¿Por Qué No Están Incluidos Los Libros De La Biblia Apocrifos En La Biblia?

I find the exclusion of the apocryphal books from the Bible a topic rich with historical and theological nuance. The apocryphal books, often referred to as the Deuterocanonical books in Catholic tradition, were written during the intertestamental period but weren’t universally accepted by all Jewish communities. The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was canonized by Jewish scholars around the 2nd century CE, and they excluded these texts, likely because they were written in Greek rather than Hebrew or Aramaic, or because their authorship couldn’t be traced to prophetic figures. Early Christian communities, however, debated their inclusion. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century solidified their exclusion from Protestant Bibles, as reformers like Martin Luther argued they lacked the same authority as the Hebrew scriptures.

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, affirmed the apocryphal books as part of the canon during the Council of Trent in response to Protestant reforms. The Eastern Orthodox Church includes even more texts, like '3 Maccabees' and 'Psalm 151,' reflecting the diversity of Christian tradition. The exclusion isn’t about the value of these texts—many contain profound wisdom and historical insights—but about differing criteria for canonicity. Some scholars argue it’s a matter of religious authority and cultural identity, as the canon reflects which texts a community sees as divinely inspired. The apocrypha’s absence in most Protestant Bibles isn’t a dismissal of their worth but a theological stance on what constitutes sacred scripture.