NEW TESTAMENT APOCRYPHA
There is virtually no controversy in Christendom about the NT canon, comprised of the twenty-seven known books (see CANON).
The apocryphal writings that, as such, did not receive entry into the New Testament canon, can be classified as follows:
(a) Apocryphal Gospels.
Of a heretical nature, we can mention:
the Gospel of the Ebionites,
that of the Egyptians,
that of Marcion,
Peter’s,
that of the Twelve Apostles and
that of Barnabas and Bartholomew;
of a legendary and fanciful nature, they are known:
the Protoevangelium of James,
Pseudo-Matthew,
The Nativity of Mary,
the Gospel of Joseph the Carpenter,
the Dormition of Mary,
the Gospel of Thomas,
that of childhood,
Peter’s and
that of Nicodemus.
The above does not exhaust the catalogue, but is only a sample of the great variety of writings that were disseminated in the first centuries.
Its writing dates range from the second to the fifth century, and its content ranges from legendary and fanciful additions to irreverent and far-fetched stories, as in the “Gospel” of Thomas.
Fantasies are told such as the one in which the Child makes birds out of clay, to which he gives life, with which they fly away, and how the Child with his power made another child who had displeased him die.
These stories narrate absurd events that are totally removed from the high character that is evident in all the wonders and obedient work of the Lord in the canonical Gospels.
This shows the decadence to which post-apostolic Christianity had reached (cf. Paul’s warning in Acts 20:28-31, etc.).
Other writings are plainly heretical in many doctrines, including Docetism (a heresy that claimed that the Lord’s body was a mere appearance, and denied the reality of the Incarnation. [See INCARNATION]); There are also books whose purpose is the glorification and exaltation of Mary.
(b) Apocryphal facts.
It is worth mentioning:
the Acts of Paul,
of Peter,
Juan’s,
from Andres,
of Thomas.
Novelesque, but, worse still, stained with the Docetist heresy, except the first, and all of them defending asceticism.
(c) Apocryphal Epistles.
They include several purportedly written by the Virgin, one by the Lord himself, and others by the apostle Peter (in which he makes a violent attack against Paul; falsification of evident Ebionite tendency, see EBIONISM), from Paul to Seneca, etc.
(d) Apocryphal Apocalypses,
of which can be mentioned:
Peter’s,
from Pablo,
a non-canonical one from John,
of Thomas and Stephen,
and even one from Maria.