MEANINGS AND USAGE OF THE TERMS "APOCRYPHAL" AND
"DEUTEROCANONICAL"
The word "apocrypha" is used in a variety of ways that can be confusing to the
general reader. Confusion arises partly from the ambiguity of the ancient usage of the
word, and partly from the modern application of the term to different groups of books.
Etymologically the word means "things that are hidden," but why it was chosen to
describe certain books is not clear. Some have suggested that the books were
"hidden" or withdrawn from common use because they were deemed to contain
mysterious or esoteric lore, too profound to be communicated to any except the initiated
(compare 2 Esd 14.45-46). Others have suggested that the term was employed by those who
held that such books deserved to be "hidden" because they were spurious or
heretical. Thus it appears that in antiquity the term had an honorable significance as
well as a derogatory one, depending upon the point of view of those who made use of the
word.
According to traditional usage "Apocrypha" has been the designation applied to
the fifteen books, or portions of books, listed below. (in many earlier editions of the
Apocrypha, the Letter of Jeremiah is incorporated as the final chapter of the Book of
Baruch; hence in these editions there are fourteen books.)
Tobit
Judith
The Additions to the Book of Esther (contained in the Greek version of Esther)
The Wisdom of Solomon
Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach
Baruch
The Letter of Jeremiah
The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Jews
Susanna
Bel and the Dragon
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
1 Esdras
The Prayer of Manasseh
2 Esdras
In addition, the present expanded edition includes the following three texts that are of
special interest to Eastern Orthodox readers (see p. iv AP):
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
Psalm 151
None of these books is included in the Hebrew canon of Holy Scripture. All of them,
however, with the exception of 2 Esdras, are present in copies of the Greek version of the
Old Testament known as the Septuagint. The Old Latin translations of the Old Testament,
made from the Septuagint, also include them, along with 2 Esdras. As a consequence, many
of the early Church Fathers quoted most of these books as authoritative Scripture (see p.
vi AP).
At the end of the fourth century Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome, the most learned
biblical scholar of his day, to prepare a standard Latin version of the Scriptures (the
Latin Vulgate). In the Old Testament Jerome followed the Hebrew canon and by means of
prefaces called the reader's attention to the separate category of the apocryphal books.
Subsequent copyists of the Latin Bible, however, were not always careful to transmit
Jerome's prefaces, and during the medieval period the Western Church generally regarded
these books as part of the holy Scriptures. In 1546 the Council of Trent decreed that the
canon of the Old Testament includes them (except the Prayer of Manasseh and 1 and 2
Esdras). Subsequent editions of the Latin Vulgate text, officially approved by the Roman
Catholic Church, contain these books incorporated within the sequence of the Old Testament
books. Thus Tobit and Judith stand after Nehemiah; the Wisdom of Solomon and
Ecclesiasticus stand after the Song of Solomon; Baruch (with the Letter of Jeremiah as
chapter 6) stands after Lamentations; and 1 and 2 Maccabees conclude the books of the Old
Testament. An appendix after the New Testament contains the Prayer of Manasseh and 1 and 2
Esdras, without implying canonical status.
Editions of the Bible prepared by Protestants have followed the Hebrew canon. The disputed
books have generally been placed in a separate section, usually bound between the Old and
New Testaments, but occasionally placed after the close of the New Testament.
Modern Roman Catholic scholars commonly employ a distinction introduced by Sixtus of
Sienna in 1566 to designate the two groups of books. The terms "proto-canonical"
and "Deuterocanonical" are used to signify respectively those books of Scripture
that were received by the entire Church from the beginning as inspired, and those whose
inspiration came to be recognized later, after the matter had been disputed by certain
Fathers and local churches. Thus Roman Catholics accept as fully canonical those books and
parts of books that Protestants call the Apocrypha (except the Prayer of Manasseh and 1
and 2 Esdras, which both groups regard as apocryphal). In short, as a popular Roman
Catholic Catechism puts it, "Deuterocanonical does not mean Apocryphal, but simply
'later added to the canon.' "
The Eastern Orthodox Churches recognize several other books as authoritative. Editions of
the Old Testament approved by the Holy Synod of the Greek Orthodox Church contain, besides
the Deuterocanonical books, 1 Esdras, Psalm 151, the Prayer of Manasseh, and 3 Maccabees,
while 4 Maccabees stands in an appendix. Slavonic Bibles approved by the Russian Orthodox
Church contain, besides the Deuterocanonical books, I and 2 Esdras (called 2 and 3
Esdras), Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees.
Besides the books that are included in the present edition, many other Jewish and
Jewish-Christian works have survived from the period between about 200 B.C. to about A.D.
200. Since most of these profess to have been written by ancient worthies of Israel, who
lived long before the books were actually composed, they are generally called
"pseudepigrapha," meaning writings "falsely ascribed."
