Everything about Apocryphal totally explained
Apocrypha (from the
Greek word ἀπόκρυφα, meaning "those having been hidden away") are texts of uncertain authenticity or writings where the authorship is questioned. In
Judeo-Christian theology, the term
apocrypha refers to any collection of scriptural texts that falls outside the
canon. Given that different denominations have different ideas about what constitutes canonical
scripture, there are several different versions of the apocrypha. During sixteenth-century controversies over the
biblical canon the word "apocrypha" acquired a negative connotation, and it has become a synonym for "spurious" or "false". This usage usually involves fictitious or legendary accounts that are plausible enough to commonly be considered as truth. For example,
Laozi's alleged authorship of the
Tao Te Ching, Napolean Bonaparte's self-coronation rather than at the hands of Pope Puis VII, and the
Parson Weems account of
George Washington and the cherry tree, are all considered
apocryphal.
Denotation and connotation
The term "apocrypha" has evolved in meaning somewhat, and its associated implications have ranged from positive to
pejorative. The term
apocryphal, according to
Merriam-Webster
, means "writings or statements of dubious authenticity."
Esoteric writings
The word "apocryphal" (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied, in a positive sense, to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of
esoteric knowledge considered too profound or too sacred to be disclosed to anyone other than the initiated. It is used in this sense to describe
A Holy and Secret Book of Moses, called Eighth, or Holy (Μωυσέως ἱερὰ βίβλος ἀπόκρυφος ἐπικαλούμενη ὀγδόη ἢ ἁγία), a text taken from a
Leiden papyrus of the third or fourth century AD, but which may be as old as the first century. In a similar vein, the
disciples of the
Gnostic Prodicus boasted that they possessed the secret (ἀπόκρυφα) books of
Zoroaster. The term in general enjoyed high consideration among the
Gnostics (see
Acts of Thomas, 10, 27, 44)
(External Link).
Writings of questionable value
"Apocrypha" was also applied to writings that were hidden not because of their divinity but because of their questionable value to the church. Many in
Protestant traditions cite Revelation 22:18-19 as a potential curse for those who attach any canonical authority to extra-biblical writings such as the Apocrypha. However, a strict exegesis of this text would indicate it was meant for only the
Book of Revelation. Revelation 22:18-19 (KJV) states: "(18) For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: (19) And if any man shall take away from the words of
the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and
from the things which are written in this book." It should be obvious no one has license to distort any original writing. In this case, if we hold to a strict
hermeneutic, this "book of
prophecy" doesn't refer to the Bible as a whole but to the Book of Revelation.
Origen, in
Commentaries on Matthew, X. 18, XIII. 57, distinguishes between writings which were read by the churches and apocryphal writings: γραφὴ μὴ φερομένη μέν ἒν τοῖς κοινοῖς καὶ δεδημοσιευμένοις βιβλίοις εἰκὸς δ' ὅτι ἒν ἀποκρύφοις φερομένη (
writing not found on the common and published books in one hand, actually found on the secret ones on the other). The meaning of αποκρυφος is here practically equivalent to "excluded from the public use of the church", and prepares the way for an even less favourable use of the word
(External Link).
Spurious writings
In general use, the word "apocrypha" came to mean "false, spurious, bad, or heretical." This meaning also appears in Origen's prologue to his commentary on the
Song of Songs, of which only the
Latin translation survives:
De scripturis his, quae appellantur apocryphae, pro eo quod multa in iis corrupta et contra fidem veram inveniuntur a majoribus tradita non placuit iis dari locum nec admitti ad auctoritatem.
(External Link) "Concerning these scriptures, which are called apocryphal, for the reason that many things are found in them corrupt and against the true faith handed down by the elders, it has pleased them that they not be given a place nor be admitted to authority." (
Translation by a Wikipedia editor.)
Other meanings
Other uses of
apocrypha developed over the history of Western Christianity. The
Gelasian Decree refers to religious works by
church fathers Eusebius,
Tertullian and
Clement of Alexandria as apocrypha.
