PSEUDEPIGRAPHA. - This is the name given (Gr. φεσθειάγραφος "with a false title") by Protestants to the books called apocrypha (v.) of the Old Testament by Catholics.
Even non-Catholic authors (G. Beer, Pseudepigraphen, in Realenc. für prot. Theol. und Kirche, XVI, p. 229) acknowledge the impropriety of this designation, since not all the apocrypha present themselves under pseudonyms as works of ancient patriarchs or prophets.
The first to designate an apocryphal writing with a similar term was perhaps Cassiodorus (Institutiones, I, 5), who states that, according to St. Jerome, the book of Wisdom would be pseudographus, inasmuch as the true author (believed to be Philo of Alexandria) presented it as a work of Solomon.
Penna, Angelo. “Pseudepigrafi.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. X, coll. 240–241. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/pseudepigrafi.
MLA
Penna, Angelo. “Pseudepigrafi.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. X, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, coll. 240–241. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/pseudepigrafi.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec10_pseudepigrafi,
author = {Penna, Angelo},
title = {Pseudepigrafi},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {X},
pages = {240--241},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1953},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pseudepigrafi}
}
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