Apocryphal Ezekeiel is a non-canonical book mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus in the first century AD. Several early Christian writers also quoted or referred to it. Five early Christian writings cite passages from an apocryphal Ezekiel. Bishop Epiphanius, in the fourth century, cited an Ezekiel parable about a blind man and a lame man working together to steal fruit from a group of trees. He used this story to explain how the resurrection of both the soul and the body could be understood.
Around AD 90, Clement of Rome quoted from a non-canonical book of Ezekiel in his letter to the Corinthians. About one hundred years later, Clement of Alexandria also quoted from this book in two of his writings. The pseudo-Athanasian canon mentions an Ezekiel apocryphon (a non-canonical writing attributed to Ezekiel). This canon claims to list all the books that belong in the Bible. The book is also named in the stichometry (prose written in rhythmic phrases) of Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople from AD 806 to 815. In 1940, Campbell Bonner published Greek papyrus fragments that confirm the existence of an apocryphal Ezekiel.