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111-517: According to apocrypha , as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary , the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus . Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels . In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha , of which the Gospel of James (written perhaps around 150 AD) seems to be

222-791: A Doctor of the Church , often referred to as the Doctor of the Assumption due to his writings on the Assumption of Mary . He was also a prominent exponent of perichoresis , and employed the concept as a technical term to describe both the interpenetration of the divine and human natures of Christ and the relationship between the hypostases of the Trinity. John is at the end of the Patristic period of dogmatic development, and his contribution

333-628: A 14th-century Christian Humanist, had declared in his biblical translation that "whatever book is in the Old Testament besides these twenty-five shall be set among the apocrypha, that is, without authority or belief." Nevertheless, his translation of the Bible included the apocrypha and the Epistle of the Laodiceans . Martin Luther did not class apocryphal books as being scripture, but in

444-527: A Georgian who died in 1028. John was born in Damascus , in 675 or 676, to a prominent Damascene Christian Arab family. His father, Sarjun ibn Mansur , served as an official of the early Umayyad Caliphate . His grandfather, Mansur ibn Sarjun , was a prominent Byzantine official of Damascus, who had been responsible for the taxes of the region during the reign of Emperor Heraclius and also served under Emperor Maurice . Mansur seems to have played

555-521: A Muslim can only marry and do trade in the presence of witnesses – and what biblical prophets and verses foretold Muhammad 's coming – since, John says, Jesus was foretold by the prophets and whole Old Testament. John claims that the Muslims answered that Muhammad received the Quran in his sleep. John claims that he jokingly answered, "You're spinning my dreams." Some of the Muslims, John says, claimed that

666-505: A bird feeding its young while sitting in the shade of a tree, which awakened her desire to have children of her own. She prayed for a child and eventually conceived; her husband, Imran , died before the child was born. Expecting the child to be male, Anne vowed to dedicate him to isolation and service in the Second Temple . However, Anne bore a daughter instead, and named her Mary. Her words upon delivering Mary reflect her status as

777-653: A companion's wife before outlawing adultery, and that the Quran is filled with stories, such as the She-Camel of God and God giving Jesus an "incorruptible table." It is believed that the homily on the Annunciation was the first work to be translated into Arabic. Much of this text is found in Manuscript 4226 of the Library of Strasbourg (France), dating to 885 AD. Later in the 10th century, Antony, superior of

888-412: A great mystic , realising that while she had wanted a son, this daughter was God's gift to her: When she delivered, she said, “My Lord! I have given birth to a girl,”—and Allah fully knew what she had delivered—“and the male is not like the female. I have named her Mary, and I seek Your protection for her and her offspring from Satan, the accursed.” So her Lord accepted her graciously and blessed her with

999-568: A great price. As a refugee from Italy, Cosmas brought with him the scholarly traditions of Latin Christianity . Cosmas was said to have rivaled Pythagoras in arithmetic and Euclid in geometry . He also taught John's orphan friend, Cosmas of Maiuma . John possibly had a career as a civil servant for the Caliph in Damascus before his ordination. He then became a priest and monk at

1110-572: A maioribus tradita non placuit iis dari locum nec admitti ad auctoritatem. "Concerning these scriptures, which are called apocryphal, for the reason that many things are found in them corrupt and against the true faith handed down by the elders, it has pleased them that they not be given a place nor be admitted to authority." The Gelasian Decree (generally held now as being the work of an anonymous scholar between 519 and 553) refers to religious works by church fathers Eusebius , Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria as apocrypha. Augustine defined

1221-603: A pleasant upbringing—entrusting her to the care of Zachariah... Although the canonical books of the New Testament never mention the mother of the Virgin Mary, traditions about her family, childhood, education, and eventual betrothal to Joseph developed very early in the history of the church. The oldest and most influential source for these is the apocryphal Gospel of James , first written in Koine Greek around

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1332-468: A plot to attack Damascus . The caliph then ordered John's right hand be cut off and hung up in public view. Some days afterwards, John asked for the restitution of his hand, and prayed fervently to the Theotokos before her icon: thereupon, his hand is said to have been miraculously restored. In gratitude for this miraculous healing, he attached a silver hand to the icon, which thereafter became known as

1443-486: A prologue not found in most other translations, and was written by an Arab monk, Michael, who explained that he decided to write his biography in 1084 because none was available in his day. However, the main Arabic text seems to have been written by an unknown earlier author sometime between the early 9th and late 10th century. Written from a hagiographical point of view and prone to exaggeration and some legendary details, it

1554-408: A role in the capitulation of Damascus to the troops of Khalid ibn al-Walid in 635 after securing favorable conditions of surrender. Eutychius , a 10th-century Melkite patriarch, mentions him as one high-ranking official involved in the surrender of the city to the Muslims. The tribal background of Mansur ibn Sarjun, John's grandfather, is unknown, but biographer Daniel Sahas has speculated that

1665-603: A separate section. Luther did not include the deuterocanonical books in his Old Testament, terming them "Apocrypha, that are books which are not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are useful and good to read." The Eastern Orthodox Church accepts four other books into its canon than what are contained in the Catholic canon: Psalm 151 , the Prayer of Manasseh , 3 Maccabees , and 1 Esdras . The status of

