Pseudepigrapha

A pseudepigraph (also anglicized as "pseudepigraphon") is a falsely attributed work, a text whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past. The name of the author to whom the work is falsely attributed is often prefixed with the particle "pseudo-", such as "pseudo-Aristotle" or "pseudo-Dionysius." These terms refer to the anonymous authors of works falsely attributed to Aristotle and Dionysius the Areopagite, respectively.

In biblical studies, the term pseudepigrapha can refer to an assorted collection of Jewish religious works thought to be written c. 300 BCE to 300 CE. They are distinguished by Protestants from the deuterocanonical books (Catholic and Orthodox) or Apocrypha (Protestant), the books that appear in extant copies of the Septuagint in the fourth century or later and the Vulgate, but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles. In Catholic usage, the Old Testament books accepted by the Catholic Church are referred to as the deuterocanonical books, and Catholic writers commonly reserve the word apocrypha for spurious or noncanonical writings rather than for the deuterocanon. In addition, two books considered canonical in the Orthodox Tewahedo churches, the Book of Enoch and Book of Jubilees, are noncanonical in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons and are classified by most scholars among the Old Testament pseudepigrapha.

Scholars also apply the term to some canonical works that claim authorship but whose authorship is doubted. For example, the Book of Daniel is widely considered to have been written in the 2nd century BCE, about 400 years after the prophet Daniel supposedly lived, and thus to be pseudepigraphic in that sense. A New Testament example often discussed is 2 Peter, which many scholars date to the early 2nd century. Early Christians, such as Origen, voiced doubts about its authorship.

The term has also been used by Quranist Muslims to describe hadiths. Quranists argue that most hadiths are later fabrications from the 8th and 9th centuries that were falsely attributed to Muhammad.