.

Such works include the Book of Jubilees, the Psalms of Solomon, the Fourth Book of Maccabees, the Book of Enoch, the Fourth Book of Ezra, the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, all of which are ascribed to canonical worthies of the Old Testament, and have not been preserved in their original Hebrew or Aramaic.

With the growth of a historical perspective in biblical studies during the 19th Century, the value of the Apocrypha as historical sources came to be generally recognised. Derived from 300 BC to New Testament times, the Apocrypha shed valuable light on the period between the end of the Old Testament narrative, and the opening of the New Testament.

They are also important sources of information on the development of belief in resurrection and other questions of eschatology, as well as the increasing impact of Hellenistic ideas on Judaism.

[...]

Although a lot of attention is paid to the Old Testament Apocrypha, little is known and even mentioned about the "lost books" of the New Testament. The Apocryphal New Testament is a title that refers to more than 100 books written by Christian authors between the 2nd and 4thCenturies.

The books have two characteristics in common. In general form, they
resemble New Testament writings, many of them falling into the literary categories of gospel, acts, letter, and apocalypse. Secondly, they belong neither to the New Testament canon nor to the writings of the recognised Fathers of the Church.

[...]

You never know where this stuff is going to show up.