1776-490: A sermon of John of Damascus , was that Anne married once. The sister of Saint Anne was Sobe , mother of Elizabeth . In the fifteenth century, the Catholic cleric Johann Eck related in a sermon that St Anne's parents were named Stollanus and Emerentia . Frederick George Holweck , writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1907) regards this genealogy as spurious. In the fourth century and then much later in

1887-639: A spread of canonical texts similar to the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians . During the Apostolic Age many Jewish texts of Hellenistic origin existed within Judaism and were frequently used by Christians. Patristic authorities frequently recognized these books as important to the emergence of Christianity, but the inspired authority and value of the apocrypha remained widely disputed. Christians included several of these books in

1998-566: Is Sant'Anna dei Palafrenieri . There is a shrine dedicated to Saint Anne in the Woods in Bristol , United Kingdom. In John Everett Millais 's 1849–50 work, Christ in the House of His Parents , Anne is shown in her son-in-law Joseph's carpentry shop caring for a young Jesus who had cut his hand on a nail. She joins her daughter Mary , Joseph, and a young boy who will later become known as John

2109-587: Is pseudepigrapha , a term that means " false attribution ". In Christianity, the name " the Apocrypha " is applied to a particular set of books which, when they appear in a Bible, are sometimes placed between the Old and New Testaments in a section called "Apocrypha." The canonicity of such books took longer to determine. Various of these books are accepted by the Catholic Church , Orthodox Churches and

2220-666: Is a door. She is often portrayed wearing red and green, representing love and life. Anne is never shown as present at the Nativity of Christ , but is frequently shown with the infant Christ in various subjects. She is sometimes believed to be depicted in scenes of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and the Circumcision of Christ , but in the former case, this likely reflects a misidentification through confusion with Anna

2331-437: Is also a patroness of horseback riders, cabinet-makers and miners. As the mother of Mary, this devotion to Saint Anne as the patron of miners arises from the medieval comparison between Mary and Christ and the precious metals silver and gold. Anne's womb was considered the source from which these precious metals were mined. She is also the patron saint of: Brittany ( France ), Cuenca ( Ecuador ), Chinandega ( Nicaragua ),

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2442-412: Is formed from the combination of apo (away) and kryptein (hide or conceal). The word apocrypha has undergone a major change in meaning throughout the centuries. The word apocrypha in its ancient Christian usage originally meant a text read in private, rather than in public church settings. In English, it later came to have a sense of the esoteric, suspicious, or heretical, largely because of

2553-531: Is held that Martin Luther chose to enter religious life as an Augustinian friar after invoking St. Anne while endangered by lightning. Anne ( Arabic : حنة بنت فاقوذ , romanized :  Ḥannah bint Faḳūdh ) is also revered in Islam , recognized as a highly spiritual woman and as the mother of Mary. She is not named in the Quran , where she is referred to as "the wife of Imran". The Quran describes her remaining childless until her old age. One day, Anne saw

2664-639: Is here practically equivalent to "excluded from the public use of the church" and prepares the way for an even less favourable use of the word. In general use, the word apocrypha came to mean "of doubtful authenticity". This meaning also appears in Origen 's prologue to his commentary on the Song of Songs , of which only the Latin translation survives: De scripturis his, quae appellantur apocriphae, pro eo quod multa in iis corrupta et contra fidem veram inveniuntur

2775-576: Is less one of theological innovation than one of a summary of the developments of the centuries before him. In Catholic theology , he is therefore known as the "last of the Greek Fathers". The main source of information for the life of John of Damascus is a work attributed to one John of Jerusalem, identified therein as the Patriarch of Jerusalem . This is an excerpted translation into Greek of an earlier Arabic text. The Arabic original contains

2886-430: Is not the best historical source for his life, but is widely reproduced and considered to contain elements of some value. The hagiographic novel Barlaam and Josaphat is a work of the 10th century attributed to a monk named John. It was only considerably later that the tradition arose that this was John of Damascus, but most scholars no longer accept this attribution. Instead much evidence points to Euthymius of Athos ,

2997-643: The Assumption of Moses and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs , which are included in no biblical canon. The establishment of a largely settled uniform canon was a process of centuries, and what the term canon (as well as apocrypha ) precisely meant also saw development. The canonical process took place with believers recognizing writings as being inspired by God from known or accepted origins, subsequently being followed by official affirmation of what had become largely established through

3108-659: The Church of the East , as deuterocanonical . Some Protestant traditions reject them outright; others regard the Apocrypha as non-canonical books that are useful for instruction. The word's origin is the Medieval Latin adjective apocryphus (secret, or non-canonical) from the Greek adjective ἀπόκρυφος , apokryphos , (private) from the verb ἀποκρύπτειν , apokryptein (to hide away). It comes from Greek and

3219-824: The Daughters of the Holy Spirit named the former Annhurst College in her honor. By the middle of the seventh century, a distinct feast day, the Conception of St. Anne (Maternity of Holy Anna) celebrating the conception of Mary by Saint Anne, was observed at the Monastery of Saint Sabas . It is now known in the Greek Orthodox Church as the feast of " The Conception by St. Anne of the Most Holy Theotokos ", and celebrated on 9 December. In

