Apocrypha

Apocrypha (/əˈpɒkrɪfə/) are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word apocryphal (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings that were to be read privately rather than in the public context of church services. Apocrypha were edifying Christian works that were not always initially included as canonical scripture.

The adjective "apocryphal", meaning of doubtful authenticity, mythical, fictional, is recorded from the late 16th century, then taking on the popular meaning of "false," "spurious," "bad," or "heretical." It may be used for any book which might have scriptural claims but which does not appear in the canon accepted by the author. A related term for both canon and non-canonical texts whose authorship seems incorrect is pseudepigrapha, a term that means "false attribution".

In Christianity, the name "the Apocrypha" is applied to a particular set of books which, when they appear in a Bible, are sometimes placed between the Old and New Testaments in a section called "Apocrypha." The canonicity of such books took longer to determine. Various of these books are accepted by the Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches and the Church of the East, as deuterocanonical. Some Protestant traditions reject them outright; others regard the Apocrypha as non-canonical books that are useful for instruction.

The word's origin is the Medieval Latin adjective apocryphus (secret, or non-canonical) from the Greek adjective ἀπόκρυφος, apokryphos, (private) from the verb ἀποκρύπτειν, apokryptein (to hide away).

It comes from Greek and is formed from the combination of apo (away) and kryptein (hide or conceal).

The word apocrypha has undergone a major change in meaning throughout the centuries. The word apocrypha in its ancient Christian usage originally meant a text read in private, rather than in public church settings. In English, it later came to have a sense of the esoteric, suspicious, or heretical, largely because of the Protestant interpretation of the usefulness of non-canonical texts.

The word apocryphal (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings that 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. For example, 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, pp. 10, 27, 44).

The adjective apocryphal is commonly used in modern English to refer to any text or story considered to be of dubious veracity or authority, although it may contain some moral truth. In this broader metaphorical sense, the word suggests a claim that is in the nature of folklore, factoid or urban legend.^{[citation needed]}