Catholic Bible?

Question

My sister and I just bought Catholic Bibles today. We looked at different ones, but decided to get the catholic one because we're catholic:) can anyone tell me what the difference is with this version? thank you!

the catholic bible has pictures??!! okay, yah i have to admit that was cute:)

Apocrypha, I did see this word in the preface! what is this?

Answer 1

The New Testament canon of the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are the same.

The difference in the Old Testaments actually goes back to the time before and during Christ’s life. At this time, there was no official Jewish canon of scripture.

The Jews in Egypt translated their choices of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the second century before Christ. This translation, called the Septuagint, had wide use in the Roman world because most Jews lived far from Palestine in Greek cities. Many of these Jews spoke only Greek.

The early Christian Church was born into this world. The Church, with its bilingual Jews and more and more Greek-speaking Gentiles, used the books of the Septuagint as its Bible. Remember the early Christians were just writing the documents what would become the New Testament.

After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, with increasing persecution from the Romans and competition from the fledgling Christian Church, the Jewish leaders came together and declared its official canon of Scripture, eliminating seven books from the Septuagint.

The Christian Church did not follow suit but kept all the books in the Septuagint.

1500 years later, Protestants decided to change its Old Testament from the Catholic canon to the Jewish canon. The books the dropped are sometimes called the Apocrypha.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

---Is Catholic--

It is very good that you got a Catholic Bible. Which one did you get? A Catholic Bible is a real and complete bible where as the Protestant bibles are missing books, books that are in fact important to revelation. These missing books are the deutercanonical books, which were primarily written by Greek speaking Jews. They are important historically, as they tell of the historical activities of the Jewish people and their ongoing relationship with God, but they are also important theologically. These books are helpful at showing an increasingly clearer anticipation of the coming of the messiah.

Most Protestants do not realize that the NT quotes from the Deutercanonical books or the Greek translations of the Hebrew texts.

see for yourself here
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/deuterocanon.html
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/septuagint.html

The Church, from the very beginning has always held on to and used the deutercanonical books as scripture, and anybody that says otherwise simply doesn't know their history. The above links also show early Christians using, quoting, and believing in the deutercanonical books.

There are other differences in the Catholic Bibles. First, a solid Catholic bible is a better translation. Popular Protestant bibles are often mired by inclusive vertical language and or language that looses the intricacies of the text through paraphrase. A solid Catholic bible provides a translation that doesn't simply translate but rather translates the context and concepts insuring a linkage between what you read and what was believed by those that wrote the text. There are certain Protestant translations (especially old versions) where the language that promotes the Catholic faith has been intentionally translated so that it does not. Though I will say most mainstream Protestant bibles no longer do that.

Another important aspect of the solid Catholic Bible is that it will actually teach the fullness of the Christian Faith. This is especially true if you have a good Catholic Study Bible as it will unpack the Faith by utilizing quotes from history as well as official pronouncements. Protestant explanations are often mired by misunderstandings of the theology and beliefs contained within the text of the scriptures. Protestant theology differs from Catholic theology on key points (justification, atonement, nature of the sacrifice of Christ) and this plays out in the notes as well as the chose of words that are used in the translation. Solid Catholic Bibles make sure the notes and word choices make the translation and explanation mean the same things as what you read, to what the Church currently teaches, to what the Church taught 100,500,1000,2000, years ago. If you pick up a solid Catholic bible, it should explain things just as St. Aquinas explained things, and how St. Augustine, and how St. Pope Clement explained things. This insure that the Faith is the same eternal Faith.

There are other differences as well (especially between old versions) but I would say that those are the major thematic points.

As of note
http://www.scborromeo.org/images/fig5.gif
is a good picture of what non-English texts are used to translate the different bibles.

Answer 3

The Catholic Bible has the Apocrypha as part of the Bible that all other versions do not have. The reason that no other Bibles have these other books is not because the materials contained in these other books were covered by other books but rather because of the following:
1. These writings were never considered to be "sacred writings" or writings "inspired (God breathed)" by the Jews or the early Christians.
These books were not part of the Jewish Bible that Jesus read they were rejected as being "Inspired"
2. They are rejected by all other Christian denominations because they were first rejected by the Jews for being uninspired and also because they contain some passages that seem to disagree with the whole of the other Scriptures.

It is believed that the Catholic Church adopted these books because of some verses that seem to support their doctrine of Purgatory and also prayers for the dead.

No where else in Scripture is there any support for Purgatory or saying prayers for the dead

Answer 4

Do you mean as opposed to earlier versions of the Catholic Bible or the King James Bible? Many times the later versions of the Catholic Bible have more precise translations of the orginial text or deeper footnote explainations of the readings. The Catholic Bible as opposed to the King James Bible has more books, decided by the Catholic Congress to be books of the Word. You can tell that a Bible is an authorized Catholic Bible by looking at the first page, where it will list it as authorized by the Conference of Catholic Bishops and Confraternity of Christian Doctrine.

Answer 5

18 added books called the Apocrapha. Also--Catholic Bibles have the Seal of the Imprimateur usually within the first few pages (Seal is official marking for Catholics).

Answer 6

The apocrypha is part of the Catholic Bible and has not been canonized..

Answer 7

the catholic version has 18 more books of the old testament called " the Apocropha" the regular bible dont have these but they are similar to the books that are already there! like ezra

Answer 8

Chatholic Bible has pictures I think (Hey its an authentic difference)