3330-805: The Gnostics (see Acts of Thomas , pp. 10, 27, 44). Sinologist Anna Seidel refers to texts and even items produced by ancient Chinese sages as apocryphal and studied their uses during Six Dynasties China (AD 220–589). These artifacts were used as symbols legitimizing and guaranteeing the Emperor's Heavenly Mandate . Examples of these include talismans, charts, writs, tallies, and registers. The first examples were stones, jade pieces, bronze vessels and weapons, but came to include talismans and magic diagrams. From their roots in Zhou era China (1066–256 BC), these items came to be surpassed in value by texts by

3441-512: The Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220). Most of these texts have been destroyed as Emperors, particularly during the Han dynasty, collected these legitimizing objects and proscribed, forbade and burnt nearly all of them to prevent them from falling into the hands of political rivals. Apocrypha was also applied to writings that were hidden not because of their divinity but because of their questionable value to

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3552-662: The Mar Saba monastery near Jerusalem. One source suggests John left Damascus to become a monk around 706, when al-Walid I increased the Islamicisation of the Caliphate's administration. This is uncertain, as Muslim sources only mention that his father Sarjun (Sergius) left the administration around this time, and fail to name John at all. During the next two decades, culminating in the Siege of Constantinople (717-718) ,

3663-946: The Mi'kmaq people of Canada , Castelbuono (Sicily), Quebec ( Canada ), Santa Ana ( California ), Norwich ( Connecticut ), Detroit ( Michigan ), Adjuntas ( Puerto Rico ), Santa Ana and Jucuarán ( El Salvador ), Berlin ( New Hampshire ), Santa Ana Pueblo , Seama , and Taos ( New Mexico ), Chiclana de la Frontera , Marsaskala , Tudela and Fasnia ( Spain ), Town of Sta Ana Province of Pampanga , Molo, Iloilo City , Balasan, Iloilo , Hagonoy , Santa Ana, Taguig City , Saint Anne Shrine , Malicboy, Pagbilao , Quezon and Malinao, Albay ( Philippines ), Santana ( Brazil ), Saint Anne ( Illinois ), Sainte Anne Island, Baie Sainte Anne and Praslin Island ( Seychelles ), Bukit Mertajam and Port Klang ( Malaysia ), Kľúčové ( Slovakia ) and South Vietnam . The parish church of Vatican City

3774-510: The Quran , which he criticizes harshly. Other sources describe his education in Damascus as having been conducted in accordance with the principles of Hellenic education , termed "secular" by one source and "classical Christian" by another. One account identifies his tutor as a monk by the name of Cosmas , who had been kidnapped by Arabs from his home in Sicily , and for whom John's father paid

3885-638: The Second Temple period , not accepted as sacred manuscripts when the Hebrew Bible was canonized . Some of these books are considered sacred by some Christians , and are included in their versions of the Old Testament . The Jewish apocrypha is distinctive from the New Testament apocrypha and biblical apocrypha as it is the only one of these collections that works within a Jewish theological framework. Although Orthodox Jews believe in

3996-737: The Umayyad Caliphate progressively occupied the borderlands of the Byzantine Empire. An editor of John's works, Father Le Quien , has shown that John was already a monk at Mar Saba before the dispute over iconoclasm, explained below. In the early 8th century, iconoclasm , a movement opposed to the veneration of icons, gained acceptance in the Byzantine court. In 726, despite the protests of Germanus , Patriarch of Constantinople , Emperor Leo III (who had forced his predecessor, Theodosius III , to abdicate and himself assumed

4107-525: The plural "we" , whether in reference to himself, or to a group of Christians that he belonged to who spoke to the Muslims, or in reference to Christians in general. Regardless, John claims that he asked the Muslims what witnesses can testify that Muhammad received the Quran from God – since, John says, Moses received the Torah from God in the presence of the Israelites, and since Islamic law mandates that

4218-660: The "Three-handed", or Tricherousa . That icon is now located in the Hilandar monastery of the Holy Mountain . Due to his commitment to iconodulism , he was condemned by anathema by the iconoclastic Council of Hieria in 754. He was later rehabilitated by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. When the name of John of Damascus was inserted in the General Roman Calendar in 1890, it

4329-534: The 19th century) are treated as a separate category of literature from the "official" Jataka stories that have been more-or-less formally canonized from at least the 5th century—as attested to in ample epigraphic and archaeological evidence, such as extant illustrations in bas relief from ancient temple walls. The Jewish apocrypha, known in Hebrew as הספרים החיצונים ( Sefarim Hachizonim: "the external books"), are books written in large part by Jews , especially during

4440-798: The Anglican Churches. Anabaptists use the Luther Bible , which contains the intertestamental books; Amish wedding ceremonies include "the retelling of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the Apocrypha". The Anglican Communion accepts the Protestant Apocrypha "for instruction in life and manners, but not for the establishment of doctrine (Article VI in the Thirty-Nine Articles )", and many "lectionary readings in The Book of Common Prayer are taken from

4551-401: The Apocrypha are regularly appointed to be read in the daily, Sunday, and special services of Morning and Evening Prayer. There are altogether 111 such lessons in the latest revised American Prayer Book Lectionary [The books used are: II Esdras, Tobit, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Three Holy Children, and I Maccabees.] The position of the Church is best summarized in the words of Article Six of

