Knowra Biblical apocrypha Biblical apocrypha Biblical apocrypha are writings associated with the Bible that are excluded from, or have disputed status in, one or more religious canons. Their classification varies among Jewish and Christian traditions.
Biblical canon : The collection of books a religious community recognizes as authoritative scripture. Apocrypha are defined by their exclusion from, or disputed place within, particular canons.
Book of Enoch : An ancient Jewish apocalyptic work attributed to Enoch, preserved in full chiefly in Ethiopic. It is scripture in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church but outside most biblical canons.
Second Temple Judaism : The diverse forms of Jewish religion practiced from the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple to its destruction in 70 CE. Many disputed biblical writings originated in this period of varied Jewish literary production.
Tanakh : The Jewish collection of scripture, comprising the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Its book collection excludes writings that some Christian canons include.
Septuagint : An ancient Greek translation of Jewish scriptures, including books absent from the later Hebrew Bible. Its broader collection shaped which books many Christian traditions received as scripture.
Gospel of Thomas : An early Christian collection of sayings attributed to Jesus, known chiefly from a Coptic manuscript found at Nag Hammadi. Its sayings form a prominent example of a noncanonical gospel.
Dead Sea Scrolls : A collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts discovered near the Dead Sea, including biblical and other religious texts. Their copies of several noncanonical works reveal the texts circulating in ancient Jewish communities.
Protestant Bible : The Christian Bible in Protestant traditions, generally comprising the 39 books of the Old Testament and 27 of the New Testament. Its Old Testament follows the Hebrew Bible’s book collection rather than Catholic deuterocanonical books.
Masoretic Text : The authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic textual tradition of the Jewish Bible, preserved by medieval Masoretes. Its book collection became a key boundary for later Protestant assessments of apocryphal books.
Gospel of Mary : An early Christian dialogue portraying Mary Magdalene as a recipient and interpreter of Jesus' teaching. Its fragmentary survival illustrates the range of writings excluded from mainstream New Testament canons.
Show all 21