There Are Dozens Of Translations Of The Bible Into English None Of Which Are Perfect
So, youve decided to make an extra effort and finally read the Bible. Perhaps you have an old family Bible in the house, but you feel like you need a fresh copy, a better translation, something you can read and understand. You take a trip to the local Barnes and Noble or a Catholic bookstore, and the clerk directs you to the Bible section.
I didnt know there were so many different versions, you might think to yourself. Does it matter which one I buy? Which one is best for a Catholic like myself? This one looks good, but is it worth it to pay more for it?
The choice can be daunting. At Barnes and Nobles website, a search for Bible, narrowed down to hardcover versions, yields over 4,700 results.
If the Bible might be considered a guide to life, one might actually need a roadmap to find the version most suitable for the average pilgrim.
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According to some Catholic scholars and teachers, there is no one best Bible for Catholics, but several versions are suitable. Often, it depends on the individual, his background in Bible reading and study, and the way he wishes to use the Good Book.
The New American Bible was first published in 1970 and is the basis for the readings at Mass.
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Whether any versions of the Bible are translated in such a way that the language might mislead readers from the true faith,
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What Is The Difference Between Catholics And Christians
Catholics also follow the teachings of Jesus Christ but do so through the church, whom they consider as the path to Jesus. They believe in the special authority of the Pope which other Christians may not believe in, whereas Christians are free to accept or reject individual teachings and interpretations of the bible.
The Catholic Bible Vs The Christian Bible
Catholics along with all other Christians are of the same faith, they also share many of the same common religious practices. As most other Christians follow the same version of the bible, we will be comparing the Catholics version of the; bible with the Protestants version of the bible.
Contents
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The Books Of The Bible
Father David Jones
The Catholic bible is divided into two parts. The Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament also called Christian Scriptures. Both are Gods Word. Together they tell the story of the history of our salvation.
As we receive Gods Word in that same history, we hear and recall the story differently, not by God, but by human ears and hearts. Our records differ as Jews, Catholics and Protestants.
The Jewish people share with us the Old Testament. It is very much the story of the Jewish people hearing, loving and coming to know God.
The first Christians and early Christians, share with us the New Testament. It is very much the story of the universe of peoples who hear, love and come to know God through the person of Jesus. They and we are catholic with the lower case c which by definition means universal.
Through time, history and understanding God differently, that universe of people gets further divided into Catholics and Protestants.
The Catholic bible includes more Old Testament books than the Jewish bible and the Protestant bible.The Catholic bible includes 46 books in the Old Testament, the Protestant bible includes 39, and the Jewish bible includes 24.
In the end, literally and figuratively, it all comes down to us as gift from God. What we accept forms what we know and more importantly what we believe.
Our hope is to see what the end shall be.
Catholic Bible Vs Protestant Bible
The difference between these two Bibles is how they came into existence. Roman Catholic Church came into existence and practice with the teachings of Jesus Christ who lived in the 1 st century CE. Controversies lead to the Reformation in 1517. Martin Luther, a German monk protested the Catholic Church, which eventually sowed seeds for Reformation, and his followers are called protestants and they followed Protestantism.
The most significant factor that differs between both the bibles is the number of books included in the old-testament. The Catholic Bible comprises 73 books including the Apocrypha which signifies the hidden private books that are not meant to be accessed by the public. Apocrypha occurs in the Septuagint, which is a Greek version of the old testament.
The Protestant Bible is the revised and transcripted version of the Christian Bible formulated by the Protestants. It includes and accepts only the scriptures that are strictly in Hebrew. Protestant Bible contains 66 books in total out of which 39 books are of the old testaments and 27 books from the new testament.
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Comparison Table Between Catholic Bible And Protestant Bible
| Parameters Of Comparison | ||
| Roots and Origin | It comprises the teachings and stories of Jesus Christ. | It is a revised version of the Christian Bible produced by Martin Luther and the protestants. |
| Number of books | The bible consists of 73 books in the old testament and 27 books belonging to the new testament. | The old testament consists of 66 books in the old testament and 27 in the new testament. |
| Pope | The pope of the Catholic Church is considered to be a Vicar of Christ. He is faithfully believed to be an unerring leader who heads the church and he also heads the Vatican city. | The protestants strongly believe human beings cannot be infallible and always faithfully believe Jesus Christ as the head of the Church. |
| Eucharist | They have their doctrine of Transubstantiation which emphasise that the bread and drink used during the mass become the body and blood of Christ himself. | They call it the Communion or Lords supper. It commemorates the death of Jesus and according to them, the bread and wine are symbols that signify the body and blood of Christ. |
| Praying to Saints | Their doctrine of intercessory saints emphasizes praying to holy men who passed away in addition to the worship of Christ. veneration according to them is praying through the saints rather than praying to them. | They emphasize the freedom and possibility of humans having direct access and connection with God. |
What Is The Difference Between Catholic Bible And King James Bible
Catholic Bible is the book followed by the Catholics, or accepted as the Holy Scripture by the Catholics. King James Bible is the Protestant bible.