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4662-653: The Apocrypha", with these lessons being "read in the same ways as those from the Old Testament". The first Methodist liturgical book, The Sunday Service of the Methodists , employs verses from the Apocrypha, such as in the Eucharistic liturgy. The Protestant Apocrypha contains three books (1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh) that are accepted by many Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches as canonical, but are regarded as non-canonical by

4773-680: The Apocryphal books, the Book of Enoch was never referenced by Jesus. The genuineness and inspiration of Enoch were believed in by the writer of the Epistle of Barnabas , Irenaeus , Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria and many others of the early church . The Epistles of Paul and the Gospels also show influences from the Book of Jubilees , which is part of the Ethiopian canon, as well as

4884-406: The Baptist in caring for the injured hand of Jesus. The subject of Joachim and Anne The Meeting at the Golden Gate was a regular component of artistic cycles of the Life of the Virgin . The couple meet at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem and embrace. They are aware of Anne's pregnancy, of which they have been separately informed by an archangel. This moment stood for the conception of Mary, and

4995-404: The Bible and, "likewise, it seems," spoke to an Arian monk that taught him Arianism instead of Christianity. John also claims to have read the Quran, or at least parts of it, as he criticizes the Quran for saying that the Virgin Mary was the sister of Moses and Aaron and that Jesus was not crucified but brought alive into heaven. John further claims to have spoken to Muslims about Mohammad. He uses

5106-497: The Book of Tobit in services of Holy Matrimony. According to the Orthodox Anglican Church : On the other hand, the Anglican Communion emphatically maintains that the Apocrypha is part of the Bible and is to be read with respect by her members. Two of the hymns used in the American Prayer Book office of Morning Prayer, the Benedictus es and Benedicite, are taken from the Apocrypha. One of the offertory sentences in Holy Communion comes from an apocryphal book (Tob. 4: 8–9). Lessons from

5217-402: The Byzantine emperor, but adopted a simplified style that allowed the controversy to be followed by the common people, stirring rebellion among the iconoclasts. Decades after his death, John's writings would play an important role during the Second Council of Nicaea (787), which convened to settle the icon dispute. Leo III reportedly sent forged documents to the caliph which implicated John in

5328-402: The Catholic Council of Trent reconfirmed the canon of Augustine, dating to the second and third centuries, declaring "He is also to be anathema who does not receive these entire books, with all their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church, and are found in the ancient editions of the Latin Vulgate , as sacred and canonical." The whole of the books in question, with

5439-494: The Catholic Church and are therefore not included in modern Catholic Bibles. In the 1800s, the British and Foreign Bible Society did not regularly publish the intertestamental section in its Bibles, citing the cost of printing the Apocrypha in addition to the Old Testament and New Testament as a major factor; this legacy came to characterize English-language Bibles in Great Britain and the Americas, unlike in Europe where Protestant Bibles are printed with 80 books in three sections:

5550-484: The Catholic Church include Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Sirach, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom and additions to Esther, Daniel, and Baruch. The Book of Enoch is included in the biblical canon of the Oriental Orthodox churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Epistle of Jude alludes to a story in the book of Enoch, and some believe the use of this book also appears in the four gospels and 1 Peter . While Jesus and his disciples sometimes used phrases also featured in some of

5661-420: The Catholic Church, affirmed by the Council of Rome (AD 382) and later reaffirmed by the Council of Trent (1545–63); all of the books of the Protestant Apocrypha are considered canonical by the Eastern Orthodox Church and are referred to as anagignoskomena per the Synod of Jerusalem (1672). To this date, scripture readings from the Apocrypha are included in the lectionaries of the Lutheran Churches and

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5772-483: The Catholic church by Pope Pius IX 's papal bull , Ineffabilis Deus , in 1854. The thirteenth century Speculum Maius of Vincent of Beauvais incorporates information regarding the life of Saint Anne from an earlier work by Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim Abbey. In the Eastern church, the veneration of Anne herself may go back as far as c.  550 , when Justinian built a church in Constantinople in her honor. The earliest pictorial sign of her veneration in

5883-556: The Church by Pope Leo XIII . Besides his purely textual works, many of which are listed below, John of Damascus also composed hymns, perfecting the canon , a structured hymn form used in Byzantine Rite liturgies. As stated above, in the final chapter of Concerning Heresy, John mentions Islam as the Heresy of the Ishmaelites . He is one of the first known Christian critics of Islam. John claims that Muslims were once worshipers of Aphrodite who followed after Muhammad because of his "seeming show of piety," and that Mohammad himself read

5994-459: The Fathers had appointed to be read to catechumens for edification and instruction; these are the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Esther, Judith, Tobias, the Didache, or Doctrine of the Apostles, and the Shepherd of Hermas. All others are apocrypha and the inventions of heretics (Festal Epistle for 367)". Nevertheless, none of these constituted indisputable definitions, and significant scholarly doubts and disagreements about

6105-432: The German Luther Bible (1534) the apocrypha are published in a separate section from the other books, although the Lutheran and Anglican lists are different. Anabaptists use the Luther Bible , which contains the intertestamental books; Amish wedding ceremonies include "the retelling of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the Apocrypha". The fathers of Anabaptism, such as Menno Simons , quoted "them [the Apocrypha] with

