Catholic Bible vs Protestant Bible

Why does the Catholic bible have more books than the Protestant bible?

[simpleazon-image align=”left” asin=”0385142641″ locale=”us” height=”320″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51av79NK71L._SL160_.jpg” width=”212″]There are seven 7 books in the Catholic bible that are not in the Protestant’s bible.  These books are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I and II Maccabees, and Esther.  After Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, there were many writings about him.  These writings were divided into three main groups:

1. Writings that were accepted by all as being true

2. Writings that were accepted by all as being false

3. Writings that were rejected by some and accepted by some.

And so when the early Church was putting the bible together, she had to decide on the third group – those writings that were rejected by some and accepted by some.  And so in the year 397, the Catholic Church held a council – called the Council of Carthage and decided on the 73 books that would make up the bible.  So it is not that the Catholic Church added extra books to the bible.  When the Catholic church put the Bible together, there were 73 books.  This is a historical fact.

Now, so how did we get from the original Catholic Bible that has 73 books to the Protestant’s bible that is missing 7 books?  Well for centuries, before the advent of the printing press, the Bible was hand written and maintained by the Catholic Church.  The first bible was printed sometime between the 14th and 15th century.

Now, it is also a historical fact that throughout the history of the Church, there have been those who’d teach things that were contra to the teachings of the Church.  There was the ongoing battle of the early Church about circumcision on which St Paul wrote so passionately about. And that “descent” for want of a better word, continues to this day.  You might recall in the just concluded Synod held by the Church on the family, there were cardinals and bishops there who voiced suggestions that oppose some of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

So the Catholic Church has always had that problem, and she always will. But, no matter how strong the opposition might be, the Word of God as spoken by Jesus himself assures us that the “gates of hell shall not prevail against the church that Jesus himself started with Peter as the first Pope.

In  the sixteenth century, Martin Luther, like so many of his predecessors, began the Protestant reformation by teaching  some aspects of Christianity that went against the teachings of the Catholic Church.  He however, encountered some challenges in that all the teachings of the Catholic Church are biblically based. And so what Luther did was to publish his own version of the bible, leaving out those parts of the original Catholic Bible that showed up his teachings to be false.  Hence the seven books listed above were omitted because they all contained passages that showed up Luther’s teachings to be false.  That is why the Catholic Bible has seven more books than the Protestant bible.

Should Catholics read Protestant’s bibles?

While there may not be any Church laws or teachings against reading Protestant’s bibles, it is prudent to know why the Catholic Bible is different, and why the Catholic Church holds the title to the original bible.  It is also very important to know and to understand how the Protestant bible came about.  based on these truths, I think it to be prudent, to be wise to go with the full, completed version of the bible – the Catholic Bible.  After all, when Protestants evangelize Catholics, they do not use Catholic bibles; then I would say that neither should we.  I guess its like tampering with evidence – it is never a good thing.

That being said, our defence of the Catholic faith and Catholic teachings must always be done in love and out of love.