ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, SPURIOUS.
Of these several are extant, others are lost, or only fragments of them are come down 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 Origen in his Commentary on St. 7ohn's Gospel, lib. 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, Lib. de Baptism°, cap. xvii. --this is, however, supposed by some to be the same which is found in a Greek MS. in the Bod leian Library, and has been published by Dr. Grabe, in his Spicil. Patrum Sectil. L ; The .Doc trine of Peter, cited by Origen, Procem.' in Lib. de Prhicip.; The Acts of Paul, ib. de i. 2 ; The Preaching of Paul, referred to by St. Cyprian, Tract. de non iterando Baptism° ; The Preaching of Paul and Peter at Rome, cited by Lactantius, De vem Sap. iv. 21 ; The Acts of Peter, thrice men tioned 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 Catholic 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 7ohn, 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, Thomas, 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 condescended to make any mention in his works ; and, indeed, the cha racter of the style itself is very different from that of the apostles, and the sentiments and the purport of those things that are advanced in them, devi ating as far as possible from sound orthodoxy, evidently proves they are the fictions of heretical men ; whence they are 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. § 76 ; The Writings of Bartholomew the Apostle, men tioned by the pseudo-Dionysius ; The Acts, Preach ing, and Revelation of Peter, cited by Jerome, in his Cala. Script. Eccles.; The Acts of the Apostles by Seleucus, ib. Epist. ad Chrism., etc.; The Acts of Paul and Theda, ib. Catalog. Script. Eccles.; The Acts of the Apostles, used by the Ebionites, cited by Epiphanius, Adversus Hares. § 16 ; The Acts of Leucius, Lentius, or Leneicites, called the Acts of the Apostles, Augustin. Lib. de Fa c. The Acts of the Apostles, used by the M anichees ; The Revelations of Thomas, Paul, Stephen, etc., Gela sius, de Lib. Apoc. aped Gentian. Distinct. 15, c. 3.
To these may be added the genuine Acts of Pilate, appealed to by Tertullian and Justin Martyr, in their Apologies, as being then extant. Tertullian describes them as ` the records which were trans mitted from Jerusalem to Tiberius concerning Christ.' He refers to the same for the proof of our Saviour's miracles.
The following is a catalogue of the principal spurious Acts still extant :— The Creed of the Apostles; The Epistles of Barnabas, Clement, Ig natius, and Polycarp; The Recognitions of Clement, or the Travels of Peter; The Shepherd of Hermes; The Acts of Pilate (spurious), or the Gospel of Nico dentits ; The Acts of Paul, or the Martyrdom of Thecla ; Abdias's History of the Twelve Apostles ; The Constitutions of the Apostles; The Canons of the Apostles; The Liturgies of the Apostles; St. Paul's Epistle to the Laodiceens; St. Paul's Letters to Seneca. Together with some others, for which see Cotelerius's Ecclesia Graca Monumenta, Paris. 1677-92; Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus, N. T.; Du Pin, History of the Canon of the New Testa ment, London, 1699 ; Grabe's Spicilegium Patrum, Oxford, 1714 ; Lardner's Credibility, etc.; Jones's New and Just Method of Settling the Canonica. Authority of the New Testament; Birch's Aucta rium, Hafniee, 1804; Thilo's Acta St. Thome, Lips. 1823, and Codex Apocryphus, N. T., Lips. 1832 ; Tischendorf, Acta App. Apocrypha, Lips. 1857.—W. W.