Apocrypha facts for kids

The Apocrypha are a collection of religious writings. You can find them in some versions of the Catholic Bible, but not in others. The word "Apocrypha" comes from Ancient Greek and means "those that were hidden."

These texts were often not included in the main collection of Bible books, called the canon. There are a few reasons for this. Sometimes, only a few people knew about these texts. Other times, their content didn't quite fit with the other books in the Bible. Some Apocrypha books were also written much later than the main Bible books, which was another reason they weren't always included.

The Authorized King James Version of the Bible called these books "Apocrypha." It kept them separate, partly because of a verse in 2 Esdras 14:46. This verse suggests keeping some writings for "the wise among the people" because they contain "the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge."

Roman Catholic Bibles include these books in their Old Testament. They don't call them Apocrypha. Instead, they call them deuterocanonical. This means they belong to a "second canon" or official list. The first list includes books originally written in Hebrew. The second list is for books first written in Greek.

Why Some Bibles Include These Books

Many believe that the Bible Jesus read included the books of the "Apocrypha," or the deuterocanonical books. It's known that the most popular Bible during Jesus's time was the Greek Septuagint version. This version definitely included these extra books. That's why early Christian leaders often quoted from Bibles that had these books.

Why Others Have Different Views

Christians have different opinions about the ‘Apocrypha’. Some point out that these books were part of almost every Christian Bible until 1828. In that year, some Bibles started to remove them.

The people who translated the King James Bible believed these books helped prepare people for Jesus. They thought these writings were like John the Baptist's role, getting people ready for Jesus's arrival. They also said that the apostles used these books. Even today, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints find hints about these books in their own scripture, the Book of Mormon.

It's clear that these books have always been part of the Bible in Oriental Orthodox Churches. This shows they were not just added in the 1500s. Around the year 80 AD, a Jewish council called the Sanhedrin decided to remove some books from the Hebrew Bible. However, these books stayed in the Christian Bible. Later, after Christianity became the main religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, the Romans also decided to remove some of the same books the Sanhedrin had cut. They then moved some of them into a separate section called the "apocrypha."

Some Protestant Bibles also include 14 extra books in a section known as the Apocrypha. These are not considered official parts of the Bible by these groups, but they bring the total to 80 books. This is different from the 73 books in the Catholic Bible, which includes seven deuterocanonical books as part of the Old Testament. Not all Protestants agree on the difference between "protocanonical" (first canon) and "deuterocanonical" (second canon) books. Many simply see books as either official or not, and they group the deuterocanonical books with other writings as part of the Apocrypha.

Texts of the Apocrypha

Here are some of the books often found in the Apocrypha:

• Esdras
• Book of Tobit (sometimes called "Tobias")
• Book of Judith
• Book of Wisdom
• Ecclesiasticus
• Baruch
• Susanna
• 1st & 2nd Maccabees

Other writings sometimes considered Apocryphal include parts of Esther and Sirach that were thought to be lost.

There are also some writings considered Apocrypha for the New Testament:

• The Gospel of Peter was likely written in the 2nd century. It was found in a monk's grave in Egypt in 1886/1887. The grave contained a papyrus from the 9th century.
• Excerpts from the
• Egerton Gospel
• Gospel of Thomas
• A fragment of the Secret Gospel of Mark

Images for kids

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  The apocryphal letter of Sultan Mehmed II to the Pope (Notes et extraits pour servir à l'histoire des croisades au XVe siècle), published by Nicolas Jorga. Series 4: 1453–1476, Paris; Bucarest, 1915, pages 126–127

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  Copies of the Luther Bible include the deuterocanonical books as an intertestamental section between the Old Testament and New Testament; they are termed the "Apocrypha" in Christian Churches having their origins in the Reformation.