Why is the Apocrypha not in the Bible?
These books never had canonical status in the Hebrew Bible. The translator of the Vulgate, Jerome (342-420 A.D.), said that they were not to be considered part of the canon of the Old Testament. He maintained that there were twenty-two books in the Old Testament canon and he listed them in a letter known today as the Prologus Galeatus. He said, “what is not found in our list must be placed amongst the Apocryphal writings,” and they “are not in the canon.”