by Adam, it is said that the Son ascending
from Olivet prays the Father on behalf of His apostles; who consequently
receive consecration from the Father, together with the Son and Holy
Spirit--Peter being made archbishop of the universe. The late date of
the production is obvious.

_Questions of St Bartholomew._--See Vassiliev, _Anec. Graeco-Byzantina_
(1893), pp. 10-22. The introduction, which is wanting in the Greek MS.,
has been supplied by a Latin translation from the Slavonic version (see
pp. vii.-ix.). The book contains disclosures by Christ, the Virgin and
Beliar and much of the subject-matter is ancient. (R. H. C.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] See the separate headings for the various apocalyptic books
mentioned in this article.

APOCATASTASIS, a Greek word, meaning "re-establishment," used as a
technical scientific term for a return to a previous position or
condition.

APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE. The history of the earlier usage of the term
"Apocrypha" (from [Greek: apokruptein], to hide) is not free from
obscurity. We shall therefore enter at once on a short account of the
origin of this literature in Judaism, of its adoption by early
Christianity, of the various meanings which the term "apocryphal"
assumed in the course of its history, and having so done we shall
proceed to classify and deal with the books that belong to this
literature. The word most generally denotes writings which claimed to
be, or were by certain sects regarded as, sacred scriptures although
excluded from the canonical scriptures.

_Apocrypha in Judaism._--Certain circles in Judaism, as the Essenes in
Palestine (Josephus, _B.J._ ii. 8. 7) and the Therapeutae (Philo, _De
Vita Contempl._ ii. 475, ed. Mangey) in Egypt possessed a secret
literature. But such literature was not confined to the members of these
communities, but had been current among the Chasids and their successors
the Pharisees.[1] To this literature belong essentially the apocalypses
which were published in fast succession from Daniel onwards. These works
bore, perforce, the names of ancient Hebrew worthies in order to procure
them a hearing among the writers' real contemporaries. To reconcile
their late appearance with their claims to primitive antiquity the
alleged author is represented as "shutting up and sealing" (Dan. xii. 4,
9) the book, until the time of its fulfilment had arrived; for that it
was not designed for his own generation but for far-distant ages