Pseudepigrapha are texts which are attributed to people who did not actually author the document. This was usually done to give the document more credibility by using the name of a prominent person. In biblical studies, the pseudepigrapha is a collection of Jewish religious works thought to be written between 300BC and 300AD.
Pseudepigrapha means ‘false writings.’ The title is given to ancient manuscripts and books that claim to have been written by someone, but were not. For example, the Gospel of Thomas wasn’t written by Thomas… someone else wrote it and put Thomas’ name on it. The goal, generally speaking, was to give a document more credibility by attributing it to someone famous.
