Customer Reviews

The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation

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This is a collection of stories that supplement the canonical New Testament. Here are found expanded accounts of Jesus' nativity, his childhood, his ministry, his trial, his liberation of Hell's captives, and of the passing of Mary and Joseph. Here are the "Acts" of various Apostles, among them Peter, Paul, Thomas, Andrew, Matthias, John, and Phillip, as well as other texts and fragments of texts.

These stories are very important in church history. From texts such as these are derived the biographies of the apostles. Medieval and Renaissance sacred art often contains elements from these texts - such as the Ox and Ass at the Nativity scene - which are not found in the canonical New Testament.
These texts have ever lived at the edge of respectability. They have been treasured, but quite a few of them have been branded "heretical" by this or that church authority. Thus we have not inherited a neat collection of complete works scrupulously copied under official sanction, but rather a tangle of tales, of revised (and sometimes sanitized) versions, of narratives based on earlier narratives, of fragments, etc. The completeness and quality of this collection is uneven, but there is much here worth exploring.

Indeed, the persistence of apocryphal tradition is itself worthy of consideration. We see a pattern here, like a sprawl of grapevine upon a stone building, or upon a ruin. It is a tangle, but it is far from un-pruned.

J.K. Elliott has presented a selection of translated texts, as well as scholarly commentary. He presents some texts that have arrived in good condition and many that come to us in fragmentary form. He has done his best to lay the fragments out in a way that helps us to recognize the outlines of earlier versions, but he hasn't puttied and sanded the seams and applied a slick paint job, like some used car salesman, so that we have a nice "story book." He presents the sometimes tattered pages that have come to us from the past, in "as-is" condition.

This collection is based on an earlier book edited by M.R. James. For years, his was the "standard" collection of New Testament Apocrypha. Unfortunately, he imitated 17th century English in his translations, making them tiresome to read. Elliott has given James' work a thorough overhaul, providing new translations in modern English and incorporating texts that have come to light since James' time. He provides much bibliographical information for those inclined to further research.

These are very curious texts. They present stories about Jesus, his family and his disciples as historical fact, but they leave room for doubt. Early in my relationship with one of these texts ("The Acts of Thomas," believe it or don't), I found myself wanting to ask the author if s/he expected to be taken "seriously." The author was not available for comment, but in reading the text I felt like a mouse whose tail was pinned to the floor by the foot of a cat who was playfully swatting my head about with its forepaws.

I came to hold that cat in high regard. I learned from that cat.

Neither M.R. James nor J.K. Elliott seems to have considered these texts to be anything more than odd fossils from the past. However, this doesn't seem to have adversely affected the presentation of the texts, and the editorial commentary is generally helpful.

My biggest gripe with this book may apply to this paperback edition as a whole, or simply to the copy that I received. I don't believe that I handled the book more roughly than others, but the binding's back soon broke in two places. It's holding together, but I have to handle it carefully. It may eventually require replacement, as it is a book often opened.

I'm glad that I paid less than half of the $74 price currently listed on the Amazon website. It appears that I bought the same version. I wonder if other copies will have binding problems.
I'm annoyed by the book's broken binding, but the stories between its covers are pearls worth far more than the acid-free paper bag that holds them.

The fairly high price of this book and my warning about binding problems may cause some readers to look into other versions of the Christian apocrypha. I note that there are used copies of the hardbound version available through Amazon. Sometimes these books are in fine condition.

