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How Many Books In The Catholic Bible Vs Protestant

What Is King James Bible

Catholic vs Protestant – Apocrypha – Why Do Catholics Have 7 More Books in the Bible?

The Authorized King James Version, on the other hand, is the Christian Bible translation penned by the Church of England in 1611. This is the third official English translation of the Bible and was conceived due to issues against the two earlier translations. King James I of England summoned the Hampton Court Conference to create this version of the Bible.

At first, the King James Version included all of the books from the Old and New Testament as well as the Apocrypha. Over time, however, the books of Apocrypha were eliminated from the King James Bible. The most modern King James Version does not have the Apocrypha in it.

Title page and dedication from a 1612-1613 King James Bible

Also, the King James Bible is written in Old English. In this Bible, there is also the obvious distinction between the second person singular and the second person plural. Knowing the difference between thou and you as well as thou and thee is important when using this version of the Holy Scripture. This makes it hard for someone who has been brought up without knowledge of Old English to understand the King James Bible.

What Is The Septuagint

The Septuagint is a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. There is a legend surrounding its creation/translation and few people would take it literally. However as with many legends there is probably a core of truth among its fantastical claims.

The legend goes like this:

King Ptolemy II Philadelphus of Egypt who reigned from 283 BC to 246 BC wanted a copy of the Hebrew Law for the library at Alexandria. However, since Greek was the predominant language of the day, he wanted a Greek translation. Therefore Aristeas one of his courtiers composed a letter to the High Priest in Jerusalem.

The letter arrived in at the temple in Jerusalem along with an envoy and lavish gifts. The High Priest then chooses 72 men to do the translating work. When the translators arrive back in Alexandria, they were greeted with 7 days of feasting. During the feast, Ptolemy II asked them many difficult questions and they answered wisely.

Then the translation began. According to the legend, each of the 72 translators was put in a separate room to translate the Hebrew Law . They all finished the translation exactly 72 days later. When all of their translations were compared, they were found to be word-perfect identical to each other.

That was the Septuagint.

Thats the legend, and I do think its based on historical events.

I highly doubt the word-perfect portion of the legend, but the basic story is likely true. We cant be certain, but its quite likely.

A Quick Review Of The Maccabees

The story of the Maccabees is recounted in two books of the Catholic Bible, Maccabee 1 and Maccabee 2. Their story details how a segment of the Jewish priests rebelled against Emperor Antiochus of Greece to rededicate the Lords Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration. It was during this conquest that the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days establishing the first Hanukkah.

Eventually, the Maccabees, a.k.a. Hasmoneans, ended up conquering much of the area surrounding Jerusalem including Galilee with Romes help , which set up a semi-autonomous, independent Jewish nation until 64 B.C. when Rome took control of Jerusalem.

With their newfound freedom and power, the Hasmonean Dynasty established a Pharisee culture of life that greatly influenced the Israelites, sometimes negatively, that set the scene for Jesus birth decades later.

Click here to read the entire story, What Hanukkah and the Maccabean Revolt Have to Do with Jesus.

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Which Septuagint Which Deuterocanonical Books

So weve only talked about the 7 books that the Catholic Church uses. However, they arent the only deuterocanonical books. The full list of books regarded as a second canon is a lot longer.

  • 1 Esdras
  • 2 Esdras
  • Tobit
  • 4 Maccabees
  • Psalm 151

The Catholic Church only recognizes 7 of these, but some denominations recognize more. . However, The three earliest Greek manuscripts dont contain those exact 7. They contain only some of the list. Notice the books below in red? Those books arent considered canon by the Catholic Church OR Protestants.

