Deuterocanonical Books of the Bible: Apocrypha

These are the books the Protestant reformers left behind. Written during the turbulent centuries of the Second Temple period, the deuterocanonical texts were holy scripture to Catholic and Orthodox Christians for fifteen hundred years before becoming 'Apocrypha' to Martin Luther and his followers. This collection contains some of the Bible's most arresting stories: Tobit, where a young man and his dog embark on a journey of faith aided by an angel; Judith, the widow who seduces and beheads an Assyrian general to save her people; the Maccabees, whose armed revolt against Greek persecution gave us Hanukkah. Here too is the philosophical poetry of Wisdom and Sirach, the historical sweep of the Books of Esdras, and the apocalyptic visions of 2 Esdras, with its haunting angelic dialogues about why the righteous suffer. These texts divide Christianity to this day. Whether you see them as sacred canon, fascinating apocrypha, or simply great ancient literature, they offer a window into the Jewish world that produced Christianity and the theological debates that would reshape Western religion.