Authorship and Authority in the Latin Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles

Abstract

One of the most important characteristics of apocryphal literature is the lack of an author known by name. The anonymous or pseudepigraphic character of apocrypha is stressed both in modern definitions of apocryphal writings and in historical reflections on them. In the medieval period, the authority of a text was to a large extent dependent on the trustworthiness and reliability of its author. It is precisely the lack of a known author that has disgraced the apocrypha through the ages, particularly the Middle Ages. Broadly speaking, the medieval Latin transmission of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles is no exception to the general rule that apocrypha are transmitted anonymously. However, at certain points it is possible to perceive the voice of the author or the redactor, particularly in the prologues and epilogues that accompany the texts. In such paratexts, the first person singular occurs occasionally when the author or redactor directly addresses the audience. In other instances, names of authors, translators and rewriters are mentioned. Such traces of the presence of author, redactor or rewriter are examined here in the context of a broader investigation of attempts to provide the apocryphal Acts of the apostles with authority and trustworthiness.