What Is the Apocrypha?

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The apocrypha is a collection of ancient Jewish texts, composed between roughly 300 BCE and 100 CE, that occupy different positions in different Christian traditions: canonical in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, absent from Protestant ones, and debated for centuries before and after the Reformation. The word itself comes from the Greek apokryphos, meaning “hidden” or “set aside” — a label that has shaped how millions of readers think about these texts, even though most of them were never hidden at all.

What the apocrypha contains is neither marginal nor obscure. These texts include historical narratives, wisdom literature, philosophical treatises, and devotional poetry composed during the four centuries between the last books of the Hebrew Bible and the earliest Christian writings. Bruce Metzger, whose An Introduction to the Apocrypha (1957) remains a standard reference, noted that understanding the apocryphal literature is essential for understanding the world that produced both Judaism and Christianity as we know them.

What the Term Means — and Why It’s Complicated

The term “apocrypha” carries theological weight that its Greek etymology alone does not convey. In Protestant usage, it designates texts that are outside the canon — respected, perhaps, but not authoritative. In Catholic and Orthodox usage, the same texts are called “deuterocanonical” (from the Greek deuteros, “second,” and kanon, “rule”), indicating that they were accepted into the canon in a secondary phase but carry full canonical authority.

This terminological divide reflects a substantive disagreement about what determines canonical status. Jerome, translating the Bible into Latin in the late 4th century, distinguished between texts preserved in Hebrew — what he called the hebraica veritas (“Hebrew truth”) — and texts known only in Greek. He valued the Hebrew originals more highly and placed the Greek-only texts in a separate category. Augustine, his contemporary, disagreed: these texts had been used by Christians for centuries, were part of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of Jewish texts that served as the Old Testament for early Christians), and carried the weight of long ecclesiastical use.

The disagreement between Jerome and Augustine was never fully resolved in antiquity. It resurfaced with force during the Protestant Reformation, when Martin Luther followed Jerome’s position and moved the apocryphal books to a separate section in his 1534 German Bible.

What the Apocryphal Books Actually Contain

The core apocryphal collection encompasses several distinct genres of ancient literature, each offering something different.

Historical narrative. 1 and 2 Maccabees provide detailed accounts of the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BCE), when Jewish forces led by Judas Maccabeus resisted the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who had outlawed Jewish practices and desecrated the Jerusalem Temple. These texts are among the most important historical sources for this period — the story of Hanukkah comes directly from 1 Maccabees.

Wisdom literature. Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus), composed around 180 BCE by a Jerusalem sage named Ben Sira, is one of the few ancient texts whose author is known by name. It offers ethical instruction, practical wisdom, and theological reflection in a style that bridges Proverbs and later rabbinic literature:

Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers in their generations. The Lord apportioned to them great glory, his majesty from the beginning. (Sirach 44:1-2)

Philosophical theology. The Wisdom of Solomon, likely composed in Greek-speaking Alexandria during the 1st century BCE, bridges Jewish wisdom traditions and Greek philosophical concepts. Its language about Wisdom as a divine emanation influenced early Christian theology:

For she is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty. (Wisdom 7:25)

Narrative fiction. Tobit tells the story of a righteous Israelite in the Assyrian diaspora whose son Tobias, guided by the angel Raphael, undertakes a journey that restores his father’s sight and delivers a young woman from a demon. Judith recounts a Jewish widow who saves her besieged town by deceiving and beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. Both are widely regarded by scholars as literary compositions with historical settings rather than historical accounts.

Prophetic additions. Baruch is attributed to the scribe of the prophet Jeremiah and includes poetry, prose prayer, and a wisdom hymn. The additions to Daniel include the Prayer of Azariah, the Song of the Three Young Men, Susanna (a court tale about a falsely accused woman), and Bel and the Dragon (a satire on idol worship).

How Different Traditions Draw the Line

The scope of the apocrypha varies significantly across Christian traditions, and the variation tells its own story.

Protestant traditions (66 books) follow the Hebrew canon for the Old Testament and exclude the apocryphal books entirely. However, this was not always the case. The King James Bible of 1611 included the Apocrypha as a separate section between the Old and New Testaments, and it remained in Anglican and Lutheran editions for centuries. Lee Martin McDonald has documented how the exclusion of the Apocrypha from Protestant Bibles was a gradual process driven as much by economics (shorter Bibles were cheaper to print) as by theology.

Catholic tradition (73 books) includes seven deuterocanonical books: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees, along with additions to Esther and Daniel. The Council of Trent formally defined this canon in 1546, partly in response to the Reformers’ challenge.

Eastern Orthodox traditions (76-78 books) include the Catholic deuterocanonicals plus additional texts: 1 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees. Some Orthodox traditions also include 4 Maccabees as an appendix.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (81 books) has the most expansive canon, including texts like 1 Enoch and the Book of Jubilees that no other major Christian tradition treats as canonical.

These differences are not historical accidents. They reflect centuries of independent development, different manuscript traditions, and fundamentally different criteria for determining which texts carry authority. For a complete list of the deuterocanonical books and their contents, or to understand the specific history of what books were removed from the Bible, the companion articles go deeper.

