Topic summary

Apocryphon of John

Apocryphon of John

The Apocryphon of John, also called the Secret Book of John or the Secret Revelation of John, is a 2nd-century SethianGnostic Christianpseudepigraphical text attributed to John the Apostle. It is one of the texts addressed by Irenaeus in his Christian polemic Against Heresies, placing its composition before 180 AD. It tells of the appearance of Jesus and the imparting of secret knowledge (gnosis) to his disciple John. The author describes it as having occurred after Jesus had "gone back to the place from which he came".