Biblical apocrypha
Ancient books found in some editions of Bibles / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a class of books covering the Old Testament era that are included in some Bibles. For lists of books accepted by different major churches, see Biblical canon § Old Testament table. For books whose canonicity is disputed by Protestant denominations, see Deuterocanonical books. For other books generally excluded from the canonical Hebrew Bible, see Old Testament pseudepigrapha. For the apocryphal writings of the New Testament, see New Testament apocrypha.
The biblical apocrypha (from Ancient Greek ἀπόκρυφος (apókruphos) 'hidden') denotes the collection of apocryphal ancient books thought to have been written some time between 200 BC and 100 AD.[1][2][3][4][5]
The Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches include some or all of the same texts within the body of their version of the Old Testament, with Catholics terming them deuterocanonical books.[6] Traditional 80-book Protestant Bibles include fourteen books in an intertestamental section between the Old Testament and New Testament called the Apocrypha, deeming these useful for instruction, but non-canonical.[7][8][9][10]