Why were books (the Apocrypha) removed from the Bible?

The Apocrypha — in modern times more often referred to as the Deuterocanonical books because it is an amicable label — were still widely included in the Bible well into the 1800s. But because of what has been referred to as the era of higher criticism, and because of the inability of Bible scholars to adequately address them, with the fear of loosing members and perhaps even their own faith, many believers compelled Bible publishers to stop including the books in with Scripture.

What is first important to understand is that all of the books included in the Apocrypha were written during what is called the inter-testimonial period, sometimes referred to as the Deuterocanonical period. This is a span of roughly 400 years that preceded John the Baptist's, and during which GOD essentially said that He would not be speaking with, or otherwise sending prophetic messages at all, to the Children of Israel via of any prophets because of their unfaithfulness. Therefore any books written during that time period automatically fail to qualify as "Scripture" because GOD went silent on them.

What’s more, not only did Jesus neglect to quote from, or otherwise endorse, any books from the Apocrypha, so did his disciples, so did 1st-century Jewish historian, Josephus, and so did 1st and 2nd-Century Christians. Acceptance did however come later from the average layman — but not by scholars.

It should be noted on the one hand that Jesus and all the before-mentioned were definitely familiar with the Apocrypha books — and likely well-versed in many of them. After all, they are books that contain Jewish history during that 400-year period, like the Book of Maccabees which includes the story of Hanukkah.

On the other hand however, Jesus and His Disciples did all quote from the books in the Old Testament, or Hebrew Scripture.

In conclusion, it is good and valuable for Christians to read the Apocrypha for enrichment sake. There is however no bearing with anything found in them on anyone's soteriology, hence one's guidelines for life here on earth, or one's passport requirements to get to Heaven.