DEUTEROCANONICAL

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Deuterocanonical Books  of the Old Testament that are accepted by the Orthodox Christian Church but are not accepted by Protestants as part of its official canonical contents, but of close association with the Bible. They are included in the Orthodox Bible because they were included in the Septuagint which was in use at the time of Jesus, and the authors of the New Testament. They are not called apocrypha by the Orthodox Church. In an Orthodox Bible there are 49 books in the Old Testament canon. Roman Catholics only accept seven so called Deuterocanonical books, so their Old Testament has a total of 46 books (sometimes counted as 47). Because Protestants mistakenly reject the Septuagint altogether, their Old Testament canon has only 39 books.

The Deuterocanonical books are: First Esdras, Second Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, (or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirac), Baruch, The Letter of Jeremiah, Additions to Daniel (Song of the Three Youths; Susanna; Daniel, Bel and the Dragon), The Prayer of Manasseh, First Maccabees, Second Maccabees, Third Maccabees, and Fourth Maccabees.

Fourth Maccabees is not accepted by the Russian Church and is placed in an Appendix by the Greek Church.

The Greek Orthodox accept 1st Esdras, but not 2nd Esdras, considering 2nd Esdras to be the proto-canonical Ezra-Nehemiah. The Russian Church accepts both, but titles them 2nd and 3rd Esdras, 1st Esdras being the proto-canonical Ezra-Nehemiah.