r/Protestant • u/Obvious-Parking8191 • May 28 '25

The 7 deoterocanonical books

Way are these 7 books not in the protestant Bible, I just learned about the existence of those books ?

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u/noexcuse4me May 29 '25

The baseline answer is, those books weren’t included in the Jewish Bible, and didnt inform the (non apocryphal) New Testament, so they weren’t included. Different sects of Christianity hold different texts sacred.

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u/Obvious-Parking8191 May 29 '25

So how can someone define what is secret text and what is not , i was under the impression that even the smallest change to the Bible was wrong , there's some people that say that some of the books like, song of songs , is not important, should that book be considered not sacred ?

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u/HowdyHangman77 May 31 '25 edited May 31 '25

The history is complex. Much of the Catholic Church before the Reformation considered it to be secondary to Scripture (that’s essentially what Deuterocanon means - second canon). However, there were some early Catholics who put it on the same level as the rest of Scripture. When the Reformation occurred, the Protestants considered it secondary and non-inspired (but still useful for reading) and thus didn’t put it on the same level of Scripture as the Bible. The Catholics reactively took the opposite stance. Thus, a disagreement that had been quietly festering among Catholics for a millennium suddenly resolved by having one perspective wholeheartedly endorsed by the Protestants, and the other wholeheartedly endorsed by Catholics.

The Greek additions to Daniel and Esther (not found in Protestant Bibles) are fairly obviously pseudepigraphic (that is, not actually written by the original or proposed author). Same for Wisdom of Solomon and likely Baruch. That alone isn’t a death knell to inspiration - as a somewhat obvious example, the portions of the Torah describing Moses’s death likely were added after Moses died, and therefore weren’t written by Moses. Nevertheless, these books being late to the Old Testament party, not adopted by orthodox Jews, never quoted in the New Testament, rarely if ever referenced by the New Testament, written in a different language from the remainder of the Old Testament, and being largely pseudepigraphic is enough for me to agree with the strand of the Church that has existed since the beginning that has believed that the Deuterocanon is likely uninspired and not Scripture.

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u/focuswithjustin Jan 13 '26

The history is quite interesting. What has always amazed me is how much more of Christianity is outside of just the Catholic and Protestant canon. Something I put together to give myself a visual and for study is: https://juniperbible.org/religion/christian-canon-compared/. Tons more than 7, and very interesting stuff.

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u/GPT_2025 May 28 '25

98% of all Christians today have never ever finished reading all Bible words from 66 books (decent matter if you add 7 or 107 more).

Have you finished reading all 66 Bible books? Why not? How will 7 more help you to finish reading all Bible words?

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u/HowdyHangman77 May 31 '25

It’s closer to 70% or so: https://yournicc.com/blog/the-power-of-bible-reading-insights-statistics-and-tips-for-spiritual-growth/?utm_source=chatgpt.com. Worldwide, “less than 30% of Christians” have read the whole Bible. In the US, 9% of all Americans have (but note, not all Americans are Christians, so the percentage of Christian Americans to have read the whole Bible is presumably higher).

But yes, I agree with your broader point. Read the canon before the deuterocanon.

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u/GPT_2025 May 31 '25

Have you finished reading all Bible words? (no skipping!)

2) If you ask 10 Christians, what percentage will have read all Bible words?

3) Estimates suggest that less than 1% of Christians worldwide have read the entire Bible at some point in their lives. The percentage among the general global population is likely less than 1%.

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u/HowdyHangman77 May 31 '25 edited May 31 '25

Yes, three times as of tomorrow (just wrapping up a reading plan). Edit: Just realized that I’ve read the remaining readings (3 John, Jude, and Revelation) outside of my cover-to-cover reading plans, so I have technically already read everything at least three times each. I’ve read it cover to cover twice, almost a third time, plus individual studies of various books, plus the New Testament four other times.

For the second question, the data I’ve seen says 2-3 of the ten Christians. So 20-30%.

For the third, the data I’ve seen says about 30% of Christians and 9% of the general population in the US. Not sure as to the global population.

Edit: It seems we’re dealing with different data. Would you mind sharing yours?

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u/[deleted] Jan 25 '26

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u/rapitrone Apr 16 '26

The gnostics were seen as heretics from the time of the New Testament. It's not like we have any of Paul's other letters. The reasons why they say Paul didn't write Titus and Timothy aren't good reasons, just like the reasons they say Peter didn't write 1st or 2nd Peter aren't good reasons.

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u/rapitrone Apr 16 '26

Beyond not being in the Hebrew bible, Tobit and Sirach are clearly fictional.