6216-509: The Hebrew canon (the protocanon ) excluded from the canon all of the Old Testament not found there. This view is reflected in the canon of Melito of Sardis , and in the prefaces and letters of Jerome. A third view was that the books were not as valuable as the canonical scriptures of the Hebrew collection, but were of value for moral uses, as introductory texts for new converts from paganism , and to be read in congregations. They were referred to as " ecclesiastical " works by Rufinus . In 1546,

6327-413: The Jews as part of the Hebrew Bible canon and the Apocrypha is not part of the historical Jewish canon . Early church fathers such as Athanasius , Melito , Origen , and Cyril of Jerusalem , spoke against the canonicity of much or all of the apocrypha, but the most weighty opposition was the fourth century Catholic scholar Jerome who preferred the Hebrew canon, whereas Augustine and others preferred

6438-399: The KJV bible until 1947). John of Damascus John of Damascus ( Arabic : يوحنا الدمشقي , romanized :  Yūḥana ad-Dimashqī ; Greek : Ἰωάννης ὁ Δαμασκηνός , romanized :  Ioánnēs ho Damaskēnós , IPA: [ioˈanis o ðamasciˈnos] ; Latin : Ioannes Damascenus ; born Yūḥana ibn Manṣūr ibn Sarjūn , يوحنا إبن منصور إبن سرجون ) or John Damascene

6549-480: The Muslims that the black stone in Mecca was the head of a statue of Aphrodite. Moreover, he claims, the Muslims would be better off to associate Jesus with God if they say Jesus is the Word of God and Spirit. John claims that the word and the spirit are inseparable from that in which they exist and if the Word of God has always existed in God, then the Word must be God. John ends the chapter by claiming that Islam permits polygamy , that Muhammad committed adultery with

6660-425: The Old Testament that Christians believe foretells Jesus' coming is misinterpreted, while other Muslims claimed that the Jews edited the Old Testament so as to deceive Christians (possibly into believing Jesus is God, but John does not say). While recounting his alleged dialogue with Muslims, John claims that they have accused him of idol worship for venerating the Cross and worshipping Jesus. John claims that he told

6771-446: The Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament. In the present-day, "English Bibles with the Apocrypha are becoming more popular again", usually being printed as intertestamental books . The Revised Common Lectionary , in use by most mainline Protestants including Methodists and Moravians, lists readings from the Apocrypha in the liturgical calendar , although alternate Old Testament scripture lessons are provided. The status of

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6882-412: The Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament; examples include the " Matthew's Bible (1537), the Great Bible (1539), the Geneva Bible (1560), the Bishop's Bible (1568), and the King James Bible (1611)". Fourteen out of eighty biblical books comprise the Protestant Apocrypha, first published as such in Luther's Bible (1534). Many of these texts are considered canonical Old Testament books by

6993-430: The Old and New Testaments. They are also sometimes called "intertestamental" by religious groups who do not recognize Hellenistic Judaism as belonging with either Jewish or Christian testaments. Slightly varying collections of apocryphal, deuterocanonical or intertestamental books of the Bible form part of the Catholic , Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox canons. The deuterocanonical or intertestamental books of

7104-403: The Orthodox historian Jean Meyendorff , suppose that he might have been a lower-level tax administrator, a local tax collector who would not have needed to be mentioned in the archives, but who might not have necessarily been part of the court either. In addition, John's own writings never refer to any experience in a Muslim court. It is believed that John became a monk at Mar Saba , and that he

7215-451: The Prophetess . There was a tradition that Anne went (separately) to Egypt and rejoined the Holy Family after their Flight to Egypt . Anne is not seen with the adult Christ, so was regarded as having died during the youth of Jesus. Anne is also shown as the matriarch of the Holy Kinship , the extended family of Jesus, a popular subject in late medieval Germany; some versions of these pictorial and sculptural depictions include Emerentia who

7326-475: The Protestant canon (such as listed in the Westminster Confession of 1646), which has been well established for centuries, with many today supporting the use of the Apocrypha and others contending against the Apocrypha using various arguments. The adjective apocryphal is commonly used in modern English to refer to any text or story considered to be of dubious veracity or authority, although it may contain some moral truth. In this broader metaphorical sense,

7437-493: The Protestant interpretation of the usefulness of non-canonical texts. The word apocryphal ( ἀπόκρυφος ) was first applied to writings that were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered too profound or too sacred to be disclosed to anyone other than the initiated. For example, the disciples of the Gnostic Prodicus boasted that they possessed the secret ( ἀπόκρυφα ) books of Zoroaster . The term in general enjoyed high consideration among

7548-517: The Roman Catholic Church, the Feast of Saints Anne and Joachim is celebrated on 26 July. The alleged relics of St. Anne were brought from the Holy Land to Constantinople in 710 and were kept there in the church of St. Sophia as late as 1333. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, returning crusaders and pilgrims from the East brought relics of Anne to a number of churches, including most famously those at Apt, in Provence, Ghent, and Chartres. St. Anne's relics have been preserved and venerated in

7659-472: The Scriptures (see gallery below). Apocrypha The adjective "apocryphal", meaning of doubtful authenticity, mythical, fictional, is recorded from the late 16th century, then taking on the popular meaning of "false," "spurious," "bad," or "heretical." It may be used for any book which might have scriptural claims but which does not appear in the canon accepted by the author. A related term for non-canonical apocryphal texts whose authorship seems incorrect

