What is "pseudepigrapha"

n. writing falsely ascribed to famous persons (historical or mythical) to give texts greater legitimacy. Such compositions — for example, the ''Περὶ Κόσμου'' of Pseudo-Aristotle, ''De unius in re publica dominatione'' by Pseudo-Plutarch, the ''Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum'' by Pseudo-Philo, the ''Liber fornacum'' of Pseudo-Geber, the ''Psalms of Solomon'' by Pseudo-Solomon, etc. — were usually composed many centuries after the ostensible author had died.

Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely-attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past. Pseudepigraphy covers the false ascription of names of authors to works, even to authentic works that make no such claim within their text. Thus a widely accepted but incorrect attribution of authorship may make a completely authentic text pseudepigraphical. Assessing the actual writer of a text locates questions of pseudepigraphical attribution within the discipline of literary criticism.

In biblical studies, the term pseudepigrapha typically refers to an assorted collection of Jewish religious works thought to be written c 300 BC to 300 AD. They are distinguished by Protestants from the Deuterocanonical books (Catholic and Orthodox) or Apocrypha (Protestant), the books that appear in extant copies of the Septuagint from the fourth century on, and the Vulgate but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles. The Catholic Church distinguishes only between the deuterocanonical and all the other books, that are called biblical apocrypha, a name that is also used for the pseudepigrapha in the Catholic usage. In addition, two books considered canonical in the Orthodox Tewahedo churches, viz. Book of Enoch and Book of Jubilees, are categorized as pseudepigrapha from the point of view of Chalcedonian Christianity.