The Orthodox Old Testament contains 49 books (sometimes counted as 50 or 51 depending on how you divide them). That’s about ten more than you’ll find in most Protestant Bibles.
If you grew up Baptist or in another Protestant church here in Southeast Texas, your Bible probably has 39 Old Testament books, Genesis through Malachi. The Orthodox Bible has all of those, but it also includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, and several additions to Esther and Daniel. Some editions also include 3 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, Psalm 151, 1 Esdras, and the Prayer of Manasseh. These books are sometimes called the deuterocanonical books or the Apocrypha.
Why the difference? It comes down to which version of the Old Testament the Church received and used from the beginning.
The Septuagint
The Orthodox Church uses the Septuagint as its Old Testament. The Septuagint (often abbreviated LXX) is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, made in stages between the third and first centuries before Christ. It was the Bible of Greek-speaking Jews in places like Alexandria and later throughout the Mediterranean world.
Here’s what matters for us: the Septuagint was the Bible of the early Church. When the apostles quoted the Old Testament in the New Testament, they usually quoted from the Septuagint. When the Church Fathers preached and wrote theology, they used the Septuagint. When the liturgy developed in the first centuries, it drew its language and readings from the Septuagint. The Church received this version of the scriptures and has used it ever since.
The Septuagint includes those extra books. They were part of the package. So for Orthodox Christians, Tobit and Wisdom and Maccabees aren’t additions, they’re just part of the Old Testament we’ve always had.
What Protestants Did Differently
During the Reformation, Protestant leaders decided to follow the Hebrew canon used by rabbinic Judaism after the first century. That Hebrew canon has 39 books and doesn’t include the deuterocanonical books. So Protestant Bibles dropped them or put them in a separate section. Some early Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha between the testaments, but eventually most editions left them out entirely.
Catholics kept these books too, by the way. The difference between Catholic and Orthodox Bibles is smaller than the difference between either one and Protestant Bibles. But there are some variations in exactly which books are included and how they’re counted.
Are These Books Really Scripture?
This is the question most inquirers ask, especially if they come from a tradition that taught them the Apocrypha isn’t inspired.
The Orthodox answer is pastoral and historical rather than legalistic. We don’t have a single church council that definitively closed the canon the way some people imagine. What we have is the consensus of the Church, the way these books were received, read in worship, quoted by the Fathers, and used to teach the faith. That reception gives them authority.
Fr. Thomas Hopko used to say that the Orthodox canon came about “the way we do everything: by consensus.” The Church didn’t need a decree from on high to know which books were scripture. The books that were read in the liturgy, that shaped prayer and theology, that the Fathers treated as God’s word, those were the books. And the Septuagint books fit that description.
You’ll hear stories from Tobit read as Old Testament lessons during services. You’ll hear Wisdom of Solomon quoted in hymns and homilies. The theology of 2 Maccabees (with its clear teaching on praying for the dead and the resurrection) shaped Orthodox understanding of death and the afterlife. These aren’t obscure texts we grudgingly tolerate. They’re woven into our worship and teaching.
What’s in These Books?
If you’ve never read them, you’re missing some remarkable stuff. Tobit is a beautiful story about faithfulness, family, and God’s providence. Judith is a dramatic account of courage and deliverance. Wisdom and Sirach are collections of practical and theological wisdom that read like Proverbs. The Maccabees tell the story of Jewish resistance against persecution and the rededication of the Temple (that’s Hanukkah, by the way). Baruch contains prayers and prophecies attributed to Jeremiah’s scribe.
Some of these books are more obviously useful than others. Not every Orthodox Christian has read 4 Maccabees, which is a philosophical treatise on reason and the passions. But the core deuterocanonical books, Tobit, Wisdom, Sirach, and 1-2 Maccabees especially, are treasures.
Getting Your Hands on an Orthodox Bible
If you want to read these books, pick up a copy of the Orthodox Study Bible. It’s the most accessible English edition that uses the Septuagint for the Old Testament and includes all the deuterocanonical books with Orthodox commentary. You can order it through Ancient Faith or find it at most Orthodox parish bookstores.
You can also read the Septuagint online through various sites, though the Orthodox Study Bible has the advantage of notes that explain how the Church reads and interprets these texts.
The point isn’t just to own a Bible with more books in it. The point is to read the scriptures the way the Church has always read them, in the form the Church received them, with the understanding that comes from two thousand years of prayer and reflection. When you open Tobit or Wisdom or Maccabees, you’re not exploring some curiosity. You’re reading the Bible of the apostles and the Fathers, the Bible that shaped the liturgy you hear every Sunday, the Bible of the Church.