Augustine defined the word as meaning simply "obscurity of origin," implying that any book of unknown authorship or questionable authenticity would be considered as apocrypha. On the other hand,
Jerome (in
Protogus Galeatus) declared that all books outside the Hebrew canon were apocryphal
(External Link). In practice, Jerome treated some books outside the Hebrew canon as if they were canonical, and the Western Church didn't accept Jerome's definition of apocrypha, instead retaining the word's prior meaning (
see: Deuterocanon). As a result, various church authorities labeled different books as apocrypha, treating them with varying levels of regard.
Some apocryphal books were included in the
Septuagint with little distinction made between them and the rest of the
Old Testament.
Origen,
Clement and others cited some apocryphal books as "scripture", "divine scripture", "inspired", and the like. On the other hand, teachers connected with
Palestine and familiar with the
Hebrew canon excluded from the canon all of the Old Testament not found there. This view is reflected in the canon of
Melito of Sardis, and in the prefaces and letters of Jerome
(External Link). A third view was that the books were not as valuable as the canonical scriptures of the
Hebrew collection, but were of value for moral uses, as introductory texts for new converts from
paganism, and to be read in congregations. They were referred to as "
ecclesiastical" works by
Rufinus (External Link).
These three opinions regarding the apocryphal books prevailed until the
Protestant Reformation, when the idea of what constitutes canon became a matter of primary concern for
Roman Catholics and
Protestants alike. In 1546 the Catholic
Council of Trent reconfirmed the canon of Augustine, dating to the second and third centuries, declaring "He is also to be anathema who doesn't receive these entire books, with all their parts, as they've been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church, and are found in the ancient editions of the Latin
Vulgate, as sacred and canonical." The whole of the books in question, with the exception of
1st and
2nd Esdras and the
Prayer of Manasses, were declared canonical at Trent
(External Link). The Protestants, in comparison, universally held the belief that only the books in the Hebrew collection were canonical.
John Wycliffe, a 14th century reformer, had declared in his Biblical translation that "whatever book is in the Old Testament besides these twenty-five shall be set among the apocrypha, that is, without authority or belief"
(External Link). Nevertheless, his translation of the Bible included the
apocrypha and the Epistle of the Loadiceans.
The respect accorded to apocryphal books varied between Protestant denominations. In both the
German (1537) and
English (1535) translations of the Bible, the apocrypha are published in a separate section from the other books, although the Lutheran and Anglican lists are different. In some editions, (like the Westminster), readers were warned that these books were not "to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings." A milder distinction was expressed elsewhere, such as in the "argument" introducing them in the
Geneva Bible, and in the Sixth Article of the
Church of England, where it's said that "the other books the church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners," though not to establish doctrine
(External Link).
According to
The Apocrypha, Bridge of the Testaments at orthodoxanglican.net:
Apocryphal texts by denomination
Jewish apocrypha
Although traditional rabbinical Judaism insists on the exclusive canonization of the current 24 books in the
Tanakh, it also claims to have an oral law handed down from
Moses. The
Sadducees, - unlike the
Pharisees but like the Samaritans - seem to have maintained an earlier and smaller number of texts as canonical, preferring to hold to only what was written in the Law of Moses
(External Link) (making most of the presently accepted canon, both Jewish and Christian,
apocryphal in their eyes). Certain circles in Judaism, such as the
Essenes in Judea and the
Therapeutae in Egypt, were said to have a secret literature (see
Dead Sea scrolls). Other traditions maintained different customs regarding canonicity
(External Link). The Ethiopic Jews, for instance, seem to have retained a spread of canonical texts similar to the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians
(External Link), cf Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol 6, p 1147. A large part of this literature consisted of the apocalypses. Based on prophecies, these apocalyptic books were not considered scripture by all, but rather part of a literary form that flourished from 200 BC to AD 100.
