m its
Founder had no secret or esoteric teaching. It was essentially the
revelation or manifestation of the truth of God. But as Christianity
took its origin from Judaism, it is not unnatural that a large body of
Jewish ideas was incorporated in the system of Christian thought. The
bulk of these in due course underwent transformation either complete or
partial, but there was always a residuum of incongruous and inconsistent
elements existing side by side with the essential truths of
Christianity. This was no isolated phenomenon; for in every progressive
period of the history of religion we have on the one side the doctrine
of God advancing in depth and fulness: on the other we have
cosmological, eschatological and other survivals, which, however
justifiable in earlier stages, are in unmistakable antagonism with the
theistic beliefs of the time. The eschatology of a nation--and the most
influential portion of Jewish and Christian apocrypha are
eschatological--is always the last part of their religion to experience
the transforming power of new ideas and new facts.

Now the current religious literature of Judaism outside the canon was
composed of apocryphal books, the bulk of which bore an apocalyptic
character, and dealt with the coming of the Messianic kingdom. These
naturally became the popular religious books of the rising
Jewish-Christian communities, and were held by them in still higher
esteem, if possible, than by the Jews. Occasionally these Jewish
writings were re-edited or adapted to their new readers by Christian
additions, but on the whole it was found sufficient to submit them to a
system of reinterpretation in order to make them testify to the truth of
Christianity and foreshadow its ultimate destinies. Christianity,
moreover, moved by the same apocalyptic tendency as Judaism, gave birth
to new Christian apocryphs, though, in the case of most of them, the
subject matter was to a large extent traditional and derived from Jewish
sources.

Another prolific source of apocryphal gospels, acts and apocalypses was
Gnosticism. While the characteristic features of apocalyptic literature
were derived from Judaism, those of Gnosticism sprang partly from Greek
philosophy, partly from oriental religions. They insisted on an
allegorical interpretation of the apostolic writings: they alleged
themselves to be the guardians of a secret apostolic tradition and laid
claim to prophetic inspiration. With them, as with the bul