Apocrypha, Old Testament

The term apocrypha comes from the Greek word apokryphos, which means ‘something hidden'. It means different things in different contexts. Generally, it has a negative meaning and refers to ‘wannabe' books of the Bible - rather than real ones. Some Christians use the term ‘Old Testament Apocrypha' to refer to a certain set of books that are sometimes claimed to be part of the Old Testament, but as they see it, don't really belong in the collection. This includes, with some minor variations, the books of Wisdom, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Baruch, Sirach, Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh.

Catholic and Orthodox Christians take a different view. As they see it, those books are genuinely part of the Bible, so they don't refer to them by the negative term ‘apocrypha' (Catholics, however, don't include 1 and 2 Esdras or the Prayer of Manasseh). They refer to them as the either the deuterocanonical books or sometimes as the anagignoskomena. Other ‘wannabe' Old Testament material (other than that particular set of books) are usually described by everyone as Old Testament Pseudipigrapha. Most Christians agree in describing ‘wannabe' Christian texts as ‘New Testament Apocrypha'.