Apocrypha - (from the Greek ἀπόκρῠφος - secret, hidden) - writings about the events and characters of Sacred history that arose at the turn of our era, not included in the official church canons. The Apocrypha is traditionally divided into Old Testament and New Testament (by analogy with the texts of the canonical Bible). Slavic translations of the Apocrypha appeared, apparently, together with translations of the texts of the Holy Scriptures during the Cyril and Methodius period of the development of translated writing, and came to Rus' with the adoption of Christianity. These books were included in the “renounced” lists, but nevertheless were very popular in ancient Rus'. The Apocrypha attracted the attention of readers because they complemented the biblical narrative, which was spare in detail, and in a lively, entertaining form, with a significant element of medieval fantasy. They raised the most important ideological questions about the meaning of existence, about the beginning and end of the world, about hell and heaven with a detailed description of both heavenly bliss and hellish torment. The apocrypha depicted with amazing detail the fate of the human soul after death, the ordeal to which the souls of sinners were subjected. A. turned into a kind of folk Bible, occupying an intermediate position between book and oral traditions. Old Russian art often turned to these apocryphal subjects. Apocryphal stories are also reflected in spiritual poems