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"
New Testament not part of the "Corpus Paulinum" in which this order originated and were later inserted after 2 Thessalonians and before Philemon. Hebrews was variously incorporated into the "Corpus Paulinum" either after 2 Thessalonians, after Philemon (i.e. at the very end), or after Romans. The New Testament of the 16th-century Luther Bible continues, to this day, to place Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse last. This reflects the thoughts of the Reformer Martin Luther on the canonicity of these books. The books that eventually found a permanent place in the New Testament were not the only works of Christian literature produced