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Original poster

Can someone explain the Apocrypha to me?

14 replies

BetsyBoop · 23/03/2009 14:24

I've really enjoyed the "is the New Testament accurate?" thread and it's reminded me of a question I've always had and I'm hoping some of the Mumsnet theologians can help me out

What's the Apocrypha all about then?

I know it's a set of books that sit in some versions of the Bible between the Old & New Testaments and are used (for what purpose?) by the RC Church & "High" Anglicans and that's about it.

Why are those books included in some Bibles versions & not others?

What is their significancy theologically?

Are there other "books" around in other versions of the Bible or not in any published version that we should know about?

thanks in anticipation

OP posts:

AMumInScotland · 23/03/2009 15:01

Hi, I think the Apocrypha come from disagreements about which books ought to be included in the Bible - there's a difference between Protestants and Roman Catholics about some of them, so they get included in RC versions of the Bible but either left out or put separately in Protestant versions. There's a couple of Wikipedia articles about it en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_apocrypha and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_of_the_Bible

I'm not sure of the detail though - I haven't read through those articles completely, so they may explain why it happened.

1Maya2 · 23/03/2009 20:28

Hi Betsy Boop, I enjoyed the 'is the New Testament accurate' thread too, it's good to learn the complexities of religious texts.

I am not really sure but I think Apocrypha means hidden texts, and there seems to have been lots throughout biblical history.

I find it completely fascinting because who hid them and why and I suppose not everyone's writings could go in, but who made these decisions and if other people had made different decisions we would have an entirely different bible.

Thanks for the question, it's food for thought!

Babbity · 23/03/2009 20:29

I rather naughtily had an apocryphal reading at my (protestant) wedding service - it raised a few eyebrows amongst the congregation though the minister was fine about it.

ABetaDad · 23/03/2009 20:35

A vicar once told me "thats the bit you don't have to believe".

Original poster

BetsyBoop · 23/03/2009 21:14

thanks for all the responses

"I find it completely fascinting because who hid them and why and I suppose not everyone's writings could go in, but who made these decisions and if other people had made different decisions we would have an entirely different bible."

with you there 1Maya2 - I find it fascinating too, makes you think...

OP posts:

shivster1980 · 27/03/2009 16:29

Hi,
My DH is training to be a priest. I asked him - none of this is my work!

Council of Nicea 325AD decided which books were to be in the Bible.

Before that there were many many other books from all sorts of traditions.

The Apocrypha is some of those 'left overs' if you will excuse the term.

These books tended to deviate from the doctrine which the early church wanted people to be following.

As well as Christian texts which were not included there were also texts from other traditions Gnostic for example, that were Christized but still not included.

One of the reasons the Early Church did this was because people were deviating away from what we would know as Christian doctrine and they had to set down the authorised version to keep everyone together. Another example of this is the Nicene Creed.

Hope this is useful my DH said so much in answer to this question I had to slow him down to type.

bloss · 27/03/2009 17:08

Message withdrawn

shivster1980 · 27/03/2009 17:23

Agreed Bloss. Very well put. My DH is cross that I missed out the bit about them not being in any way hidden texts

shivster1980 · 27/03/2009 17:25

Also in my original post it should have said Christianized not Christized! I am a poor typist

AMumInScotland · 27/03/2009 20:11

They've never been hidden, but just to be tricky the word "apocrypha" does actually mean "hidden" . According to Chambers dictionary at least, Apo = from, kryptein = to hide. But no, the were never hidden or suppressed, just not included in the agreed list of contents of the Bible. So I suppose they were sort of "not on show" in general.

Original poster

BetsyBoop · 27/03/2009 21:14

thanks for all of this, really interesting

Although not officially "hidden", I wonder how many people know about them other than theologists etc?

Having attended Sunday school for a lot of years (my Mum used to run it, so I was a regular ), been to a church school, studied RE at school, been through a confirmation course, I only found out about it recently, and it was purely by chance!

Maybe I've just lead a sheltered life....

OP posts:

TheFallenMadonna · 27/03/2009 21:20

Well, Roman Catholics know about them, and there are a lot of us...

bloss · 28/03/2009 07:08

Message withdrawn

AMumInScotland · 28/03/2009 11:57

Well,I guess most people's experience of the Bible is the readings they hear in church services, and whatever Bible they happen to have at home. If you're not RC that's most probably going to be one without the Apocrypha, so you wouldn't just "see them in passing" in yor Bible if you're looking at something else, because they're not there! I don't think its that big a deal that they're not commonly known - the ones which were chosen to be part of the Bible ought to cover everything you need from the Bible, since that's why they were included and the Apocrypha not. It's only if you want to get deeper into the history of the Bible, or comparing different versions that they come up.

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