One remarkable difference between Catholic Bible and King James Bible is the content. 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. However, later versions of the King James Bible do not have these books as the bible publishers considered them less important. As a result, Catholic Bible has Apocrypha while King James Bible does not.
The biggest difference between Catholic Bible and King James Bible lies largely on the printed words themselves. The King James Version has been known for centuries all throughout the world as the one that makes use of what is considered as the Old English language. On the contrary, the Catholic Bible is written in the modern day English.
Knowing about what the two versions of the Holy Scripture have to offer is a great help in determining which one to get a hold of. It also helps to ask other people who share ones faith and beliefs in choosing the one among the different variations of the Bible.
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How The Bibles Diverted
During the 1500s, broke away from the Catholic Church and embraced St. Jeromes argument, and lead the Protestant Reformation, with the return to the original Hebrew scripture and away from the Greek translation. They only acknowledged 39 of the Old Testament books and refused to accept the seven books of Apocrypha as gospel.
This division is what has led to the core differences between Catholics and Protestants. Catholics view the word of the church, as having just as much, if not more authority then the words of the bible. While Protestants only acknowledge the word of God written in the Bible as having any authority over men.
The seven books of Apocrypha are also known as the books of Deuterocanonical;;scripture by Catholics, and have remained within their version of the bible. Meaning that the Catholic bible contains 73 books in total, as apposed to the Protestants 66 books.
It is from these books of Deuterocanonical scripture, that Catholics derive their belief in purgatory. That praying for the dead can influence the souls of the dead, and that doing good works will please God.
Protestants on the other hand, do not acknowledge the seven books of Apocrypha. Most do not accept the existence of purgatory, nor that praying for the dead has any influence on their souls what so ever. They also believe that its Gods grace regardless of a persons life or works, that leads to eternal life.
Differences From Other Christian Bibles
Bibles used by Catholics differ in the number and order of books from those typically found in bibles used by Protestants, as Catholic bibles retain in their canon seven books that are regarded as non-canonical in Protestanism . As such, its canon of Old Testament texts is somewhat larger than that in translations used by Protestants, which are typically based exclusively on the shorter Hebrew and AramaicMasoretic Text. On the other hand, its canon, which does not accept all the books that are included in the Septuagint, is shorter than that of some churches of Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, which recognize other books as sacred scripture. According to the Greek Orthodox Church, “The translation of the Seventy was for the Church the Apostolic Bible, to which both the Lord and His disciples refer. It enjoys divine authority and prestige as the Bible of the indivisible Church of the first eight centuries. It constitutes the Old Testament, the official text of our Orthodox Church and remains the authentic text by which the official translations of the Old Testament of the other sister Orthodox Churches were made; it was the divine instrument of pre-Christ evangelism and was the basis of Orthodox Theology.”
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What Is Holy Bible
The Holy Bible is often called as Christian Bible. For instance, the King James Version of the Bible is considered an example of the Holy Bible as it contains stories of God. The Holy Bible consists of stories of God. Moreover, the Holy Bible is nothing but Bible itself, with the noun holiness. It encompasses the stories, prayers, prophecies, proverbs, beliefs on the realization of God. The most agreeable thing to perceive about the Holy Bibles is that they have been canonized over time.
They follow the Old Testament in Hebrew along with Greek Septuagint tales of prophets. Meanwhile, the New Testament mostly focuses on Jesus. The usage of the Holy Bible differs among various Christian groups depending on their beliefs. Having that said, the Holy Bible has been regarded as the most sold copies of the twentieth century with different versions.;
Furthermore, the Holy Bible is a compilation of various songs and tales of God over several generations. The Holy Bible came to the limelight in the year 1611. The holy book is widely read by Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Rastafari, and other religions.;
Why Didnt Martin Luther Accept The Extra Books
Before Luther: The earliest records of Christianity, with a few exceptions, show the early church did not view the books of the writings as Scripture. In the third and fourth centuries, other theologians weighed into the conversation. , and some others accepted some of the writings as Scripture and used them in establishing theology.
Another factor is that in Luthers time, only Greek translations existed of the Apocryphal books. In fact, people assumed, perhaps rightly for the majority of the books, that the authors wrote these them originally in Greek.
