pseudepigrapha

[soo-duh-pig-ruh-fuh]

noun

(used with a plural verb)

1. certain writings (other than the canonical books and the Apocrypha) professing to be Biblical in character.

Pseudepigrapha

/ ˌsjuːdɛpɪˈɡræfɪk, ˌsjuːdɪˈpɪɡrəfə /

plural noun

1. Also called (in the Roman Catholic Church): Apocrypha. various Jewish writings from the first century _bc to the first century _ad that claim to have been divinely revealed but which have been excluded from the Greek canon of the Old Testament

Other Word Forms

• pseudepigraphic adjective
• pseudepigraphical adjective
• pseudepigraphous adjective
• pseudepigraphal adjective
• Pseudepigraphic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pseudepigrapha¹

1685–95; < New Latin < Greek, neuter plural of pseudepíigraphos falsely inscribed, bearing a false title. See pseud-, epigraph, -ous

Word History and Origins

Origin of pseudepigrapha¹

C17: from Greek pseudepigraphos falsely entitled, from _pseudo- + epigraphein to inscribe

Example Sentences

Pseudepigrapha—or documents falsely ascribed to illustrious authors—frequently crop up in the work of biblical scholars and other experts in antiquity.

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He gathered a team of 20 scholars, got a grant from Manhattan's Littauer Foundation, and began translating into English the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha, a series of ancient noncanonical writings closely connected to the Bible.

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Dr. Charles Francis Potter, Manhattan Humanist and Bible expert, has worked for years, will work for years more, on a psychological study of Jesus in which the pseudepigrapha will figure.

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Its source material is seed-small: the four Gospels, the New Testament apocrypha, the histories of Josephus, the pseudepigrapha.*

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Deane's Pseudepigrapha: Books that Influenced our Lord and His Apostles does not suggest that the Messiah obtained his ideas from the literature of the Rabbis, much less from Greek or other sources; indeed, the New Testament suggests that in the earliest years he showed a genius for divine things.

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