Why the Apocrypha Matters for Understanding the Bible

The apocryphal texts fill a critical gap in the historical record. The latest books of the Hebrew Bible (Daniel, Ecclesiastes, Chronicles) were composed during the Hellenistic period, roughly the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. The earliest New Testament texts (Paul’s letters) date to the 50s CE. Between those bookends lie four centuries of religious, political, and intellectual transformation — and the apocryphal literature is the primary window into that period.

The Maccabean Revolt, documented in 1 and 2 Maccabees, reshaped Jewish identity and produced the festival of Hanukkah. The wisdom traditions in Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon show how Jewish thinkers engaged with Greek philosophy. The apocalyptic expectations that pervade the New Testament — resurrection of the dead, final judgment, cosmic warfare between good and evil — developed during this period and are documented in texts like 2 Maccabees and the broader pseudepigraphal literature.

Metzger argued that readers who skip from Malachi to Matthew — from the last book of the Protestant Old Testament to the first book of the New — miss the world that made the New Testament possible. The apocryphal texts are the bridge.

Whether these texts belong in the Bible is a question that different traditions have answered differently for centuries. What is not in dispute among scholars is that they belong in any serious study of the Bible’s world. They document the ideas, the conflicts, and the communities that shaped both Judaism and Christianity during one of the most generative periods in the history of Western religion.

If you want to explore these texts with scholarly context — who composed them, when, and how they relate to the biblical writings — Uncanon provides that kind of framing for every passage. The texts. The evidence. The historical context. And room to draw your own conclusions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the apocrypha books?

The apocrypha are a group of ancient Jewish texts composed during the Second Temple period (roughly 300 BCE to 100 CE) that are included in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles but absent from Protestant ones. The core collection includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees, along with additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. Orthodox traditions include additional texts such as 1 Esdras, the Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, and 3 Maccabees. These texts were part of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of Jewish texts used by early Christians.

How many books are in the apocrypha?

The number depends on which tradition is counting. Catholic Bibles include 7 deuterocanonical books plus additions to Esther and Daniel. Eastern Orthodox Bibles add several more, including 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees, the Prayer of Manasseh, and Psalm 151 — bringing the total to roughly 10-15 additional texts beyond the Protestant canon. The Ethiopian Orthodox tradition includes an even broader collection. Protestant editions that print the Apocrypha as a separate section typically include 14-15 texts.

Why do Catholics have more books in their Bible?

Catholic Bibles include the deuterocanonical books because these texts were part of the Septuagint — the Greek Old Testament used by early Christians — and were widely cited by church fathers. The Council of Trent in 1546 formally defined them as canonical in response to the Protestant Reformation. Protestant Bibles exclude them because the Reformers, following Jerome's distinction, prioritized texts preserved in Hebrew (the hebraica veritas) over those known primarily in Greek. The difference reflects a centuries-old disagreement about what criteria determine canonical status.

Is the apocrypha part of the Bible?

It depends on which Bible. In Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, the deuterocanonical books are fully canonical — they are part of the Bible. In Protestant traditions, these same texts are considered apocryphal and are not included. The Church of England and some Lutheran traditions occupy a middle position, treating the Apocrypha as edifying but not authoritative for doctrine. The King James Bible of 1611 included the Apocrypha as a separate section between the Old and New Testaments.

What is the difference between apocrypha and deuterocanonical?

The terms refer to the same texts but reflect different theological evaluations. 'Apocrypha' comes from the Greek apokryphos ('hidden' or 'set aside') and is the Protestant term, implying these books are outside the canon. 'Deuterocanonical' ('second canon') is the Catholic and Orthodox term, indicating that while these books were accepted into the canon later than the primary Hebrew texts, they carry full canonical authority. The choice of terminology often signals which tradition the speaker belongs to.

Who removed the apocrypha from the Bible?

The apocrypha was not removed by a single person or decree. Martin Luther moved these books to a separate section in his 1534 German Bible, calling them 'useful and good to read' but not equal to canonical texts. Over the following centuries, Protestant publishers increasingly omitted the section entirely to reduce printing costs. The British and Foreign Bible Society stopped funding Bibles with the Apocrypha in 1826, which effectively ended its inclusion in most Protestant editions. Catholic and Orthodox traditions never removed these books — they remain canonical today.

Are apocryphal books reliable?

The apocryphal books are genuine ancient texts composed during the Second Temple period. Their historical reliability varies by text and by what question is being asked. 1 and 2 Maccabees provide firsthand accounts of the Maccabean Revolt (167-160 BCE) that are among the most important historical sources for this period. Tobit and Judith are widely regarded as literary fiction with historical settings. Wisdom of Solomon and Sirach are philosophical and ethical works. Scholars evaluate each text on its own merits, just as they do with canonical books.

Did Jesus quote the apocrypha?

The canonical Gospels do not record Jesus directly quoting the apocryphal books, though scholars have identified parallels and allusions. The Sermon on the Mount contains language that echoes Sirach, and the parable of the rich fool has parallels in Wisdom of Solomon. The New Testament letter of Jude quotes 1 Enoch (a pseudepigraphal text) directly. Early Christians were clearly familiar with these texts, and the line between 'quotation' and 'shared tradition' is not always clear-cut.