APOCRYPHA, BOOKS. — Jewish and Christian writings that present themselves as biblical books, composed between the 2nd century B.C. and the 4th-6th centuries A.D.
The origin of the term (ἀπόκρυφος) is controversial, some deriving it from the pagan world, others from the Jewish. In the pagan sects it was customary to call a. a book containing doctrines that were to be kept hidden from the uninitiated. Thus Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, I, 15, 69; CB, ed. O. Stählin, II, p. 44) speaks of books «nasco» or «apocryphal», reserved for those who wished to know the esoteric doctrine of Zoroaster. In this case the term distinguishes an inaccessible book, «hidden» from the profane, from an ordinary, public writing (φανερός, κοινός).
V. 65). This concept seems to have been widespread also in the Jewish world, since 4 Ed. 14, 46-47 speaks of books in which «there is a vein of understanding and a fountain of wisdom and a river of knowledge», destined to remain secret with the obligation of making them known only to the «wise of the people». Flavius Josephus (Bell. Jud., II, 142), too, when speaking of the Essenes, refers to books to be kept secret because they contained esoteric doctrine. But there is no evidence that the Jews called these books «a.» or «hidden». Rather, with an equivalent objective term they designated those sacred scrolls inscribed for liturgical use, or because they were damaged or judged for other defects unfit for synagogue reading; given their original sacred character, they were «deposited» or «hidden» (ἀποκρύπτειν) in the hiding place (גניזה) attached to the place of worship (Sabbath, IX, 6; Sanhedrin, X, 6).
In Christianity the term a. took on a special meaning, designating those books which, by their title and subject matter and the intention of their author—generally unknown and concealed under the name of some ancient patriarch or prophet or apostle—claimed to be equal to the Bible, while the Church denied them any divine character. The canon of books accepted as inspired thus also served, by contrast, to delimit the a. excluded from public reading in the churches («Ceteras vero Scripturas apocryphas nominantur [Patres], quas in ecclesiis legi noluerunt», Rufinus, Expositio symboli Apostolorum: PL 21, 374). Among the Fathers, only St. Jerome (Prologus galeatus: PL 28, 601) applies the term a. also to that small group of books whose canonicity was not agreed upon by all, the ἀντιλεγόμενα or «controversial» of the Greeks, today called «deuterocanonical» (v. BIBLE).
However, despite this categorical assertion, Jerome in his exegetical works clearly distinguishes between these «controversial» books—which he not infrequently (particularly Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom) cites like any other biblical book—and those writings whose extracanonical character was beyond serious doubt. The latter he would regard as the work of delirious (In Is. 64, 4: PL 24, 646; In Ez. 44, 29-30: PL 25, 443) or dreaming persons (In Mt. 23, 35: PL 26, 180).
Protestants, following in this instance Jerome’s opinion in the Prologus galeatus, use the word a. to designate the deuterocanonical books, reserving the term «pseudepigrapha» for the a. of Catholics; this applies to the Old Testament, for in the New Testament there is no difference in the use of the term.
The a. largely date from the first three centuries of the common era. Some, at least in their first draft, belong to the 1st or 2nd centuries B.C.; but often it is difficult to determine the date of each one because of later revisions or manipulations. The original language of many of them was Greek, which is almost the only one for the a. of the New Testament. Not a few of those of the Old Testament must have been written in a Semitic language (Hebrew and more commonly Aramaic). But with very rare exceptions, we know of these only through translations, particularly in Ethiopic, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian or Greek.
The a. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT are generally of Jewish origin; but not a few of them have undergone more or less significant interpolations by Christian hands.
The desire to highlight the glories of the chosen people, the sorrow for their present condition, and the hopes for the future, determined the composition of these works, which are of little literary value, though they do not lack pages of fine poetry and sincere piety. Thus the two fundamental elements of postbiblical rabbinic literature emerge, in varying proportions, in these writings: now the juridical element predominates.