Jesus said that to the Pharisees, as well. I think after Jerusalem fell in 70 AD, the only group of religious left were the Pharisees, so naturally, it would appear that early Christians agreed with them. However, the Septuagint already included what we would now call the Old Testament. Christians didn't have to rely on the Jews to tell them the Canon - the first Christians WERE Jews!
As to this:
But there was never any disagreement over the apocryphal books, because they were always rejected by the Jewish church
SO WERE THE GOSPELS... Have you torn them out of your Jewish Bible yet?
Quite simply, the reason the OLD TESTAMENT Deuterocannonicals are not in the Protestant Bible is because of theological points, not the Jews...
Regards
jo kus-SO WERE THE GOSPELS... Have you torn them out of your Jewish Bible yet?
The gospel (or New Testament) isn't what is being discussed. It is the Old Testament. Some would have us believe that there were many versions of the Old Testament at the time of our Lord Jesus. This is simply not the case. At least I have not been shown any valid references making this claim.