Is Acts the 1st Entirely Spurious Historical Pseudepigrapha?

[Secret Alias]

A lot of people - including me - think that Acts is a spurious pseudepigraphic historical text. The Marcionites and other heretical groups said it a 'spurious codex' meaning - I think - that it was completely fabricated from top to bottom. The portrait of Paul, the history of the Church - all false. But then I started thinking the other day - are there any other examples of completely fabricated histories (besides the Torah)? Thoughts?

[Secret Alias]

https://www.academia.edu/8962708/Wikipe ... ng_history

A recent blog post on Wikipediocracy covered a multitude of documented cases, from a Wikipedia article on a wholly fictitious war that won a Wikipedia quality award (and retained it for five years) to the invention of a new name for the coati: the “Brazilian aardvark”, memorably debunked in
The New Yorker

[Secret Alias]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudohistory

The following are some common categories of pseudohistorical theory, with examples. NB;

not all theories in a listed category are necessarily pseudohistorical; they are rather categories which seem to attract pseudohistorians
caution should be exercised with lists of theories, as proponents of any historical theory, or any ideology, may assert that theories with which they disagree are pseudohistorical, in order to discredit them and their promoters:

American edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Ethnocentrism and antisemitism inspired (see also Blood libel)
The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a fraudulent work purporting to show a historical conspiracy for world domination by Jews.[10]
The Khazar theory, an academic fringe theory which postulates that the bulk of European Jewry are of Central Asian (Turkic) origin. In spite of mainstream academic consensus, this theory has been promoted in Anti-Semitic and Anti-Zionist circles alike, arguing that Jews are an alien element both in Europe and in Palestine.
Holocaust denial and genocide denial in general: claims of such writers as David Irving that the Holocaust, Holodomor, Armenian genocide, or other genocides did not occur, or were exaggerated greatly.[11]
Ancient astronauts, Archaeoastronomy and Lost lands (see also Atlantis location hypotheses)
Catastrophism
Immanuel Velikovsky's book Worlds in Collision[12]
Alternative chronologies - revised sequences of events or other alterations to the timeline of ancient history.
Anatoly Fomenko's theory New Chronology[13]
Confederate revisionists (AKA "Civil War revisionists") and Neo-Confederates argue that the Confederate States of America's prime motivation was the maintenance of states rights and limited government rather than the preservation and expansion of slavery.[14][15][16]
Ethnocentric pseudo-history (see also National mysticism)
Most Afrocentric (i.e. Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories, see Ancient Egyptian race controversy) ideas have been identified as pseudohistorical[17][18]
The Indigenous Aryans theories published in Hindu nationalism during the 1990s and 2000s.[19]
The "crypto-history" of Germanic mysticism and Nazi occultism.[20] Among leading Nazis, Heinrich Himmler is believed to have been influenced by occultism and according to one theory, developed the SS base at Wewelsburg to an esoteric plan
British-Israelism (Anglo-Israelism).
The "Ancient Macedonia continuity theory" that postulates demographic, cultural and linguistic continuity between Macedonians of antiquity and the main ethnic group in Republic of Macedonia.
Psychohistory The ill-fated attempt to merge psychology with history, replacing historical method.
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact excluding the Norse colonization of the Americas and other reputable scholarship
Arab or Islamic discovery of the Americas.[21]
Gavin Menzies's book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, which argues for the idea that Chinese sailors discovered America.[22]
Religious speculation (see also scientific foreknowledge in sacred texts)
works such as The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, which purports to show that certain historical figures, such as Godfrey of Bouillon, and contemporary aristocrats are the lineal descendants of Jesus Christ, using genealogical tables that are now known to be spurious:[23]
The writings of author David Barton and others postulating that the United States of America was founded as an exclusively Christian nation.[24][25][26][27]
See also Searches for Noah's Ark[28]
The theory of Lemuria and Kumari Kandam.[22]
Chariots of the Gods? and other books by Erich von Däniken, which claim ancient visitors from outer space constructed the pyramids and other monuments.[29]
Publications by Christopher Knight, such as Uriel's Machine (2000), claiming ancient technological civilizations.[30][31]
Visits to Earth by spacefaring aliens
The Shakespeare authorship question, which claims that someone other than William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote the works traditionally attributed to him.

[Secret Alias]

Yet I should note that nothing here approaches what I might suggest occurred with regards to Acts - ie a pseudohistorical work stocked with entirely fictitious characters. Who are the certainly authentic historical characters in Acts? Let's make a list and vote.

[Secret Alias]

1. Acts 1:1 "Theophilus" ? Uncertain

2. Acts 1:1 Jesus ? Uncertain
3. Acts 1:2 the apostles ? Uncertain
4. Acts 1:4 the (Holy) Spirit ? Fictitious
5. Acts 1:5 John (the Baptist) ? Uncertain
6. Acts 1:9 a cloud ? Fictitious
7. Acts 1:10 two men in white ? Fictitious
8. Acts 1:11 men of Galilee ? Uncertain

Score:

Historical 0
Uncertain 4
Fictitious 3

The entire opening "historical" narrative = the Ascension is certainly fictitious. None of this ever occurred in real space/time

[Ulan]

I think Acts has different levels of forgery. There's pious legends at the base of the travels of Paul in the later parts, which are still not historical, but may have some snippets of history at their base. Then there's conscious religious political forgery, and that's where I would see the part about the Jerusalem community and the travels of Peter with Paul.

[perseusomega9]

Assuming there was some person behind the ciphers Peter and Paul, wouldn't Acts blatant rewriting of their history point to time long after the fact in order to get away with it?

[Ulan]

Assuming there was some person behind the ciphers Peter and Paul, wouldn't Acts blatant rewriting of their history point to time long after the fact in order to get away with it?

In principle, yes, but what is "a long time". Even if we go with "standard" dates, what do you remember from 40 years ago? Would there still be anyone left to correct any accord? Also, the location didn't exist anymore.

Ironically, a forgery with people who don't exist is easier than one with real people. As non-existent people don't have real friends, there's nobody who can object by definition.

[Secret Alias]

Agreed. But I guess my questions are:

1. Are there historical characters in Acts and who are they?
2. Is there any real history in Acts and how do we determine it/them?
3. If Acts is entirely fictitious history where are other examples? The Pentateuch? The Book of Mormon?

[Ulan]

3. If Acts is entirely fictitious history where are other examples? The Pentateuch? The Book of Mormon?

I have to go soon, so just the answer that the "Book of Mormon" is an obvious one, with an entirely fictional American history. I had a thread about this here:

History through Seer Stones: Mormon Historical Thought