The original works of Rufinus are - (I) De Adulteratione Librorum Origenis - an appendix to his translation of the Apology of Pamphilus, and intended to show that many of the features in Origen's teaching which were then held to be objectionable arise from interpolations and falsifications of the genuine text; (2) De Benedictionibus XII Patriarcharum Libri II - an exposition of Gen.
For several centuries it was wholly lost sight of, and it was not till the 13th century that it was rediscovered through the agency of Robert Grosseteste, bishop of Lincoln, who translated it into Latin, under the misconception that it was a genuine work of the twelve sons of Jacob, and that the Christian interpolations were a genuine product of Jewish prophecy.
This book was published with, and as an introduction to, the three principal works of Joachim, in which the Spirituals had made some interpolations.'
Even the most ancient text, that in 65 chapters, contains passages which a comparison with the later texts shows to be interpolations.
Till a few years ago, owing to Christian interpolations, it was taken to be a Christian apocryph, written originally in Greek in the 2nd century A.D.