Hidden knowledge: the Apocrypha, between Gnostic and heresiological texts

Abstract

In the present work we will approach the notion of “apocrypha” in a broad sense that encompasses both the original notion as “hidden”, already existing in the ancient literatura, and the notion that emerged later as “extracanonic”. Our methodology is derived from the Cognitive Studies and particularly from Cognitive Historicism, since we consider it essential to locate these texts within the mental structures of the authors that writte them. This approach let us to understand the existing representations in the individuals, publicly shared with the representations of other inhabitants of the community. That is, analyze these texts as they worked in the societies that created them. Thus, we hope to demonstrate that these “apocryphal” writings, considered by both rabbis and ecclesiastics as “outside the canon” and therefore not determinative for history and theology, are in fact indispensable for understanding the process of the canon formation. Likewise, this texts are repositories of events, concepts and ideas that once belonged to certain groups both Jewish and Christian and were then left aside in the attempt to establish a closed set of texts that defined certain normative “authority” for such communities.