If catholics believe in the bible then why do they leave many books out of it???

Question

I know that they they do have more books than most others, but they still do not have them all. My question is why

Answer 1

Catholics defined the Bible back in the 4th century. They left out a lot of books they thought too outlandish to be true, and they based their Old Testament on the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Jewish religious texts that was in common use at the time.

Protestants later removed more books at the time of the Reformation.

Answer 2

The catholic bible has more books to it but it still doesn't have all the books written. I can't remember the time but men argued against allowing books that showed Jesus as a man and not like a god figure. Also I can't remember what disciple it was but I believe he had a strong hate for women and thus never wrote the truth about Mary Magdalene. No the Divinchi Code didn't go to my head but think about it for a minute when Jewish laws are applied to her and her status. It makes since that she held a very important role that was left out of the bible. There was a very good program on the discovery channel about her. If you ever get a chance, watch it.

Answer 3

Catholics have more books in the Bible than do Protestants. If you're referring to other books, however - Gospel of Thomas, etc. - the Church decided that they weren't divinely inspired. I think they're probably right, but even if they're wrong, you still have to make the cut-off point somewhere. It just isn't practical to include every religious book ever written in the Bible, especially since many of them were probably written by nut-cases or self-seekers to begin with. So the Catholic Church saw the need for a standardized collection of religious writings. They called a counsel and worked out which books they thought were the most authentic. Even if they're not entirely right, it's better than the chaos that trying to include everything would (and did) create.

Answer 4

You've stumbled upon the question that led to the Protestant Reformation nearly 500 years ago. As I understand it- and I will be corrected by some Catholics- a member of the Catholic Church feels unqualified to discern all the mysteries of the scripture on his/her own and they place their faith in the priests, saints and the organization and traditions of the Church, rather than relying on the Bible for guidance.
The Catholic Bible has many books that are not found in other versions- called Apocrypha.
And then there's Dante's Divine Comedy which is the launching point of many Catholic favorites such as the Blessed Virgin, purgatory and limbo, several other saints and more. Dante never claimed inspiration from God, but he told a good story in fine language and now a lot of people treat it as something pretty close to scripture.
But I'm not mad at them.

Answer 5

I think people are misunderstanding your question. Your question, if I read it correctly,is why did Pope Innocent in the year 405, when he promulgated the current canon of the New Testament, leave books out. In fact, he anathmatized some books.

To understand this, you need to step back into history five hundred years to before Martin Luther. Luther created a novel doctrine of scripture alone as the source of truth. The idea did not exist before him. It of course presupposes the existence of a set of scriptures. Luther's problem was that the set in existence at his time existed on Papal authority and Catholic episcopal authority alone.

Catholic episcopal authority comes from Acts 1:46. In the Acts of the Apostles, one of their first actions is to find someone to succeed Judas Iscariot. They chose Mathias. He is the very first Catholic bishop. The bishops are the direct successors to the apostles by ordination. The bishops are charged with transmitting what is called apostolic tradition. The word tradition means to hand on. Apostolic tradition is anything handed on by the apostles. It includes letters, books, stories, songs, services (which are still in use by the way), teachings and even art (Luke painted).

The job of the early bishops was to determine what was apostolic in origin and what was an add on. They needed to determine what came down from the apostles and what did not. Some of what came down from the apostles is now called the New Testament. The early bishops did not call it that. They wouldn't have even really called it scripture. They reserved that for the Septuagint, or the Catholic Old Testament. Fortunately, many early bishops were either directly trained by the apostles or by their immediate successors and a system of truth determination came into being.

The word Catholic has two meanings. First, it means all embracing. It means you may not split into little factions because people happen to not agree with you on the meaning of a particular passage. The second is the meaning "according to the whole." This became one of the important truth standards. If a belief was held by the whole then it was believed to be of apostolic origin since the apostles would have had to have left that knowledge in every place. A Catholic belief is a belief held by the entire Church throughout its entire existence. You can have other beliefs, but they are not Catholic. So for example, many Catholics say the Rosary and believe it to be useful to their spiritual life with the Father in Heaven. Some don't find it useful and have no beliefs or dislike it. It isn't really a Catholic belief in the sense that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is a Catholic belief.

One of the issues in the early Church was what information should be used within the services. Writings of apostolic origin of course should be included, but what about the others? The others were left out. The church compiled a library of books to be read during the service. These came to be called the bible.

