Word Finder - apocryphal

definition

Of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.

definition

(by extension) Of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.

example

Many scholars consider the stories of the monk Teilo to be apocryphal.

synonyms

• allonymous
• spurious

definition

(by extension) Of dubious veracity; of questionable accuracy or truthfulness; anecdotal or in the nature of an urban legend.

example

There is an apocryphal tale of a little boy plugging the dike with his finger.

synonyms

• anecdotal

But it is also probable that these apocryphal versions are based on a genuine original.

This is the most important of all the apocryphal writings for the history of religious thought.

It is used to designate an apocryphal writing entitled in the older MSS.

And the Greek Psalter, though it contains one apocryphal psalm at the close, is essentially the same as the Hebrew; there is nothing to suggest that the Greek was first translated from a less complete Psalter and afterwards extended to agree with the extant Hebrew.

The legends which speak of the Cid as accompanying this monarch in his expeditions to France and Italy must be rejected as purely apocryphal.

It should further be observed that the Vulgate adds the Prayer of Manasses and 3 and 4 Ezra after the New Testament as apocryphal.

Dulaurier published from a Parisian Sahidic MS., subjoining a French translation, what is termed a fragment of the apocryphal revelations of St Bartholomew (Fragment des revelations apocryphes de Saint Barthelemy, &c., Paris, 1835), and of the history of the religious communities founded by St Pachomius.

Arabian literature has its own version of prehistoric times, but it is entirely legendary and apocryphal.

Healing the sick and conjuring the evil spirit, they traversed different countries and spread their apocryphal literature along with some of the books of the Old Testament, deeply influencing the religious spirit of the nations, and preparing them for the Reformation.

The apocryphal Acta Barnabae purport to have been written by him.

He proved to his own satisfaction that Canticles was apocryphal and that Baruch was not.

The biographical anecdotes relating to him during the next few years are obscure and mostly apocryphal.

Of the large number of Apocryphal books existing in Syriac8 the majority have been translated from Greek, one or two (such as Bar Sira or Ecclesiasticus) from Hebrew, while some (like the Doctrine of Addai above referred to) are original Syriac documents.

Terence's earliest play was the Andria, exhibited in 166 B.C. A pretty, but perhaps apocryphal, story is told of his having read the play, before its exhibition, to Caecilius (who, after the death of Plautus, ranked as the foremost comic poet), and of the generous admiration of it manifested by Caecilius.

To him we owe the distinction between canonical and apocryphal writings; in the Prologus Galeatus prefixed to his version of Samuel and Kings, he says that the church reads the Apocrypha "for the edification of the people, not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical doctrines."

On the other hand, practically the whole of Jude is taken up into 2 Pet., the author merely avoiding, so far as he discovers them, the quotations from apocryphal writings, and prefixing and affixing sections of his own to refute the heretical eschatology.

The use of apocryphal literature in Jude itself may account for much of the critical disposition toward it of many subsequent writers.

In the Western Church, Revelation was accepted by all writers from Hippolytus onward with the exception of Jerome, who relegated it to the class lying between the canonical and apocryphal.

The Proverbs of Jesus, the son of Sirach (c. 200 B.C.), which form now the apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus, were translated into Greek by the grandson of the author at about 130 B.C.; and in the preface prefixed by him to his translation he speaks of " the law, and the prophets, and the other books of our fathers," and again of " the law, and the prophets, and the rest of the books," expressions which point naturally to the same threefold division which was afterwards universally recognized by the Jews.

Outside this group would come what are called the Apocryphal Gospels and Acts (Gospel according to Hebrews, according to Egyptians, of Peter, of Truth, of the Twelve [or Ebionite Gospel], the recently recovered so-called Logia; the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Protevangelium of James, the Gospel of Thomas, the Acts of Pilate, Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas; the Preaching of Peter, the Apocalypse of Peter).

The story is apocryphal; but Napoleon's confidence in him was evinced by his being appointed to similar duties in the Grand Army, which in the autumn of 1805 overthrew the armies of Austria and Russia.

In 1826 the society finally resolved that its fundamental law be fully and distinctly recognized as excluding the circulation "of those Books, or parts of Books, which are usually termed Apocryphal."

Generally also much Gnostic matter is contained in the apocryphal histories of the Apostles.

From Ezra to Malachi the translation is taken from Coverdale, as is also that of the Apocryphal books.

But if the inaccuracy of the fragment in this important respect is admitted the historical character of the whole episode breaks down and it is probably to be regarded as an apocryphal elaboration of Matt.

