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Originally, the meaning of the term may have been complimentary in that the term was applied to sacred
books whose contents were too exalted to be made available to the general public.

In Daniy’el 12:9-10, the text refers to words that are shut up until the end of time:

And he said, Go your way, Daniy’el: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of
the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Daniy’el (Daniel) 12:9-10

In addition, Ezra Reviy’iy (2 Esdras, the text of which is contained herein) says the following:

In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books. 45 And it came to pass, when the forty days
were filled, that EL ELYON spoke, saying, The first that you have written publish openly, that the
worthy and unworthy may read it: 46 But keep the seventy last, that you may deliver them only
to such as be wise among the people: 47 For in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain
of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge. 48 And I did so.
Ezra Reviy’iy (2 Esdras) 14:44-48

Gradually, the term “apocrypha” – books reserved only unto the wise among the people - took on a
pejorative connotation, as the orthodoxy of these hidden books was sometimes questioned. Origen
(Comm. in Matt. 10.18; p. 13.881) distinguished between books that were to be read in public worship
and apocryphal books. Because these secret books were often preserved for use within the esoteric
circles of the elite believers, many of the “unenlightened” church Fathers found themselves outside the
realm of understanding, and therefore came to apply the term “apocryphal” to what they claimed to be
heretical works, and therefore forbidden to be read.

In the Protestant world, “the Apocrypha” designated 15 works, all but one of which were Jewish in origin
and mostly found in the Septuagint (that is, the Greek translation of Ivriyt (Hebrew) and Aramaic texts
by “the seventy”). There is a claim that parts of 2 Esdras are Christian or Latin in origin, and that 4
Maccabees was post-dated. Although some of them were composed in the Levant in Aramaic or Ivriyt,
they were not accepted into the Jewish canon (Tanakh) formed late in the 2nd century A.D. (Canonicity,
67:31-35). The Reformers, influenced by the Jewish canon of the Old Testament, did not consider these
books on par with the rest of the Scriptures. Thus the custom arose of making the Apocrypha a separate
section in the Protestant Bible, or sometimes even omitting them entirely (Canonicity, 67:44-46). The
Catholic view, expressed as a doctrine of faith at the Council of Trent, is that 12 of these 15 works (in a
different enumeration, however) are canonical Scripture. They are called the Deuterocanonical Books
(Canonicity, 67:21, 42-43). Many of the books were excluded due to discrepancies with the formulation
of the Talmudic calendar, a calendar which established a new year in the fall, rather than in the spring
as required in the Torah. Further, the Council of Trent did not have the benefit of the discovery of the
Dead Sea Scrolls.
The books of the Protestant Apocrypha that are not accepted by Catholics are 3-4 Esdras, the Prayer of
Menashsheh and 3-4 Makkabiym. The Protestant Apocrypha excludes also Chanok, Yovheliym and Yashar.
The theme of the Cepher Chanok dealing with the nature and deeds of the fallen angels so infuriated the
later church fathers that one, Filastrius, actually condemned it openly as heresy (Filastrius, Liber de
Haeresibus, no. 108). Nor did the rabbis deign to give credence to the book's teaching about angels. Rabbi
Shim`on ben Jochai in the second century A.D. pronounced a curse upon those who believed it (Delitzsch,
p. 223). So the book was denounced, banned, cursed, burned and destroyed - and last but not least, lost
(and conveniently forgotten) for a thousand years. But with an uncanny persistence, the Cepher Chanok
found its way back into circulation two centuries ago.

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