biblical literature

Gospels

A few papyrus fragments come from gospels not known by name (e.g., Egerton Papyrus 2, Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 840, Strasbourg Papyrus 5–6). There are also the Gospel produced in the 2nd century by Marcion (a “semi-Gnostic” heretic from Asia Minor), who removed what he regarded as interpolations from the Gospel According to Luke; the lost Gnostic Gospel of Perfection; and the Gospel of Truth, published in 1956 and perhaps identical with the book that Irenaeus (c. 185), bishop of Lyon, said was used by the followers of Valentinus, a mid-2nd-century Gnostic teacher. The Gospel of Truth is a mystical–homiletical treatise that is Jewish–Christian and, possibly, Gnostic in origin. In addition, there were gospels ascribed to the Twelve (Apostles) and to individual apostles, including the Protevangelium of James, with legends about the birth and infancy of Jesus; the Gnostic Gospel of Judas (Iscariot), a Coptic version of which was discovered in the 1970s and published in 2006; the Gospel of Peter, with a legendary account of the resurrection; the Gospel of Philip, a Valentinian Gnostic treatise; the Gospel of Thomas, published in 1959 and containing “the secret sayings of Jesus” (Greek fragments in Oxyrhynchus papyri 1, 654, and 655); and an “infancy gospel” also ascribed to Thomas. Beyond these lie gospels ascribed to famous women, namely Eve and Mary (Magdalene), or named after the groups that used them: Ebionites (a Jewish Christian sect), Egyptians, Hebrews, and Nazarenes (an Ebionite sect).

Acts

The various acts, close in form and content to the contemporary Hellenistic romances, turned the apostolic drama into melodrama and satisfied the popular taste for stories of travel and adventure, as well as for a kind of asceticism that was generally rejected by Christian leaders: Andrew (including the Acts of Andrew and Matthias Among the Cannibals), Barnabas (a companion of St. Paul), Bartholomew, John (with semi-Gnostic traits), Paul (including the Acts of Paul and Thecla, with a Christian version of the story of Androcles and the lion), Peter—with the apostle’s question to the risen Lord, “Lord, where are you going?” (“Domine, quo vadis?”) and Peter’s crucifixion upside down, Philip, Thaddaeus (his conversion of a king of Edessa), and Thomas (with the Gnostic “Hymn of the Pearl”).

Letters

Among the apocryphal letters are: a 2nd-century Epistula Apostolorum (“Epistle of the Apostles”; actually apocalyptic and antiheretical), the Letter of Barnabas, a lost Letter of Paul to the Alexandrians (said to have been forged by followers of Marcion), the late-2nd-century letter called “III Corinthians” (part of the Acts of Paul and composed largely out of the genuine letters of Paul), along with a letter from the Corinthians to Paul, and a Coptic version of a letter from Peter to Philip. There is also a famous forgery purporting to have been written by Jesus to Abgar, king of Edessa (noted in Eusebius, Church History I. 13).

Apocalypses

Other than the Revelation to John, which some early Christian writers rejected, there are apocalypses ascribed to two Jameses, the Virgin Mary, Paul, Peter, Philip, Stephen, and Thomas. Only the Apocalypse of Peter won any significant acceptance and is important for its vivid description of the punishment of the wicked.

In addition, it should be noted that there were apocryphal books with titles not so closely related to the New Testament. Among these are: the Didachē, or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (and its later revisions, such as the Didascalia Apostolorum, or the “Teaching of the Apostles,” and the Apostolic Constitutions), and the Kerygma of Peter, a favourite at Alexandria, as well as various Gnostic works, such as The Dialogue of the Redeemer, Pistis Sophia (“Faith-Wisdom”), and the Sophia Jesu Christi (“Wisdom of Jesus Christ”). From the 5th century there is even a Testamentum Domini (“Testament of the Lord”), an expansion of the 2nd–3rd-century Roman Church leader and theologian Hippolytus’ Apostolic Tradition.

Biblical literature in the liturgy of Judaism

The liturgy of Judaism is that of the synagogue, which arose during and after the Babylonian Exile of 586–538 bce and gradually replaced the Temple cult as the spiritual centre of Jewish life. The Hebrew biblical canon and the liturgy of the synagogue, to a great extent, grew up together.

Because the synagogue arose in a land separated from the Jerusalem Temple with its sacrificial emphasis and its priestly class, worship in the synagogue differed from what went before it in several respects. A local congregation worshipped together on a certain day of the week in a place set apart for that purpose, rather than primarily on special festival days and periods. The people worshipped without priest or cultic sacrifice, yet consciously as a community within a larger covenant fellowship and in response to a divine word that was written down in a holy scripture. Bible reading and interpretation, the singing of psalms, and prayers, both corporate and individual, were the staple content of the liturgy. The ancient synagogue liturgy has come down to the present in two books: the Siddur, or daily prayer book, and the Mahzor, or festival prayer book.

The biblically prescribed rhythm of days, weeks, months, and years gave order to the lives of the people. The Bible became familiar to old and young by being read aloud in the synagogue, and no part of worship was esteemed more highly than the reading of scripture. The Torah, the first five books of the Bible, is handwritten on a scroll. Viewed as the holiest object in the synagogue, it is kept in a sacred cabinet called the ark. Special prayers and ceremonies accompany its being taken out and replaced in the ark, and during the course of the year it is read in its entirety at the sabbath services. Torah portions are also read on the religious holidays.

A reading from the Prophets, called the Haftarah, follows each Torah reading. One of the five Megillot (Scrolls) is read on certain holidays: the Song of Solomon at Pesah (Passover), the Book of Ruth at Shavuot (Weeks), Lamentations of Jeremiah at Tisha be-Av (Av 9), Ecclesiastes at Sukkot (Tabernacles), and the Book of Esther at Purim (Lots). The Book of Jonah is read on the afternoon of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Psalms are said or sung in every service. From the chanting of biblical texts, especially the Psalms, the music of the synagogue’s cantor has developed into an incomparable art form (see also Judaism).