There is a further group of books which come from the great Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, which began to be made around 250 B.C. and was completed by the beginning of the first century B.C. It was intended for Jews who no longer understood Hebrew and who were living outside the original Jewish homeland of Palestine. In the group of books we are referring to we find Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, The Book of Wisdom (or The Wisdom of Solomon), Ecclesiasticus and Baruch. These seven books are included in Bibles intended for Catholic readers who accept them as Holy Scripture but are printed separately in a small book, called the Apocrypha, for Protestant readers who want to read them for interest but not as Holy Scripture. These books are called the Deutero-Canonical books by Catholics and the Apocryphal books by Protestants.

The books accepted by the Christian Church as Holy Scripture are called 'canonical' books and make up the 'canon' of the Old Testament. The word 'canon' means rule or guidance. These books are therefore those about which there is agreement that they were written by writers who were guided and inspired by God's Holy Spirit.

The early Christians used the Greek version of the Bible, the Septuagint. When the great Christian scholar, Jerome, translated the Biblical writings into Latin in the fourth century A.D. he included the seven Greek writings, referred to as Deutero-Canonical of Apocryphal, along with the thirty-nine Hebrew books of the Old Testament. Around A.D. 100 the strict Jewish Pharisees agreed on which Old Testament books were to be the Holy Scripture and they rejected the Deutero-Canonical books. They also turned against the whole Septuagint version because it was being used by the Christians, whom they opposed. The final form of the Jewish Bible, for the Jews, was divided into The Torah or The Law, The Former Prophets, The Latter Prophets, and The Writings. The Torah, the first five books of the Bible was accepted as the absolute Law of God for the Jew. Under the heading of The Former Prophets came Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, which contain references to many early prophets. Under the heading of The Latter Prophets came Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and twelve short books named after individual prophets. Under the heading of The Writings were put all the remaining books.

The Torah was the earliest part of the Jewish scriptures to be accepted by the Jews, followed by the books of the Prophets. In Matthew 5: 17, Jesus refers to the Law and the Prophets.