Pseudo-Crato or Pseudo-Craton is the name given by modern scholarship to a figure named 'Craton' in Book 6 (6.20) of

Pseudo-Abdias Pseudo-Abdias is the name formerly given to a collection of New Testament Apocrypha held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and consisting of Latin translations in ten books containing several chapters. Each book describes the life of one of t ...

' ten-volume pseudepigraphical and

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

l histories of the apostles. It is unclear whether Craton and the work credited to him by Pseudo-Abdias actually existed, or whether this Craton was invented to lend the

pseudepigrapha 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; "Pse ...

greater legitimacy. Pseudo-Abdias' ten-volume histories, which -- due to references to events in the year 524 -- cannot be from before the 6th-century, includes a preface purportedly written by the early 3rd-century chronicler

Julius Africanus Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160 – c. 240; Greek: Σέξτος Ἰούλιος ὁ Ἀφρικανός or ὁ Λίβυς) was a Christian traveler and historian of the late second and early third centuries. He is important chiefly because o ...

. The preface claims that the entire ten-volume histories were written by one Abdias, who supposedly had been personally acquainted with the apostles, and who had been consecrated as the first Bishop of Babylon by the apostles

Simon Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

and Jude. The preface also claims that Abdias wrote the histories in Hebrew, and that these were then translated into Greek by a disciple of Abdias' named Eutropius. Eutropius' translation was then supposedly retranslated into Latin by Africanus. In Book 6, a certain Craton -- ostensibly another disciple of Abdias -- is associated with the histories' sections on Simon and Jude, i.e. the same apostles that supposedly made Abdias the Bishop of Babylon. According to the text, this Craton had ''also'' written a ten-volume history of the apostles, which in turn had also been translated into Latin by Africanus. "Critics have long before Fabricius .e. the 1719 publication of Pseudo-Abdiasdisputed all of these sorts of claims in the text; he textcan in no way be related to any historical Abdias, Eutropius, or Craton, or to Julius Africanus." A bishop of Babylon named Abdias is also unknown. And because Julius Africanus wrote in Greek, not Latin, by the 19th century the Pseudo-Abdias' story of 'Craton' and his work were generally considered a fabrication. Lipsius additionally insisted that Pseudo-Craton, and not Pseudo-Abdias, should be given credit for the histories. A Craton associated with the apostles Simon and Jude is known briefly from other works, such as the 5th/6th century Coptic ''Acts of Bartholomew''. Pseudo-Abdias' text also refers to another Craton in Book 4, which deals with the apostle

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

; this other Craton is called "the philosopher" and was supposedly one of John's disciples at Ephesus.

References

;Notes ;Citations ;Works cited *. * . * . * . * . {{refend New Testament apocrypha Pseudepigraphy