Apocrypha (Noun)
Meaning
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.
Classification
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents.
Examples
- The apocrypha, also known as the Deuterocanonical books, consists of fourteen texts in the Old Testament that are not universally accepted as canonical.
- Scholars have extensively studied the historical and cultural context of the apocrypha to better understand the textual development of the Bible.
- Eastern Christian churches generally consider the apocrypha to be divinely inspired, while Protestant and Jewish traditions have excluded these texts from their sacred scriptures.
- Many modern Bible translators struggle with whether or not to include the apocrypha, citing conflicting values on cultural and historical accuracy.
- Except for the Coptic Church, nearly all Eastern Orthodox churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church, recognize the authority of the apocrypha in different capacities.