apocrustic

& s [Gr. ἀποκρουστικός ( apokroustikos ) = able to drive off; ἀποκρούω ( apokrouō ) = to beat off: ἀπό ( apo ) = from, and κρούω (krouō) = to strike, to smite. Or ἀπό ( apo ) = from, and κρουστικός ( kroustikos ) = fit for striking.] A. As adjective ( Med .): Repellent. B. As substantive (Med.). A repellent; a medicine operating with a repellent or astringent effect. ( Quincey.) a-poc-rỹ-phạ, * ạ-poc-ri-phạ, 8. [In Fr. apocryphe. Properly the neut. pl. of the Lat. adj. apocryphus ; Gr. ἀπόκρυφος ( apokru phos) = hidden. Applied to books, it means (1) of unknown authorship; (2) fabulous, untrustworthy; from Gr. ἀποκρύπτω ( apokruptō ) = to hide from: ἀπό ( apo ) = from, and κρύπτω ( krupto ) = to hide.] A. In the Early Christian Church : (1.) Books published anonymously. (2.) Those suitable for private rather than public reading. (3.) Those written by an apostle or other inspired author, but not regarded as part of Scripture. (4.) The works of heretics. B. In English now: L. Literally: 1. Spec. The following fourteen books: L. 1 Esdras; II. 2 Esdras; III. Tobit; IV. Judith; V. Additions to Esther; VI. The Wisdom of Solomon; VIL Ecclesiastic us, called also the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirach: VIII. Baruch; IX. The Song of the Three Holy Children: X. The History of Susanna; XI. Bel and the Dragon; XIL The Prayer of Mana eh, King of Judah; XIII. 1 Maccabees; and XIV. 2 Maccabees. Most of the above-mentioned books were composed during the two centuries immediately preceding the birth of Christ, though some were penned, or at least interpolated, at a later period. They were written not in Hebrew or Aramean, but in Greek; and the Jews never accorded them a place in the Old Testament canon. They were inserted in the Septuagint, and thence pa ed to the Latin Vulgate. The Christian fathers were divided in sentiment as to their value and the relation they stood to the canonical Old Testament books; Jerome dealing with them in a free, enlightened, and discriminating manner; whilst Augustine and others were much le independent. The question whether or not they were inspired remained an open one till the Reformation. Wickliff, whose mind was cast in what we should now call a wonderfully Protestant mould, was against them; so was Luther and yet more strongly, Calvin, with his followers. To uphold their waning authority, the Council of Trent, on the 8th of April, 1546, placed them on an equal level with Scripture, anathematising all who held the contrary opinion. Portions of them are in the New as well as in the Old Lectionary of the English Church; but the sixth of the Thirty-nine Articles explains that "the other Books" [the fourteen enumerated], "as Hierome saith, the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners, but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine." The Westminster Confe ion of Faith regards them as simply human writings, and denies them all authority. The several apocryphal books are of unequal merit. Maccabees is a highly valuable history; while Bel and the Dragon is a monstrous fable. Taking them as a whole, they throw much light on the religious opinions and the political state of the Jews before the advent of Christ, and explain not a little which else would be obscure in the New Testament. 1st "We hold not the Apocrypha for sacred, as we do the holy Scripture, but for human compositions."- Hooker . 2. Gen.: Any productions of similar character to the apocryphal books of the Old Testament. Writing regarding gospels of this nature, Strau says ."- Strau : Life of "In several apocryphas Jesus (Transl.), vol. i. (1846), р. 209. II. Fig .: Untrustworthy statement, myth, fable. "Every account of the habits of a wild animal obtained at second-hand from the reports of aborigines has its proportion of apocrypha."-Owen: Cla if. of Mammal ., p. 91.