k of the
Christians of the 1st and 2nd centuries, apocryphal books as such were
highly esteemed. They were so designated by those who valued them. It
was not till later times that the term became one of reproach.

We have remarked above that the Jewish apocrypha--especially the
apocalyptic section and the host of Christian apocryphs--became the
ordinary religious literature of the early Christians. And this is not
strange seeing that of the former such abundant use was made by the
writers of the New Testament.[3] Thus Jude quotes the Book of Enoch by
name, while undoubted use of this book appears in the four gospels and 1
Peter. The influence of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is still
more apparent in the Pauline Epistles and the Gospels, and the same
holds true of Jubilees and the Assumption of Moses, though in a very
slight degree. The genuineness and inspiration of Enoch were believed in
by the writer of the Ep. of Barnabas, Irenaeus, Tertullian and Clement
of Alexandria. But the high position which apocryphal books occupied in
the first two centuries was undermined by a variety of influences. All
claims to the possession of a secret tradition were denied (Irenaeus ii.
27. 2, iii. 2. 1, 3. 1; Tertullian, _Praescript._ 22-27): true
inspiration was limited to the apostolic age, and universal acceptance
by the church was required as a proof of apostolic authorship. Under the
action of such principles apocryphal books tended to pass into the class
of spurious and heretical writings.

_The Term "Apocryphal."_--Turning now to the consideration of the word
"apocryphal" itself, we find that in its earliest use it was applied in
a laudatory sense to writings,'(1) which were kept secret because they
were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge which was too profound or too
sacred to be imparted to any save the initiated. Thus it occurs in a
magical book of Moses, which has been edited from a Leiden papyrus of
the 3rd or 4th century by Dieterich (Abraxas, 109). This book, which may
be as old as the 1st century, is entitled: "A holy and secret Book of
Moses, called eighth, or holy" ([Greek: Mouseos iera biblos apokryphos
epikaloumene ogdoe e hagia]). The disciples of the Gnostic Prodicus
boasted (Clem. Alex. _Strom._ i. 15. 69) that they possessed the secret
([Greek: aprokryphous]) books of Zoroaster. 4 Ezra is in its author's
view a secret work whose value was greater than that of the canonical
scriptures (xiv. 44 sqq.) be