ACTS, SPURIOUS (acts, spWri-oiis), see Apoc rypha. This term has been applied to several ancient writings pretended to have been composed by, or to supply historical facts respecting our Blessed Savior and his disciples, or other indi viduals whose actions are recorded in the holy Scriptures. Of these spurious or pseudepigraphal writings several are still extant; others are only known to have existed by the accounts of them which are to be met with in ancient authors.
(1) Spurious Acts of Christ. Several sayings attributed to our Lord, and alleged to be handed down by tradition, may be included under this head, as they are supposed by some learned men to have been derived from histories which arc no longer in existence. As explanatory of our mean ing it will suffice to refer to the beautiful senti ment cited by St. Paul (Acts xx :35), It is more blessed to give than to receive. Maxdpt6p hart p.aXXop 6186vai XaiLiktvov, to which the term al 0C ryphal has been sometimes applied, inasmuch as it is not contained in any of the written biog raphies of our Lord. This term is so applied by M. Gaussen of Geneva, in his Thcopneustia (English translation. Bagstcr, 1842). The learned Heinsius is of opinion that the passage is taken from some lost apocryphal hook. such as that en titled, in the Recognitions of Clement, 'the Book of the Sayings of Christ. or the pretended Con stitutions of the Apostles.' Others, however, con ceive that the apostle, in Acts xx :35, does not refer to any one saying of our Saviour's in par ticular, but that he deduced Christ's sentiments on this head from several of his sayings and para bles (see Matt. NiX :2! ; xxv, and Luke xvi :9). But the probability is that St. Paul received this passage by tradition from the other apostles.
(2) Spurious Acts of the Apostles. Of these several are extant, others are lost, or only frag ments of them are come dc•.vn to us.
Of the following we know little more than that they once existed. They are here arranged chro nologically: The Preaching of Peter, referred to by Origcn, in his Commentary on St. John's Gospel, lib. xiv ; also referred to by Clemens Alexandrinus. The Acts of Peter, supposed by Dr. Cave to be cited by Serapion. The Acts of Paul and Thecla, mentioned by Tertullian, de Baptismo, cap. xvii; this is, however, sup posed by some to be the same which is found is a Greek MS. in the Bodleian Library, and has been published by Dr. Grabe, in his Spicil, Pa !runt Secul. I. The Doctrine of Peter, cited by Origen, 'Procem.' in Lib. de Princip. The Acts of Paul, ib. de Princip. 1:2. The Preaching of
Paul, referred to by St. Cyprian, Tract. de non iterondo Baptism°. Thc Preaching of Paul and Peter at Rome, cited by Lactantius, De vera Sap. Iv :21. The Acts of Peter, thrice mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. iii :3: *as to that work, however, which is ascribed to him, called "The Acts" and the "Gospel according to Peter." we know nothing of their being handed down as Cath olic writings, since neither among the ancient nor the ecclesiastical writers of our own day has there been one that has appealed to testimony taken from them. The Acts of Paul, ib. The Revelation of Peter, ib. The Acts of Andrew and John, ib. cap. 25. 'Thus,' he says. 'we have it in our power to know * * * those books that are adduced by the heretics, under the name of the apostles, such, viz., as compose the gospels of Peter, Thpnias, and Matthew * * * and such as contain the Acts of the Apostles by Andrew and John, and others of which no one of those writers in the ecclesiastical succession has con descended to make any mention in his works, and, indeed, the character of the style itself is very different from that of the apostles, and the senti ments and the purport of those things that are advanced in them, deviating as far as possible from sound orthodoxy, evidently proves they are the fictions of heretical men ; whence they arc to be ranked not only among the spurious writings, but are to be rejected as altogether absurd and impious.' The Acts of Peter, John, and Thomas, Athanasius, Synops. Sec. 76. The Writings of Bartholomew the Apostle, mentioned by the pseudo-Dionysius. The Acts, Preaching and Revelation of Peter, cited by Jerome, in his Catal. Script. Eccles. The Acts of the Apostles by Seleucus, ib. Epiti. ad Citron'. etc. The Acts of Paul and Thecla, ib. Catalog. Script. Eccles. The Acts of the Apostles, used by the Ebionites, cited by Epiphanius /I dversus Herres, Sec. 16. The ,his of Leucius, Lentius, or Lenticus, called the Acts of the Apostles, Augustin. Lib. de Fid. c. 38. The Acts of the Apostles. used by the Nlanicliees. The Revelations of Thomas, Paul, Stephen, etc. Gelasins, de Lib. Apoc. opud Oration. Distinct. :5 c. 3.
(3) Acts of Pilate. To these may be added the genuine Acts of Pilate, appealed to by Tertull,an and Justin Martyr, in their Apologies, as being then extant. Tertullian describes them as 'the records which were transmitted from Jerusalem to Tiberius concerning Christ.' Ile refers to the same for the proof of our Saviour's miracles.