After Luther, these books became the sole source of "truth." So people suddenly believed in "the bible." So your question is that some books were left out. Yes, because the early Church did not believe them to be a valid part of the apostolic tradition. In most cases it did not say you couldn't read them. In some cases it was presumed you would read them. What it said was that they were not of the same standard as the books of the canon.

Think of it like this. The song Amazing Grace fits every part of the rules for inclusion in the bible except apostolic origin. In fact, because many Churches sing it more than once a year, it would hold a place of special honor next to the Gospels and the Psalms. It would likely be included as part of the Psalms. Now what Luther said is that things like Amazing Grace are no longer part of the Church's readings or songs and that truth cannot be found in it. The Catholic Church would say that it is not part of the readings, but that it conveys God's truth and is a valid extension of the apostolic tradition through song. Luther said the equivalent of it shouldn't be sung, the Catholic Church basically asks "why not?"

Answer 6

You have it backwards. The protestant bibles are a copy of the Catholic bible( just do a side by side comparison and you will be surprised) and until the early 1800's had all the books For some unknown reason some of the books were gone from the protestant bibles. I could just be that printing a smaller book was cheaper for the publisher when paper was an expensive commodity. Much later excuses were being made about the apocrypha and its elimination.

Answer 7

The Catholic Bible holds more information, not less.

The entire issue of cannon is an extreme debate of many. The books chosen for the Bible were chosen by a council of men. Many scrolls, books, and letters were not admitted into the Bible (either version) for many varying reasons. Some because they were incomplete, some because of politics, some because of redundancy, and some because of who wrote them. Ultimately the Bible was published. All of the books not included can be found in libraries or bigger bookstores. I have read several and have received some inspiration, but no insight. I haven't read the Gospel of Judah yet, but I will.

Answer 8

Catholics don't leave books out of the bible. In fact, the Catholic bible includes books NOT included in the King James bible, a favorite of manyProtestant Christian groups. Some of the books in the Catholic bible NOT included in other Christian bibles are:
Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Baruch, 1st Maccabees, 2nd Maccabees... I don't have my bible in front of me, so this might just be a partial list....


Why do so many Christians hate Catholics? Catholics are Christian the same way Lutherans, Baptists, etc. are Christians. I don't know anyone in my Catholic congregation that "worships idols." I think a lot of those kinds of comments are due to bigotted ignorance.

Answer 9

The "Canon" (derived from the Greek word for rule) of Scripture comprises books of the Bible received in the Church as authentically inspired and normative for the Faith. The Catholic Church, through her Popes and Councils, gathered together the separate books that early Christians venerated; formed a collection (drew up a list or catalog of inspired and apostolic writings); and declared that only these were the Sacred Scriptures of the New Testament. The authorities responsible for settling and closing the "Canon" of Holy Scripture were the Councils of Hippo (393) and of Carthage (397 and 416) under the influence of St. Augustine (at the latter of which two Legatees were present from the Pope), and the Popes Innocent I in 405, and Gelasius, 494, both of whom issued lists of Sacred Scripture identical with that fixed by the Councils. The Church never admitted any other; and at the Council of Florence in the fifteenth century, and the Council of Trent in the sixteenth, and the Council of the Vatican (Vatican I) in the nineteenth, she renewed her anathemas against all who should deny or dispute this collection of books as the inspired word of God.

The Protestant Bibles (not Catholic) have deliberately excluded seven complete Books that were in every collection and catalog of Holy Scripture from the fourth to the sixteenth century. Their names are Tobias, Baruch, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, I Maccabees, II Maccabees, together with seven chapters of the Book of Esther and 66 verses of the 3rd chapter of Daniel, commonly called "the Song of the Three Children". These were deliberately cut out of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament started in the third century B.C. in Alexandria, Egypt and completed around 100 B.C.), based on the criticisms and remarks of Luther, Calvin, and the Swiss and German Reformers.

Answer 10

The bible itself was constructed by a group of men and Emporer Constatine to help bring everyone to the same beliefs. Many books concerning the of Jesus, etc.. were left out because it did not conform to what they were looking to accomplish. The many gospels left out made Jesus more manlike instead of godlike. Had they left them in, the religion might have been more appealing for people centuries after this death.