Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically

by Beth Felker Jones

Deuterocanonical Books Many Christians are aware of differences between the canonical lists of books accepted by Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians. During the Protestant Reformation, a growing interest in studying the Bible in the original languages—Greek and Hebrew—drew attention to the fact that a portion of the books being used as the Old Testament did not exist in Hebrew. The Roman Catholic canon, which includes these books Protestants view as deuterocanonical or apocryphal, was officially proclaimed at the Council of Trent against the Protestant exclusion of these books. These Latin books had long been used as Christian Scripture, but Protestants excluded them from the canon because they were not recognized as Scripture by the Jewish people. Most of the deuterocanonical books were written during the period between the Old and New Testaments, and these books are useful for understanding that time.