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by budwizer on January 18th, 2007

budwizer

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What is the difference between the catholic and protestant bibles? why does the parotestant bible have seven less books than the catholic bible?

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  • by on April 20th, 2010

    Answerbag Experts

    Great Answer

    Professionally Researched. (What's this?)

    The main difference between the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible is the treatment of the Apocrypha, a series of books disdained by Martin Luther in his German translations of 1523 and 1534. Some of these books are not present in modern Protestant Bibles.

    Books of the Apocrypha

    The Apocrypha includes Tobit, Judith, the Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach. Included are historical events such as the Hasmonean rebellion and moral instruction similar to the style of Proverbs.

    History

    The Apocrypha were books that circulated in the ancient world and were included in the Jewish translation of scripture into Greek known as the Septuagint. When the Jews canonized their texts into the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), however, they did not include these books.

    Luther and the Apocrypha

    Luther disdained the Apocrypha, not including them in the table of contents of the 1523 edition. According to the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, Luther referred to them as not equal to Scripture, but useful to be read from time to time.

    New Testament Texts

    Luther also had a low opinion of the authority of several New Testament texts, notably Revelation and the Epistle of James, which he considered as openly contradictory to Paul and "an epistle of straw."

    Sequence

    To mark these differences, the Protestant Bible reorganized the sequence of the books of the Bible in order to downplay the importance of the Apocrypha, placing them between the testaments, and removing some books entirely.

    Source:

    Columbia University: Development of the Biblical Canon

    Catholic Encyclopedia: Canon of the Old Testament

    Catholic Encyclopedia: Canon of the New Testament

    The Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod: Apocrypha

    Umc.org: Epistle of Straw? Luther

    More Information:

    Christian-history.org: Christian History for Everyman

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  • by Sunblynd 5.0 on January 18th, 2007

    Sunblynd 5.0

    Every religion has a marketing plan, they omitted those books for such purposes. The bible may be the word of God, but it was edited by man. Thank you for citing that profound fact.

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  • by Annton Cabibble on June 5th, 2009

    Annton Cabibble

    At the time the Christian Bible was being formed, a Greek translation of Jewish Scripture, the Septuagint, was in common use and Christians adopted it as the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. However, around 100 A.D., Jewish rabbis revised their Scripture and established an official canon of Judaism which excluded some portions of the Greek Septuagint. The material excluded was a group of 15 late Jewish books, written during the period 170 B.C. to 70 A.D., that were not found in Hebrew versions of the Jewish Scripture. Christians did not follow the revisions of Judaism and continued to use the text of the Septuagint as the Old Testament.

    In the 1500s, Protestant leaders decided to organize the Old Testament material according to the official canon of Judaism rather than the Septuagint. They moved the Old Testament material which was not in the Jewish canon into a separate section of the Bible called the Apocrypha. So, Protestant Bibles then included all the same material as the earlier Bible, but it was divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the Apocrypha. Protestant Bibles included the Apocrypha until the mid 1800s, and the King James Version was originally published with the Apocrypha. However, the books of the Apocrypha were considered less important, and the Apocrypha was eventually dropped from most Protestant editions.

    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. The result is that these versions of the the Bible have more Old Testament books than most Protestant versions. Catholic Old Testaments include 1st and 2nd Maccabees, Baruch, Tobit, Judith, The Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), additions to Esther, and the stories of Susanna and Bel and the Dragon which are included in Daniel. Orthodox Old Testaments include these plus 1st and 2nd Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh, Psalm 151 and 3rd Maccabees.

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  • by sickofgames on May 26th, 2009

    sickofgames

    easy,the idiots cant read

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  • by purplecows on May 26th, 2009

    purplecows

    And why are the Ten Commandments different?

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  • by TimPorari on April 22nd, 2010

    TimPorari

    As stated in comment to the "Great Answer" there is a significant difference within Catholicism and Greek Orthodoxy regarding certain texts that they consider Deutero canonical (essentially on par with scripture) vs apocrypha and pseudepigraphy, the latter two of which most scholars deem questionable in terms of authenticity, let alone inspiration.

    I am a bit surprised that the answer below is considered well researched...and that there are not orthodox or catholic christians pouncing all over this one.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudepigrapha

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  • by autumn leaves on December 17th, 2010

    autumn leaves

    the seven added books of the catholic translations are not of divine inspiration.

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  • by singwell-is off researching a lot on February 13th, 2007

    singwell-is off researching a lot

    Don;t hassle over this too much. The Hebrew Old Testament had the 39 books we all know (although they compressed some into one book eg 1 and 2 Kings etc)and then had a section which consisted of books written after the return from exile (when the Jewish people considered the canon closed). Yet they read these books for their historical value and morality. They have been called The Apocrypha (Hidden Books), but that is a misnomer because they were never hidden.
    When the first Protestant Bible was printed, Luther dropped these apocryphal books, as they had never truly been considered Scripture by the Jews, yet he never banned them, and they still got read from time to time, just not given the same importance as the other 39.
    In reaction to Protestantism, the Roman Catholic Council of Trent included them in the RC Bible, pronouncing them SCripture, although they called them Deuterocanonical (2nd rate scripture; even they acknowledged the inferior nature of the texts)
    In reality, it is nothing to fight over. There are a few doctrinal difficulties in some (prayers for the dead mentioned, although not commanded), but they are mostly harmless enough. Their teaching is generally much inferior in quality to the Old Testament Books, and their history is inaccurate, but let us not fight over it to the death. They still teach correct views of God (unlike the Gnostic works) and provide a good idea of the period leading up to the New Testament.

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  • by LarryH54 on April 22nd, 2010

    LarryH54

    The protestants deleted about 7 books.

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