who wrote the apocrypha
No single person “wrote the Apocrypha.” It is a collection of Jewish religious books composed by multiple, mostly anonymous authors over several centuries before the time of Jesus, with only one book having a known author.
What is “the Apocrypha”?
- The term usually refers to about 14 Jewish books written roughly between the 3rd century BCE and 1st century BCE.
- Different Christian traditions treat them differently:
- Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches include most of them as Scripture (often called the “Deuterocanon”).
* Most Protestants read them, if at all, as helpful but non‑canonical religious literature.
These books include works like Tobit, Judith, 1–2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, and additions to Daniel and Esther.
Known and unknown authors
The only named author
- Scholarly sources agree that out of the standard 14 Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books, only Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) has a clearly identified author.
- Sirach is attributed to Jesus (Yeshua) son of Sirach , a Jewish scribe and teacher in Jerusalem in the early 2nd century BCE.
- His grandson later translated the work from Hebrew into Greek and added a prologue identifying him.
Mostly anonymous writings
For the rest of the Apocrypha, the authors are not named in a way historians can verify, so they are treated as anonymous. Broad scholarly views:
- Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Wisdom of Solomon, 1–2 Maccabees, additions to Daniel and Esther
- Widely regarded as written by unknown Jewish authors living in different places (Palestine/Judea, Alexandria, other diaspora centers) between roughly 200–50 BCE.
* Sometimes they are written in the name of famous biblical figures (Solomon, Baruch, etc.), which makes them **pseudonymous** —the ascribed “author” is theological or literary, not historical.
How scholars think about “who wrote” them
Modern biblical historians answer “who wrote the Apocrypha?” by looking book‑by‑book rather than expecting one author or one school.
Typical scholarly conclusions:
- Multiple authors and editors. Many books show signs of compilation and later editing rather than a single writer.
- Jewish context. The writers were Jewish, steeped in Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish tradition, reacting to Greek (Hellenistic) culture and political crises such as Seleucid rule and the Maccabean revolt.
- Genres vary. Some books are historical (Maccabees), some wisdom (Sirach, Wisdom), some apocalyptic or visionary (2 Esdras), and some additions expand earlier biblical stories (additions to Daniel and Esther).
An illustration: 2 Maccabees presents itself as an abridgment of a longer history by “Jason of Cyrene,” so there is at least a named earlier source, but the final redactor who produced the book we have remains anonymous.
Why there’s no simple “latest news” or single author
Unlike a modern book with a clear cover author and publication date, the Apocrypha grew out of a long, ancient literary process:
- They were written before the Common Era, copied by hand, and transmitted in Greek and sometimes Hebrew or Aramaic.
- There is no new “breaking” authorship discovery in 2025–2026 that overturns the consensus that, apart from Sirach, the authors are unknown.
- Current discussions and forum debates focus less on “who wrote them exactly?” and more on whether these books should count as Scripture, how they were used in early Judaism and Christianity, and why some traditions removed or kept them in their Bibles.
Quick forum-style takeaway
When people ask “who wrote the Apocrypha,” the historically careful answer is: a variety of Jewish authors between about 200–50 BCE, mostly anonymous, with only Sirach clearly attributed to Jesus son of Sirach.
TL;DR:
- No single author wrote “the Apocrypha.”
- Only Sirach has a known author (Jesus son of Sirach); the others are anonymous Jewish writers using various literary styles and sometimes pseudonymous biblical names.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.