The Deuterocanonical Books

In This Series (13)

The deuterocanonical books are a specific set of ancient Jewish texts included in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles but absent from Protestant ones. Catholic Bibles contain 73 books; Protestant Bibles contain 66. The seven-book difference — Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch — represents one of the most consequential divides in the history of the Bible, and it has persisted for nearly five centuries.

The term “deuterocanonical” itself tells part of the story. From the Greek deuteros (“second”) and kanon (“rule” or “standard”), it designates texts that were accepted into the canon in a secondary phase — not because they are less authoritative in the traditions that include them, but because they were recognized canonically after the primary Hebrew texts. Protestants use a different term — “apocrypha” — which carries a different judgment. Albert Sundberg, in his influential study The Old Testament of the Early Church (1964), argued that the distinction between canonical and apocryphal was a later development imposed on a collection that early Christians treated as a unified body of scripture.

The Seven Catholic Deuterocanonical Books

Each of the seven deuterocanonical books in the Catholic canon offers something distinctive. These are not minor addenda — they include some of the most vivid narrative, the most sophisticated theology, and the most historically significant writing from the Second Temple period.

Tobit tells the story of a righteous Israelite living in the Assyrian diaspora whose son Tobias, guided by the angel Raphael in disguise, undertakes a journey that defeats a demon, cures his father’s blindness, and secures a marriage. The narrative combines folk tale, angelology, and ethical instruction. Tobit was likely composed in the 2nd century BCE and survives in multiple versions; Aramaic and Hebrew fragments were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran.

Judith recounts a Jewish widow who saves her besieged town of Bethulia by infiltrating the camp of the Assyrian general Holofernes, gaining his trust, and beheading him. Most scholars regard Judith as a literary composition with deliberate historical anachronisms — the mixing of Persian, Assyrian, and Babylonian details suggests the author was constructing a symbolic narrative rather than recording events. The book was composed in the 2nd or 1st century BCE.

1 Maccabees provides a detailed historical account of the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BCE), when Jewish forces led by Judas Maccabeus resisted the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Composed around 100 BCE, it is one of the most important primary sources for this period. The story of Hanukkah comes directly from this text. The author writes with a pro-Hasmonean perspective, framing the Maccabean family as divinely appointed deliverers.

2 Maccabees covers some of the same events as 1 Maccabees but from a different theological angle. It is an abridgment of a five-volume work by Jason of Cyrene (now lost) and emphasizes divine intervention, martyrdom, and the resurrection of the dead. The passage about prayers for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:43-45) became a flashpoint during the Reformation:

He then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for an expiatory sacrifice… Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin. (2 Maccabees 12:43, 46)

This passage was central to the Catholic doctrine of purgatory and was one of the reasons Luther questioned the book’s canonical status.

Wisdom of Solomon is a philosophical text, likely composed in Greek-speaking Alexandria during the 1st century BCE. It bridges Jewish wisdom traditions and Greek philosophical categories, particularly Platonic concepts of the soul and immortality. Its portrait of Wisdom as a divine emanation influenced later Christian theology:

For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. (Wisdom 7:26)

Bruce Metzger observed that the Wisdom of Solomon provides the clearest example of a Second Temple text engaging directly with Hellenistic thought while remaining grounded in Jewish theological commitments.

Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus) was composed around 180 BCE by a Jerusalem sage named Jesus ben Sira — one of the few ancient Jewish authors whose name is known. His grandson translated the work from Hebrew into Greek around 132 BCE and added a prologue describing the process. Sirach is an extensive collection of ethical instruction, practical wisdom, and theological reflection, running to 51 chapters. It was widely used in early Christianity for moral teaching and was quoted by church fathers throughout the patristic period.

Baruch is attributed to Baruch ben Neriah, the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah. Most scholars date the text to the 2nd or 1st century BCE and consider it pseudepigraphic — composed in Baruch’s name rather than by him. It includes prose prayer, a wisdom poem, and prophetic consolation. The Letter of Jeremiah, sometimes counted as a separate text and sometimes as chapter 6 of Baruch, is a polemic against idol worship.

Additional Books in Orthodox Canons

Eastern Orthodox traditions include the seven Catholic deuterocanonical books plus several additional texts. The precise boundaries vary by national tradition, but the following are widely recognized:

1 Esdras (called 3 Esdras in some traditions) is an alternative version of material found in 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, with one unique addition: the story of the three bodyguards of King Darius, who debate whether wine, the king, women, or truth is the strongest force. The answer — truth, attributed to Zerubbabel — is one of the most memorable passages in the broader biblical tradition.

The Prayer of Manasseh is a short penitential prayer attributed to King Manasseh of Judah, one of the most condemned kings in the biblical tradition (2 Kings 21). The prayer is a model of repentance, composed likely in the 2nd or 1st century BCE.

Psalm 151 is a short psalm attributed to David, describing his anointing and his victory over Goliath. A Hebrew version was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, confirming the text’s antiquity.

