Apocrypha, the

Apocrypha, the (Gk., ‘the hidden [things]’). The biblical Books received by the early Church as part of the Greek version of the OT, but not included in the Hebrew Bible. Their position in Christian usage has been ambiguous. In the Vulgate and versions derived from it they are mostly part of the OT; but in the AV, RV, NEB, and other non-RC versions they form a separate section between the OT and NT, or are omitted altogether. They comprise (in the order of the AV): 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Rest of Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch with the Epistle of Jeremy, the Song of the Three Children, the History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasses, and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The Church received these writings from Hellenistic Judaism. In the Septuagint (LXX), which incorporated all except 2 Esdras, they are in no way differentiated from other parts of the OT. They date from the period 300 BC-AD 100 approximately, and mostly from 200 BC to AD 70, i.e. before the definite separation of the Church from Judaism. When the Hebrew Canon of Scripture was settled (perhaps around AD 100), the Hebrew text of the excluded Books ceased to be copied. The Greek, on the other hand, survived because of its use by Christians who at first received all Books of the LXX equally as Scripture.

In the 4th cent. many of the Greek Fathers came to recognize a distinction between those Books of the LXX which were canonical in Hebrew and the rest. St Jerome accepted the distinction and introduced the term ‘apocrypha’ for the latter class. With few exceptions the W. continued to regard all the LXX Books as equally canonical. In the E. opinion varied, but at the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 it was decided that Tob., Judith, Ecclus., and Wisd. were alone to be regarded as canonical. At the Reformation Protestant leaders refused the status of inspired Scripture to those Books of the Vulgate not found in the Hebrew Canon. The Council of Trent (1548) confirmed the full canonicity of the Books, except 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasses, which were then placed in an appendix to the Vulgate; this ruling was repeated at the First Vatican Council in 1870. In the C of E the Thirty-Nine Articles say that the Apocryphal Books should be read for ‘example of life and instruction of manners’, but not used to establish doctrine. Parts of them have been included in successive C of E lectionaries. They are regarded with suspicion by the Presbyterians and other English Nonconformists, and so frequently omitted from English Bibles, though their value as historical sources has been increasingly recognized in modern times.