Preaching of Paul
The Preaching of Paul (Latin: Praedicatio Pauli) is a text that is referred to in the book De Rebaptisme or De Baptismo Haereticorum ("On the Baptism of Heretics", dated to the third century). The latter has been falsely attributed to Cyprian of Carthage, and therefore the author of De Rebaptisme is called 'Pseudo-Cyprian'. Contents According to Pseudo-Cyprian, the Preaching of Paul is a "heretical forgery", which, amongst other things, claims that Jesus had once confessed his sins. The Baptism of Jesus would have been performed in order to cleanse him of sin. These claims went against the proto-orthodox teaching that Jesus (and his mother Mary) had always been free of sins. Moreover, several events that do not fit with Pseudo-Cyprian's understanding of history are recorded in the Preaching of Paul, such as Paul and Peter meeting each other for the first time in Rome, even though they must have met each other before at the Council of Jerusalem. Therefore, Pseudo-Cyprian argued, the writing should be excluded from the Bible. Thus, it is counted amongst the New Testament apocrypha. Scholarship The original text of the Preaching of Paul has not survived, so its contents are unknown. English theologian Joseph Lightfoot (1828–1889)