Because of this, many Christians viewed these books as late additions. Although more recent scholarship has placed the date of these books closer to the other books of the Old Testament, a gap of time still exists.
Yet, even for Protestants, Bibles were regularly printed with the additional writings until the 19th century:
So when and where does the Protestant Bible of 66 books show up? This practice was not standardized until 1825 when the British and Foreign Bible Society, in essence, threw down the gauntlet and said, These 66 books and no others. But this was not the Bible of Luther, Calvin, Knox, or even the Wesleys, who used the Authorized Version. Protestants had long treated the extra books as, at best, deuterocanonical.
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Catholic Bible Vs Niv
The difference between the Catholic Bible and NIV is that the Catholic Bible includes all the 73 books recognized by the Catholic church. In contrast, the NIV Bible is a version of the Bible translated in English and published in 1978. The Catholic Bible is believed to be written by Apostle. A group of Bible scholars translated the NIV.
Catholic Bible is the Holy book of the Christians and the actual Christian Bible. It comprises 46 books of Old and 27 books of the New Testament and the Vulgate. Both the Septuagint and the Hebrew scriptures are included in it. More than one hundred scholars, who were the best in Hebrew, Greek, and Armaniac scriptures and texts, joined hands together to formulate the original Bible.
The formation of the NIV Bible was initiated by Howard Long, a follower of King James. He felt the urging need to prepare a version or translation of the Bible that reflected his thoughts. It was translated by the committee on biblical translation that comprised fifteen biblical scholars.
The Theology Of The Extra Books
The Apocryphal books include verses that undermine some of the important doctrines that Luther sought to champion. This includes passages that indicate the importance of praying for the dead. Because of these reasons and others, Luther included the writings in his German translation, but with a note that says that while the books are useful for reading, they are not equal to that of holy Scripture.
Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, contends that the seven additional books of the Catholic Bible are not actually additions, but instead draw support from early church history. They point out that the leaders of the early church used many of the books of the to support the spread of Christianity.
Many Catholics also contend that several books of the Bible quote the Apocrypha, while some Protestants would counter by pointing out that Jesus himself does not quote from any of these books.
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Do Catholics Use The King James Bible
The King James Version is regarded as one of the first English translations of the Catholic Bible, with the Great Bible and the Bishops Bible as its first two English predecessors. Overall, no matter what Bible version you are reading, more or less the message remains the same.
Father I Keep Getting Mailings From Catholic Groups That Send Me Medals Coins And Other Blessed Things And I Dont Know What To Do With Them I Keep Putting Them In A Box Because I Dont Think I Can Throw Away Anything That Is Blessed Right
I cannot tell you how many times I run into this question: you are not alone!
Right now, as I type this, I am looking at a Ziploc bag of medals, religious coins, bookmarks and crosses that were sent from religious organizations seeking donations.
I am not at all a fan of these practices because people often dont want the things they receive, but dont know how to dispose of them. To help do what I can, I encourage people to give them to me and I do any number of things to properly dispose of them.
First, I work with my local funeral homes and we bury them under peoples caskets. Its a nice way to dispose of potentially sacred things in sacred ground.
Second, I simply collect them and, when I have a large enough collection, I bury them myself out on the Church property or somewhere else that is sacred ground.
Third, I find a Church that is doing renovations and ask them to place them in the ground there, underneath new walls or foundations.
If you can work with your pastor on any of these ideas, great! But its not always practical, and not every pastor has the same level of access to resources. Please dont expect that every priest is able to take your religious medals and dispose of them. If none of these options are available, bury these items in your yard perhaps near a statue of Mary or St. Francis.
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What Are The Differences Between The Catholic And Christian Bible
Now that we know that both the Catholic and Christian Bible are essentially the same, what are the differences between them?
The following is a list of differences between the Catholic and Christian Bible:
The Catholic Bible is based on the teaching of the Church and thus is infallible. It was written in such a way that it conforms to the teaching of the Church.
The Christian Bible is not based on tradition but on individual interpretations of its writers. Therefore, there are many differing views on what the Bible actually says.
The Catholic Bible is based on the Churchs canon of scripture. The canon is made up of the 27 books of the Old Testament and 46 books of the New Testament. The Christian Bible, however, has a different set of books in it: 13 from the Old Testament and 27 from the New Testament. This can be seen in Acts 15:2-3 where it states that have determinedthat we should write to them, encouraging them to complete their own book.
The Catholic Bible is the only Bible that is completely literal and does not have any allegorical or mystical meanings. The Christian Bible, however, is open to many different interpretations of its literal meaning. This can be seen in the way in which we interpret what it means to be born again: Is it physical, spiritual, or both?