First of all, let’s discuss “how” the Bibles are different. The Catholic Old Testament contains 46 books, while the Protestant Bibles contain 39.
Missing from Protestant Bibles are the books of Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees,Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch and parts of the books of Daniel and Esther. Before we get to why these books are not in Protestant Bibles, I want to ask some questions.
Where does the Bible come from?
Did it fallout of the sky?
Did Jesus hand it to his Apostles?
Why are there only 73 books in the entire Bible when there would have been many other holy texts in early Christian times?
For example, why was the Gospel of Peter excluded from the New Testament while the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were included?
The Canon (accepted books) of Scripture was set at the Councils of Hippo and Carthage at the end of the 4th century. Before this time, Christians were using many different holy texts, but it was at this time that the Church set forth the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament as being the inspired and inerrant word of God. (Interesting side note: From the 4th century, when the Bible was promulgated, until the 16th century, all Christians used the same 73 books of the Bible as the inspired word of God.)
It was during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century that certain protesters (Protestants) decided to make a switch in what had been the accepted scriptural texts. They decided to change from the Septuagint to the Palestinian Canon. What’s the difference? The Septuagint would have been the common translation of the Hebrew Old Testament during Jesus’ lifetime, which had been translated into Greek in about the 3rd century B.C. The Palestinian Canon, on the other hand came about after the time of Christ in 70 A.D. after the destruction of the Jewish temple. The Jews at this time wanted to “purify” their inspired texts, and they did not have original Hebrew texts (only Greek) of seven books of the Septuagint. Therefore, these books were excluded from their canon in 70 A.D. (Interesting side note: Hebrew texts of many of the seven books were found in the 1940s with the Dead Sea Scrolls. So the claim these books weren’t accurate or historical because they weren’t originally part of the Hebrew texts now carries no weight.)
Which Bible should we use?
It’s a good idea to use a Catholic Bible, because the seven books of the Old Testament are important to Catholic tradition, not to mention we believe they are the inspired word of God and should be prayed and studied.
Good Catholic translations would include:
1. New American Bible,
2. Revised Standard Version (Catholic Edition),
3. Jerusalem Bible
4. Douay Rheims Bible.
Some mainstream Protestant Bibles are
1. King James,
2. New International Version
3. New Revised Standard Version.
If you have questions about your Bible, feel free to e-mail me. I had a professor in seminary who talked about the value of scriptural meditation in this way: “Allow the Scriptures to pour over your life, to get into every nook and cranny, to slowly be absorbed, and the Word of God will begin to transform every aspects of your life.”
Therefore, the most important question is not “What version of the Bible are you reading?” but rather “Are you reading the Bible?”
Father Jarett Konrade is the director of
the diocesan Office of Priestly Vocations.
E-mail questions to him at fatherkonrade
@yahoo.com or write him at P.O. Box
980, Salina KS 67402.
Click to see the article--> Why are Catholic and Protestant Bibles different?
Please!! Do not read JUST the Verses in The Holy Bible. I would really RECOMMEND that YOU READ the Whole Chapter in The Holy Bible to understand the whole content of the verses that were given to you.
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May God richly bless you! Amen! Hallelujah
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