““the Bible became the standard “ after Luther tossed out the Books that didn’t quite fit his worldview notably Maccabees.”
I don’t think Luther acted alone.
There are many studies devoted to the reasons why some books are accepted as part of the canon and some are not.
I think the reasons are meticulous and solid, but I won’t re-write the arguments on this thread. Just to say there is historical, logical, and biblical support for the Protestant Bible; and to say that in the early years the Roman Catholic church, (such as it was, it was not called the Roman Catholic church at the time) used the same one. Maccabees and so forth were accepted later in church history; and rejected again after a few centuries.
Since almost no one had a Bible during the Middle Ages there was not a lot of scrutiny going on. Things were at a standstill, essentially, until people started getting access to the Word of God again.
This I regard as the most wonderful fruit of the Reformation. God’s word, faithfully translated, available to anyone without criminal penalty in their own language. Amazing.
I believe I read that Jews in general do not consider Maccabees to be inspired. The main reason is that it elevated the kingship of the Maccabees rather than that of the Davidic line. I find that factoid very interesting.
My understanding is the protestants just checked in on the Jews to see what they considered to be in the Old Testament. I don’t think Maccabees made the cut among the Jews.
But neither did the book of Enoch, or the book of jubilee that the rabbis threw out in the 2nd or 3rd century.(the books remain in the Ethiopian Jewish bible. and fragments of them were found among the dead sea scrolls.)