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A QUICK LOOK
AT THE WORD "APOCRYPHA"
The Greek word
apo'kry'phos is used in its original sense in three New Testament
verses, as referring to things "carefully concealed" (Mk 4:22; Lu
8:17; Col 2:3). in the first century A.D. when the term was applied to
writings, it referred to those that were to special to be read
publicly, hence "concealed" from others.
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The following explanation of the word
"Apocrypha" is from Dr. Guthrie BD, MTH, PHD is a
Protestant scholar and Lecturer in new Testament, at the
London Bible College:
Their presence in the Vulgate is
due to their inclusion, with exception of 2 Esdras, in the Greek
translation of the OT, the Septuagint (LXX), which was the
source of the Latin version of these books. It is commonly
asserted that this fact shows that the Greek-speaking Jews of
Alezandria gave them full canonicity, and that the primitive
church, which took over the Greek Bible, did likewise. The books
in question are largely of Palestinian origin and were mainly
written in Hebrew or Aramaic; they were popular both in
Palestine and in the Dispersion but seem to have been put on a
different plane from the canonical Scriptures in all places. . .
.
The Greek term [Apocrypha] means
‘hidden’ and was applied to books which were kept from the
public eye and allowed to be read only by a privileged circle .
Far from being an opprobrious term, therefore, it connotes the
special value of the books so described. It seems to have been
so applied to the works of the Jewish seers who were especially
active between the 2nd century BC and the 1st
century AD. These writings were issued under the name of ancient
heroes and prophets of Israel and were kept hidden until those
days; even so, they were not for the public but for those worthy
to read them. 2 Esdras 14 relates how Ezra dictated to five
scribes ninety-four books, twenty-four of which were the OT
writing ( the Minor Prophets being considered as on book) and
seventy being for ‘the wise among your people. For in them is
the spring of Understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the
river of knowledge’ (14 : 46, 47). This shows that these books
were valued ‘above’ the OT. . . . [ The New Bible Commentary:
Revised, printed by Eerdmans, Copyright 1970, page 837]
The 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia
Defines the word Apocrypha as:
The history of the earlier
usage of the word is obscure. It is probable that the adjective
abscondita "hidden away, kept secret," as applied to books, was
first used of writings which were kept from the public by their
possessors because they contained a mysterious or esoteric
wisdom too profound or too sacred to be communicated to any but
the initiated.
The Oxford Cambridge edition of
the, Revised English Bible, in its preface to the "Apocrypha" tells us:
"THE term `Apocrypha', a
Greek word meaning `hidden (things)', was early used in
different senses. It was applied to writings which were regarded
as so important and precious that they must be hidden from the
general public and preserved for initiates, the inner circle of
believers."
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