Catholic Bible: Old and New Testament?

Question

Why does the Catholic Bible only include 7 of the 39 books of the Old Testament?

I have a Catholic Bible and it's missing some things. I read that it only has 7, but expands on other things

Answer 1

I think you may have your question a little bit backwards. The way you may have wanted to form your question, is "Why is the Protestant Bible missing 7 books of the OT?" It's not that the Catholic Church added on additional books of the Bible, but instead that the Protestant reformers removed books to suit their needs. Additional books would have been removed from the NT, had they had their way. For example, Hebrews, James, etc...

Answer 2

I am afraid you have it a bit confused. The Catholic Old Testament has the 39 in the Protestant Bible plus 7 more making 46 books.

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 3

Not sure what you're talking about. The Catholic Bible includes all 39 books of the Christian Old Testament or Hebrew Bible. It also includes additional books (or variations on the 39) that were never part of the Hebrew Bible, such as Tobit and the books of the Maccabees.

Answer 4

Sabine E, DRAKE and wefmeister! For you info, the protestants bible has taken out 7 books from the original bible and not the Catholic Bible added 7 books! This was done by Martin Luther!!! Another thing! Catholics call these 7 books deuterchronicles and not Apocrypha!!!

Answer 5

Wow, you've got THAT wrong. The Catholic Bible has seven MORE books than the Protestant Bible, because the reformers took them out for being "too Catholic."

If the Catholic Bible you own is missing something, then it's either a misprinted edition or one of those two- or three-volume jobs and you only have one volume.

Answer 6

The catholic Bible I own has all the Old Testament books plus the apocryphal books.

Answer 7

Actually I believe they include about 7 additional books in the Old Testament.

Answer 8

I think they were put in there when they put the books together. There were some inconsistencies with the rest of the Gospel. But were still considered historical. And the other bible books were put together because they were what the Christian Jews believed accurate, and the Holy Spirit led them to. I am not sure when & what, but you can get an online site of the Catholic Cannon.

Answer 9

These passages of scripture prove for a fact that the false doctrine of the ever-changing "Catholic Bible" cannot be trusted as the Truth of God ......."For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.

And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."...Revelation 22: 18-19 kjv