What is the difference between catholic bible and protestant bible

It might be said that Protestants have a kind of hybrid Bible — the same number of books as the Jewish Bible but the order of books that are in the Greek and Latin Bibles. The basic reason is that the Protestant leaders chose to accept only the books of the Old Testament accepted as canonical in Judaism, which they assumed was the Bible used by Jesus and the earliest Christians.

Suspicious of church tradition and the authority of councils and ecclesiastical figures, Protestant leaders thought it best to go with the books they thought were canonical before the church.

The Old Testament of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions are not exactly the same list of writings either! Actually, Catholics have eight more books Tobit, Judith, Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus or Wisdom of Ben Sira, Wisdom of Solomon, Baruch and letter of Jeremiah and two additions additions to Esther and additions to Daniel , totalling 47 books and two additions. These books are collectively called 'Deuterocanonical books' and are authoritative.

Protestants call the same books 'the Apocrypha'. The Protestant canon follows the Jewish canon which has twenty-four books, but it orders and counts them differently. The Protestant canon has a total of thirty-nine books, and it is calculated by counting as separate books Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah and each of the twelve minor prophets. As to why the Catholics have more books, it is a matter of ecclesiastical history.

In the sixteenth century, the council of Trent decided that the books known as the apocrypha among the Protestants were 'deuterocanonical'. The designation of 'second canon', however, does not mean that these books were regarded as less canonical.

It was rather a recognition that they were considered canonical at a subsequent stage. Up until about two hundred years ago, both Protestant and Roman Catholic Bibles contained the same books.

Some books dropped out of Protestant Bibles in the early 19th century when Bible societies which were founded and supported initially by Protestants began printing Bibles for the masses. In order to print very inexpensive Bibles that everyone could afford, they dropped the books which we call the deuterocanonical books the second canon. Early Protestants thought these books did not carry the authority of the other books of the Bible though they were still worth reading.

That is why they initially included them. In early Protestant Bibles, the Deuterocanonical books had been placed together in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments. They are interspersed throughout the Old Testament. 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.

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.

Eventually, the Jewish exiles were allowed to return to Jerusalem where they renovated the Temple. Individual readings in the Lectionary are called pericopes, from a Greek word meaning a "section" or "cutting. No one owns the copyright on the Bible itself. Rather, the copyright is held on particular translations or editions of the Bible. The copyright allows the owner to protect the integrity of the text so that individuals may not introduce changes without permission.

Royalty fees earned by licensing the text to companies who publish and sell Bibles help to provide funds for Scripture scholarship and other educational needs. Frequently Asked Questions. In what formats is the New American Bible available? What's the difference between a "Catholic Bible" and a "Protestant Bible"? Do we read from the Bible at Mass?