The Apocryphal New Testament

J. K. Elliott's The Apocryphal New Testament is a standard scholarly reference translating and annotating early Christian texts that did not enter the New Testament canon, gospels, acts, epistles and apocalypses attributed to various apostles, based on and updating M. R. James's earlier classic edition. Its authority is that of a careful critical translation with scholarly introductions situating each text's likely date, origin and manuscript history. As a reference anthology it deliberately gathers texts of widely varying historical value and reliability, from early and historically significant works to later and more clearly legendary compositions, and Elliott's own introductions are the place to look for how much weight any single included text can bear, rather than treating the collection's contents as uniform in age or authority.