Faith & RitualGreek → English
Apocrypha
/əˈpɒkrɪfə/noun
Religious writings of uncertain authority, particularly the books included in the Greek Old Testament but not in the Hebrew canon.
The Greek roots
ἀπό
apó
away
κρύπτειν
krýptein
to hide
Literally: “things hidden away”
The story of the word
The plural adjective meant hidden away, and originally that was a compliment: esoteric books reserved for initiates. Jerome turned it into a verdict, using it for texts he judged outside the Hebrew canon, and the sense of doubtful authenticity spread from there to any story too good to check. Protestant Bibles moved these books to an appendix or dropped them; Catholic and Orthodox Bibles keep them.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
Same family
crypticcryptcryptographyapocryphal
In a sentence
Judith and Tobit sit in the Apocrypha in most English Bibles.
The anecdote about the light bulb is apocryphal, but it will not die.