Does the Catholic Bible have more or less books?and Why??

Answer 1

The Catholic Bible has more books than the Protestant Bible. The extra books are Judith, Tobias, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Barruck, 1st and 2nd Maccabees, and Sirach.

The Catholic church determined that these books were also inspired by God and worthy to be included in Scripture. The Protestant church disagreed and omitted them.

Answer 2

The Bible that Catholics use has more books in the Old Testament than the Old Testament non-Catholics use.

Jesus and His disciples taught from the Old Testament used by the Catholics (Septaguint). The book of Macabees is the only place in the Old Testament that mentions the resurrection of the body. When the Jewish Temple was destoyed, the Jewish leaders decided they needed to make a list of the Scripture they would follow. Partly because some of the books in the Septaguint were written in Greek and partly to reject the teachings of the followers of Jesus, the Jewish leaders removed some books from the Septaguint.

The Bible the Catholics use is the Bible that all Christians used until the 1500s, when Martin Luther wanted to discard all things Catholic. He rejected the Old Testament used by the Catholics and adopted the Old Testament used by the Jews who had earlier rejected the teachings of Jesus Christ.

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 keep the Catholic New Testament but 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

They have the same books as all Bibles, but the wording is different in some because most Bibles are a version (ex. King James Version), not a translation of the original Bible. A version of a Bible can have words changed, or taken out to make it say what that person wants it to mean. Check the first page or so of your Bible and it will tell you if it is a Version, Translation, or a Translated Version (which is pretty much the same as being someones version of the Bible) Catholics have added some books, but they are not a Translation because they aren't from the original Bible

Answer 5

The Catholic Bible contains 73 books, and has so since the earliest availible versions of the Bible, circa 450 AD. This is because the original version used the Septuagint in its Old Testament translation.

Martin Luther, when he translated the Bible, used the Pentateuch, which did not include these books.

This poses a dire problem for literalist Protestants who claim that the Book of Revelation's prohibition of adding or taking away from 'this book' refers to the entirety of the Bible, when it's author, John of Patmos, would have only meant for it to apply to Revelation (seeing as John of Patmos would not have known his book would have been included in what is, in essence, an anthology).

Answer 6

To answer your question sufficiently it would take some time. but in essence the Catholic Bible holds to more "Apocryphal" Old Testament books then the Protestant Bible because they feel these books were part of the original Hebrew Torah back in Jesus' day. The reason they were taken out was because Martin Luther (a 16th century reformer) believed they were not inspired because they hold certain doctrine which he disagreed with.

Answer 7

Pastor Billy says: many good answers here except one in particular Mr. Ed's. I have to correct his misrepresentation of history. Jerome did not say he disagreed with the use of the Septuagint ( Hebrew translated to Greek scriptures by Hebrew scribes) nor did he disagree with those additional books found in the Catholic Christian Old Testament.

Actually, Jerome included them in his Latin translation of Scripture, known as the Vulgate. What he wrote was that certain Jews he knew didn’t include them in their Bible. In addition, at the dawn of the fifth century, after Jerome finished his translation, Bishop Exuperous of Toulouse wrote a letter to Pope Innocent I, asking which books were considered Sacred Scripture. The Pope responded with a list identical to the Catholic Bible of today. The Catholic canon remained virtually unchallenged for the next thousand years. These decisions were echoed at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 and infallibly declared at the Council of Florence in 1441."

We know today that Jews in Diaspora (meaning those outside of Palestine and the majority of Jews worldwide) did not use the same canon as those inside Palestine in fact even to this day African Jews (Ethiopians) have a canon of scripture more similar to Catholics. And so it is incorrect to assume these books in question are extra or "more" or non-authoritative. Mr. Ed doesn't know his history Jewish or Christian!

Answer 8

The Catholic bible has a few more books inthe Old Testament. We call those the apocryphal books.
When Jerome translated the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate), he did not consider those books to be part of the inspired canon, but the church leaders wanted him to translate them too. So he placed them in a section apart from the rest of the books of the Bible.
However, at the Council of Trent, at the end of the 1500's (I might have my timing off a bit), the Counter Reformatin of the Catholic church was seeking to respond to criticisms from the Reformers. So in order to defend praying to the dead, they referred to one of the books of the Apocrypha. So in the Council of Trente they declared that the apocryphal books were canonical, and that anyone who thought or said otherwise was accursed.

Answer 9

Less because of the Nicean council. Even in the bible it admits that there were other books that were excluded.

Jos 10:13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. [Is] not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

2Sa 1:18 (Also he bade them teach the children of Judah [the use of] the bow: behold, [it is] written in the book of Jasher.)

Num 21:14 Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,

2Ch 12:15 Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, [are] they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? And [there were] wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

2Ch 27:7 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, lo, they [are] written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

1Ki 11:41 And the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, [are] they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?

2Ch 9:29 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, [are] they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?

The bible is not complete!

Answer 10

No, it's just one book like all the bibles.