Eastern Orthodox Christian holy books

The argument

Orthodoxy is very much focused upon the bible as well the writings of the theological fathers about the scriptures. Both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches also accept certain “deutero-canonical” books that are not part of the traditional Hebrew Bible. The Ecumenical Councils of the Orthodox church has produced multiple Canons, meaning rule, measure or judgement that dictate behaviour. These are very important alongside the bible.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The account is thin and in places misdescribes the Orthodox position. The Orthodox Old Testament is not the Hebrew canon with a few additions but rests on the Septuagint, which differs from the Hebrew Bible in text as well as in contents. "Deuterocanonical" is Roman Catholic usage; Orthodox writers more often speak of the anagignoskomena, the books appointed to be read, and the Orthodox churches have never fixed the list with the finality that Trent gave the Catholic canon — so the two are not simply parallel, and some Orthodox churches include books the Catholic canon omits, among them 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees and Psalm 151, with 4 Maccabees in an appendix and the Ethiopian tradition wider still. The councils' canons are also misidentified. They are disciplinary and administrative rules of church order, and describing them as "very important alongside the bible" conflates canon law with the canon of scripture — two distinct senses of the same word. Most importantly, the framing omits what is actually distinctive here: in Orthodox theology scripture belongs within Holy Tradition rather than standing as a separate authority beside it, and the liturgy is the primary setting in which it is received. That is the real contrast with the Protestant sibling position's sola scriptura, and it is the point a description of Orthodox belief needs to make. A list of books, finally, does not answer what Orthodox Christians believe, which is what the question asks.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The Orthodox Old Testament rests on the Septuagint, differing from the Hebrew Bible in text as well as contents; "deuterocanonical" is Catholic usage, Orthodoxy never fixed the list with the finality of Trent, and some churches include books the Catholic canon omits, such as 1 Esdras, 3 Maccabees and Psalm 151. [Rejecting P2] The councils' canons are disciplinary rules of church order rather than scripture, so calling them important "alongside the bible" conflates canon law with the canon of scripture. [Rejecting P3] The distinctive Orthodox position is that scripture belongs within Holy Tradition and is received primarily in the liturgy rather than standing as a separate authority — the real contrast with the Protestant position, which a list of books does not convey.