I selected this volume because it seemed the best way to acquire a large assortment of Christian apocrypha within one volume, presented in a way that satisfies both scholarly and literary interests. Although I have not read those other volumes, I don't regret the choice I made. This book has been a good companion.

this book is very thorough with details and histories of the manuscripts presented in the New Testament Apocrypha. this is a thick book, and its very enlightening to realise that many of the manuscripts presented here used to be considered canonical at one time or another... infact the pilate cycle for example is still within the Coptic bible (the coptic church considered the oldest surviving church in the world).

i have only given it 4 stars because as a mystic i am looking for things that i can use to bring me closer to personal experience of God. the content of the apocrypha is not crucial in that respect, more of a history. but i would say that the gospel of thomas that this book contains is a great spiritual direction pointer.

its fascinating reading about the lives and deaths of the saints, words we do not find much about in the Canonical (authorised) scriptures. reading about for example the life and death of st Thomas in India. or pontius pilate's life after the crucifixion. its detailed and prophetic description of the antichrist and how he would love jesus in spite of his evil. the prophecy that in the last days man would drink more water and many other fascinating details that are not found in the canonical scriptures of our modern day bible. we must remember as we read this book that at one time or another most of the books of the new testament apocrypha were considered scriptures of great importance to various parts the church. the pilate cycle is canonical in the egyptian coptic church and the book of enoch (old testament apocrypha) is cannonical ie in the ethiopian bible. the coptic church is the oldest existent church. it must also be remembered that this wealth of information is NOT gnostic, but was written and believed in by those in the mainstream christian church at one time or another in our christian history.

i though found the old testament apocrypha even more interesting, within its 600 or so pages... the two books of enoch are a stomping good read! (whether truth or myth) and quite a lot of missing jewish history is filled in in the apocryphal old testament, such as what happened to those who remained behind after the captivity of the jewish people in babylon. the wisdom of solomon with its female metaphores for God... so much stuff of great interest.

do not confuse these 'apocrypha' with the apocrypha found in the roman catholic bible, these are quite seperate and there is a veritable mine and horde of documents and manuscripts within the covers of the new and old testament apocrypha. unfortunately, because of a rigid view of what constitutes true and false doctrine many of these priceless manuscripts have been sidelined and almost extinguished in the modern christian experience.

professor elliot's compiling of the new testament apocrypha is very thorough and applies modern scolarship to translation and history of the manuscripts in no doubt a most rigorous manner. though not an academic, i am unable to give a critical comment on these aspects of her edition. it also contains more recently discovered material that is not found in M R James's New Testament Apocrypha.

when i originally sought to acquire this book in a first edition format, it was very hard to get hold of elliot's new testament apocrypha and i had to pay more than £100 for my copy, but it was well worth it.

if just for a better understanding of christian history, you buy this book, i think you will find that it was well worth the price and difficulties you may have to overcome in getting your copy!

lots of love, snow-flake. xxx

The Apocryphal New Testament is a great resource for us Bible-geeks. As it presents a vast compilation of non-canonical Christian literature; Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Apocalypses in a single volume. The translations are good and easy to understand. But there is one thing I consider to be a problem in the book.

The author does not provide Complete translations but mere summaries of several of the Gospels included, such as the "Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew", "The History of Joseph the Carpenter", "The Arabic Infancy Gospel", and "The Pilate Cycle".

The Minor Acts of Andrew such as the "The Acts of Peter and Andrew", "The Acts of Andrew and Paul" are only given in a summary. The Secondary Acts of John, Paul, & Peter, are not even translated but only listed with a very brief description. Other Acts such as the "Acts of Philip", "The Passion of Bartholomew", "The Passion of Matthew", "The Acts of Barnabas", "The Acts of Xanthippe & Polyxena", etc, are likewise only translated in portions, or summarized or not translated at all, but only given a very brief introduction.

Another problem is that the book needs a little more work on its organization. I understand that being a Single volume not much space can be spent on decoration and large fonts, so everything must be compacted, but sometimes it does give the impression that the text is crammed together. But not a big deal.

In the end, the "The Apocryphal New Testament" by J.K. Elliot (following the example of M.R. James) is an awesome resource for the study of Non-canonical Christian literature.

One last thing, a way to partially mitigate the problem that I've pointed out above with the Gospels is to get Bart Ehrman's "The Apocryphal Gospels". As it provides full translations along with the texts in the Original Languages of the majority of the Gospels that are summarized in "The Apocryphal New Testament".

The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations

This book is highly informative. I am a third year Christian Theology student, and I have used it numerous times since I purchased it.