What’s so special about the deuterocanonical books?
The deuterocanonical books are special in that they include inspiring stories of Jewish heroes as well as discussions of important segments of Jewish history. In them we also find wise sayings and good advice for living a holy life. Some scholars believe they provide a link between the Hebrew Old Testament and the New Testament because they record the religious history of the Jews during the times between the Babylonian exile and the birth of Jesus. We might ask, “Why are these writings omitted from Protestant Old Testament?” To understand why Protestants omit these deuterocanonical books, we must consider how the Jewish Scriptures were used in the early Church. Around the first century A.D., there were two Jewish Bibles in widespread use. One was called the Hebrew Bible and it was popular in Judea. The other was called the Septuagint Bible; it was a Greek translation of the Jewish Scripture and it included these deuterocanonical books. Both the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint Bible we
