A·poc·ry·pha

(ə-pŏk′rə-fə)

n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb)

1. The biblical books included in the Septuagint and accepted in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox canon but considered noncanonical by Protestants because they are not part of the Hebrew Scriptures. See Table at Bible.

2. Various early Christian writings proposed as additions to the New Testament but rejected by the major canons.

3. apocrypha Writings or statements of questionable authorship or authenticity.

[Middle English apocripha, not authentic, from Late Latin Apocrypha, the Apocrypha, from Greek Apokrupha, neuter pl. of apokruphos, secret, hidden, from apokruptein, to hide away : apo-, apo- + kruptein, kruph-, to hide.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Apocrypha

(əˈpɒkrɪfə)

n (functioning as singular or plural)

1. (Bible) the 14 books included as an appendix to the Old Testament in the Septuagint and the Vulgate but not included in the Hebrew canon. They are not printed in Protestant versions of the Bible

2. (Bible) RC Church another name for the Pseudepigrapha

[C14: via Late Latin apocrypha (scripta) hidden (writings), from Greek, from apokruptein to hide away]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•poc•ry•pha

(əˈpɒk rə fə)

n. (used with a sing. or pl. v.)

1. (cap.) a group of books not found in Jewish or Protestant versions of the Old Testament but included in the Septuagint and in Roman Catholic editions of the Bible.

2. various religious writings of uncertain origin.

3. writings or statements of doubtful authenticity.

Compare canon ¹ (defs. 5, 6, 8).

[1350–1400; Middle English < Late Latin < Greek, neuter pl. of apókryphos hidden, unknown, spurious]

apocrypha

1. religious writings of disputed origin, regarded by many author-ities as uncanonical.
2. (capitalized) a group of 15 books, not part of the canonical Hebrew Bible, but present in the Septuagint and Vulgate and hence accepted by some as biblical. — apocryphal, adj.

See also: Bible

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Apocrypha - 14 books of the Old Testament included in the Vulgate (except for II Esdras) but omitted in Jewish and Protestant versions of the Bible; eastern Christian churches (except the Coptic Church) accept all these books as canonical; the Russian Orthodox Church accepts these texts as divinely inspired but does not grant them the same status

religious text, religious writing, sacred text, sacred writing - writing that is venerated for the worship of a deity

Old Testament - the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible

Additions to Esther - an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Esther

Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Children - an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Daniel

Book of Susanna, Susanna - an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Daniel

Bel and the Dragon - an Apocryphal book consisting of text added to the Book of Daniel

Book of Baruch, Baruch - an Apocryphal book ascribed to Baruch

Epistle of Jeremiah, Letter of Jeremiah - an Apocryphal book consisting of a letter ascribed to Jeremiah to the Jews in exile in Babylon warning them against idolatry

Book of Tobit, Tobit - an Apocryphal book that was a popular novel for several centuries

Book of Judith, Judith - an Apocryphal book telling how Judith saved her people

1 Esdras, I Esdra - an Apocryphal book consisting of a compilation from I Chronicles and II Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah

2 Esdras, II Esdras - an Apocryphal book of angelic revelations

Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus, Sirach, Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach - an Apocryphal book mainly of maxims (resembling Proverbs in that respect)

Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom - an Apocryphal book consisting mainly of a meditation on wisdom; although ascribed to Solomon it was probably written in the first century BC

1 Maccabees, I Maccabees - an Apocryphal book describing the life of Judas Maccabaeus

2 Maccabees, II Maccabees - an Apocryphal book describing the life of Judas Maccabaeus

Judith - Jewish heroine in one of the books of the Apocrypha; she saved her people by decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes

Holofernes - (Apocrypha) the Assyrian general who was decapitated by the biblical heroine Judith

Translations

apocryphe

apokrif

Apocrypha

[əˈpɒkrɪfə] NPL → libros mpl apócrifos de la Biblia, Apócrifos mpl

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Apocrypha

n the Apocrypha → die Apokryphen pl

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Apocrypha

[əˈpɒkrɪfə] npl (Rel) the Apocrypha → i libri apocrifi

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it.

View in context

And on some mornings, when he read in the Apocrypha, of which he was very fond, the son of Sirach's keen-edged words would bring a delighted smile, though he also enjoyed the freedom of occasionally differing from an Apocryphal writer.

View in context

He was a quick fellow, and when hot from play, would toss himself in a corner, and in five minutes be deep in any sort of book that he could lay his hands on: if it were Rasselas or Gulliver, so much the better, but Bailey's Dictionary would do, or the Bible with the Apocrypha in it.

View in context

The definition he presents will tacitly affect various approaches to the New Testament Apocrypha in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, especially in one quintessential feature he describes concerning the apocryphal writings: the fluidity of the corpus.

Renaissance attitudes to New Testament Apocryphal writings: Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples and his Epigones

The essays cover the canon of scripture in the Orthodox Church, the Prayer of Manasses: Orthodox tradition and modern studies in dialogue, the Testament of Solomon and other pseudepigraphical material in Ahkam Sulayman (Judgment of Solomon), the Book of Wisdom of Solomon in the Armenian Church literature and liturgy, The New Testament Romanian amulet text Visul Maicii Domnului (The Dream of the Mother of the Lord), banning from the lectionary: excluding the Apocalypse of John from the Orthodox New Testament canon, and New Testament Apocrypha and the Armenian version of the Bible.

The canon of the Bible and the Apocrypha in the churches of the East

While some printings of the Bible in the 17th century did not include the Apocrypha, still many Bibles did include these books.

Reggae reveals Church involvement in slavery

Whether the characters include the woman/wife in Ephesians and Proverbs, Rebekah in Genesis, Abigail in 1 Samuel, Suzanna and Judith in the Apocrypha, and so forth, they all exemplify female behavioral and cultural models for whom "becoming male" or "exerceant oeuvres viriles" ("exercising manly tasks") means, in the true Christian sense of being and living, "to cultivate a religious identity" and to participate in a process "that will ultimately lead to eschatological fulfillment."(20)

Renaissance misogyny, biblical feminism, and Helisenne de Crenne's Epistres familieres et invectives

The first volume of The Biblical World briefly describes the OT, the Apocrypha, and the NT.

The Biblical World

The standard German edition of the New Testament Apocrypha, the Neutestamentliche Apokryphen, originally edited by E.

New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 2, Writings Relating to the Apostles: Apocalypses and Related Subjects, rev. ed

He considers Jewish perspectives in Deuteronomy 30: God and Israel in the drama of restoration, heart transformation in the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Septuagint, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigraphy, and Philo.

Grace and Agency in Paul and Second Temple Judaism: Interpreting the Transformation of the Heart

The primary bibliography covers books and pamphlets, contributions to books and periodicals, works he edited, and apocrypha and miscellany including lost or destroyed works.

H. P. Lovecraft; a comprehensive bibliography

Other sources include the Elephantine papyri, the Dead Sea Scrolls, several works in the Apocrypha, and, most important, the works of Josephus.

From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests after the Exile