The Roman Catholic Church agrees with the Protestant churches on several important doctrines and practices, such as the Trinity, humanity’s fall into sin, and the deity of Jesus Christ. One major area of disagreement is whether or not certain books should be included in the Bible.
in the second century after christ, the translators of the vulgate, that is, the latin bible, included in the old testament certain books that the jews and early christians had rejected. The additional books first appeared in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament two centuries before Christ.
You are reading: Why does the catholic bible have more books
what are the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books? What books are considered “extra”? Why do many non-Catholics reject these books? read on to find out the answers to these questions and many more.
also see how many verses are there in the bible? for more information.
what are the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books?
The “extra” books in the Catholic Bible are commonly known in two ways: (1) Apocryphal books and (2) Deuterocanonical books. depending on a person’s view of the disputed books, each term is sometimes considered controversial in certain contexts.
- Apocrypha: The word “Apocrypha” literally means “things that are hidden,” but is sometimes used by people to convey unorthodox or fictitious information. in this sense, the word “apocrypha” is controversial when the connotation is that the books in question are worthless.
- deuterocanonical: The word “deuterocanonical” literally means “secondary canon”. canon, in this context, refers to an officially accepted collection of books. “deutero” conveys that certain books do not have the same inspired status as other books of the bible.
Protestants tend to refer to the additional books of the Catholic Bible as “the Apocrypha” because they believe they are uninspired and because some promote teachings that contradict the inspired books.
Protestants don’t like the term “deuterocanonical” because they believe there is only one canon and no secondary canon. In his opinion, it is illogical to speak of “a second level” of inspired books. god inspired the books as he did the rest of the scriptures or he didn’t.
see also what is the longest book in the bible? for more information.
what books comprise the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books?
the books that make up the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books can be counted in two different ways. some say there are 13 books in question, while others say there are only seven. (some say there are 12.)
These numbers simply reflect different ways of counting the same body of literature. Some of the writings in dispute are independent books, such as Tobit. others are additional chapters to the books of the old testament, like esther.
- tobit (independent)
- judith (independent)
- wisdom of solomon (independent)
- ecclesiastic, also called wisdom of sirac (independent )
- baruch (independent)
- 1-2 Maccabees (independent)
- additions to ester
- li>
- additions to Daniel
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Did the Jews of the time of the old testament accept these books? no. the Hebrew Bible never contained these writings.
what is the septuagint? The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the Old Testament completed in Egypt in the third century BC. the prefix “September” refers to the legend that 70 scholars worked to complete the translation. the Septuagint contains the disputed books.
Did the early church accept these books? no. the early Christians rejected the books in question.
Did the Reformers accept them? The Protestant Reformers rejected the books as being of the same inspired nature as the other 66 books of the Bible. Some, like Martin Luther, believed there was a benefit to reading the books, even though they were not on par with the scriptures.
does the eastern orthodox church accept the writings in question? yes. his extra-biblical literature also includes 1 esdras, psalm 151, the prayer of manasseh and 3 macabees. Jews of the Old Testament era, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Protestant churches reject these additional writings.
Who was the first to include the books in the Bible? In a sense, it was the Septuagint translators, when they included the books in their Greek translation of the Old Testament.
In the 2nd century, translators of the Latin Bible included the books. Jerome included them in his translation of the Bible, called the Vulgate, at the insistence of Saint Augustine, but assigned them a secondary status.
also see how do you study the bible? for more information.
why do protestants reject the apocryphal or deuterocanonical books?
There are several reasons why Protestants reject the books in question. some reasons are historical in nature and others are theological. Not all Protestants agree for all of the reasons outlined below. others would add many other arguments to reject the disputed books.
the theology found in the disputed books is contrary to the theology found in the 66 books of the bible. tobit 12:9 is an example of this because it teaches that a person can acquire salvation through financial offerings, “because almsgiving saves from death and cleanses all sin. he who gives alms will enjoy a full life.”
protestants believe that the bible is very clear that only the grace of god saves sinners. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. and this is not your work; It is a gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one can boast.” (esv)
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another theological conflict is the doctrine of purgatory. 2 Maccabees teaches the doctrine and practices associated with it, such as praying for the dead and collecting financial offerings for the church so that the dead may be saved from sin (macc. 12:41-45; bar. 3:4).
baruch 3:4 says, “o lord of hosts, god of israel, hear now the prayer of the slain of israel, and of their sons, who sinned before you, and did not listen to the voice of the lord their god , so the evils have clung to us.” (nab)
see also do catholics read the bible? for more information.
new testament writers never cite the books in question. jesus, paul, peter, john and other new testament teachers cite most of the old testament books and often the Septuagint translation. however, they never cite any of the disputed books. Some argue that Paul is alluding to certain passages in the disputed books. but because he doesn’t use a citation, the source is less secure.
Jews in the Old Testament era rejected the books. This argument is persuasive to many Protestants because the authors and content of these books are clearly Jewish, so their original audience questioned or rejected its authenticity. .
While the Hebrew Bible is organized into 22 books and the Christian Old Testament contains 39, they are the same writings but organized differently.
It is not certain that the earliest versions of the Septuagint contained disputed books. The earliest editions of the Septuagint date from the fourth century AD. It is possible that people added the books later, which is a suggestion supported by the fact that the New Testament writers did not cite the books.
many in the early church rejected the books. the oldest list of canonical books of the old testament dates from the 2nd century. the disputed books are not listed.
For example, in the year 170 A.D. melito, the bishop of sardis, wrote: “when i came to the east and came to the place where these things were preached and done, and learned accurately the books of the old testament, i wrote down the facts and sent them to you”.
“these are their names: the five books of moses, genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy, joshua son of a nun, judges, ruth, four books of the kingdom, two books of chronicles, the psalms of david, the proverbs of solomon and his wisdom, ecclesiastes, the song of songs, job, the prophets isaiah, jeremiah, the twelve in a single book, daniel, ezekiel, ezra.”
Also see the bible reading plans for more information.
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