The Deuterocanon, more commonly known as Apocrypha, is the collection of writings often sandwiched between the Old and New Testaments. These books are considered by some Christian denominations to be canonical or semi-canonical. While Protestants largely reject the books as spurious or even heretical, and the Roman and Orthodox churches accept them as canonical, it may be wise to recognize that historic Christianity has held to more of a middle ground, including by Reformers such as Martin Luther and early Catholic writers like Jerome. There has always been a distinction between protocanonical books of the Bible and the deuterocanonical books—the former being near-universally attested to as God-breathed by the Church and the latter often questioned for their canonicity. At the same time, the deuterocanonical books are held in higher regard than the truly heretical Gnostic works that were written after the advent of Christianity.
While it is unwise to hold the apocryphal Deuterocanon to the same God-breathed standard as the 66 books of the Bible, we hold, as Martin Luther did, to their value as possibly true and good to read, but unverified:
“Apocrypha, that are books which are not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are useful and good to read.”
Because certain books of the Roman Catholic Deuterocanon do not rise to the level of Holy Scripture, we must reject their canonicity, but that rejection does not exclude their profitability for reading as enlightening works that closely mirror Scripture and inform us about ancient, biblical history. They are lower than Scripture, but not spurious or inherently heretical. The Constitution of the CCC states:
“The Bible is the final authority for all matters of life, faith, and doctrine and in its original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic form is completely infallible. The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all else (Jer. 17:9) and the understanding of mankind corrupted (1 Cor. 1:20; 3:19), so God’s word must inform and ultimately decide all questions of truth and doctrine. The CCC rejects the deuterocanonical books, otherwise known as Apocrypha, because the ancient Jewish canons excluded them, Jesus excludes the time period in which they were written in Luke 11:50–51, no references can be found to them in the New Testament, and early Christians like Jerome fought against their inclusion. However, the Bible mentions and makes allusion to several books that are not in the current Protestant canon such as Jasher, Enoch, and the Wars of the Lord. The true canon begins with Genesis, ends with Revelation, excludes the Apocrypha, and likely includes several of these other referenced books, although it is not clear that the current translations of Jasher, Enoch, and others are accurate translations of the original writings and therefore their authority is in dispute. For this reason only the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon are considered authoritative and divinely inspired, although the study of Jasher, Enoch, and other books that are explicitly mentioned or referenced in Scripture is not precluded, so long as the studier recognizes their current unverifiable state.”
With this basic foundation laid, we can now appreciate the deuterocanonical books for what they are: valuable historical and biblical commentaries with perhaps bits of real Scripture intertwined, but not works on which to formulate doctrine. Lastly, it should be noted that the book transliterated “Jasher” is the one most in question in this collection. It was written no later than the mid-sixteenth century AD, but there is debate regarding whether this is in fact the original Jasher referenced in the Bible, or, if it is a later, spurious work.