4 - The Making of the Apocrypha

Summary

In Chapter 1 it was pointed out that the term “Apocrypha” is used in different ways by the main branches of the Church. For Protestants the Apocrypha consists of books that appear in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments, while for Roman Catholics these same books are integrated into the Old Testament and regarded as Deuterocanonical. The term Apocrypha is used by Roman Catholics to refer to 3 and 4 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151. No major Catholic translation in English includes these books.

The definition of the term “Apocrypha” has been complicated by the fact that, in 1977, the committee responsible for the RSV issued translations of 3 and 4 Maccabees and Psalm 151, thus producing an expanded Apocrypha. The aim was to produce a Bible that contained books recognized by the Orthodox Churches. Ironically, these extra books, as well as those designated as Apocrypha by Protestants and as Deutero-canonical and Apocrypha by Catholics, are all regarded as Deuterocanonical by the Orthodox. The following table seeks to make the position clearer, using Roman typeface to indicate “Apocrypha” and italics to indicate “Deuterocanonical” books. The order of books as given in the NRSV is followed, but it must be noted that the Greek Bible has a different order, with the four books of Maccabees together, for example.