Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the 16th century in
the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain
books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not
part of the Hebrew Bible. The term is used in contrast to the
protocanonical books, which are contained in the Hebrew Bible.
This distinction had previously contributed to debate in the
early Church about whether they should be classified as
canonical texts. The term is used as a matter of convenience by
the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and other Churches to
refer to books of their Old Testament which are not part of the
Masoretic Text. The Deuterocanonical books are considered
canonical by Catholics and Eastern Orthodox, but are considered
non-canonical by most Protestants. The word deuterocanonical
comes from the Greek meaning 'belonging to the second canon'.
The original usage of the term distinguished these scriptures
both from those considered non-canonical and from those
considered protocanonical. However, so