Patristic


In the patristic period, the inspiration of the Apocrypha of the Greek and Latin Bibles was uncertain. During the Reformation, the church of Rome insisted the Apocrypha was Old Testament, while the Protestant churches deny it. The Church of England includes it in its lectionary (example of life but not to establish doctrine). The Eastern Orthodox Church was divided but has recently tended more to the Protestant side.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Page 52.)