  • The Codex Vaticanus is the oldest extant copy of the Greek Bible we have. It contains the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus , Judith, Tobit, Baruch, and the Letter to Jeremiah. However, it doesnt contain any of the Macabees.
  • The Codex Sinaiaticus contains: Tobit, Judith, First Maccabees, Fourth Maccabees, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus . It doesnt contain 2nd Maccabees or Baruch.
  • The Codex Alexandrius Contains: Tobit, Judith, First Maccabees, Second Maccabees, Third Maccabees, Fourth Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus , and the Psalms of Solomon. It also doesnt contain Baruch.
  • So theres no help from the extant copies of the Bible to support those exact 7. This doesnt meant he Catholics are wrong about those exact 7, but it does mean theres very little manuscript support for those exact 7.

    How the Jews view the Deuterocanonical books

    Protestant Vs Catholic Bible

    66 books in Bible

    So, if the Hebrew Bible is the basis for both Protestant and Catholic Bibles, why are they different?

    Essentially, the Protestant Bible has the same number of books as the Hebrew Bible , but the Protestant Bible organizes it differently. For instance, the Hebrew Bible has the book of Samuel, but the Protestant Bible has Samuel 1 and 2. Same book but broken up into two parts making the Old Testament consist of 39 books.

    The Catholic Bible contains the same 39 Old Testament books, but it includes a few others you may have never heard of: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus , Baruch , I and II Maccabees, and additions to Daniel and Esther.

    The Catholic church used these extra seven books to create the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Bible but based on a different Hebrew canon than what the Hebrews and Protestants use. Early Catholic priests used the Septuagint as scripture since they could only read Greek and not Hebrew causing a huge topic of debate over whether it should be used at all.

    At the time of Martin Luthers Protestant Reformation, the church decided that if the Hebrew Bible didnt have certain books then neither should the Protestant Bible. Early versions of the King James Bible still included the books contained in the Catholic Bible, but they were eventually phased out.

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    Liturgy In The Fourth Century

    Before the late 4th Century, each city-church had its own, local”canon” of the Bible, and these local canons differed from city-churchto city-church —some local canons including books which arecurrently excluded from our present Bible , and some local canons excluding books which are currentlyincluded in our present Bible . Thereason that city-churches had different local canons is becausecity-churches had different local Liturgies — that is, theLiturgy in the city-church of Rome was different fromthe Liturgy in the city-Church of Corinth, or thecity-church of Ephesus, or Antioch, or Jerusalem, etc. This includedthe yearly Liturgical calendar, with different city-churchescelebrating different local feast days on any given date.

    Since the feast days differed, so did the corresponding readings forthose feast days and since there were only so many Liturgicalreadings that a city-church could havein a given year, this limited the number of books in the localcanon of that city-church.

    As the Church entered the 4th Century, there was no such thingas one, universal “Bible” .

    There Are Actually Additional Second Canon Books

    There are several additional deuterocanonical books that exist, beyond those that the Catholic Church uses. Some denominations do use these books, and have up to 84 books in their version of the Bible.

    It is also worth noting that while the Catholic Bible recognizes the first two books of Maccabees, it rejects books three and four.

    Those books are:

    • Sirach
    • Baruch
    • Epistle of Jeremiah
    • Song of the Three Children
    • Story of Susanna
    • Bel and the Dragon
    • Prayer of Manasseh

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    Why Did Protestants Remove The Apocrypha

  • How many books are in the Catholic and Protestant Bible?
  • The Confession provided the rationale for the exclusion: The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings .

    Germany And The Church

    Why Do Catholic Bibles Have Seven More Books Than Protestant Bibles?

    It all started when Reformation took place, 500 years ago, as Martin Luther tried to reform the Catholic Church. His attempt to do so instead led to a schism in the church.

    On October 31, 1517, the publication of his Ninety-Five Theses, which outlined various abusive practices of the church, is considered the founding event that led to this division in Germany and the creation of the Evangelical Church.

    Read more:

    Reconciliation instead of hero worshiping

    In 2016-2017, a year of commemoration of the Reformation was characterized by an ecumenical approach. In the past, Protestant churches had celebrated major Reformation anniversaries by worshiping Martin Luther as a hero but in recent years that approach changed.

