The deuterocanonical books are the seven books of the Catholic Old Testament that aren’t in the Hebrew Bible: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees, with the Greek parts of Esther and Daniel. Protestant Bibles leave them out or print them apart as the Apocrypha, which is why they have 66 books and the Catholic Bible 73.
Updated
7books
137chapters
4,373verses
282verses in the Greek parts of Esther and Daniel
17%of the Old Testament’s verses
The seven books
In the order Catholic Bibles print them. Each links to the book, with Bp. Challoner’s summary of every chapter.
Edifying tale. Tobit is the story of a devout family in exile — a blind father, a desperate bride, and the son whose journey, guided by the archangel Raphael in disguise, heals them both. Written by an unknown Jewish author a couple of centuries before Christ, it belongs to the deuterocanonical books received by the Catholic Church.
Prayer with fasting is good, and almsgiving is better than hiding away gold in storage.
Heroic tale. Judith tells how a widow of Israel, beautiful and fearless, delivered her besieged town by walking into the enemy camp and beheading its general. Its unknown author wrote long after the events it stages, mixing eras deliberately, which signals that it is a crafted story about faith rather than a chronicle.
Let us sing a canticle to the Lord; let us sing a new hymn to our God.
Wisdom exhortation. The book of Wisdom was written in Greek by an unknown Alexandrian Jew in roughly the last century before Christ, speaking in the persona of Solomon. It addresses educated Jews tempted to trade their faith for fashionable philosophy, and answers with the boldest teaching on immortality in the Old Testament: the souls of the just are in the hand of God.
But the souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment of death will touch them.
Wisdom instruction. Sirach — called Ecclesiasticus in the Douay-Rheims — is the teaching of Jesus ben Sirach, a Jerusalem sage of about two centuries before Christ, translated into Greek by his own grandson. It is the longest wisdom book in Scripture, covering friendship, speech, wealth, humility, parenting, worship, and death with unusual warmth and realism.
A faithful friend is a strong shelter, and whoever has found one has found a treasure.
Exilic exhortation. Baruch comes down under the name of Jeremiah's secretary, presented as written among the exiles in Babylon; in the form we have, it is a later composition gathering that community's prayer of confession, a poem in praise of Wisdom, and words of comfort for Jerusalem. It closes with a letter mocking the idols of Babylon.
Historical narrative. The first book of Maccabees is a sober history of the Jewish revolt against the Greek king Antiochus, who outlawed the faith and desecrated the temple: the rising of the priest Mattathias, the campaigns of his son Judas Maccabeus, and the rededication of the altar still kept at Hanukkah. Written by an unknown Jewish author within living memory of the events, it is a deuterocanonical book of the Catholic canon.
Therefore, you sons, be strengthened and act manfully in the law. For by it, you shall become glorious.
Theological history. The second book of Maccabees retells the same persecution independently, condensing a longer work by Jason of Cyrene, and it cares less for campaigns than for meaning: the martyrdoms of the aged Eleazar and of seven brothers with their mother are its heart. A deuterocanonical book of the Catholic canon, it was written to strengthen faith under persecution with the clearest Old Testament teaching on resurrection, and its scenes of prayer and sacrifice for the dead ground the Church's practice of praying for the departed.
Therefore, it is a holy and beneficial thought to pray on behalf of those who have passed away, so that they may be released from sins.
Mass dates are from the US calendar in Bless: citations through
May 31, 2027 as published by the USCCB, later ones computed by Bless from the Lectionary cycle;
confirm with your parish. Sirach is also called Ecclesiasticus, and Tobit Tobias, in older Catholic Bibles.
The Greek parts of Esther and Daniel
Two books of the Hebrew Bible survive in longer Greek forms, and Catholic Bibles keep the longer form.
St. Jerome translated Esther from the Hebrew and gathered its Greek passages at the end of the book. So the
Vulgate’s Esther tells the whole story in chapters 1 to 10, and from 10:4 adds the Greek passages, out of their place in
the story. Modern Catholic Bibles often set them back where they belong and letter them A to F; Bless keeps the
Vulgate’s order.
Daniel’s Greek parts sit where the Greek Bible puts them: the song of the three young men inside chapter 3, and
Susanna and Bel and the dragon as chapters 13 and 14. The song is the canticle the Church still prays:
All works of the Lord, bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all forever.
One more passage is sometimes counted with these: the Letter of Jeremiah, which Catholic Bibles print as the sixth
chapter of Baruch.
Why Catholic Bibles have 73 books
The Old Testament the first Christians read was largely the Greek one, the Septuagint, and it included these books.
Councils at Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) listed them among the books of Scripture, the Council of Florence repeated
the list in 1442, and the Council of Trent defined it in 1546: the books Catholic Bibles have printed ever since,
73 as they are counted today.
In the sixteenth century the Reformers followed the Hebrew canon for the Old Testament. Luther’s German Bible of 1534
printed these books apart, between the Testaments, as worth reading but not equal to Scripture, and the King James
Version of 1611 also printed them in a section of their own. Most Protestant Bibles printed since the nineteenth
century leave them out, which is how a Protestant Bible comes to 66 books. The Orthodox Churches keep them, with a
few more besides.
The word deuterocanonical, “of the second canon”, was coined by Sixtus of Siena in 1566. It means the books
whose place in the canon was settled later, not books of second rank.
Deuterocanonical or apocryphal?
Protestant Bibles that print these books call them the Apocrypha. Catholics use that word for something else: writings
outside the canon altogether, such as the Gospel of Thomas or the Protoevangelium of James. So the same seven books are
“deuterocanonical” on a Catholic shelf and “apocryphal” on a Protestant one.
Reading them in Bless
All seven books and the Greek parts of Esther and Daniel are in Bless in full, in the CPDV and the Douay-Rheims, with
the Clementine Vulgate in Study. Bp. Challoner left 147 notes on them, and Bless links their verses to the
Catechism 59 times; both are free in the comments.
Bless has no Hebrew or Greek word study for the deuterocanon, because its sources cover only the 66 books of the
Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. On these books Study shows the Latin instead.
They are read at Mass, too. Between October 29, 2026 and December 31, 2028,
the main Mass of the day (first options only) takes a reading from these seven books 58 times, and from the Greek parts of Esther and
Daniel 12 times, in the calendar Bless follows.
Spotted a mistake? Report an error and we’ll check it against the source.
Read the deuterocanon in Bless
All seven books and the Greek parts of Esther and Daniel, with Bp. Challoner’s notes and the saints in the comments.
