During the time of Babylonian exile, the Jews of the diaspora were spread all over the Mediterranean world. Some kept their Hebrew language and culture, but most adapted to the common language of the time:Greek (Greek was the scholarly language used in the Near East at that time). By the year 250 B.C., there was an effort to translate the Hebrew Scripture into Greek. This made sense, since more Jews lived outside of Israel than in it. These Greek-speaking Jews were called Helenistic Jews.
According to pious tradition, 70 scholars gathered together to begin translation of the sacred Old Testament books. They created what became known as the Septuagint (Greek for 70) version of the Bible. There was no parallel effort underway at the time to collect the books into a Hebrew Old Testament. Since the number of worldwide Jews who spoke Hebrew was very small and held little political influence, it made sense that the Old Testament would be written in Greek. The Septuagint Version of the Bible, sometimes referred to as the LXX version (the Roman numerals for 70) contained 46 books and became the standard collection of Jewish Scripture for Hellenistic Jews, and even those Jews still in Palestine accepted it.
Seven of these 46 books were never written in Hebrew, but were regarded as inspired anyway. These seven books (Baruch, Maccabees I and II, Tobit, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, and Wisdom) were used by Jews in the Holy Land, including Jesus and his disciples. Early Christians also accepted the inspired status of these seven books, since no one (not even Christ, Himself) had refuted them. Since they were later writings for an otherwise Hebrew collection, these seven books were called the Deuterocanonical Books (Deuterocanonical means "second canon"). The 39 Hebrew Books are called the Canonical Books.
The Jewish authorities did not object to these books until about 100 A.D., well after Christians had split away and created their own religion. The Temple had been destroyed around the year 70, and Jewish leaders at the Council of Jamnia in 100 A.D. looked to purify Judaism of all foreign influence, which meant removing anything not completely Hebrew. Since even the seven Deuterocanonical Books were not Hebrew, they were tossed. But Christianity was no longer affected by the decisions of the Jewish leaders, so those seven books remained a part of the new Bible. Early Christians did not view these books any differently than the 39 Hebrew ones.
Fast forward 1,400 years to the Protestant Reformation. One of the reforms Luther sought was a return to the Hebrew canon of the Bible (39 books), rather than the Greek canon (46 books) of the Septuagint. So a discrepancy exists today between the number of books in Catholic and Protestant bibles. Catholic bibles have 46 books, Protestant ones 39. Recently, some Protestant bibles have been printed with the seven other books added (notably the King James Edition), but they are placed in the back of the Old Testament, and are noted as part of the Apocrypha-Greek for "hidden."
So what the Catholic Church considers Deuterocanonical, Protestant theologians call the Apocrypha. Meanwhile, what the Catholic Church calls Apocrypha, Protestants call Psudepigrapha (meaning false writings). These are the so-called "Lost Books of the Bible." The Church never considered these books to be divinely inspired, so they were never added to the Bible at all (Catholic or Protestant). These Books include: The Assumption of Moses, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Apocalypse of Abraham, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Peter, the Acts of St. John, and many others. None were considered inspired and were therefore left out of the Bible.
Interestingly enough, there is no debate between Catholics and Protestants over the correct number of books in the New Testament. Both editions have the exact same names and numbers (27) of Books in the New Testament.
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One reader of this post e-mailed me a correction, so I researched what he said and found it to be true.
The Book of Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach) was originally written in Hebrew, but was lost during the diaspora. The only complete edition was a later Greek translation. From 1896-1956 several manuscripts were discovered that contained the original Hebrew text. Experts have been able to piece together 2/3's of the original Hebrew text, which was found to be consistent with the Greek version.
The Book of Judith was also written in Hebrew, but that translation was lost, as was the original Aramaic text of Tobit. A partial Aramaic translation of Tobit was found in a cave in 1955.
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