the 14 books included as an appendix to the Old Testament in the Septuagint and the Vulgate but not included in the Hebrew canon. They are not printed in Protestant versions of the Bible
2. Roman Catholic Church another name for the Pseudepigrapha
Word origin
C14: via Late Latin apocrypha (scripta) hidden (writings), from Greek, from apokruptein to hide away
apocrypha in American English
(əˈpɑkrəfə)
plural noun
1.
any writings, anecdotes, etc., of doubtful authenticity or authorship
2. [A-]
fourteen books of the Septuagint that are rejected in Judaism and regarded by Protestants as not canonical: eleven of them are fully accepted in the Roman Catholic canon
3. [A-]
various writings falsely attributed to Biblical characters or kept out of the New Testament because not accepted as resulting fromrevelation
Word origin
ME apocrifa < LL(Ec) apocrypha (pl. of apocryphus) < Gr apokryphos, hidden, obscure < apokryptein < apo-, away + kryptein, to hide: see crypt
Examples of 'Apocrypha' in a sentence
Apocrypha
The world was stinking with urban myths and Internet-spawned apocrypha.