A History of the Collection
The Old Testament Apocrypha are the books that appear in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate but not in the Hebrew Tanak. They we're composed between roughly 300 BCE and 100 CE, during the Second Temple period — a time of profound political and theological ferment in Judea.
The word "apocrypha" comes from the Greek apokryphos, meaning "hidden" or "obscure." It was originally used to describe books kept hidden because they contained secret teachings too profound for general circulation. By the 4th century, the term had come to mean books that we're not read publicly in the churches.
These books include historical narratives (1 and 2 Maccabees, 1 Esdras), wisdom literature (Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon), apocalyptic visions (2 Esdras, 2 Baruch, 1 Enoch, Jubilees), edifying tales (Tobit, Judith, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon), liturgical additions (the Prayer of Azariah, the Song of the Three Holy Children, the Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151), and prophetic polemics (Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah).
The canon status of these books has varied greatly across traditions. The Roman Catholic Church declared most of them deuterocanonical at the Council of Trent (1546). The Eastern Orthodox Church received them as anagignoskomena ("things read"). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church preserves an even broader canon including 1 Enoch, Jubilees, and the Meqabyan. Protestant churches, following the Hebrew canon, place them among the Apocrypha.
The Apocrypha are essential for understanding the world of the New Testament. They illuminate the development of angelology, demonology, resurrection faith, messianic expectation, and the role of Torah in Jewish life. They show how Jews negotiated Hellenism, resisted persecution, and developed distinctive theological answers to the challenges of their time.