Both the Jewish Bible and the Hebrew canon in a Protestant Bible (aka Old Testament) contain 39 books, whereas a Catholic Bible contains 46 books in the Old Testament. Thus, the difference is only prevalent in the Old Testament, with 39 books in the Protestant Bible and 47 books in the Catholic Bible. The Roman Catholic Bible contains seven books that do not appear in most Protestant Bibles. The reasons are complex. In the Catholic faith, one of the big reasons we accept these books as canon is because of the authority we assign to the Septuagint. Both the Jewish Bible and the Hebrew canon in a Protestant Bible (aka Old Testament) contain 39 books, whereas a Catholic Bible contains 46 books in the Old Testament. One effect of this interest was a separation of those books that were known to be originally written in Hebrew from those that were not. Learn why Catholics and Protestants have different versions of the Bible. It is comprised of two the COMPLETE Old Testament and the New Testament. They are Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus and Baruch. They help fill out the story of the Jewish community during this time. © Copyright 2020 Catholic Exchange. All rights reserved. In addition, the Greek Orthodox, or Eastern Orthodox, Church accepts a few more books as canonized scripture. However, Protestant bibles contain 66 books while Catholic bibles include 73. This follows the practice of Martin Luther (but not Calvin), who considered these books “not equal to the Sacred Scriptures, but useful ad good for reading.”. In early Protestant Bibles, the Deuterocanonical books had been placed together in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments. As it happened, some more late Jewish books were written not in Hebrew, but in Greek, because by then it was the common language of the Eastern Roman Empire. Both the Jewish Bible and the Hebrew canon in a Protestant Bible (aka Old Testament) contain 39 books, whereas a Catholic Bible contains 46 books in the Old Testament. While all 66 books found in Protestant Bibles are also found in the Catholic Bible, the Catholic Bible also contains other books, and additions to books. Consequently, many of them accepted not the Greek additions, but only the original Hebrew books of the Old Testament. Indeed, the oldest copies of the Bible now known to exist are the Dead Sea scrolls of the Septuagint. After the Reformation though, some Christians decided to accept translations into Latin then English only from the Hebrew texts that the Jewish Bible contained, so the seven additional books in the Greek translation became known as the Apocrypha, meaning "hidden." Is our Old Testament the same as a Jewish Bible? One should note that the Bible is not just one book; it is a collection of books from writings to historical events. The Catholic Bible contains a total of 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament (Protestant Bibles have 39) and 27 in the New Testament (the same as Protestant Bibles). The books of the Bible were written as individual books or writings. Question: What's the difference between a Catholic Bible and a Protestant one? The reason for the Protestant/ Catholic difference here goes all the way back to the Old Testament, first written in Hebrew (and Aramaic, a related language), and then translated about 200 B.C. In the third century BC, the Hebrew Bible began to be translated into Greek. Around 100 BC in Alexandria, the Greek Emperor, Ptolemy II, commissioned 71 Jewish leaders to translate the Jewish scripture into Greek. A third difference is the arrangement of the books (see below). Essentially, the Roman Catholic Church’s denial of sola scriptura and its insistence that both the Bible and tradition are equal in authority undermine the sufficiency, authority, and completeness of the Bible. But later copyists neglected or omitted his prefaces, and pretty soon Jerome’s whole Latin translation was considered of equal authority. Some inclusive Bibles, both Catholic and non-Catholic, have adopted the term “Lord” or “LORD” instead of Yahweh as the name of God. In order to print very inexpensive Bibles that everyone could afford, they dropped the books which we call the deuterocanonical books (the second canon). Naturally enough, these late books, written in Greek, were included not in the original Hebrew Old Testament, but only in the Greek translation of it (called the “Septuagint”). Catholic and Orthodox Bibles The Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches did not follow the Protestant revisions, and they continue to base their Old Testament on the Septuagint. The Catholic New Testament canon is identical to that of the Protestants other than some minor translation differences. Though their Bibles vary somewhat, they may include: the prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151, 1 and 2 Esdras, and 3 and 4 Maccabees. The Catholic Bible contain the 73 Books of the original Canon which the early Church (4th century) included as part of the Bible. – When the Protestant Reformation came along, Protestant scholars were also rediscovering the importance of the original Hebrew Old Testament and of the Hebrew language in which it was written. But that term is inexact and conveys a sense that is not very helpful. The content of the New Testament for Catholics and … We go through the history of how the bible was changed to a Protestant Bible. They include such books as Tobit, Judith, 1 … These books and additions were written during the three centuries before