cause of its transcendent revelations of the
future. It is in a like laudatory meaning that Gregory reckons the New
Testament apocalypse as [Greek: en apokryphois] (_Oratio in suam
ordinationem_, iii. 549, ed. Migne; cf. Epiphanius, _Haer._ li. 3). The
word enjoyed high consideration among the Gnostics (cf. Acts of Thomas,
10, 27, 44). (2) But the word was applied to writings that were kept
from public circulation not because of their transcendent, but of, their
secondary or questionable value. Thus Origen distinguishes between
writings which were read by the churches and apocryphal writings;
[Greek: graphe me pheromene men en tois koinois kai dedemosieumenois
bibliois eikos d oti en apokryphois pheromene] (Origen's _Comm. in
Matt._, x. 18, on Matt. xiii. 57, ed. Lommatzsch iii. 49 sqq.). Cf.
_Epist. ad Africam_, ix. (Lommatzsch xvii. 31): Euseb. _H.E._ ii. 23,
25; iii. 3, 6. See Zahn, _Gesch. Kanons_, i. 126 sqq. Thus the meaning
of [Greek: apokryphros] is here practically equivalent to "excluded from
the public use of the church," and prepares the way for the third and
unfavourable sense of this word. (3) The word came finally to mean what
is false, spurious, bad, heretical. If we may trust the text, this
meaning appears in Origen (_Prolog, in Cant. Cantic._, Lommatzsch xiv.
325): "De scripturis his, quae appellantur apocryphae, pro eo quod multa
in iis corrupta et contra fidem veram inveniuntur a majoribus tradita
non placuit iis dari locum nec admitti ad auctoritatem."

In addition to the above three meanings strange uses of the term appear
in the western church. Thus the Gelasian Decree includes the works of
Eusebius, Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria, under this designation.
Augustine (_De Civ. Dei_, xv. 23) explains it as meaning obscurity of
origin, while Jerome (_Protogus Galeatus_) declares that all books
outside the Hebrew canon belong to this class of apocrypha. Jerome's
practice, however, did not square with his theory. The western church
did not accept Jerome's definition of apocrypha, but retained the word
in its original meaning, though great confusion prevailed. Thus the
degree of estimation in which the apocryphal books have been held in the
church has varied much according to place and time. As they stood in the
Septuagint or Greek canon, along with the other books, and with no
marks of distinction, they were practically employed by the Greek
Fathers in the same way as the other books; hence Origen,