The Epistle to the Alexandrians is a

pseudepigraphical 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.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...

Epistle attributed to Paul the Apostle that is mentioned in the

Muratorian fragment The Muratorian fragment, also known as the Muratorian Canon (Latin: ), is a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of most of the books of the New Testament. The fragment, consisting of 85 lines, is a 7th-century Latin manuscript bound in a 7th- o ...

, one of the earliest lists of the canonical texts of the New Testament. The anonymous author of the Muratorian canon considered this epistle as spurious, along with the

Epistle to the Laodiceans The Epistle to the Laodiceans is a letter of Paul the Apostle, the original existence of which is inferred from an instruction to the congregation in Colossae to send their letter to the believing community in Laodicea, and likewise obtain a cop ...

, and both of them are stated to have been "forged in Paul's name to urtherthe heresy of Marcion." Its text has been lost and nothing is known about its content. Theologian

Theodor Zahn Theodor Zahn or Theodor von Zahn (10 October 1838 in Moers – 5 March 1933 in Erlangen) was a German Protestant theologian, a biblical scholar. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times. Career Zahn was born in Moers of the ...

believed himself to have found a fragment of the Epistle to the Alexandrians in the shape of a lesson – a liturgical Epistle – in the (eighth century) Sacramentary and Lectionary of Bobbio (Paris Bib cat., Lat. 13246). It is headed Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Colossians, but it is not from that letter or any other known Pauline epistle. Other scholars consider that it is simply an alternative title to the

Epistle to the Hebrews The Epistle to the Hebrews ( grc, Πρὸς Ἑβραίους, Pros Hebraious, to the Hebrews) is one of the books of the New Testament. The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle. Most ...

, but they have been unable to convince their colleagues.

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambrid ...

argued that the word 'fincte' might be a scribal error, as many others in the Muratorian Fragment, and that it should be singular instead of plural, and so only the letter to the Alexandrians should be associated with the Marcionites, not the one to the Laodiceans.

Joseph Lightfoot Joseph Barber Lightfoot (13 April 1828 – 21 December 1889), known as J. B. Lightfoot, was an English theologian and Bishop of Durham. Life Lightfoot was born in Liverpool, where his father John Jackson Lightfoot was an accountant. His mo ...

suggested there was hiatus after 'Pauli nomine', and that 'fincte' does not apply to the epistles to the Laodiceans nor the Alexandrians, but to mutilated epistles of Marcion, so that the author considered neither to be a forgery.

References

Pseudepigraphy Apocryphal epistles Lost books {{NewTestament-apocrypha-stub Marcionism

See also

References