New Testament Apocrypha
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The New Testament Apocrypha are biblical writings that fall outside the accepted canon of scripture. These texts, often pseudepigraphal (meaning they were written in the name of biblical figures), emerged primarily in the 2nd century CE. They include gospels, acts, letters, and apocalypses, and often contain imaginative retellings of stories about Jesus and his disciples.123
While some of these works were accepted by minority groups or individual writers, most were eventually excluded from public and private reading in churches as Christian orthodoxy developed. They are valuable to historians for shedding light on popular beliefs and early Gnostic interpretations of Christianity.12
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