Catholic Bibles Have MORE Books Than Protestant Bibles (a brief history)

Joe Heschmeyer gives a brief history of why the Catholic bible contains more books than protestant bibles.

[JT-qx]

Therefore Catholics have bigger biceps than protestants due to the extra lifting CONFIRMED!! :D

[AKdon]

Currently reading "Why Catholic Bibles are Bigger" by Gary Michuta. Really really enlightening. Probably the best book about this topic. Love it!! Thank you Catholic Answers!!

[justtvii]

Finally a Catholic who didn't Keep it in an argumenting way, That's How a brother in Christ would speak, Thank you!!

[WesternOutpostDonVonFilms]

Those additional books contain great stories. I recommend that everyone read them, whether you are a Catholic, a Protestant or an Orthodox Christian. I love them all. Especially Judith.

[dannisivoccia]

The very early church only had the Torah, but when the Holy Spirit was poured-out during Pentecost, each Holy Spirit-filled believer was enabled and empowered to live their lives in Christ rather admirably, enduring so much persecution; and for some even martyrdom.
Today, we have the New Testament and myriads upon myriads of translations, references, and commentaries. Yet, so many Christians have consistent struggles overcoming the flesh, the world, and the devil.

[Dakotarain]

As a recovering catholic I am so happy to have been saved

[popsharrison]

What I like to do when I watch a long debate that goes two or three hours: Usually start with the closing statements; they're fairly short, then I go back to the rebuttals and counter rebuttals.... Then to the opening statements (which can be long) and or the Cross-Ex. This way you get the key points and key arguments whittled down and compacted into 10 or 15 min segments; easier to listen to and appreciate the arguments i think.

[richardbenitez]

Good way to remember all this is, if Bible scriptures were good enough for Christ, they are good enough for his followers.

[peterlloyd]

You explain the argument reasonably well, though with a few errors. My issue is that after explaining the argument, that be came the why. The why, as why the Catholic bible is comes from the ecumenical counsel of Rome in 382. This counsel is called by Pope Damascus I, after 2-3 synods arguing which books should be canonical. The counsel produced a document we call the Decretum Gelasianum. In it is the decision as to which books would be canonical. With that, the church magisterium commissioned St. Jerome to create an official translation of the bible, which know as the Latin Vulgate. The church's canonical books were confirmed at the counsels of Hippo (393), Carthage (397 & 419), Nicea II (787) and Florence (1442). They were also reaffirmed at the counsel of Trent (1546), but bringing that up could cause more argument.

There were also non-Greek versions of most of the "Catholic Books". The copy of Tobit which St. Jerome used was written in Aramaic. We know this because he wrote to the magisterium saying he didn't actually speak Aramaic, but it was close enough to Hebrew, which did speak, that he could attempt it

[thewestisthebest]

Basically, these books were Jewish writings dating to witching a few hundred years of Christ. They were not part of the Jewish Torah and not regarded as canonical by the Jews

The Catholic Church decided to make them canonical and that was one of the many grievances Martin Luther had with the Catholic Church

[PolymorphicPenguin]

That was a very concise and well-articulated answer.

[david_porthouse]

All Christians should read the Bible regularly. Here is a suggested two-year cycle for the New Testament:

After Pentecost in odd-numbered years, starting with 2023:
Gospel of St Mark, Titus to Jude, Book of Revelations

From Advent in odd-numbered years:
Gospel of St Luke, Acts of the Apostles

After Pentecost in even-numbered years, starting with 2024:
Romans to 2 Timothy

From Advent in even-numbered years:
Gospels of St Matthew and St John

This scheme starts each Advent with a Christmas narrative and a two year cycle is easy to keep track of. Luke and Acts are together, being both by the same author, and Romans and other Pauline epistles follow on in sequence. Matthew and John are different from each other so there is little immediate repetition.

Some Protestants will say that encouraging everybody to read the Bible will be the downfall of the Catholic Church. I'll just take a chance on that. Make sure you use a genuine 73-book Bible available from any Catholic bookshop if you do not own a Bible at the moment.

[wyatthenson]

Question, why does some other Bibles have 76 books?

[ChrisEAdlay]

Hi, can someone please tell me, am I able to go to confession if I'm living with my partner and kids out of wedlock? I know I need to get married and baptize my kids but just want to know if I'm able to go to confession first. Thanks

[DisneyandCowboysfanCatholic]

I recently started studying the Bible (Catholic edition) and was wondering if us Catholics added to it or if the Protestants took away some scripture

[jacobjuelfs]

I’m just here because I thought the thumbnail was funny.

[elainegoad]

Does the Catholic Bible have the Book of Enoch ? What about the Ethiopian Bible which they still use ?

[juans]

The title should be; Why do Protestant Bibles have 7 missing Books? It WAS, the Catholic Church that produced the Bible under Pope Damasus in 382A.D. He commissioned St. Jerome to gather ALL the writings, Epistles, Gospels and Translate them from the Original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek into the Language of the day; LATIN! It WAS, the Catholic Church that determined which writings were the TRUE AND INSPIRED WORD OF GOD, (ALL 73 Books), in what order they would appear in the Bible along with the table of contents! This was reviewed and approved during the Councils of Hippo, 383A.D, and Carthage, 393A.D...Martin Luther, under NO authority removed 7 books along with parts of Esther, Chapters 11-16, which mention God and parts of Daniel! He did this IN SPITE of what Rev.22:18-19 say about adding/removing/changing the word of God! Martin Luther's Adulterated Bible was 1, 200 years away in the future when the ONLY TRUE Catholic Bible was produced....Martin Luther, Year 1520.

[DevelopmentRobco]

if a preacher told you in 2024 that the letters of Paul were not divinely inspired by God and should be erased from the Bible, most would call him crazy and not a real Christian (and rightfully so)...

Now let's go back 400 years ago with the beginning of protestantism... Why is it okay in the 1600s to take from the bible and not 2024? Is everyone who lived for 1600 years between Christ and (*insert your protestant denomination) going to hell for believing in a false bible, a false church, and a false interpretation of said bible you've already taken books out of???

[john-paulgies]

"That which God hath cleansed, do not thou call common." (Acts 10:15)