The Apocrypha

In the Protestant sense the fourteen are 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, the Additions to Esther, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch with the Letter of Jeremiah, the Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Children, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, the Prayer of Manasseh, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. This is the list the 1611 King James Bible printed; Catholic and Orthodox Bibles use different lists.

The seven usually meant are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees. Luther did not delete them: his 1534 German Bible printed them in a separate section headed Apocrypha, as books useful to read but not equal to Scripture.

The Apocrypha usually means ancient Jewish writings included in some Christian Bibles but outside the Hebrew biblical canon. The term also has a broader use for other religious writings associated with biblical figures.

It depends on the biblical tradition. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include books absent from most Protestant Old Testaments, though their lists differ. Some Protestant Bibles place apocryphal books in a separate section.

The Apocrypha has no single author, and authorship is uncertain for many of its writings. A biblical name in a title does not necessarily identify the historical writer, so attribution needs to be considered separately for each text.

Start with The Book of Tobit if you prefer a story: a son travels abroad while two families face affliction. For a different approach, choose Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach and its counsel connecting daily conduct with religious wisdom.

1 Enoch and The Book of Jubilees are not part of the usual Protestant Apocrypha, but both belong to the Ethiopian Orthodox biblical tradition. They appear here as related ancient writings rather than as part of a single shared biblical list.