7770-443: The Thirty-nine Articles: "In the name of Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church... And the other Books (as Hierome [St. Jerome] saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine. Though Protestant Bibles historically include 80 books , 66 of these form

7881-520: The Umayyad caliphs . John of Jerusalem claims that he also served as a senior official in the fiscal administration of the Umayyad Caliphate under Abd al-Malik before leaving Damascus and his position around 705 to go to Jerusalem and become a monk . However, this point is debated within the academic community as there is no trace of him in the Umayyad archives, unlike his father and grandfather. Some researchers, such as Robert G. Hoyland , deny such an affiliation, while others, like Daniel Sahas or

7992-546: The West is an eighth-century fresco in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua , Rome. The Feast of the Conception of the Virgin Mary had reached southern Italy by the ninth century. In the Latin Church St. Anne was not venerated, except, perhaps, in the south of France, before the thirteenth century. A shrine at Douai, in northern France, was one of the early centers of devotion to St. Anne in the West. The Anna Selbdritt

8103-577: The apocryphal writings in dispute, with little distinction made between them and the rest of the Old Testament . Others argue that the Septuagint of the first century did not contain these books but they were added later by Christians. The earliest extant manuscripts of the Septuagint are from the fourth century, and suffer greatly from a lack of uniformity as regards containing apocryphal books, and some also contain books classed as pseudepigrapha , from which texts were cited by some early writers in

8214-656: The books that the Catholic Church terms Deuterocanonicals (second canon) and Protestantism refers to as Apocrypha has been an issue of disagreement that preceded the Reformation. Many believe that the pre-Christian-era Jewish translation (into Greek) of holy scriptures known as the Septuagint , a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures originally compiled around 280 BC, originally included

8325-596: The canons of the Christian Bibles , calling them the "apocrypha" or the "hidden books". In the sixteenth century, during the Protestant Reformation , the canonical validity of the intertestamental books was challenged and fourteen books were classed in 80 book Protestant Bibles as an intertestamental section called the Apocrypha, which straddles the Old Testament and New Testament. Prior to 1629, all English-language Protestant Bibles included

8436-429: The church. The early Christian theologian Origen , in his Commentaries on Matthew , distinguishes between writings that were read by the churches and apocryphal writings: γραφὴ μὴ φερομένη μέν ἒν τοῖς κοινοῖς καὶ δεδημοσιευμένοις βιβλίοις εἰκὸς δ' ὅτι ἒν ἀποκρύφοις φερομένη ( writing not found in the common and published books on one hand [and] actually found in the secret ones on the other ). The meaning of αποκρυφος

8547-682: The city of Québec. The number of visitors to the Basilica of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré is greatest on St Anne's Feast Day, 26 July, and the Sunday before Nativity of the Virgin Mary, 8 September. In 1892, Pope Leo XIII sent a relic of St Anne to the church. In the Maltese language , the Milky Way galaxy is called It-Triq ta' Sant'Anna , literally "The Way of St. Anne" . In the United States,

8658-436: The deuterocanonicals remains unchanged in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, though there is a difference in number of these books between these two branches of Christianity. Some authorities began using term deuterocanonical to refer to this traditional intertestamental collection as books of "the second canon". These books are often seen as helping to explain the theological and cultural transitions that took place between

8769-399: The earliest that mentions them. The mother of Mary is mentioned but not named in the Quran . The story is similar to that of Samuel , whose mother Hannah ( Hebrew : חַנָּה ‎ Ḥannāh "favour, grace"; etymologically the same name as Anne) had also been childless. The Immaculate Conception was eventually made dogma by the Catholic Church following an increased devotion to Anne in

8880-628: The ecumenical Council of Trent officially ("infallibly") declared these books (called "deuterocanonical" by Catholics) to be part of the canon in April, 1546 A.D. While the Protestant Reformers rejected the parts of the canon that were not part of the Hebrew Bible , they included the four New Testament books Luther considered of doubtful canonicity along with the Apocrypha in his non-binding Luther's canon (although most were separately included in his Bible, as they were in some editions of

8991-463: The exception of 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh , were declared canonical at Trent. The Protestants, in comparison, were diverse in their opinion of the deuterocanon early on. Some considered them divinely inspired, others rejected them. Lutherans and Anglicans retained the books as Christian intertestamental readings and a part of the Bible (in a section called "Apocrypha"), but no doctrine should be based on them. John Wycliffe ,

9102-766: The exclusive canonization of the current 24 books in the Hebrew Bible , they also consider the Oral Torah , which they believe was handed down from Moses , to be authoritative. Some argue that the Sadducees , unlike the Pharisees but like the Samaritans , seem to have maintained an earlier and smaller number of texts as canonical, preferring to hold to only what was written in the Law of Moses (the Torah ), making most of

9213-716: The feast was celebrated on the same day as the Immaculate Conception . Art works representing the Golden Gate and the events leading up to it were influenced by the narrative in the widely read Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. The Birth of Mary , the Presentation of Mary and the Marriage of the Virgin were usual components of cycles of the Life of the Virgin in which Anne is normally shown here. Her emblem

