New Testament apocrypha New Testament apocrypha The New Testament apocrypha (singular apocryphon) are a number of writings by early Christians that give accounts of Jesus and his teachings, the nature of God, or the teachings of his apostles and of their lives. Some of these writings have been cited as scripture by early Christians, but since the fifth century a widespread consensus has emerged limiting the New Testament to the 27 books of the modern canon. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches generally do not view these New Testament apocrypha as part of the Bible. The word "apocrypha" means "things put away"
The Books of the Bible a good deal to the invention of printing. It was preceded by an era of fluidity, both among the Jews (the chief guardians of the Hebrew Bible) and among Christians (the chief guardians of the Greek [Bible])." In the case of the New Testament, Bruce M. Metzger notes similarly that beyond today's familiar order, "Prior to the invention of printing… there were many other sequences, not only of the five main groups of books [gospels, Acts, Pauline epistles, general epistles, Revelation], but also of the several books within each group. …Such matters were of no great significance for the ancient