    The Evangelical Church in Germany sought to turn the celebrations of “500 Years of Reformation” into a common celebration of Christ with the Catholic Church.

    Through various events, both sides paid tribute to Martin Luther while emphasizing their will to overcome divisions. On March 11, 2017, a central reconciliation service was held in the city of Hildesheim to jointly mark 500 years since the Reformation.

    Luther Memorial in the city of Wittenberg, where the Reformation began

    ‘Reconciled diversity’

    The goal in recent years has been to reach better understanding and find common ground between the two churches. A new united church is, however, far from being realized and it is doubtful that it ever will.

    Here are the eight main differences:

    3. The pope

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    What About The New Testament

    As for the New Testament, thankfully both the Protestant and the Catholic Bibles are the same after Athanasius defined it in 367.

    Athanasius was a theologian and Roman Bishop of Alexandria. He fiercely defended Christs divinity against a fellow priest named Arius who denied Jesus as the promised Christ. Arius promoted the idea which was current at that time in the church, say what?! that the Father created Jesus to be His Son but Jesus was neither coeternal with the Father nor had the same substantive power. In other words, Jesus was subordinate to the Father though He was still the Son of God. Sort of like Zeus and his sons. Same idea.

    Arius ideas did not sit well with Athanasius. He staunchly defended the word of God to the point that he was put in exile for 17 years and banished five times after a lot of horrible politics and evil shenanigans on Arius part.

    Things werent all bad for Athanasius, though. God had a plan.

    While Athanasius was in exile, he wrote a fictional book about his friend, Saint Antony, and his encounters with Satan. The book was a smash success converting many pagans to Christianity and set up the Christian idea of monasticism in the church. It was then that the church permanently reinstated Athanasius in the church.

    Though church leaders proposed other lists, it is Athanasiuss list that the church eventually adopted, and it is the one we use to this day.

    What Does This Mean

    One can see while learning the path toward the creation of the Bible, that it is still one open to interpretation of whose Bible relates most to Gods spoken word on paper. The debate over using canonized Scripture or more Greek translation-infused Scripture will continue, as more people gravitate to reading and studying the Bible and the truth of the Holy Trinity.

    What is hoped is readers find a translation that allows their relationship with God to bloom and strengthen their awareness that Jesus lived and died for us so that we would be united with God for eternity.

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    Why Was The Book Of Enoch Removed

    The Book of Enoch was considered as scripture in the Epistle of Barnabas and by many of the early Church Fathers, such as Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus and Tertullian, who wrote c. 200 that the Book of Enoch had been rejected by the Jews because it contained prophecies pertaining to Christ.

    Why Did Protestants Remove Books From The Bible

    ALL SAINTS: The Catholic Bible vs The Protestant Bible

    During the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, Martin Luther called for a greater focus on traditions in Christianity, among them using the books in the original Hebrew translation of the Bible. The decision to not uphold the value of those seven books shifted the theology of the Protestant church, he said.

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    How Many Books Are In Original Bible

    There are 80 books in the King James Bible 39 in the Old Testament, 14 in the Apocrypha, and 27 in the New Testament. When citing the Latin Vulgate, chapter and verse are separated with a comma, for example Ioannem 3,16 in English bibles chapter and verse are separated with a colon, for example John 3:16.

    Catholic Bible Vs King James Bible

    The difference between Catholic Bible and King James Bible is one interesting, as well as important, topic one comes across when looking at bibles. The Holy Word every Christian should know about is found in the Bible. Because of this, every individual who follows the Christian faith should have access to the Bible. This is not hard since there are a lot of bibles that are easily accessible for everybody today. However, the large number of variations of the Bible makes it quite confusing for most people as to which one to choose and read. Two of the most popular ones are the Catholic Bible and the King James Bible.

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    Catholic And Protestant Bibles: What Is The Difference

    Question: What’s the difference between a Catholic Bible and a Protestant one? Is our Old Testament the same as a Jewish Bible? If not, why?

