Why is Maccabees in the Catholic bible but not the King James version?

Answer 1

The Catholic Bible has several more books than the KJV since it was based on the Greek translation of the OT that contained these books, rather than the Massoretic text that did not.

Answer 2

A couple reasons.

2 Maccabees lays out the power of the living to offer prayers and sacrifices for the dead (12:39-46).
2 Maccabees also speaks of the intercession of the saints in heaven for people living on earth (15:11-16).

Luthor didn't approve of either of these so he removed the book. Since he removed 2 Maccabees he also had to remove 1 Maccabees because there were links between the two that didn't make sence without the other.

Answer 3

The New Testament canon of the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible are the same with 27 Books.

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 of 46 books, 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 books removed were Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom (of Solomon), Sirach, and Baruch. Parts of existing books were also removed including Psalm 151 (from Psalms), parts of the Book of Esther, Susanna (from Daniel as chapter 13), and Bel and the Dragon (from Daniel as chapter 14).

The Christian Church did not follow suit but kept all the books in the Septuagint. 46 + 27 = 73 Books total.

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

Here is a Catholic Bible website: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/bible/

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

First, in the version of the bible authorized by James, King of England and Defender of the Faith as head of the Church, it is included. It was removed later.

Second, until Luther it was always included in the Christian bible. Luther had a problem. The bible was promulgated by Pope Damasus in 397 (or maybe 387 I can't remember). The books that were canonized were the only books to be read during the liturgy. It did not state that other books were necessarily false, nor that they did not carry revelation, only that these are to be read in Church. If Luther rejected papal authority he also would have rejected the authorizing party for the bible. If he accepted the bible he had to take the papacy with it.

So he decided to rechoose the books himself. He excluded James, Jude, Revelations, 1&2 Maccabees, and a number of other books. 17th century Lutherans returned James, Jude and Revelations to the bible. Luther argued that since the rabbis excluded some of the books, called the apocrypha by Protestants, then it should be excluded by Christians. What Luther did not realize was that the reason they were excluded was that God does no reveal himself in Greek, only Hebrew. It was an attack on Christianity. Any book written in Greek must be false and since some of the books were written by diaspora Jews they must be false since they were in Greek originally, even if later rewritten into Hebrew.

The Jewish canon was chosen after the time of the apostles. The apostles used the Catholic list of books and in fact both the apostles and Jesus quote from them as scripture. The Catholic Church accepts whatever the apostles accept. Often Protestants will claim to use the list chosen by Anthanasius, but that is a problem too because they ignore that Anthanasius includes Baruch and the Didache. Why Protestant claim he is the father of their canon and then ignore his list is beyond me, his list is just closest.

The reason Luther excluded many of the books is that they disagree with his position. James, for example, says faith without works are dead, which is the Catholic position he was opposing. Maccabees includes prayers for the dead and you can reach the doctrine of purgatory there too. Revelations includes a statement that only the children of Mary can get into Heaven and gives her a crown. It could be argued as well, that the wings given to her to protect her is a reference to the assumption. Jude was considered of too little value to bother with.

The reformation was a civil war and nothing else. When theology is used to create war banners all you get is bad theology. 500 years later, we have bad theology and broken doctrine and mixed sets of books.

Answer 5

Maccabees is part of the Apocrypha....many scholars show evidence that points to the closing of the hebrew canon following the writing of the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and malachi. The aporcypaphal writings were never included the Jewish canon of inspired scriptures and are not part today. For catholics, the trend toward including these writings was initiated by augustine (354-430)a.d. he even later acknowledged that there was a definite distinction between the hebrew cannon and the apocrypha. it was not until 1546 c.e that the Roman Catholic Church accepted it into their Bibles...

Answer 6

I've heard the Catholics idea of purgatory is in the 2nd book of Maccabees. Check out a website dealing with the Apocrapha.

Answer 7

Protestants removed the apocrypha from the Catholic Bible.

Answer 8

Actually it is.

It is in the 1611 edition of the KJV.

Answer 9

Why did the Church put it in the Cannon ,When?
How did it qualify?