Apocrypha
The Apocrypha refers to a collection of ancient Jewish and early Christian texts that hold an uncertain or disputed canonical status, depending on the religious tradition.
In the most common usage, it refers to a set of books (such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach/Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and 1 & 2 Maccabees, among others) that were included in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible but are not part of the Hebrew (Masoretic) canon. Their status varies by tradition: Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches consider most of them canonical (often calling them "deuterocanonical," meaning "second canon"), while Protestant traditions generally exclude them from the biblical canon, though they may still be valued for historical and devotional reading. Martin Luther, for example, included them in his Bible translation as useful reading but "not equal to Holy Scripture."
The word itself comes from the Greek apókryphos, meaning "hidden" or "obscure." Beyond the biblical Apocrypha, the term is sometimes used more broadly to refer to other non-canonical religious writings, including various gospels, acts, and apocalypses from the early Christian period (sometimes distinguished as the "New Testament Apocrypha"), such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Acts of Peter.