9324-532: The fifteenth century, a belief arose that Mary was conceived of Anne without original sin . This belief in the Immaculate Conception states that God preserved Mary's body and soul intact and sinless from her first moment of existence, through the merits of Jesus Christ. The Immaculate Conception, often confused with the Annunciation of the Incarnation (Mary's virgin birth of Jesus), was made dogma in

9435-550: The fourteen books of the Apocrypha as being non-canonical, but useful for reading "for example of life and instruction of manners": a view that continues today throughout the Lutheran Church , the worldwide Anglican Communion , among many other denominations, such as the Methodist Churches and Quaker Yearly Meetings . Liturgically, the Catholic, Methodist and Anglican churches have a scripture reading from

9546-687: The main place of pilgrimage for Anne since 1506, when Pope Julius II decreed that her relics should be kept there. The Church of Saint Anne in Beit Guvrin National Park was built by the Byzantines and the Crusaders in the twelfth century, known in Arabic as Khirbet (lit. "ruin") Sandahanna, the mound of Maresha being called Tell Sandahanna. Saint Anne is patroness of unmarried women, housewives, women in labor or who want to be pregnant, grandmothers, mothers and educators. She

9657-456: The many cathedrals and monasteries dedicated to her name, for example in Austria , Canada, Germany, Italy, and Greece in the semi-autonomous Mount Athos , and the city of Katerini. Medieval and baroque craftsmanship is evidenced in, for example, the metalwork of the life-size reliquaries containing the bones of her forearm. Examples employing folk art techniques are also known. Düren has been

9768-539: The middle of the second century AD. In the West, the Gospel of James fell under a cloud in the fourth and fifth centuries when it was accused of "absurdities" by Jerome and condemned as untrustworthy by Pope Damasus I , Pope Innocent I , and Pope Gelasius I . However, despite having been condemned by the Church, it was taken over almost in toto by another apocryphal work, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew , which popularised most of its stories. Ancient belief, attested to by

9879-404: The monastery of St. Simon (near Antioch) translated a corpus of John Damascene. In his introduction to John's work, Sylvestre patriarch of Antioch (1724–1766) said that Antony was monk at Saint Saba. This could be a misunderstanding of the title Superior of Saint Simon probably because Saint Simon's monastery was in ruins in the 18th century. Most manuscripts give the text of the letter to Cosmas,

9990-545: The name Mansur could have implied descent from the Arab Christian tribes of Kalb or Taghlib . The name was common among Syrian Christians of Arab origins, and Eutychius noted that the governor of Damascus, who was likely Mansur ibn Sarjun, was an Arab. However, Sahas also asserts that the name does not necessarily imply an Arab background and could have been used by non-Arab, Semitic Syrians. While Sahas and biographers F. H. Chase and Andrew Louth assert that Mansūr

10101-532: The nature of the Apocrypha continued for centuries and even into Trent, which provided the first infallible definition of the Catholic canon in 1546. In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers challenged the canonicity of the books and partial-books found in the surviving Septuagint but not in the Masoretic Text . In response to this challenge, after the death of Martin Luther (February 8, 1546)

10212-667: The presently accepted canon, both Jewish and Christian, apocryphal in their eyes. Others believe that it is often mistakenly asserted that the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch (Torah). The Essenes in Judea and the Therapeutae in Egypt were said to have a secret literature (see Dead Sea scrolls ). Other traditions maintained different customs regarding canonicity. The Ethiopian Jews , for instance, seem to have retained

10323-626: The same authority and nearly the same frequency as books of the Hebrew Bible" and the texts regarding the martyrdoms under Antiochus IV in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees are held in high esteem by the Anabaptists, who faced persecution in their history. In Reformed editions (like the Westminster), readers were warned that these books were not "to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings". A milder distinction

10434-520: The second and later centuries as being scripture. While a few scholars conclude that the Jewish canon was the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty, it is generally considered not to have been finalized until about 100 AD or somewhat later, at which time considerations of Greek language and beginnings of Christian acceptance of the Septuagint weighed against some of the texts. Some were not accepted by

10545-610: The study and debate of the writings. The first ecclesiastical decree on the Catholic Church's canonical books of the Sacred Scriptures is attributed to the Council of Rome (382), and is correspondent to that of Trent. Martin Luther , like Jerome , favored the Masoretic canon for the Old Testament, excluding apocryphal books in the Luther Bible as unworthy to be properly called scripture, but included most of them in

10656-462: The throne in 717 immediately before the great siege) issued his first edict against the veneration of images and their exhibition in public places. All agree that John of Damascus undertook a spirited defence of holy images in three separate publications. The earliest of these works, his Apologetic Treatises against those Decrying the Holy Images , secured his reputation. He not only attacked

10767-719: The twelfth century. Dedications to Anne in Eastern Christianity occur as early as the sixth century. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition , Anne and Joachim are ascribed the title Ancestors of God , and both the Nativity of Mary and the Presentation of Mary are celebrated as two of the twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church . The Dormition of Anne is also a minor feast in Eastern Christianity. In Lutheran Protestantism , it