Biblical books called apocrypha
During the birth of Christianity, some of the Jewish apocrypha that dealt with the coming of the Messianic kingdom became popular in the rising Jewish-Christian communities. Occasionally these writings were changed or added to, but on the whole it was found sufficient to reinterpret them as conforming to a Christian viewpoint. Christianity eventually gave birth to new apocalyptic works, some of which were derived from traditional Jewish sources. Some of the Jewish apocrypha were part of the ordinary religious literature of the early Christians. This wasn't strange, as the large majority of Old Testament references in the New Testament are taken from the Greek
Septuagint, which is the source of the
deuterocanonical books as well as most of the other
biblical apocrypha.
Slightly varying collections of additional Books (called deuterocanonical by the Roman Catholic Church) form part of the
Roman Catholic,
Eastern Orthodox and
Oriental Orthodox canons.
The
Book of Enoch is included in the biblical canon only of the Oriental Orthodox churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea. However, the
Epistle of Jude quotes the prophet, Enoch, by name, and some believe the use of this book appears in the four gospels and
1 Peter. The genuineness and inspiration of Enoch were believed in by the writer of the
Epistle of Barnabas,
Irenaeus,
Tertullian and
Clement of Alexandria, and much of the early church. The epistles of Paul and the gospels also show influences from the
Book of Jubilees, which is part of the Ethiopian canon, as well as the
Assumption of Moses and the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, which are included in no biblical canon.
The high position which some apocryphal books occupied in the first two centuries was undermined by a variety of influences in the Christian church. All claims to the possession of a secret tradition (as held by many Gnostic sects) were denied by the influential theologians like
Irenaeus and
Tertullian, the timeframe of true inspiration was limited to the apostolic age, and universal acceptance by the church was required as proof of apostolic authorship. As these principles gained currency, books deemed apocryphal tended to become regarded as spurious and heretical writings, though books now considered deuterocanonical have been used in liturgy and theology from the first century to the present.
New Testament apocryphal literature
New Testament apocrypha — books similar to those in the
New Testament but almost universally rejected by Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants — include several gospels and lives of apostles. Some of these were clearly produced by
Gnostic authors or members of other groups later defined as
heterodox. Many texts believed lost for centuries were unearthed in the 19th and 20th centuries, producing lively speculation about their importance in early
Christianity among religious scholars, while many others survive only in the form of quotations from them in other writings; for some, no more than the title is known. Artists and theologians have drawn upon the New Testament apocrypha for such matters as the names of
Dismas and
Gestas and details about the
Three Wise Men. The first explicit mention of the
perpetual virginity of Mary is found in the pseudepigraphical
Infancy Gospel of James.
The
Gnostic tradition was a prolific source of apocryphal gospels. While these writings borrowed the characteristic poetic features of apocalyptic literature from Judaism, Gnostic sects largely insisted on allegorical interpretations based on a secret apostolic tradition. With them, as with most Christians of the first and second centuries, apocryphal books were highly esteemed. A well-known
Gnostic apocryphal book is the
Gospel of Thomas, the only complete text of which was found in the Egyptian town of
Nag Hammadi in 1945. The
Gospel of Judas, a
Gnostic gospel, also received much media attention when it was reconstructed in 2006.
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians as well as Protestants generally agree on the canon of the
New Testament. However there's one notable exception. The
Ethiopian Orthodox have in the past also included
I & II Clement, and
Shepherd of Hermas in their
New Testament canon. This is no longer the case, according to Biblical scholar
R.W. Cowley. According to Abba Brahana Selassie (an Ethiopian Orthodox priest currently residing in England) at the end of the New Testament, the Ethiopian canon contains the following Books of Church Order: The Order of Zion, Commandments, Gitzew, Abtils, 2 Books of the Covenant, Clement and Didascalia. The Ethiopian Orthodox canon also places the General Epistle of
St. James immediately before the General Epistle of
St. Jude.
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