The Pseudepigrapha

The word “pseudepigrapha,” though understood quite differently by different individuals in different ages, is a transliteration of a Greek noun that indicates writings “with false superscription” (Charlesworth, xxv). This word became part of the title of R. H. Charles’ collection in 1913 (The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament) and is the main part of J. H. Charlesworth’s The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. This title does not necessarily indicate the editors believed these documents to be spurious and inauthentic but was chosen because it has been widely associated with these documents.

Dating the documents of the Pseudepigrapha can be a difficult task because many of them are composite works. Most of 1 Enoch was likely written before the end of the first century A.D. though parts of it contain later Christian interpolations. Likewise the Sibylline Oracles (books 3-5, 12) range from 163 B.C. to A.D. 235 and 2 Baruch dates probably to the first or second decade of the second century A.D.

Like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Pseudepigrapha has greatly impacted biblical studies by providing some of the documents to which the Bible sometimes alludes and especially by revealing valuable information regarding ancient Judaism. The diversity in ancient Judaism is attested in the Pseudepigrapha by noticing different views among the Jewish sects but perhaps more importantly noticing the Jewish dependence on both the Old Testament and Greco-Roman culture. The likeness of the documents in the Pseudepigrapha are incredibly similar to the apocalyptic writings in Daniel and Ezekiel but also show how Egyptian, Roman, and Greek ideas permeated parts of Judaism.