Marti joined the Valencian Academia de los nocturnos, under the name of "Atrevimiento," but is best known by another pseudonym, Mateo Lujan de Sayavedra, under which he issued an apocryphal continuation (1602) of Aleman's Guzman de Alfarache (1599).

It also made its way into the life of the people by means of a popular literature in which the apostles were made to play a prominent part (Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles) .

In the Septuagint and Vulgate it immediately precedes Esther, and along with Tobit comes after Nehemiah; in the English Apocrypha it is placed between Tobit and the apocryphal additions to Esther.

The chief literature of all the heretical sects throughout the ages has been that of apocryphal Biblical narratives, and the popes Jeremiah or Bogumil are directly mentioned as authors of such forbidden books "which no orthodox dare read."

Though these writings are mostly the same in origin as are known from the older lists of apocryphal books, they underwent in this case a certain modification at the hands of their Bogomil editors, so as to be used for the propagation of their own specific doctrines.

It is in the apocryphal and apocalyptic literature of Judaism that the fullest development of eschatology can be traced.

On the 3rd of May Lady Jane Gordon, who had become countess of Bothwell on the 22nd of February of the year preceding, obtained, on the ground of her husband's infidelities, a separation which, however, would not under the old laws of Catholic Scotland have left him free to marry again; on the 7th, accordingly, the necessary divorce was pronounced, after two days' session, by a clerical tribunal which ten days before had received from the queen a special commission to give judgment on a plea of somewhat apocryphal consanguinity alleged by Bothwell as the ground of an action for divorce against his wife.

In the apocryphal Acts of Barnabas, which profess to be written by him, he speaks of himself as having been formerly a servant of Cyrillus, the high priest of Zeus, and as having been baptized at Iconium.

The council of Trent declared this book and the rest of the books reckoned in the Thirty-nine Articles as apocryphal to be canonical.

But there are certain .anecdotic embellishments of the act which are too famous to be passed over, though they are in part apocryphal.

The apocryphal Ada Timothei (Greek and Latin) have been edited by Usener (Bonn, 1877); cf.

The document is for the most part an enumeration of such apocryphal works as by their titles might be supposed to be part of Holy Scripture (the "Acts" of Philip, Thomas and Peter, and the Gospels of Thaddaeus, Matthias, Peter, James the Less and others).

His terse and pertinent letter to Origen, impugning the authority of the apocryphal book of Susanna, and Origen's wordy and uncritical answer, are both extant.

The caution of Gelasius was not long preserved; Gregory of Tours, for example, asserts that the saint's relics actually existed in the French village of Le Maine, where many miracles were wrought by means of them; and Bede, while still explaining that the Gesta Georgii are reckoned apocryphal, commits himself to the statement that the martyr was beheaded under Dacian, king of Persia, whose wife Alexandra, however, adhered to the Christian faith.

When General Edward Braddock arrived in Virginia in February 1755, Washington wrote him a diplomatically worded letter, and was presently made a member 1 Weems was a Protestant Episcopal clergyman, who first published a brief biography of Washington in 1800, and later (1806) considerably expanded it and introduced various apocryphal anecdotes.

In early and popular apocryphal histories the apostles are represented as insisting that their converts should either not contract wedlock or should dissolve the tie if already formed.

In Soulavie's Memoires of Richelieu (London, 1790) the masked man becomes (on the authority of an apocryphal note by Saint-Mars himself) the legitimate twin brother of Louis XIV.

There has doubtless been exaggeration as to certain details, and the story of his seraglio at the Parc aux cerfs is largely apocryphal.

The taste for romances of chivalry continued throughout the 5th century, but of all that were produced the only one that has come down to us is the Estorea do Imperador Vespasiano, an introduction to the Graal Cycle, based on the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus.

Afterwards, Toland discussed, with considerable real learning and much show of candour, the comparative evidence for the canonical and apocryphal Scriptures, and demanded a careful and complete historical examination of the grounds on which our acceptance of the New Testament canon rests.

The substance of the apocryphal document is quite different from our fifth book.

Among the sources of the Simon-legend we have omitted the pseudo-Clementine literature and a number of Apocryphal Martyria, Passiones and Actus.

When the Tubingen School turn their attention to the Apocryphal Acts and Martyrdoms, the image of Paul still obsesses their mental gaze.

Mencius, Hsiin King and writers of the Han dynasty, whose works, however, are more or less apocryphal, tell us much about him and his opinions, but all in a loose and unconnected way.

In January 1293 he reached Naples where tradition alleges that he studied alchemy; there appears to be no foundation for this story, and the treatises on alchemy which bear his name are all apocryphal.'