10878-413: The two are a number of writers whose veneration for these books is tempered by some perplexity as to their exact standing, and among those we note St. Thomas Aquinas. Few are found to unequivocally acknowledge their canonicity. The prevailing attitude of Western medieval authors is substantially that of the Greek Fathers. The wider Christian canon accepted by Augustine became the more established canon in

10989-556: The western Church after being promulgated for use in the Easter Letter of Athanasius (circa 372 A.D.), the Synod of Rome (382 A.D., but its Decretum Gelasianum is generally considered to be a much later addition ) and the local councils of Carthage and Hippo in north Africa (391 and 393 A.D). Athanasius called canonical all books of the Hebrew Bible including Baruch, while excluding Esther. He adds that "there are certain books which

11100-624: The wider (Greek) canon, with both having followers in the generations that followed. The Catholic Encyclopedia states as regards the Middle Ages, In the Latin Church, all through the Middle Ages [5th century to the 15th century] we find evidence of hesitation about the character of the deuterocanonicals. There is a current friendly to them, another one distinctly unfavourable to their authority and sacredness, while wavering between

11211-619: The word as meaning simply "obscurity of origin", implying that any book of unknown authorship or questionable authenticity would be considered apocryphal. Jerome in Prologus Galeatus declared that all books outside the Hebrew canon were apocryphal. In practice, Jerome treated some books outside the Hebrew canon as if they were canonical, and the Western Church did not accept Jerome's definition of apocrypha, instead retaining

11322-673: The word suggests a claim that is in the nature of folklore , factoid or urban legend . Apocryphal Jatakas of the Pāli Canon , such as those belonging to the Paññāsajātaka collection, have been adapted to fit local culture in certain Southeast Asian countries and have been retold with amendments to the plots to better reflect Buddhist morals. Within the Pali tradition, the apocryphal Jatakas of later composition (some dated even to

11433-470: The word's prior meaning. As a result, various church authorities labeled different books as apocrypha, treating them with varying levels of regard. Origen stated that "the canonical books, as the Hebrews have handed them down, are twenty-two". Clement and others cited some apocryphal books as "scripture", "divine scripture", "inspired", and the like. Teachers connected with Palestine and familiar with

11544-701: Was a type of iconography depicting the three generations of Saint Anne, Mary, and the child Jesus. Emphasizing the humanity of Jesus, it drew on the earlier conventions of the Seat of Wisdom , and was popular in northern Germany in the 1500s. During the High Middle Ages, Saint Anne became increasingly identified as a maritime saint, protecting sailors and fisherman, and invoked against storms. Two well-known shrines to St. Anne are that of Ste-Anne-d'Auray in Brittany, France; and that of Ste-Anne-de-Beaupré near

11655-410: Was an Arab Christian monk , priest , hymnographer , and apologist . He was born and raised in Damascus c.  675 AD or 676 AD; the precise date and place of his death is not known, though tradition places it at his monastery, Mar Saba , near Jerusalem on 4 December 749 AD. A polymath whose fields of interest and contribution included law , theology , philosophy , and music , he

11766-668: Was an Arabic name, Raymond le Coz asserts that the "family was without doubt of Syrian origin"; indeed, according to historian Daniel J. Janosik, "Both aspects could be true, for if his family ancestry were indeed Syrian, his grandfather [Mansur] could have been given an Arabic name when the Arabs took over the government." When Syria was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in the 630s, the court at Damascus retained its large complement of Christian civil servants, John's grandfather among them. John's father, Sarjun (Sergius) , went on to serve

11877-600: Was assigned to 27 March. The feast day was moved in 1969 to the day of John's death, 4 December, the day on which his feast day is celebrated also in the Byzantine Rite calendar, Lutheran Commemorations, and the Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church. John of Damascus is honored in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church on 4 December. In 1890, he was declared a Doctor of

11988-744: Was expressed elsewhere, such as in the "argument" introducing them in the Geneva Bible , and in the Sixth Article of the Church of England , where it is said that "the other books the church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners," though not to establish doctrine. Among some Nonconformists , the term apocryphal began to take on extra or altered connotations: not just of dubious authenticity, but having spurious or false content, Protestants, being diverse in theological views, were not unanimous in adopting those meanings. Generally, Anabaptists and magisterial Protestants recognize

12099-725: Was given the by-name of Chrysorroas (Χρυσορρόας, literally "streaming with gold", i.e. "the golden speaker"). He wrote works expounding the Christian faith, and composed hymns which are still used both liturgically in Eastern Christian practice throughout the world as well as in western Lutheranism at Easter. He is one of the Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church and is best known for his strong defence of icons . The Catholic Church regards him as

12210-611: Was ordained as a priest in 735. John was raised in Damascus, and Arab Christian folklore holds that during his adolescence, John associated with the future Umayyad caliph Yazid I and the Taghlibi Christian court poet al-Akhtal . One of the vitae describes his father's desire for him to "learn not only the books of the Muslims, but those of the Greeks as well." From this it has been suggested that John may have grown up bilingual. John does indeed show some knowledge of

12321-514: Was reputed in the fifteenth century to be Anne's mother. In modern devotions, Anne and her husband are invoked for protection for the unborn. The role of the Messiah's grandparents in salvation history was commonly depicted in early medieval devotional art in a vertical double-Madonna arrangement known as the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne . Another typical subject has Anne teaching the Virgin Mary

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