Jesus. The designation of 'second canon', however, does not mean that these books were regarded as less canonical. THE BIBLE: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC BIBLE AND THE PROTESTANT BIBLE. They were in response to different needs or situations and had purposes … A caller named Jackie asks if the Catholic Bible should be interpreted differently from the Protestant Bible. But even Catholics with an extensive knowledge of the Bible — and there are many now —have not always found it easier to discuss the Bible with Protestants or to state the biblical basis for Catholic beliefs. • One remarkable difference between Catholic Bible and King James Bible is the content. The Old Testament of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions are not exactly the same list of writings either! It is said that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew language, whereas, the disciples of Jesus wrote the New Testament in Greek. The books of Tobit and Judith are placed between Nehemiah and Esther, while 1 and 2 Maccabees follow Esther. For the New Testament, it's a different story — and short. In 1534, Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. At that time, the Reformers chose the shorter Old Testament, while the Roman Catholics decided (in 1546) for the larger canon. We have 7 more books within the OT than do Protestant Bibles. After a while, Jewish scholars wanted to make the Bible accessible again, so they translated Hebrew scriptures into the Greek language commonly spoken. If not, why? St. Jerome saw the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament as the inspired word of God, while St. Augustine accepted a later Greek translation as God’s word. He grouped the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament under the title "Apocrypha," declaring. So, as long as you choose an edition that does not add explanatory notes opposed to a Catholic perspective, any reputable translation of the New Testament is fine. All of the books were written in Greek or Aramaic from the start. Up until about two hundred years ago, both Protestant and Roman Catholic Bibles contained the same books. Thus to this day Catholic Bibles include the Old Testament Apocrypha, strictly Protestant Bibles exclude it, but certain “ecumenical” Bibles (such as The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: Expanded Edition) include it as an appendix. There are seven books found in the Catholic Old Testament that are not part of the Protestant Old Testament. The New Testament however, has 27 books in both. Help us continue by donating here. Since the books themselves were no secret, the word seemed ironic or, perhaps, prophetic because, in 1947, an Arab boy searching for a lost goat found, instead, the Dead Sea scrolls, hidden in a hillside cave. Some Protestant Bibles now print these extra writings as a block between the Old and New Testaments. All of the Deuterocanonical books emerged in the Jewish community in the pre-Christian era. In this short essay we will briefly cover the differences between the Catholic and Protestant Bibles and the reasons … It is not clear what prompts their arrangement. The primary difference between the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible is to be found in the Old Testament. So now, when an edition of the Bible says "with Apocrypha" on the cover, the extra books from the Septuagint will usually be placed between the Old and New Testaments or at the end of the Bible. Away from their Temple and, often, from their priests, the exiled people forgot how to read, write, and speak Hebrew. The Roman Catholic Bible also has additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. This translation, called the Septuagint (from a Latin word meaning seventy, because 70 [or 72] translators were thought to have done the work, also referred to as LXX), took several centuries to complete. Without this central place of worship, the Jews began looking to the Bible as their focal point of faith, but to assure the purity of that faith, only Hebrew scriptures were allowed into the Jewish canon. Early Protestants thought these books did not carry the authority of the other books of the Bible though they were still worth reading. 39 books are contained within the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. Protestants call them apocryphal books. By then, however, the earliest Christians spoke and read Greek, so they continued to use the Septuagint or Greek version of the Bible for many centuries. While Protestant and Jewish Bibles have thirty-nine Old Testament books, the Bible used by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians include the thirty-nine books and several additional writings. The Protestant Bible consists of 66 books which are considered to be divinely inspired. The Catholic Bible has 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament (Protestant Bibles have 39) and 27 in the New Testament (same as Protestant Bibles). Like the original Hebrew scriptures, the Greek texts, which were known as the Septuagint, were not in a codex or book form as we're accustomed to now but were handwritten on leather or parchment scrolls and rolled up for ease in storage. The Protestant canon follows the Jewish canon which has twenty-four books, but it orders and counts them differently. The differences between Protestant and Catholic translations of the Bible are in the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures. The history of the standing of these extra