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of strange wildness and beauty”, are still seen at Afka, on the north-west slopes of Lebanon, near the source of the river Adonis (now Nahr Ibrahim), 12 miles east of Gebal.
(2.) A city of the tribe of Issachar, near to Jezreel (1 Samuel 4:1; 29:1; comp. 28:4).
(3.) A town on the road from Damascus to Palestine, in the level plain east of Jordan, near which Benhadad was defeated by the Israelites (1 Kings 20:26, 30; 2 Kings 13:17). It has been identified with the modern Fik, 6 miles east of the Sea of Galilee, opposite Tiberias.
•APOCALYPSE the Greek name of the Book of Revelation (q.v.).
•APOCRYPHA hidden, spurious, the name given to certain ancient books which found a place in the LXX. and Latin Vulgate versions of the Old Testament, and were appended to all the great translations made from them in the sixteenth century, but which have no claim to be regarded as in any sense parts of the inspired Word.
(1.) They are not once quoted by the New Testament writers, who frequently quote from the LXX. Our Lord and his apostles confirmed by their authority the ordinary Jewish canon, which was the same in all respects as we now have it.
(2.) These books were written not in Hebrew but in Greek, and during the “period of silence,” from the time of Malachi, after which oracles and direct revelations from God ceased till the Christian era.
(3.) The contents of the books themselves show that they were no part of Scripture. The Old Testament Apocrypha consists of fourteen books, the chief of which are the Books of the Maccabees (q.v.), the Books of Esdras, the Book of Wisdom, the Book of Baruch, the Book of Esther, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Judith, etc.
The New Testament Apocrypha consists of a very extensive literature, which bears distinct evidences of its non-apostolic origin, and is utterly unworthy of regard.