It is important for Christians to be familiar with ancient Jewish literature that is not in our canon because I think we can learn a lot from those writings.
I believe our canon is arranged how God planned for it to be, but that should not limit other people from writing about their experiences, and sharing how God has affected their lives. We can learn a lot from reading these different pieces of literature, even if they are not in our canon. The writings can be a compliment to what we are already reading in our canon. These noncanonical writings can reiterate what our canon has already told us. It solidifies the truths for us.
People have not stopped learning about God or writing books about the revelations they have had about God’s character. God has not changed, but the situations and times that the readers of the canon have changed, and so it is nice to get all the different perspectives that are out there.
Just because a book is not part of our canon, it does not mean that we cannot learn something from it. For example, the book The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren was and still is a very popular piece of literature. Its purpose is similar to that of the Bible: teach people how to lead Godly lives in the midst of the world they live in. Just as this book could help us in our walk with God, so can the ancient Jewish literature that is not part of our canon.
I think that reading these different texts gives us more credibility also when we are sharing our faith, because we are not just blindly following the Bible, and what we have laid before us, but we are testing it against similar writings and against itself. If the noncanonical books give us a different picture than what is in the Bible though, I believe we should trust our canon as the supreme literature.
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