NonCanonical, but NOT Heretical or Gnostic NT texts

[little bubbe]

Could someone list all of the non-Canonical "Aprocrypha" of the New Testmant. But I am looking for NON-Gnostic and NON heretical, or at the very least, only mildy heretical writings.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Could someone list all of the non-Canonical "Aprocrypha" of the New Testmant. But I am looking for NON-Gnostic and NON heretical, or at the very least, only mildy heretical writings.

The non-canonical books of the Antilegomena would be what I'd say you're looking for.

The Didache, the Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement, the Epistle of Barnabas, etc.

Look up Antilegomena, these were the disputed writings of the ancient Church that were held as authoritative by some and not by others, and included both the books I mentioned above which aren't found in the NT as well as some that are included (2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, James, Jude, Hebrews, and the Revelation of St. John).

-CryptoLutheran

 

[little bubbe]

I did know about those. But I was hoping there was more. There are many of them. Are only those non heretical? 1 or 2 of the jewish gospels were not heretical. But they dont survive. Are there no gospels?

 

[ViaCrucis]

I did know about those. But I was hoping there was more. There are many of them. Are only those non heretical? 1 or 2 of the jewish gospels were not heretical. But they dont survive. Are there no gospels?

The Infancy Gospels (Thomas and James) aren't particularly heretical. They're basically early Christian dime store novels, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas talks about Jesus as an infant and small child, doing things like turning clay doves into real ones. The Infancy Gospel of James (also known as the Protoevangelium of James) focuses on the life of Jesus' mother, talking about her birth and early life and it leads up to Jesus' birth.

They aren't heretical, they're just novelty pious fictions.

Besides these all so-called gospels not found in the New Testament are quite heretical.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[little bubbe]

Thomas I read and it is both heretical and flatout dumb. Thomas cannot even be called christian and wasmost likely a product of coptic pagans being influenced by christianity. Not all copts were monophosyte. Probably a majority werenot christian by the time of its composition.

 

[ebia]

Thomas I read and it is both heretical and flatout dumb. Thomas cannot even be called christian and wasmost likely a product of coptic pagans being influenced by christianity. Not all copts were monophosyte. Probably a majority werenot christian by the time of its composition.

just to be clear, are you talking about the "gospel of Thomas" or the "infancy gospel of Thomas"?

 

[little bubbe]

Gospel of Thomas

 

[ebia]

Gospel of Thomas

But Via Crucis was talking about the infancy gospel of Thomas - a completely different text.

 

[little bubbe]

Oh i'm sorry. My mistake. >_<

 

[Unix]

It surprises me that everyone failed to mention Teachings of Silvanus. All top-scholars rate it non-Gnostic. It's really good. It can be found as tagged Editions in Bible Study softwares as well as in print. An advantage of a tagged Edition, is that if any other book You have in the Bible Study software references it, You can just hover Your mouse over the reference and a small pop-up window with the verse shows up, or if You click the context shows up at the right page. Plus if Your memory fails You, You can conduct a search and find the verse far more easier than having to re-read the entire thing to remember what verse You were thinking about. The only disadvantage being that it usually comes in books that contain other works too.

Can't think of any Gospels though. Many ask on forums. There are the occasional quotes about what Jesus has been purported to have said preserved as far away as in India, but these are very brief accounts, usually wisdom sayings.

 

[GreekOrthodox]

The Didache might be been written during the Apostolic era but most likely in the 100s. It contains a number of instructions for the Christian church. We knew that it existed from other writings but a copy was finally found in the 19th century.

The Acts of Paul was popular in the East and introduces St. Thekla. The Thekla stories are almost a heroic romance as Thekla defends her virtue and miracles ensue.

The final chapters of the Acts of Peter are where we get the tradition of Peter being executed in Rome by being crucified upside-down.

 

[Ariston]

According to your description, a fantastic place to start is in the collection known as the Apostolic Fathers which covers Catholic/Orthodox Christian literature from the letter known as 1 Clement (c. 96) to about c. 150. This collection excludes heretical or Gnostic literature (and a few fragments of Christian literature). Included in the collection are:

The Papias Fragments
The Seven Epistles of Ignatius
The Didache
1 Clement
2 Clement
The Epistle to Diognetus
The Epistle of Polycarp
The Martyrdom of Polycarp
The Epistle of Barnabas
The Shepherd of Hermas
Fragments of Quadratus

I would highly recommend The Epistle of Polycarp and The Seven Epistles of Ignatius.

The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations: Michael W. Holmes: 9780801034688: Amazon.com: Books