Deuterocanonical books

Deuterocanonical books means "second canon" in Greek. It usually means the parts of the Bible that are only used by some Christian churches (mostly Roman Catholic and Orthodox). The books only exist in Greek language manuscripts that were written by the Jewish people living in Greek speaking areas of the Mediterranean Sea between 250 and 50 BC, as were all of the books of the Old Testament. It was not until circa 900 AD that the Old Testament as known in Jewish and Protestant religions was written in Hebrew and limited to the current so-called "canons".

The books are not part of the Jewish Tanakh (also called the Hebrew Bible), although they were quoted as Scripture well into the Middle Ages as is found in the Jewish Mishna and later Rabbinical writings, even into the 6th century AD. The current Jewish canon was closed by the time of the Masoretic Text in the 10th century AD.

Some books considered deuterocanonical by Catholics are:

• The Book of Tobit
• The Book of Judith
• The First Book of Maccabees, also called 1 Maccabees
• The Second Book of Maccabees, also called 2 Maccabees
• The Wisdom of Solomon, also called The Book of Wisdom
• The Book of Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus
• The Book of Baruch, with the Letter of Jeremiah as its last chapter

The Book of Daniel and the Book of Esther are longer in Catholic Bibles than in Protestant Bibles because they have more stories.

Many, but not all Protestant churches do not accept these books as inspired by God and use the derogatory term for them: Apocrypha. Martin Luther considered these books good to read while John Calvin read and studied them but did not think they should be part of the Bible.