APOCRYPHA
290
APOCRYPHA
would include canonical books whose authors were un- J Christian Church for edification, although not consid- known or uncertain, or even pseudepigrapkal. Origen, ered of authority in controversies of faith. These on Matt, xxii, had applied the term apocryphal in a sim- j were also termed ecclesiastical books, and have been ilar way: "This passage is to be found in no canonical denominated, for distinction's sake, the deutero-canon- book" (j-egulari, for we have Origen's work only in the ical books, inasmuch as they were not in/the original Latin translation by Rufinus), " but in the apocryphal j or Hebrew canon. In this sense they are called by book of Elias" (secretis Ella). And, "This is plain, , some the Antilegomena of the Old Testament. "The that many examples have been adduced by the apostles \ uncanonical books," says Athanasius, or the author
and evangelists, and inserted in the New Testament, which we do not read in the canonical Scriptures which we possess, but which are found in the Apocry- pha" (Origen, Pra>f. in Cantic). So also Jerome, re- ferring to the words (Eph. v, 14) "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead," observes that "the
of the Synopsis, "are divided into antilegomena ana apocrypha.'1'' — Kitto, s. v. See Antilegomena.
Eventually, in the history of the early Church, the great number of pseudonymous productions palmed off upon the unwary as at once sacred and secret, un- der the great names in Jewish or Christian history,
e cited this from hidden (reconditis) prophets, brought this entire class of works into disrepute.
and such as seem to be apocryphal, as he has done in several other instances." Epiphanius thought that this term was applied to such books as were not placed in the Ark of the Covenant, but put away in some other place (see Suicer's Thesaurus for the true reading of the passage in this father). Under the term apocry- phal have been included books of a religious character, which were in circulation among private Christians,
Those whose faith rested on the teaching of the Chris- tian Church, and who looked to the O. T. Scriptures either in the Hebrew or the Sept. collection, were not slow to perceive that these productions were destitute of all authority. They applied in scorn what had been used as a title of honor. The secret books (libri se- cretiores, Orig. Comm. in Matt.eA. Lomm. iv, 237) were rejected as spurious. The word apocryphal was soon
but were not allowed to be read in the public assem- j degraded to the position from which it has blies ; such as 3 and 4 Esdras. and 3 and 4 Maccabees. (See Stare, Be apocryphor. appellation?, Greifsw. 17C6.) In regard to the New Testament, the term has been usually applied to books invented by heretics to favor their views, or by Catholics under fictitious signa- tures. Of this description were man)' spurious or apocryphal gospels (see below). It is probably in reference to such that Basil, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Jerome gave cautions against the reading of apocry- phal books ; although it is possible, from the context, that the last named father alludes to the books which were also called ecclesiastical, and afterward deutero- canonical. The following passage from his epistle to Losta, on the education of her daughter, will serve to
never since risen. So far as books like the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Assumption of Moses were concerned, the task of discrimination was compara- tively easy, but it became more difficult when the question affected the books which were found in the Sept. translation of the Old Testament, and recognised by the Hellenistic Jews ; but were not in the Hebrew text or in the canon acknowledged by the Jews of Palestine. The history of this difficulty, and of the manner in which it affected the reception of particular 1 looks, belong rather to the subject of Canon than to that of the present article, but the following facts may be stated as bearing on the application of the word: (1.) The teachers of the Greek and Latin Churches,
illustrate this part of our subject: "All ajjocryphal\ accustomed to the use of the Septuagint, or v(
books should be avoided ; but if she ever wishes to read them, not to establish the truth of doctrines, but with a reverential feeling for the truths they signify, she should be told that they are not the works of the authors by whose names the}- are distinguished, that the)' contain much that is fault)', and that it is a task requiring great prudence to find gold in the midst of clay." And to the same effect Philastrius : "Among whom are the Manichees, Gnostics [etc.], who, having some apoc- ryphal books under the apostles' names (i. e. some separate Acts), are accustomed to despise the canon- ical Scriptures ; but these secret Scriptures — that is, hal — though they ought to be read by the per-
resting on the same basis, were naturally led to quote freely and reverently from all the books which were incorporated into it. In Clement of Alexandria, Ori- gen, Athanasius, we find citations from the books of the present Apocrypha, as "Scripture," "divine Scrip- ture," "prophecy." They are very far from apply- ing the term cnruKpvtyoc, to these writings. If they are conscious of the difference between them and the other books of the O. T., it is only so far as to lead them (comp. Athan. Synops. S. Scr. 1. c.) to place the former in the list of ov KavoviZuftipa, dvTikeyofuva, 1 looks which were of more use for the ethical instruc- .- I tion of catechumens than for the edification of mature feet for their morals, ought not to be read by all, as Christians. Augustine, in like manner, applies the ignorant heretics have added and taken away what word "Apocrypha" only to the spurious books with they wished." He then proceeds to say that the i false titles which were in circulation among heretics, books to which he refers are the Acts of Andrevf, admitting the others, though with some qualifications, written by "the disciples who were his followers," j under the title of canonical (de doctr. Chr. ii, 8). (2.) etc. Wherever, on the other hand, any teacher came into