Apocrypha and differences between Catholic and Born Again Bibles?

Question

Today a born again Christians said a lot of things I did not know how to respond to. He showed that Catholic Bibles have more books than the Bible used by born agains. He said the extra books were added by the Catholic Church and Constantine and are from a secret book called the Apocrypha? Any help?

Answer 1

This is one of the most important subjects in all exchanges between Catholics and Protestants. In fact, it provides with an reductio ad absurdum demonstration for the falsity of the "Bible-only" approach. How do we even know what the Bible is? How do we know what books are in the Bible? You have to go outside the Bible to determine and justify the canon, thus defering to an authority outside the Bible for one of the most important doctrines of all. But whom do you defer to? Well, it is the Church which is the pillar and foundation of truth, and which has the power to bind and loose...

Whatever the case, the Protestant Old Testament is based on the Jewish Bible canon. The problem is, the Jews did not solidify their canon until well after the dawn of Christianity, and the books which appear in Catholic Bibles but not Protestant Bibles were used by Christians long before the Jews finally settled on the canon (e.g. one of the oldest Christian canon lists of all, recorded in the Muratorian Fragment, includes the Wisdom of Solomon in the canon!).

When the Protestants tried to force the OT to parallel the Jewish Bible, they ripped out all the texts in the Christian OT which did not appear in the Jewish canon, and placed them in a special section disdainfully called "Apocrypha". In the 1800s, the Protestants removed the Apocrypha section all together (this is why older editions of the King James Bible still have books like Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Maccabees, Judith, et cetera).

So Catholics did not add books; rather Protestant removed books (which is ironic, because they claim they submit to the Bible, but really they have tried to make the Bible submit to their whims). You can see responses to many common objections to the Deuterocanonicals (what Catholics call those books) in the following blog entry:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=125682309&blogID=240765838

Answer 2

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

The Holy Spirit inspired the Roman Catholic Church in the 4th century to include 73 books in the word of God, the Bible. In the 1500's Martin Luther took OUT 7 books from the Bible and called those seven the "apocrypha", becuase he disagreed with their teachings. Luther had no right to take away from the The HOly Bible. God bless.

Answer 4

The Apocrypha was received into the Canon(Bible) in 1548.

Rome teaches in her Catechism of the Catholic Church, #85;
"The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone."

However, the Scripture testifies against the Roman Catholic Church! "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:20-21 Rome does make the scriptures say whatever she wants and no one has the right to question her authority. But you see, Rome didn't give us the word. God did! Psalms 68:11 "the Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it." And since it was God who gave the Word and who is the Word, it is God who interprets His own Word!!
".....do not interpretations belong to God?" (Gen. 40:8) It is Jesus who told us to "search the scriptures." It was Jesus who opened up His word after the resurrection! "then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures." (Luke 24:45)

God, who cannot lie, made a promise in Proverbs 1:23,
"turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."

The Lord is the Rock and not Peter. God's church is built on Jesus and not Peter. God has always been the Rock. There is plenty of scripture to support this. No purgatory either.
The doctrine of the papal infallibility was proclaimed in 1864.
The personal corporeal presence of the Virgin in heavein in 1950. Confession instituted in 1215.

Mary worship is another doctrine that has evolved into the worship of the virgin Mary. Apparitions have increased the offering of prayers to and through Mary. These apparitions are produced by evil spirits and so are the healings. The evil spirits can make ill and when they leave the person they become well.

Jesus is the only One who could be a sacrifice for sins. And Jesus made that sacrifice once and for all time on the Cross of Calvary. Jesus paid the full price for the sins of the world.
Neither Mary, nor the Pope nor any other saint or person can forgive us of our sins . . . only Jesus and He did on the Cross.
We must accept what Jesus did so we can receive eternal life. Jesus the Christ is the only way and there is no other way to eternal life.

Go to Wikipedia and read about the Apocrypha. The Catholic Church has many traditions that are not in the Bible and they are considered false doctrine and doctrines of devils.

Answer 5

What many Protestants, including those "born again" fail to realize is that the version of the Bible used by Catholics existed for nearly 1500 years before Martin Luther removed those books.

They were not "added". They were always in the Bible until Luther took them out when he translated the bible into German in the 1500's. That is when the protestant Bible version came about. Just 500 years ago. The King James version in English was written in the early 1600's. the Catholic version is the one that people used since Christianity began until those very recent changes were made..

Answer 6

The apocrypha are those books that were rejected from the Bible by Constantine. He then made up "gospels" and created much of the Bible using them.

EDIT: CJ, your arrogance and pride is a blinding light. How do you "know" that Catholics aren't "saved?"

Answer 7

Catholics are not saved Christians.