What Are the Old Testament Apocrypha? To many people, particularly Protestant Christians, the Apocrypha are a collection of forbidden or heretical books scrupulously to be avoided. The word itself means “hidden things” (apocrypha singular, apocryphon), but the adjective “hidden” has taken on a pejorative nuance—“hidden for a good reason,” “suspicious,” “heretical.” Such an evaluation, however, is more the work of centuries of unfamiliarity with the actual texts than a balanced assessment of the texts’