What are the Apocrypha and the deuterocanonical books?

Scripture & How We Got ItIn theological review

The short answer

The Apocrypha, called deuterocanonical books by Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, are Jewish writings from the centuries between the testaments, including Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. They are valuable history and devotion, but Protestants do not receive them as Scripture because they were not part of the Hebrew canon Jesus and the apostles used.

The fuller answer

Names first. Protestant Bibles usually call this collection the Apocrypha, meaning hidden or disputed books. Roman Catholic teaching calls the same core books deuterocanonical, meaning second canon, and the Council of Trent formally listed them as Scripture in 1546. The books themselves are mostly Jewish works in Greek from roughly the last two centuries before Christ, preserved because the early Greek speaking church read them widely. Their survival in Greek is itself part of the Septuagint story, since the Greek Old Testament circulated with a wider company of books than the Hebrew Scriptures of the synagogue.

Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.

Romans 3:2 (BSB)

Their content explains both their appeal and the dispute. First and Second Maccabees give real history of Jewish resistance under Greek rulers, with no rival source for parts of that story. Tobit and Judith are edifying stories, Wisdom and Sirach offer proverb style teaching. Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate, said in his prefaces that the church read such books for edification but did not use them to establish doctrine, distinguishing them from the Hebrew canon. The Orthodox churches receive a slightly wider list again, which is why this site treats the differing canons as a separate question, rather than flattening them into one answer.

Jesus said to them, “These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

Luke 24:44 (BSB)

Jesus described Israel's Scriptures as the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible, which contains no place for these books. The New Testament never quotes them as Scripture. So the fair summary is this: read them with profit for history and background, honour those who receive them differently, and test doctrine, as Jerome urged, by the canon Christ himself recognised.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 3:16 (BSB)

For a Protestant reader opening these books for the first time, Maccabees is the best door, read as history alongside Daniel and the Gospels' background, and Sirach the best second, read as wisdom beside Proverbs. Read them as you would read a respected ancient commentary: gratefully, critically, and under the judgement of the canon Jesus used. For Catholic and Orthodox friends, the same books carry more weight, and honest conversation should name that difference plainly rather than pretending it is trivial or treating the other side as careless with God's word.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
Council of Trent, Fourth Session (1546)
Jerome, prefaces to the Vulgate books

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

Why do Catholic Bibles have more books?Because the Roman Catholic Church counts an extra group of ancient Jewish writings, the deuterocanonical books, as Scripture, and Protestant churches follow the shorter Hebrew canon that Jesus and the apostles used. The books themselves are old and were widely read. The disagreement is about their authority, and it was fixed formally at the Council of Trent in 1546.Why does the Bible have 66 books?Because those are the books the people of God recognised as carrying his authority: the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms that Jesus himself named, and the writings of his apostles. Thirty nine books of the Old Testament and twenty seven of the New. The number was never a target. It is simply the shape of what was received.Did a council choose the books of the Bible?No. No council sat down and picked the winners. The books were recognised, not selected: the churches received writings that carried the authority of the prophets and apostles, used them for generations, and the later lists and councils named what was already received. The section of this site called How We Got the Bible works through the documents one by one.What is the Septuagint?The Septuagint is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, begun in Egypt in the third century before Christ for Greek speaking Jews. It became the Bible most quoted by the New Testament writers, and its name, often shortened to LXX, comes from a later legend about seventy translators.How We Got the Bible: One Bible, different canonsThe one real difference between Christian Bibles, stated fairly from each side, and where Contend stands.How We Got the Bible: Why some books are not inThe same tests, applied to the books that did not pass them: later dates, borrowed names, a different message.How We Got the Bible: The Old Testament canonRecognized over centuries in three parts, and counted more than one way. The Jamnia story, told as the debate it is.