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The Final Books Written in the Old Testament
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The Deuterocanonical Books (a.k.a. "The Apocrypha")
Jewish and Protestant Bibles have seven less books than the Catholic Bible, and most Orthodox Christians have even more books that the Catholics. This page explains why this is the case.
Use the links below to skip ahead to various sections of this page.
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Before Christ: Scrolls, Not Books
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Before the birth of Christ, ancient Jews kept their scriptures on individual scrolls. For example, what we know as 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings was intended as one document, but the document was too long to fit on a single scroll. All 12 of the so-called “Minor Prophets” (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habukkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi) fit on a single scroll. As these scrolls were copied and passed from one generation to the next, they continued to be edited. In the time of Second Temple Judaism (515 BC - 70 AD), it is not clear if Jews ever considered there to be a definitive version of any specific scroll. Second Temple Jews clearly did not have an established canon—a definitive list of scrolls that were considered inspired texts.
In the time of Jesus, Jews in Judaea used scrolls written in Hebrew. Jews living in the diaspora outside of Judaea—a larger percentage of the world Jewish population at the time—used the Septuagint, a set of scrolls translated into Greek in the 2nd century BC.
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How the Various Canons Came to Be
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It was only after the invention of codices (bound tablets, the predecessors of books) in the 1st century AD that the question arose about which scrolls to include in the canon. By then, Jews and Christians had separated into different religious traditions.
Christians established their Old Testament canon first, c. 70 AD. Because Christianity was spreading primarily among Greeks outside of Judaea, they based their canon on the Septuagint.
Thirty years later, Judaism established its canon, called the Tanakh. Jews chose a collection of Hebrew-language scrolls, but those scrolls continued to be copied and edited for several more centuries. It was only in the 7th through 10th centuries AD that most Jews settled on the Masoretic version of each book within the established canon.
Even though the Council of Rome definitively declared the Christian Old Testament canon in 382 AD, there always existed differences between the Eastern and Western Church on which scrolls/books to include in the canon. After the Great Schism of 1054, the various Eastern Orthodox churches each established their own canon. While these canons of the Eastern churches are similar, they are not all identical to one another.
In the 16th century, for a variety of reasons, Martin Luther chose to use the Jewish canon for his church’s Old Testament canon. After this, at the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church reaffirmed the Council of Rome's canon of 382.
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The Canons of Jews, Catholics, Orthodox, & Protestants
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Therefore, various religious traditions use different canons for the Old Testament.
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The Jewish and Protestant traditions have the same canon. Jews usually count it as 24 books by combining the 12 “Minor Prophets” into a single book; considering Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles to be one book each; and combining Ezra and Nehemiah into one book. Protestants count it as 39 books.
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The Catholic canon has a total of 46 books. It includes everything in the Jewish/Protestant canon, plus another 7 books: Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, Baruch, Wisdom, and Sirach (sometimes called Ecclesiasticus—not be confused with Ecclesiastes). Also, there are significant additions to both Esther and Daniel. These parts of the Catholic canon not included in the Jewish and Protestant are called the deuterocanonical (second canon) books. Protestants often refer to this part of the Catholic/Orthodox canon as the “Apocrypha” (hidden books), but that is considered to be a derogatory term by some Catholics and Orthodox.
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The Eastern Orthodox churches have a variety of canons, all of which include everything in the Catholic canon. Typically, they also include 1 Esdras (2 Esdras is the same as Ezra-Nehemiah), 3 Maccabees, and an additional Psalm 151. Chapter 6 of Baruch is usually a separate book called “the Letter of Jeremiah.” Protestants also consider these books to be part of the “Apocrypha.”
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What Are We to Make of the Differences?
All of these traditions agree that the books they share in common form the most essential parts of the Jewish Scriptures. The books on which they disagree are of lesser importance. For example, Jewish rabbis in the time of Jesus sometimes referred to deuterocanonical writings. Matthew—writing in Greek—clearly quotes from a Hebrew version of the Jewish Scriptures, while Luke quotes from the Septuagint. In their studies today, scholars from all the traditions will reference books in the other canons, as well as books/scrolls not included in any of the canons, such as Jubilees.
In other words, the Catholic Church declares that the deuterocanonical books are inspired by the Holy Spirit. However, the Church would never argue that this part of the canon is as important to the Apostolic Tradition as for example Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, or Jeremiah.
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Some Interesting Observations
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The deuterocanonical books record the events and theological developments in the last three centuries before the birth of Christ.
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The events surrounding the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah (165 BC) are recorded in 1 & 2 Maccabees, books that are part of the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons, but are not part of the Jewish canon.
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The Jewish and Protestant versions of Esther do not include any references to God. The six additional sections in the Catholic and Orthodox canons (usually labeled as chapters A through F) include prayers and religious commentary, similar to the most valued portions of Tobit. It appears as if the Septuagint captures a later phase in the development of the Book of Esther than the Hebrew version.
A more comprehensive look at Judaism in the time of the deuterocanonical books can be found on our page on Wisdom, Maccabees, and Daniel. For a summary of historical events, look at the sections titled "The Greek Period," "The Maccabean Revolt," and "The Roman Period" near the top of the page. For a summary of theological developments, check out the "Synthesis" section near the bottom of the page.
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More About Esther...
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Esther - attributed to Kate Gardiner Hastings
As mentioned above, the Catholic/Orthodox version of Esther is much more sophisticated than the version in the Jewish/Protestant canon. However, because we only hear from the Book of Esther on the Thursday of the First (full) Week of Lent, the lectionary does not provide a sense of the scope of the book.
The consensus of modern scholars is that Esther is a work of fiction, set in the 5th century BC but reaching its final (Septuagint) form c. 100 BC. The story speaks to the important themes of race, religion, persecution, genocide, and how a solitary faith-filled person can change the course of events. It inspires the annual Jewish feast of Purim, celebrated some time between mid-February and mid-March.
Esther is a young Jewish woman living in the Persian Empire, chosen to be wife to the Emperor because of her beauty. Esther may be a queen, but she is a young, inexperienced woman who is considered by some Persians to be of an inferior race. Esther learns of an edict put forward by an enemy of her uncle Mordecai, calling for the genocide of all Jews throughout the empire. After fervent prayer and at great risk to herself, Esther uses her limited power to convince the Emperor to reverse the edict, thus saving Persian Jews from annihilation.
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What About Judith?
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The Book of Judith is almost definitely a work of fiction, as it mixes historical details over five centuries into a short time span. It is about a dramatic Jewish military victory accomplished not by an army, but by a solitary widow. It was likely written around 100 BC.
Judith is not included anywhere in the lectionary for Mass. This is probably for two reasons. First, it is a long, complex story from which it is hard to extract a short pericope that encapsulates the full wisdom of the book. Second, its status as a deuterocanonical book makes it a less important book to include in the lectionary, although Judith’s Hymn of Deliverance (chapter 16) is included in the Morning Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours.
Contrast the lectionary treatment of Judith with Esther and the story of Joseph (Genesis, chapters 37, 39-49). All three stories are long, complex narratives. While the lectionary gives us pericopes of the Joseph narrative over three days during Week 14 of Ordinary Time Year I, and a single pericope from Esther in Lent, a listener unfamiliar with the entirety of these stories would likely fail to grasp the thrust of the narratives.
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Judith decapitating Holofernes - Artemisia Gentileschi
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This concludes page 11 of 40 in our Lectionary Guide. For a comprehensive reading of the entire guide, we suggest going next to the Book of Tobit.
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