APOCRYPHA • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Apocrypha

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

noun

Apocrypha n. pl. (plural but often used as singular with plural Apocryphas)

Something, as a writing, that is of doubtful authorship or authority; formerly used also adjectively. (Obs.)

Specif.: Certain writings which are received by some Christians as an authentic part of the Holy Scriptures, but are rejected by others. Note: Fourteen such writings, or books, formed part of the Septuagint, but not of the Hebrew canon recognized by the Jews of Palestine. The Council of Trent included all but three of these in the canon of inspired books having equal authority. The German and English Reformers grouped them in their Bibles under the title Apocrypha, as not having dogmatic authority, but being profitable for instruction.

See images of 'Apocrypha'

Etymology of 'Apocrypha'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Apocrypha" Quotes from Famous Books

... and contemplate a cemetery? Has it less inspiration and optimism than that apocalyptic vision of the ultimate victory of Good which consoles the disciples of Zoroaster? If there is anything now discredited in its ancient Scriptures, the Synagogue can, as of yore, relegate it to the Apocrypha, even as it can enrich the canon with later expressions of the Hebrew genius. Its one possible rival, Islam, is, as Kuenen maintains, as sterile for the future as Buddhism, too irretrievably narrowed to the Arab mentality. But why, despite his magnificent tribute ...

— Chosen Peoples • Israel Zangwill

... Atlas of Maps and Plans to illustrate the Geography and Topography of the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, with Explanatory Notes by Samuel Clark, M.A. Also a complete Index of the Geographical Names ... by ...

— How to Form a Library, 2nd ed • H. B. Wheatley

... the Apocrypha proper, (1) "Baruch" to which is attached (2) "The Epistle of Jeremy" warning the Jews of Babylon in general and conventional terms against idolatry. Apocalyptic writings, (3) "Apocalypse of Baruch," (4) (5) and (6) three other "Apocalypses of Baruch," ...

— Jeremiah • George Adam Smith

... not unreasonably stigmatized them as stuffy. They were a sober collection. Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," an ancient copy of the Apocrypha, and a three-volume Life of Martin Luther loaded the first shelf. I looked at the second shelf and found it filled with the bound sermons of a divine of ...

— The Thing from the Lake • Eleanor M. Ingram

... arise for these books when he is among the gone—a storm before which the reed must bend—the publisher shall be permitted to print 'Evelyn Innes' and 'Sister Teresa' from the original editions, it being, however, clearly understood that they are offered to the public only as apocrypha. But this permission must not be understood to extend to certain books on which my name appears—viz., 'Mike Fletcher,' 'Vain Fortune,' Parnell and His Island'; to some plays, 'Martin Luther,' 'The Strike at ...

— The Lake • George Moore

... years ago I met a preacher keenly interested in Flavelle. He told me a story repeated to him in a sort of admiring deprecation that very day by a Methodist preacher from Toronto who had a gift for elevated gossip. This story was probably out of the Apocrypha, as it concerned a very worldly episode in the joint experiences of Mr. Flavelle and another Canadian financier on a visit to Chicago, when the latter got a wire stating that a certain conditional donation of his to a small church in Ontario had been unexpectedly covered by the congregation ...

— The Masques of Ottawa • Domino

Words linked to "Apocrypha" : 1 Esdras, wisdom, 2 Esdras, Wisdom of Solomon, Book of Judith, apocryphal, Book of Baruch, Additions to Esther, I Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus, Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Children, I Esdra, Tobit, Judith, Holofernes, Book of Tobit, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, Susanna, 2 Maccabees, Old Testament, Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, Ben Sira, 1 Maccabees, religious text, II Esdras, sacred text, Sirach