– 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. 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. 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. Eventually, the Jewish exiles were allowed to return to Jerusalem where they renovated the Temple. All rights reserved. The Old Testament of the Roman Catholic tradition, and also the Eastern Orthodox tradition includes a several writings more than in the Hebrew (Jewish) Bible or the Protestant Old Testament. The designation of 'second canon', however, does not mean that these books were regarded as less canonical. Is our Old Testament the same as a Jewish Bible? Hello Lataka, please know that the Catholic Bible IS the TRUE Bible. The basic reason is that the Protestant leaders chose to accept only the books of the Old Testament accepted as canonical in Judaism, which they assumed was the Bible used by Jesus and the earliest Christians. Help us continue by donating here. © Copyright 2020 Catholic Exchange. The main reason for this is because Catholics and many Protestants have different starting points for interpreting the Bible. 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 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). Today’s difference in Bibles is that the Catholic Church accepts seven additional Old Testament books of the Bible (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Baruch, First and Second Maccabees) and parts of two others (Esther 10:14 to 16:14; and Daniel 3:24- 90; 13; 14). There are seven books found in the Catholic Old Testament that are not part of the Protestant Old Testament. Almost all Christians believe in the truths found in the Bible, but there are two different lists of what belongs in the Old Testament – the list used by the Catholic Church (and most Eastern Orthodox) and the list used by most Protestants. 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. And so, these extra books are now usually referred to as the deuterocanonical books, that is, a “second canon” (in Greek, deuteron means second). As the Catholic version includes seven books that the … The Protestant Bible, of which the NIV is one version, is seven books shorter than the Bible used by Roman Catholics. The Protestant and the Catholic bibles are different from one another today. Question: What's the difference between a Catholic Bible and a Protestant one? He grouped the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament under the title "Apocrypha," declaring. Why do Catholics have 2 books in their Bible that Protestants do not have? Up until about two hundred years ago, both Protestant and Roman Catholic Bibles contained the same books. In order to print very inexpensive Bibles that everyone could afford, they dropped the books which we call the deuterocanonical books (the second canon). The Old Testament of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions are not exactly the same list of writings either! 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. The content of the New Testament for Catholics and … 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. The Protestant canon contains 7 fewer books than the Catholic canon. These differences among existing Bibles stem from the complex history of how our Bible came to be the way it now is. 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 … Originally, the King James Bible as well as Catholic Bible had the books from Old Testaments, which are known as the Apocrypha or the Deutercanonicals. But that term is inexact and conveys a sense that is not very helpful. If not, why? They were in response to different needs or situations and had purposes … But later copyists neglected or omitted his prefaces, and pretty soon Jerome’s whole Latin translation was considered of equal authority. Early Protestants thought these books did not carry the authority of the other books of the Bible though they were still worth reading. Only non-Catholic Bibles call Yahweh God, Jehovah. 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. Copyright Massachusetts Bible Society © 2020    Registered 501(c)(3). EIN: 04-2104698, The Reason Goes All the Way Back to the OT, Protestant Canon Follows the Jewish Canon. 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. 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. All of the Deuterocanonical books emerged in the Jewish community in the pre-Christian era. A third difference is the arrangement of the books (see below). 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. A caller named Jackie asks if the Catholic Bible should be interpreted differently from the Protestant Bible. (For more detailed information, see the entries on Wikipedia:  "Development of Old Testament Canon", and "Deuterocanonical Books". The New Testament however, has 27 books in both. 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. Then, in A.D. 70, warring peoples almost completely destroyed the sacred structure, which has never been rebuilt. It is said that the Old Testament was written in Hebrew language, whereas, the disciples of Jesus wrote the New Testament in Greek. The status of the extra books remained somewhat fluid in early Christian history, but most Christian writers used an Old Testament that included extra books until the time of the Reformation (sixteenth century). Why are Protestant and Catholic Bibles different? Around 100 BC in Alexandria, the Greek Emperor, Ptolemy II, commissioned 71 Jewish leaders to translate the Jewish scripture into Greek. These added books in the Catholic Bible are known collectively as the Apocrypha. While all Christians have the same twenty-seven New Testament books, they disagree regarding the number of books in the Old Testament canon. Some Protestants use Bibles … We have to go back in history to explain why. The Roman Catholic Bible also has additions to the books of Esther and Daniel. In addition, the Greek Orthodox, or Eastern Orthodox, Church accepts a few more books as canonized scripture. 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. The Well-Worn Path to Truth Leads to Catholicism, Christmas is a Time to Celebrate the Truth About God, Away in a Manger: St Francis and the Nativity. 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. In addition, the Greek Orthodox, or Eastern Orthodox, Church accepts a few more books as canonized scripture. In the sixteenth century, the council of Trent decided that the books known as the apocrypha among the Protestants were 'deuterocanonical'. In early Protestant Bibles, the Deuterocanonical books had been placed together in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments. We go through the history of how the bible was changed to a Protestant Bible. A third difference is the arrangement of the books (see below). They help fill out the story of the Jewish community during this time. The reasons are complex. Away from their Temple and, often, from their priests, the exiled people forgot how to read, write, and speak Hebrew. Answer: The difference between the Catholic version of the Bible and other translations is that it has additional books contained in the Old Testament that other translations (NKJV, NIV, etc.) For one thing, a scholarly interest emerged regarding the original languages of the Bible and issues of Jewish origin. 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. At that time, the Reformers chose the shorter Old Testament, while the Roman Catholics decided (in 1546) for the larger canon. The interesting result is that while Protestants and Jews agree on the number of Old Testament books, the majority of Christians in the world have a larger Old Testament. 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. 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. The Catholic New Testament canon is identical to that of the Protestants other than some minor translation differences. The Protestant Old Testament contains 39 books, while the Catholic Bible contains 46 books. do not. Father Dave responds, “So interestingly, she uses the phrase ‘Catholic Bible.’ Catholic Bibles already contained those books, however, so you'll find them interwoven with other Old Testament books of history and wisdom writings.Â. Get started with Bible study here. THE BIBLE: THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC BIBLE AND THE PROTESTANT BIBLE. These books and additions were written during the three centuries before Jesus. 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. The Latin Bible (called the Vulgate, “common text”) was brought to order by the church father Jerome; it remained the common Bible for over a millennium and included the deuterocanonical books. The Protestant Bible and Catholic Bible are not the same book. Catholic and Protestant Bibles? Our difference lies in the contents of the Old Testament where we have Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and additions to Esther and Daniel. Catholics call the books included in the Catholic Bible and not the Protestant Bible the deuterocanonical books. Other factors were at work as well, such as the theological perspective that was present in some texts of the extra books. All of the books were written in Greek or Aramaic from the start. 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. The differences between Protestant and Catholic translations of the Bible are in the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures. The primary difference between the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible is to be found in the Old Testament. 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