A term used by Protestants of a group of writings found in the Septuagint and the Vulgate (with minor differences), which do not appear in the Hebrew canon of Scripture. Catholics designate at least 12 of these books as “deuterocanonical” and use “Apocrypha” to refer to the Judeo-Christian religious writings between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200 that Protestants generally refer to as the “pseudepigrapha.”
Originally the Apocrypha appeared in the King James Version, but in the nineteenth century the Bible societies insisted on removing these books from the Bibles they printed, and it became customary to omit them from most printings of this version.
Seventh-day Adventists, though recognizing some historical and literary value in the Apocrypha, agree with Protestants generally in denying that it is either inspired or an authoritative source of doctrine.