APOCRYPHA

—This term is generally made to include a large body of lit. which falls into several groups. (1) The Apocrypha proper, those books which are not recognized by Protestants or by the Church of England as equal authority with the Old and New Testaments.. (2) There are, besides, a considerable number of Jewish works, many of them apocalypses, some only recently discovered, which are of great importance for Jewish history of immediately preChristian times.