books is complex and obscure. Protestants removed […] Want to learn more? In addition, the Greek Orthodox, or Eastern Orthodox, Church accepts a few more books as canonized scripture. Suspicious of church tradition and the authority of councils and ecclesiastical figures, Protestant leaders thought it best to go with the books they thought were canonical before the church. Some books dropped out of Protestant Bibles in the early 19th century when Bible societies which were founded and supported initially by Protestants began printing Bibles for the masses. EIN: 04-2104698, The Reason Goes All the Way Back to the OT, Protestant Canon Follows the Jewish Canon. These added books in the Catholic Bible are known collectively as the Apocrypha. The Protestant and the Catholic bibles are different from one another today. These differences among existing Bibles stem from the complex history of how our Bible came to be the way it now is. These extra books are usually called the “Apocrypha” (meaning “hidden books”), or “Old Testament Apocrypha” (since they are all included in the Catholic Old Testament), or “deutero-canonical” books (since they have only secondary authority), and include such books as I-II Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, I-IV Maccabees, etc. The Catholic Church is the one which wrote 2 Tim 2:15 and follows the instructions of Scripture, … 7 Books! A third difference is the arrangement of the books (see below). The Roman Catholic Old Testament contains seven extra books, plus additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. Protestants call the same books 'the Apocrypha'. Discussion: The most noticeable differences occur in the number of books included and the order in which they have been arranged. Here's what you need to know about the difference. The Protestant canon contains 7 fewer books than the Catholic canon. Books of wisdom and histories about the period were added, too, eventually becoming so well known that Jesus and the earliest Christian writers were familiar with them. Because of this authentic find from antiquity, many publishers in the twentieth century added back the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, First and Second Maccabees, as well as additions to Esther and Daniel. The Protestant canon has a total of thirty-nine books, and it is calculated by counting as separate books 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah and each of the twelve minor prophets. Interestingly, the leather scrolls had been carefully wrapped in linen cloth, coated in pitch, and placed in airtight pottery jars about ten inches across and two feet high where, well-preserved, they remained for many centuries. Actually, Catholics have eight more books (Tobit, Judith, 1-2 Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus or Wisdom of Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch and letter of Jeremiah) and two additions (additions to Esther and additions to Daniel), totalling 47 books and two additions. Why do Catholics have 2 books in their Bible that Protestants do not have? A Protestant Bible is a Christian Bible whose translation or revision was produced by Protestants.Such Bibles comprise 39 books of the Old Testament (according to the Hebrew Bible canon, known especially to non-Protestants as the protocanonical books) and 27 books of the New Testament for a total of 66 books. The difference is in the Old Testament. into Greek. It was rather a recognition that they were considered canonical at a subsequent stage. The Protestant Old Testament contains 39 books, while the Catholic Bible contains 46 books. For unknown reasons, its ordering of the books differed from the Hebrew Bible; the Septuagint also included deuterocanonical books, but their number was never fixed. To be sure, there are lots of theological topics on which Catholics and Protestants disagree, but for sheer number of popular Protestant arguments that are explicitly and undeniably false, nothing tops the question of where the Bible … Although some debate occurred about which Gospels or Epistles should be included, all Christians eventually accepted all of the same 27 books in the same order. Thus, for example, the very first edition of the King James Bible included the Old Testament Apocrypha; but after some Protestants objected, the second and subsequent editions excluded the Apocrypha. She points out that she knows that the Catholic Bible has more books, but wonders if the meanings of the words change as well. These books are collectively called 'Deuterocanonical books' and are authoritative. The differences between Catholic/Protestant approaches to the bible is that both camps err by not RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD of TRUTH (2 Tim 2:15), Not true. The Protestant Bible and Catholic Bible are not the same book. The book of Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah, follows Lamentations. Catholic Exchange is a project of Sophia Institute Press. King James Bible is the Protestant bible. The view of Scripture is at the root of many, if not all, of the differences between Catholics and Protestants. Other factors were at work as well, such as the theological perspective that was present in some texts of the extra books. Father Dave responds, “So interestingly, she uses the phrase ‘Catholic Bible.’ The important thing to note is that the differences between Catholic and Protestant Bibles has to do with the content of the Old Testament. 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