What Is the Deuterocanon or Apocrypha?

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BibleProject Podcast

Christianity, Old Testament, Torah, Theology, New Testament, God, Demons, Tim Mackie, Bible Study, Angels, Bible, Jesus, Spiritual Beings, Jon Collins, Religion & Spirituality, Spirit, Satan

4.8 • 18.5K Ratings

🗓️ 12 May 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

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Summary

How the Bible Was Formed E1 — If you’ve ever compared a Protestant Bible to a Catholic Bible, you may notice some additional books in the Catholic Bible, such as Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, etc. These books, called the Deuterocanon by Catholics and the Apocrypha by Protestants, are Jewish Literature from the period after the Babylonian exile but before the time of Jesus. The Jewish people were back in the land, being ruled by Syria and other empires descended from Alexander the Great. As they read the Hebrew Bible, they created many new literary works, reflecting on stories in Scripture and what was happening in their own day. So how do we understand the status and value of these books when compared to the Hebrew Bible and New Testament? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the background, history, and content of this Second-Temple Jewish literature.

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a difference between a Protestant Bible and a Catholic Bible,
0:09.4	namely, the Catholic Bible has extra books in it.
0:12.8	We're talking Tobit, Judas, First and Second Maccabees,
0:17.3	wisdom of Solomon, wisdom of Ben Sera, Baruch, and Letter of Jeremiah.
0:22.1	So we're about to seven or eight works.
0:24.2	And then you've got two books that have a 2.0 edition, Daniel and Esther.
0:28.9	In Roman Catholic tradition, this material was given a name within a Catholic tradition called the Dutro canon, the second canon.
0:38.5	This literature comes from the time where the Jewish people were taken over by Syria,
0:43.5	and then Alexander the Great.
0:45.1	And as they read the Hebrew Bible and tried to make sense of what was going on in their day,
0:48.9	they generated many new literary works, many of which became sacred and important to them.
0:55.2	It's amazing literature.
0:57.0	It's restatements of the Bible for new communities in that Second Temple period.
1:02.5	If you're Catholic, you highly value these books.
1:05.9	If you're Protestant, you may be surprised to learn about them.
1:08.7	Either way, this collection, called the Dudoroc canon,
1:12.7	has a deep history in Christianity.
1:15.6	Jesus and the apostles and the generations after them of Christianity
1:19.9	read these books and valued them so much
1:23.2	that they began to be preserved and included along with biblical manuscripts in the earliest
1:29.5	centuries of the Jesus Movement.
1:31.7	Whatever faith tradition you come from, it's important to realize that these literary works
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