3 Maccabees — despite its name — does not concern the Maccabean period. It describes the persecution of Egyptian Jews under Ptolemy IV Philopator (3rd century BCE) and their miraculous deliverance. The text was probably composed in the 1st century BCE.

4 Maccabees is included as an appendix in some Orthodox traditions. It is a philosophical discourse on the supremacy of reason over the passions, using the Maccabean martyrs as examples. Its engagement with Stoic philosophy makes it one of the most intellectually distinctive texts in the broader deuterocanonical collection.

The Broader Ethiopian Orthodox Canon

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church maintains the most expansive canon of any Christian tradition, with 81 books. Beyond the Catholic and Orthodox deuterocanonicals, the Ethiopian canon includes:

1 Enoch — a composite apocalyptic work attributed to the antediluvian patriarch
The Book of Jubilees — a retelling of Genesis and early Exodus with a solar calendar
1-3 Meqabyan — Ethiopian books with no parallel in other traditions
Additional texts unique to the Ge’ez manuscript tradition

The Ethiopian canon reflects a textual tradition that developed independently from the Western and Byzantine churches, preserving texts in Ge’ez (classical Ethiopic) that were lost to European Christianity for centuries.

Why Traditions Disagree

The deuterocanonical question is fundamentally a question about criteria: what makes a text canonical?

The answer has differed across traditions. Jerome, translating the Bible into Latin in the late 4th century, prioritized language: texts preserved in Hebrew constituted the hebraica veritas (“Hebrew truth”), while texts known only in Greek were secondary. Augustine disagreed, arguing that the long use of these texts by Christian communities constituted sufficient authority. The Council of Trent (1546) sided with Augustine, formally defining the deuterocanonical books as canonical. The Protestant Reformers, following Luther, sided with Jerome.

Sundberg argued that the division between “canonical” and “apocryphal” was anachronistic when applied to the early church: “The Old Testament of the early church was not a closed collection of books but an open one, and the Septuagint — which included the deuterocanonical texts — was its Bible.” The narrowing of the Old Testament to match the Hebrew canon was, in Sundberg’s analysis, a post-Reformation development that the early church would not have recognized.

The practical consequences persist today. A Catholic reading Sirach in church encounters it as scripture. A Protestant encountering the same text finds it in a separate section — if it appears at all. The texts have not changed. The traditions’ criteria for authority have.

The relationship between deuterocanonical and apocryphal is explored further in the companion article on what the Apocrypha contains. For the broader question of how traditions Catholic and Protestant arrived at different canons, the history involves centuries of theological debate, council decisions, and publishing economics.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the deuterocanonical books?

The deuterocanonical books are a group of Jewish texts composed during the Second Temple period (roughly 300 BCE to 100 CE) that are included in Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles but absent from Protestant ones. The Catholic canon includes seven deuterocanonical books: Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch, along with additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. The term 'deuterocanonical' (from the Greek for 'second canon') indicates that these texts were accepted into the canon later than the primary Hebrew texts but carry full canonical authority in the traditions that include them.

What is the difference between deuterocanonical and apocryphal?

The terms refer to the same set of texts but carry different theological weight. 'Deuterocanonical' is the Catholic and Orthodox term, meaning these books are fully canonical -- part of the Bible with the same authority as Genesis or the Gospels. 'Apocryphal' is the Protestant term, indicating these texts are outside the canon. The choice of label reflects which tradition is speaking. Catholics say deuterocanonical because they recognize these books as scripture. Protestants say apocryphal because they do not. The texts themselves are identical; the disagreement is about their status.

Why are the deuterocanonical books not in Protestant Bibles?

Martin Luther moved these books to a separate section in his 1534 German Bible, following Jerome's principle that only texts preserved in Hebrew (the hebraica veritas) should be considered fully canonical. The deuterocanonical books were composed in or preserved primarily in Greek. Luther also had theological objections: 2 Maccabees 12:43-45, which describes prayers for the dead, supported the Catholic doctrine of purgatory that he was opposing. Over the following centuries, Protestant publishers increasingly omitted the section to reduce printing costs, and by the 19th century most Protestant Bibles excluded these books entirely.

What are the 14 books of the Apocrypha?

Protestant editions that print the Apocrypha as a separate section typically include 14 to 15 texts: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah), the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasseh, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. The exact count varies because some editions treat certain texts as standalone books while others group them as additions to existing books. Of these, 7 are considered deuterocanonical by the Catholic Church.

Do Orthodox Bibles have more books than Catholic Bibles?

Yes. Eastern Orthodox canons include the 7 Catholic deuterocanonical books plus additional texts: 1 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees, bringing the total to 76-78 books depending on the tradition. Some Orthodox traditions include 4 Maccabees as an appendix. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church has the broadest canon of any Christian tradition with 81 books, adding 1 Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, and several other texts found in no other major Christian canon.