The Deuterocanonical Books, Explained

Between the familiar books of the Old Testament, every Catholic Bible carries seven that many readers have never opened: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees, along with Greek passages of Esther and Daniel. They are called the deuterocanonical books. The name sounds technical; the books themselves are anything but — among them are an adventure tale, a war chronicle, a courtroom drama, and some of the most practical counsel in all of Scripture.

What the name means

Deuterocanonical comes from the Greek deuteros, meaning second. The label was coined in the sixteenth century by Sixtus of Siena, a Catholic scholar, to distinguish books whose place in the canon had been discussed and settled later from those that were never questioned. Second canon does not mean second-rate: in Catholic teaching these books are Scripture in the full sense, read at Mass and cited by the Church's earliest writers. Most of them were composed, or at least preserved, in Greek during the last few centuries before Christ — which is exactly why communities that measured the canon by the Hebrew language set them apart.

The books, one by one

• Tobit — part travel story, part parable: a blind father, a dutiful son, a companion who is more than he seems, and a wedding against the odds.
• Judith — a widow outwits a general and saves her city; one of the most dramatic plots in the Old Testament.
• Wisdom — written for Jews surrounded by Greek culture, it wrestles with justice, suffering, and the hope of immortality.
• Sirach — a long book of grounded counsel on friendship, anger, wealth, humility, and raising children.
• Baruch — prayers and poems attributed to the secretary of the prophet Jeremiah, set during the exile in Babylon.
• 1 Maccabees — a sober war chronicle of the Jewish revolt against forced Hellenization in the 160s BC.
• 2 Maccabees — the same era told with an eye for martyrdom, resurrection, and prayer on behalf of the dead.
• The Greek passages of Esther and Daniel — including the story of Susanna, a courtroom drama about false witnesses and a young Daniel.

Why they are worth knowing

Historically, the Maccabees books are the bridge between the testaments: they explain how Judea came to be ruled by the dynasties and factions the Gospels take for granted, and they record the origin of Hanukkah. Wisdom reads like a preview of themes the New Testament will take up — the righteous man condemned, death entering the world through envy. Sirach was used so widely in early Christian instruction that it earned the nickname Ecclesiasticus, the church book. And Tobit and Judith are simply good stories, short enough to finish in a sitting.

Where you will meet them

Catholics encounter these books more often than they may realize. The lectionary draws on Wisdom and Sirach regularly on Sundays and weekdays, readings from the Maccabees appear in November when the Church remembers the dead, and Tobit supplies one of the traditional readings at weddings. If you want to meet them in full rather than in excerpts, the Adorantis app includes the entire Catholic canon — all 73 books, the deuterocanon among them — ready to hear on an iPhone, offline included.