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 individual translation and one abridgment the numbers were eliminated entirely, but in the former case the text was still divided into the traditional chapters and in the latter topical divisions were introduced. "The Books of the Bible", according to its Preface, uses characteristics such as "changes in topic, movement in place or time, or shifts from one kind of writing to another" to identify the natural literary divisions within biblical books. It also relies on the tendency of authors to repeat "particular phrases… each time they [make] the transition from one section to another." The placement of these phrases "reinforces