Why
does the Catholic Bible have 73 books, while Protestant Bibles only have 66?
The Catholic Bible contains 46 Old Testament books while Protestant Bibles include 39. (Protestants and Catholics accept the same 27 books of the New Testament as inspired and canonical.) The Old Testament books found in Catholic Bibles, but omitted from Protestant Bibles, are the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), First and Second Maccabees, Baruch, and parts of Daniel and Esther. Catholics call these books deuterocanonical works; Protestants call them the Apocrypha.
But why the difference?
In the 16th century, Martin Luther, a former Catholic priest and the father of Protestantism, decided to remove 7 books from the Bible. (By what authority you should ask?) As a result they truncated the Old Testament down to 39 books, and deleted entire chapters from the Old Testament books of Daniel and Esther. These books were removed, even though these books had been regarded as canonical since the beginning of Church history.
Martin Luther also deleted four books from the New Testament (Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation), but his followers placed those books back in after his death. In 1534, he translated the Bible into German and grouped the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament under the title "Apocrypha," declaring. "These are books which are not held equal to the Sacred Scriptures and yet are useful and good for reading”. Some speculate he wanted to remove anything which he disagreed with, such as praying for the dead. (2 Maccabees 12:42-45)
He also said that he wanted to “throw Jimmy into the fire”, and that the book of James was “an epistle of straw.” He added the word “alone” to Sacred Scripture in his German translation of Romans 3:28. A question to ask is this – by what authority did he have to do this, and what would prevent someone else from doing the same today?
It’s interesting to note that when Jesus addressed the Diaspora Jews (who spoke Greek) he quoted from the Septuagint version of the scriptures, which includes these 7 books that are not found in the Protestant Bible. Which Old Testament would you rather use – the Old Testament used by Jesus, the New Testament writers and the early Church, or the Old Testament used by later Jews who had rejected Christ and persecuted Christianity?
How do we know what books belong in the Bible? We trust the infallible Church established by Jesus Christ. The Church tells us what belongs in the Bible and assures us that everything in it is inspired.
The Catholic Bible contains 46 Old Testament books while Protestant Bibles include 39. (Protestants and Catholics accept the same 27 books of the New Testament as inspired and canonical.) The Old Testament books found in Catholic Bibles, but omitted from Protestant Bibles, are the Books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), First and Second Maccabees, Baruch, and parts of Daniel and Esther. Catholics call these books deuterocanonical works; Protestants call them the Apocrypha.
But why the difference?
In the 16th century, Martin Luther, a former Catholic priest and the father of Protestantism, decided to remove 7 books from the Bible. (By what authority you should ask?) As a result they truncated the Old Testament down to 39 books, and deleted entire chapters from the Old Testament books of Daniel and Esther. These books were removed, even though these books had been regarded as canonical since the beginning of Church history.
Martin Luther also deleted four books from the New Testament (Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation), but his followers placed those books back in after his death. In 1534, he translated the Bible into German and grouped the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament under the title "Apocrypha," declaring. "These are books which are not held equal to the Sacred Scriptures and yet are useful and good for reading”. Some speculate he wanted to remove anything which he disagreed with, such as praying for the dead. (2 Maccabees 12:42-45)
He also said that he wanted to “throw Jimmy into the fire”, and that the book of James was “an epistle of straw.” He added the word “alone” to Sacred Scripture in his German translation of Romans 3:28. A question to ask is this – by what authority did he have to do this, and what would prevent someone else from doing the same today?
It’s interesting to note that when Jesus addressed the Diaspora Jews (who spoke Greek) he quoted from the Septuagint version of the scriptures, which includes these 7 books that are not found in the Protestant Bible. Which Old Testament would you rather use – the Old Testament used by Jesus, the New Testament writers and the early Church, or the Old Testament used by later Jews who had rejected Christ and persecuted Christianity?
How do we know what books belong in the Bible? We trust the infallible Church established by Jesus Christ. The Church tells us what belongs in the Bible and assures us that everything in it is inspired.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.