    Discussion: The most noticeable differences occur in the number of books included and the order in which they have been arranged. Both the Jewish Bible and the Hebrew canon in a Protestant Bible contain 39 books, whereas a Catholic Bible contains 46 books in the Old Testament. In addition, the Greek Orthodox, or Eastern Orthodox, Church accepts a few more books as canonized scripture.

    To give you a quick overview of a complicated subject, here’s what happened: Several hundred years before the birth of Christ, Babylonian conquerors forced the Jews to leave Jerusalem. Away from their Temple and, often, from their priests, the exiled people forgot how to read, write, and speak Hebrew. After a while, Jewish scholars wanted to make the Bible accessible again, so they translated Hebrew scriptures into the Greek language commonly spoken. 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. 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.

    What’s The Difference Between A Catholic Bible And A Protestant Bible

    Protestant vs Catholic Bible (Catholics have MORE BOOKS!)

    Catholic and Protestant Bibles both include 27 books in the New Testament. Protestant Bibles have only 39 books in the Old Testament, however, while Catholic Bibles have 46. The seven books included in Catholic Bibles are Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch. Catholic Bibles also include sections in the Books of Esther and Daniel which are not found in Protestant Bibles. These books are called the deuterocanonical books. The Catholic Church believes these books to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.

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    Why Did Martin Luther Remove 7 Books From The Bible Best

    was a topic of contention in the sixteenth century. One Catholic believed Martin Luther was a demon with the appearance of a man. One Catholic who first questioned Luthers theology later stated, He alone is correct!

    Nearly 500 years later, the verdict is almost unanimous in favor of the good. Both Catholics and Protestants agree that he was right about a lot and that he changed Western history.

    He then removed seven books from the Bible, which is one of his most important actions. So, Why Did Martin Luther Remove 7 Books From The Bible?Penn Book provides the best answer in the article below.

    Did Someone Add Books

    Lets just get that straight right away. Chronologically, Protestants took books out, not Catholics putting books in. Too often, people just assume the Catholic Church added books to conveniently fit its theology during the Reformation, but Catholics defended the already-instituted Christian canon of books from where its theology formed.

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    Eastern Orthodox Church Has No Universally

    It is true that there are some additional books which are commonly found in modern, Eastern Orthodox Old Testaments. Wemake this distinction between “commonly” and “formally” because thesimple reality is that the modern Eastern Orthodox Church does notpossess a formal, universally-approved Biblical canon. Rather, there issome confusion among Eastern Orthodox as to which books properlyconstitute the canon of the Bible. And, to understand this, you have tounderstand what “canon” originally referred to and how the canon of theChristian Bible actually came into being in the first place.

    The Hebrew Biblical Canon

    How many books are in the Old Testament, and how many in ...

    So, knowing that the Maccabean Revolt reclaimed the Lords Temple from evil Greek idol worshippers and set up events for Jesus eventual coming, why isnt it in my New King James Bible? It sure seems important, right?

    First, we need to understand how the Bible was organized and put together.

    The bibles we read today, whether Protestant or Catholic, are both based on the Hebrew biblical canon. Rachel Turkienicz over at My Jewish Learning does a great job describing what a canon is.

    In order to begin addressing the question of this omission , it is important to understand the formation of the Hebrew biblical canon. The word canon originally comes from the Greek and means standard or measurement. When referring to a scriptural canon, the word is used to designate a collection of writings that are considered authoritative within a specific religious group. To the Jewish people, the biblical canon consists of the books found in the Tanach .

    Though there is some debate, some scholars contend that a gathering of certain rabbis was held in the town of Jamnia in Israel to discuss the Hebrew Bibles contents and to adopt them as the Tanach formally. No one knows for sure if such a council ever took place except for some mentions of it in certain Jewish literature.

    Regardless, it appears a group of rabbis got together at some point in time and picked which books to put in the Hebrew Tanach. They finally settled on 24 books.

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