What is the difference between the Christain and the Catholic Bible?

Question

I have heard that the Catholic Bible has some added books in it. Is it true? Can you please cite some sources. Thank you very much, your helping someone to pass a certain subject

Answer 1

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 that were removed supported such things as
+ Prayers for the dead (Tobit 12:12; 2 Maccabees 12:39-45)
+ Purgatory (Wisdom 3:1-7)
+ Intercession of saints in heaven (2 Maccabees 15:14)
+ Intercession of angels (Tobit 12:12-15)

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 2

At the time the Christian Bible was being formed, a Greek translation of Jewish Scripture, the Septuagint, was in common use and Christians adopted it as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. However, around 100 A.D., Jewish rabbis revised their Scripture and established an official canon of Judaism which excluded some portions of the Greek Septuagint. The material excluded was a group of 15 late Jewish books, written during the period 170 B.C. to 70 A.D., that were not found in Hebrew versions of the Jewish Scripture. Christians did not follow the revisions of Judaism and continued to use the text of the Septuagint.

Protestant reformers in the 1500s decided to follow the official canon of Judaism for the Old Testament rather than the Septuagint, and the excluded material was placed in a separate section of the Bible called the Apocrypha. Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha until the mid 1800s, but it was eventually dropped from most Protestant editions.

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches continue to base their Old Testament on the Septuagint. The result is that these versions of the the Bible have more Old Testament books than Protestant versions. Catholic Old Testaments include 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, The Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), additions to Esther, and Susanna and Bel and the Dragon which are included in Daniel. Orthodox Old Testaments include these plus 1st and 2nd Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151 and 3rd Maccabees.

The Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox New Testaments are identical.

Answer 3

You mean Catholic and non-Catholic Christians. The First Christian Bible (OT and NT) was the Vulgate Version (405 A.D.). It was Catholic. It was based in part on the Septuagint or Greek version of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament only). In the 10th century A. D., Jewish Talmudic scholars finished the Masoretic text (OT only). The Masoretic text excluded the following books in the Vulgate version; 1-2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, additions to Esther, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, Baruch, prayer of Azariah, song of the 3 in Daniel, Susana in Daniel, Bel and the dragon in Daniel, prayer of Manasses in 2 Chronicles, and 1-2 Maccabees. Non-Catholic Christians followed the revisions. Some of these churches also rejected several works in the Vulgate NT; Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2-3 John, Jude, Apocalypse, Mark 16:9-20, Luke 22:43-44, John 7:35 and 8:1-11.

Answer 4

The Catholic Bible includes a collection of 14 more books in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) called the Apocrypha. Judith, Bel and the Dragon, and the Maccabees to name a few. There is even one called Ecclesiasticus (very similar in title to Ecclesiastes, and thus why the later is often referred to by it’s original Hebrew title Qohelet.)
In any case, neither of the respective traditions fully canonized them, and both believe the books to be somewhat “secondary.” However, it is the degree of secondary status that separates them. The Catholic tradition still includes them in the tome whereupon the Protestant traditions do not. On a personal note this is unfortunate because, as a protestant who reads them often, I can say that there is great wisdom in them. (particularly Judith and the Maccabees.) Ask any Catholic parish for a glimpse and I’m sure they would oblige. Most NSRV translations contain them as well.

Answer 5

Actually, the Catholic or Douay version of the Bible predates the King James Version by about 1000 years, so it's the KJV that has missing books, not the other way around. The additional books are called Apocryphal by the people who support the KJV. They believe that in some way these books were not divinely inspired and should not be considered holy. You also have to realize that the Catholic Church also made this kind of decision when they formed the first Bible in the 4th century. They also left out books they didn't agree with, to the tune of about 100 of them. Anyway, the KJV was retranslated in the 14th century to suit the wishes of King James, though I don't think there were any really major changes. One change he wanted was in the scriptures referring to witches. They weren't originally called witches, but he wanted it translated that way so he could get rid of the nature religions which still existed in England at the time. Hope this helps!

Answer 6

The Catholic Bible has 72 books. The Protestants ripped out 6 books 500 years ago, so they only have 66. The Protestant Bible is corrupted.

And, Catholics ARE Christians! Among the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517.

Answer 7

it's the Protestant and Catholic Bibles.

Martin Luther removed 7 books.

Bible translations developed for Catholic use are complete Bibles. This means that they contain the entire canonical text identified by Pope Damasus and the Synod of Rome (382) and the local Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), contained in St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation (420), and decreed infallibly by the Ecumenical Council of Trent (1570). This canonical text contains the same 27 NT Testament books which Protestant versions contain, but 46 Old Testament books, instead of 39. These 7 books, and parts of 2 others, are called Deuterocanonical by Catholics (2nd canon) and Apocrypha (false writings) by Protestants, who dropped them at the time of the Reformation. The Deuterocanonical texts are Tobias (Tobit), Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Wisdom, First and Second Maccabees and parts of Esther and Daniel. Some Protestant Bibles include the "Apocrypha" as pious reading.



Kaliko, my dear, your NT and my NT are the same, so if you call ours false, then yours is also.

Answer 8

No, it's not true. The Catholic bible we have is the same one that's been around for 2,000 years. It's actually the protestants who removed 7 books.

Answer 9

Non-Catholic Bibles are MISSING some books. These are books that had been in the bible from 5th century. in the 14th century, Protestant "Reformers" decided to adopt the canon of scripture adopted by the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus' day. This was done as a sign of rejection of the catholic Church.

It is very ironic that the canon of scripture adopted by the people who rejected the Catholic Church is the same cannon of scripture that was adopted by people who rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

Answer 10

I don't have a source, but the Catholic Bible does have more books in it.

Give a call to a Catholic school or church. I'm certain they would tell you which books they are.