These books were also written in antiquity, and some of them were written in the original in Hebrew, some in Greek, but these books were not recognized by the Church as divinely inspired books – this concept will now be discussed separately. That is, these books were recognized as very good, edifying, which contain certain grains of divinely revealed teaching, but which, on the whole, cannot be recognized as divinely inspired – the element of human wisdom is too strong. That is why these books are left by the Fathers in the lists among the other books of the Old Testament and, as it is said in the definitions of the Fathers, they are intended for edifying home reading for Christians and for reading for novices, since they contain a high moral teaching.

Protestants reject these books and call them apocrypha. Catholics at the Council of Trent included most of the non-canonical books in the canon. That is why they sometimes call them deuterocanonical.

With regard to the term "apocrypha," it should be explained that it was first used in relation to the Holy Scriptures by the Gnostics, who called the "secret" books that the apostles allegedly left for the "initiates," in contrast to the well-known books intended for the simple. Since these spurious books contained a teaching rejected by the Church, the name "apocrypha" was eventually established for all books that claimed to be part of Scripture but were rejected by the Church. In terms of themes and genres, they are close to the canonical books of the Bible, but, unlike non-canonical books, they are not recognized as useful and edifying. Of the fairly numerous Old Testament apocrypha, one can name the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Enoch, the Covenant of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the Fourth Book of Maccabees.

It should be noted that the list of canonical books practically coincides with the canon accepted in modern Judaism. Does this mean that the Jewish canon is primary in relation to the ecclesiastical one? Not necessarily. The final fixation of the canons, which are now recognized by the Jews, took place at the beginning of the second century A.D. It took place simultaneously with the formation of a new tradition caused by the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, when it was necessary to organize community life on some new foundations, different from the previous ones. The result was the emergence of a virtually new religion, which is somewhat younger in age than Christianity. The Church of Christ considers herself to be to a much greater extent the successor of the Old Testament Church, if we consider the Old Testament as a preparation for the reception of the New (see Jeremiah 31:31). By the way, it was traditionally believed that the canon of the books of the Old Testament was concluded and compiled in the time of the priest Ezra, that is, in the fifth century B.C. We will have a separate discussion about this. Therefore, the most important thing for us is the Church's definitions of the worthiness of this or that book. Which books are canonical and should be read in the Church are established by the canons of the Holy Fathers and the Holy Ecumenical Councils.

It should be added here that the ecclesiastical text of Scripture has always been the text of the Septuagint, the text of the translation of the seventy interpreters who, in the third century B.C., translated the Holy Scriptures into Greek for the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus [44]. Following St. John Chrysostom, we will say that "it was the work of God's dispensation, so that these books would be used not only by those who knew the Hebrew language, but also by all the inhabitants of the world" [29, vol. 4, p. 26].

Thus, in our Bible we see 39 canonical inspired books of the Old Testament. However, in a number of ancient patristic texts – for example, in the poetic epistle of St. Gregory the Theologian to Amphilochius about what books should be read – we see that there are 22 books listed there. What does that mean? That in the time of St. Gregory there were fewer books? No, this means that there is a different calculation and division of these books.

Where does the number 22 come from? According to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, they are calculated in the same way in the tradition of the Hebrew Bible. The composition of the text is the same, it's just that some books are grouped. How? In the epistle of St. Gregory, the following order is proposed: first come the books of the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges and Ruth; then the two books of Kings, that is, not four, as we now believe, but joining them two by two: the first-second, the third-fourth; Chronicles as one book and Ezra, that is, the 12 books that he called historical. Then there are 5 books, which he calls poetic: Job, David, that is, the Psalms, and 3 Solomons: Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, and Proverbs; The 5 books of the Prophetic Spirit: the 12 minor prophets as one book, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel – the division is almost the same as the one we now use for our practical needs. Note that he does not single out the books of the Pentateuch as law-positive books, as we are now distinguishing, but the other three criteria are clearly distinguishable: historical, didactic, and prophetic books.

A four-part division of books is now accepted [84]:

1. The books of law, which constitute the main foundation of the Old Testament. These include the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

2. Historical books, which contain mainly the history of godliness: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.

3. Teaching books that contain the teaching of piety: the Book of Job, the Psalms, and the books of Solomon (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs).

4. Prophetic books, which contain prophecies or predictions about the future, and first of all about Jesus Christ: the books of the great prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, as well as the books of the 12 minor prophets – Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

The Hebrew canon has a slightly different division: the Law, the Prophets and the Scriptures are 3 parts. This is how, in accordance with the Old Testament tradition, Christ spoke about the Scriptures to the Apostles (Luke 24:44). The Law (Torah) is the Pentateuch of Moses. The prophetic books (Nevi'im) include not only those books that we call prophetic, but also the books that we call historical – this is not at all accidental, we will talk in due time why this happens. Prophets in the Hebrew Bible include the so-called early prophets: the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel (you can find in modern Western editions that the First and Second Books of Samuel are called the First and Second Books of Samuel, and the Third and Fourth – directly the books of Kings) – and the later prophets: the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 minor prophets as one book. Note that in this list we do not meet the prophet Daniel, whose book in the Jewish canon does not belong to the prophetic books. The Scriptures (Ketuvim) are all the other books: the poetic books, i.e. the Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon, the Book of Job, the so-called Five Scrolls – the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, Ecclesiastes and the historical books, which include the Book of Daniel, the Book of Ezra and the two books of Chronicles. As you can see, this is a completely different division. In our course, we will refer to him several times to find out some interesting details.

The last remark concerns the division of Scripture into chapters and verses. We are accustomed to the fact that a chapter embraces a logically complete fragment of a book. We also perceive the border between poems as carrying a certain meaning. However, it should be understood that this division does not belong to the sacred writers, they wrote in succession, giving where necessary indications for the beginning of a new section. For the convenience of "navigation", even in Old Testament times, the division of the text of Scripture into fragments was used, and in the course of time this division changed. It may be noted that the division of the paremia does not correspond to the modern division into chapters that was made in the thirteenth century. The division into verses appeared even later, in the XV century. Therefore, it is sometimes helpful to read Scripture while ignoring this division. In some editions, for this purpose, the text is printed continuously, and the indications of chapters and verses are made in the margins.