1 Cor. xi. 9.APOCRYPHAL, signifies properly hidden, according to the sense of the Greek root from which it is derived1. Those books are called apocryphal 1°. The author whereof is not known, whether he has put no name at all to his work, or a false one2. 2°. Those which are not in the Sacred Canon of the Scriptures, and are not publickly read in the congregation of the faithful, but which may be read in private for our own edification. 3°. Those books, which are not esteemed to be authentick, and of divine authority, tho’ they may be thought to be composed by some sacred Author and Apostle; for example the Epistle of St. Barnabas. 4°. Lastly we call those dangerous books apocryphal, which were composed by some Hereticks of old to authorize their erroneous opinions.
There are apocryphal Books therefore of several degrees. Some are absolutely false, dangerous, and impious, composed by Hereticks to defend error or superstition, such as the spurious Gospels of S. Thomas, the Gospels of the Valentinians, Simonians, Gnosticks, Marcion, &c. Others are simply apocryphal, and contain nothing contrary to faith and good manners, and may be read privately with edification; such as the third and fourth Books of Esdras, and the third and fourth of Maccabees, the Epistle of S. Barnabas, and the Book of Hermas. Others after they had been long contested by some, have at last been received into the Canon with the consent of the Church3; such as Judith, Tobit, the two first Books of Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the Greek additions to Daniel and Esther, the Story of Susanna, of Bel and the Dragon, which S. Jerom4 places among apocryphal Writings, and says, that the Church reads them but without receiving them into the Canon: Ecclesia quidem legit, sed intra Canonicas Scripturas non recipit. Lastly there are some parts of Scripture, which are still at this day contested, and received by some as canonical, but are held by others to be apocryphal; for example the titles of the Psalms, the short preface of Jeremiah, that of Ecclesiasticus, and according to some, the additions to Esther and Daniel.
The Protestants do not only reckon those Books to be apocryphal which are esteemed such in the Church of Rome; as the Prayer of Manasseh King of Judah, the third and fourth Books of Maccabees, the third and fourth Books of Esdras, S. Barnabas’s Epistle, the Book of Hermas, the addition at the end of Job, and the hundred and fifty first Psalm; but they reckon likewise the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the two first Books of Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Baruch, and the additions to Daniel and Esther, which are not in the Hebrew, to be all apocryphal. And for the New Testament, they are divided in their opinions, whether the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of S. James, the second Epistle of S. Peter, the second and third Epistles of S. John, the Epistle of S. Jude, and the Revelations are to be acknowledged as canonical or not.
They who have any curiosity to see a larger and more exact Catalogue of those spurious and apocryphal Writings of the Old and New Testament, I mean of books composed by old Authors under the venerable names of Patriarchs or Prophets, may consult the two Volumes of Fabricius printed on this subject; the first upon the Old Testament, with this title, Codex Pseudepigraphus veteris Testamenti, and the second, intitled, Codex apocryphus novi Testamenti.
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