Deuterocanonical Books

Scope and Contents

The term "deuterocanonical" means "belonging to the second canon," that is, books admitted to the canon at a second stage. It is not a word found in the biblical text but a term used to describe the extent of the canon (the books the church recognizes as the Word of God). The deuterocanonical books that the Catholic Church includes in the Old Testament are listed below. Book titles follow Catholic usage.

• Tobit: the story of Tobit, an Israelite taken into captivity, and his son Tobias
• Judith: the story of the widow Judith, who saves her people by killing the enemy commander
• 1 and 2 Maccabees: the struggle of the Maccabean family against persecution by the Seleucid dynasty in the second century BC
• Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon): a book written under the name of Solomon that deals with wisdom and the destiny of the righteous
• Sirach: a work of wisdom literature collecting the teachings of Ben Sira, also known as Ecclesiasticus
• Baruch: a book transmitted under the name of Baruch, the scribe of Jeremiah
• Additions to Esther and Daniel: prayers and narratives not found in the Hebrew text. The additions to Daniel include the Song of the Three Young Men and the story of Susanna, among others.

The Orthodox Church includes several additional books, such as the Prayer of Manasseh and 3 Maccabees.

Background

Most of these books are thought to have been written during the intertestamental period, and many have been transmitted in Greek. Because they were included in the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, they were widely read in the early church. However, they did not become part of the Jewish Hebrew Bible, that is, the tradition that led to the Masoretic Text.

In the fourth century, Jerome distinguished these books from the Hebrew canon while translating the Latin Vulgate. Nevertheless, they were included in the Vulgate. The term "deuterocanonical" is generally believed to have been coined by the sixteenth-century Catholic scholar Sixtus of Siena.

Significance for the Bible as a Whole

The New Testament does not directly quote the deuterocanonical books. They do, however, help illuminate the background of the New Testament era. The Feast of Dedication observed in Jerusalem (John 10:22) originated in the rededication of the temple recorded in Maccabees. Some interpreters also connect the reference in Hebrews 11:35 to those who were tortured with the account of martyrdom in 2 Maccabees 7.

Views by Tradition

• Catholic Church: The Council of Trent (1546) affirmed these books as canonical, possessing the same authority as the other books of the Old Testament.
• Orthodox Church: Following the Septuagint tradition, it includes them in the Old Testament.
• Lutheran Church: In his 1534 German Bible, Martin Luther gathered these books separately between the Old and New Testaments, introducing them as books "not held equal to Holy Scripture, yet useful and good to read."
• Presbyterian and Reformed Churches: Chapter 1 of the Westminster Confession of Faith holds that these books are not of divine inspiration. Accordingly, they have no authority in the church and are to be treated like other human writings.
• Anglican Communion: Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles states that these books are to be read for example of life and instruction of manners, but are not to be applied to establish any doctrine.

Protestants commonly call these books the Apocrypha (books outside the canon). One frequently cited point of contention is that 2 Maccabees 12 contains prayer for the dead, a passage used in discussions of the doctrine of purgatory. The deuterocanonical books are also distinct from the pseudepigrapha, such as the Book of Enoch, which are generally not included in the canon of any tradition.

In the Korean Church

The New Korean Revised Version, used chiefly by Korean Protestants, does not contain the deuterocanonical books. The Common Translation Bible, published jointly by Protestants and Catholics in 1977, has an edition that includes them. The Korean Catholic Church used this edition until it published its new Bible in 2005. The Anglican Church of Korea has also primarily used the Common Translation.