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In every-day conversation, apocryphal means "of questionable (or lacking) authenticity", describing a story nevertheless frequently told and widely believed. In literature, apocrypha refers to works that purport to have been created by somebody other than their real author, usually a famous figure, as in the case of the Ossianic cycle invented by James Macpherson.
This article is about the meaning of apocrypha in Judeo-Christian theologies.
The word apocrypha, from the Greek απόκρυφος, "hidden", refers in general to religious works that are not considered canonical, or part of officially-accepted scripture. Such works are often believed not to have been "inspired" or to be in some way "less inspired" by divine processes or entities, such as Holy Wisdom or the Holy Spirit. Most works that are considered apocryphal in the Hebrew Bible were written in languages other than Hebrew, such as Greek or Aramaic.
It is important to remember that different religions have different canons, which they have assembled and defined over time and through different processes. In modern times, the term "apocryphal" is often used with a connotation or denotation of heresy, but neutral commentators sometimes use it to mean "non-canonical" from the point of view of the particular sect under discussion.
R.M. Wilson wrote in Studies in the Gospel of Thomas (the "apocryphal" Gospel of Thomas):
"The Greek word apocryphos did not always have the disparaging sense which later became attached to it. In Gnostic circles it was used of books the contents of which were too sacred to be divulged to the common herd, and it was in fact the heretical associations which it thus came to possess which led to its use as a term of disparagement. In the Nag HammadiNag Hammadi is a village in the middle of Egypt, called Chenoboskion in classical antiquity, about 225 kilometres north-west of Aswan with some 30. 000 citizens. It is mostly a peasant area where goods such as sugar and aluminium are produced. The Nag Ham library, for example, one document bears the title Apocryphon or Secret Book of John, another that of Apocryphon of James, and several Gnostic gospels contain solemn warnings against imparting their contents to any save the deserving, or for the sake of material gain."
At least until the Council of Jamnia in AD 92Centuries: 1st century BC 1st century 2nd century Decades: 0s BC 0s 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s Years: 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 Events Roman emperor Domitian is also a Roman Consul. Legio XXI Rapax is destroyed by the Sarmatians of Pa, JewThe word Jew is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to either a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity. This article discusses the term as describing an ethnic group; for as did not have a single unified canon of scripture. Some ancient Jewish sects (including the EssenesThe Essenes (Issi'im) were a Hasid Jewish religious sect of Zadokites that flourished from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. Many scholars today believe there were a number of different related groups that were referred to as Essenes. They were su, as evidenced in the Dead Sea scrollsThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 850 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, which were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Qumran, a fortress northwest of the Dead Sea in Israel (in historical times part of Judea) included as scripture much of what modern Jews consider to be non-canonical. The Council explicitly excluded certain books because they were composed later (mostly between 200 BCCenturies: 3rd century BC 2nd century BC 1st century BC Decades: 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC Years: 205 BC 204 BC 203 BC 202 BC 201 BC 200 BC 199 BC 198 BC 197 BC 196 BC 195 BC Events Rome declar and AD 100Events The Portland Vase is believed to have been made in Alexandria some time between 20 BC and this year. Pliny the Younger advances to consulship. The Temple of the God of Medicine is built in Anguo, China. Lions have become extinct in Europe by this d) than other canonical books and had no HebrewThe Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. What makes it unique is that the original Bible, the Torah, by Orthodox Jews held to be recorded in the time of Moses 3,300 years ago, was written in Biblical Classical version. Christian writers, on the other hand, made use of many of these writings. Protestant scholars sometimes call these books "intertestamental" because they were written between the accepted books of the Old and New Testaments. These Protestants hold that God imposed a period of silence, with no prophecy or scripture, to prepare for the coming of Jesus.
Previously, during the 3rd through 1st centuries BC in Alexandria, Egypt, the Hebrew Bible had been translated into Greek, and was published together with several books that were later denied at Jamnia. This translation has become known as the Septuagint. Following Protestant terminology, those books not included in the Tanakh are often termed apocryphal by Jewish authors.
While Jews reject the apocrypha, saying that it does not have religious value in and of itself, at various times some in the Jewish community have drawn from it as a legitimate part of Jewish literary creativity; elements of the apocrypha have even been used as the basis for two important parts of the Jewish liturgy. In the Mahzor (High Holy day prayer book), a medieval Jewish poet used the book of Sirach as the basis for a beautiful poem, Ke'Ohel HaNimtah. This is a closing piyut in the Seder Avodah section, in the Yom Kippur Musaf.
It begins:
Mahzor replaces the medieval piyut with the relevant section from Ben Sira, which is more direct.
The apocrypha has even formed the basis of the most important of all Jewish prayers, the Amidah (the Shemonah Esrah). Sirach provides the vocabulary and framework for many of the Amidah's blessings, which were instituted by the men of the Great Assembly.
The description of the origins of Chanukah is also to be found in the apocrypha; thus while the texts themselves may not be accepted as canonical, some of their contents are still accepted as historical truth. Particulary 1 Maccabees is cited by Jewish scholars as being highly reliable history. It was used by Josephus in his history of the Maccabbeean revolt as well.