Apocrypha - 14 books of the Old Testament included in the Vulgate (except for II Esdras) but omitted in Jewish and Protestant versions of the Bible; eastern Christian churches (except the Coptic church) accept all these books as canonical; the Russian Orthodox church accepts these texts as divinely inspired but does not grant them the same statusOld Testament - the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible 1 Esdras, I Esdra - an Apocryphal book consisting of a compilation from Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom - an Apocryphal book consisting mainly of a meditation on wisdom; although ascribed to Solomon it was probably written in the first century BC Judith - Jewish heroine in one of the books of the Apocrypha; she saved her people by decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes Holofernes - (Apocrypha) the Assyrian general who was decapitated by the biblical heroine Judith |