Ep 10: Did the Bible Ever Have More Than 66 Books?
Up until 1826, every King James Bible ever printed contained more books than it does today. So what were those extra books - and what happened to them?
They are called the Apocrypha. The word comes from Greek, meaning hidden or set apart.
These are ancient Jewish writings, most of them composed during the 400 silent years between Malachi and the New Testament - written by Jews, for Jewish communities, covering a wide range of ground.
Some of these books read like historical novels - stories of faithful Jews resisting foreign rule. Others are wisdom literature, prayers, and philosophy. And then there are additions to books you already know: extra chapters added to Daniel, extra scenes added to Esther, and even an additional Psalm.
These writings were circulating during the same period the Hebrew canon - the 24 books of the Tanakh - was being finalized. They were valued by Jewish communities, but never quite elevated to the same level as the closed canon.
How They Entered the Christian Bible
As we covered in an earlier episode, the Hellenization of the ancient world produced the Septuagint - a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, assembled by Greek-speaking Jews who needed their scriptures in a language they could read. When they put together that Greek collection, these extra writings came along with it.
When early Christians inherited the Septuagint as their scripture, they inherited these additional books too. For much of early church history, the Apocrypha was simply part of what you read - mingled in with the rest of the Old Testament. The debate about whether they truly belonged, however, goes back to the earliest centuries. Many church leaders saw them as valuable but secondary. That tension simmered for over a thousand years.
The Reformation and the Hard Line
In the 1500s, the Reformers drew a firm line. Martin Luther argued that if a book was not in the Hebrew Bible - the Tanakh - it had no business being treated as equal Scripture. So whatever was not in the Tanakh, he grouped together, moved to a separate section between the Old and New Testaments in his German Bible, and labeled it useful, but not equal.
The Catholic Church went the other direction - formally keeping these books as part of their canon in 1546. Catholics refer to them as the Deuterocanonical books, meaning second canon or belonging to the second listing of the canon. They are considered fully scriptural and are read as part of the Catholic Mass today. Orthodox Christians also retain them - and in some traditions, accept even a few more books beyond what Catholics include.
For Protestants, however, Luther's separate section slowly became no section at all.
1826: The Tipping Point
By 1826, the British and Foreign Bible Society - one of the most influential Bible publishers in the world - stopped funding any Bible printing that included the Apocrypha. The decision was partly driven by theological conviction and partly by economics: fewer pages meant cheaper Bibles and wider distribution. From that point on, the Apocrypha quietly disappeared from Protestant Bibles.
And that is how the Protestant Bible settled at the 66 books we know today.
A Quick Reference
| Tradition | Name for these books | Included in Bible? | Total books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jewish (Tanakh) | Not included | No | 24 (Tanakh) |
| Protestant | Apocrypha | No | 66 |
| Catholic | Deuterocanonical | Yes | 73 |
| Orthodox | Deuterocanonical / Anagignoskomena | Yes | 76+ |
Timeline: How the Apocrypha Traveled Through History
The Apocrypha - A Timeline
How ancient writings entered, persisted, and disappeared from the Bible
This is Episode 11 of The Bible: From Scroll to Screen - a series exploring how the Bible was written, preserved, transmitted, and shaped through history.
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