How Many Books In The Bible? - [] 2025: CLT Livre

How Many Books In The Bible?

Are there 72 or 73 books in the Bible?

Books included The Catholic Bible is composed of 73 books : an Old Testament of 46 books (including 7 deuterocanonical books and additional deuterocanonical content in 2 books) and a New Testament of 27 books.

How many books are in Old and New Testament?

Preliminary note. There are 80 books in the King James Bible; 39 in the Old Testament, 14 in the Apocrypha, and 27 in the New Testament.

Is there 62 books in the Bible?

Books of the Bible – Updated: 10 January 2022 City Church Christchurch Written under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit by laymen and scholars, commoners and nobility, the Bible is as unique as it is profound, containing 66 ancient books that have shaped laws, influenced culture and inspired billions to faith over three millennia.

Are there 39 books in the Bible?

This article is about the Christian Bible. For the related Jewish text, see Hebrew Bible, The Old Testament ( OT ) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Israelites,

The second division of Christian Bibles is the New Testament, written in the Koine Greek language. The Old Testament consists of many distinct books by various authors produced over a period of centuries. Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections: the first five books or Pentateuch (which corresponds to the Jewish Torah ); the history books telling the history of the Israelites, from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon ; the poetic and ” Wisdom books ” dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world; and the books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God.

The books that compose the Old Testament canon and their order and names differ between various branches of Christianity, The canons of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Churches comprise up to 49 books; the Catholic canon comprises 46 books; and the most common Protestant canon comprises 39 books.

There are 39 books common to essentially all Christian canons. They correspond to the 24 books of the Tanakh, with some differences of order, and there are some differences in text. The additional number reflects the splitting of several texts ( Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra–Nehemiah, and the Twelve Minor Prophets ) into separate books in Christian Bibles.

The books that are part of the Christian Old Testament but that are not part of the Hebrew canon are sometimes described as deuterocanonical, In general, Catholic and Orthodox churches include these books in the Old Testament. Most Protestant Bibles do not include the deuterocanonical books in their canon, but some versions of Anglican and Lutheran Bibles place such books in a separate section called apocrypha,

Which Bible has 76 books?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia These are the books of the Vulgate along with the names and numbers given them in the Douay–Rheims Bible and King James Bible, There are 76 books in the Clementine edition of the Latin Vulgate, 46 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, and 3 in the Apocrypha,

What is 73 in the Bible?

Psalm 73 1 Psalm 73 A psalm of Asaph.1 Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.3 For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.4 They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.5 They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.6 Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity ; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.8 They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression.9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.10 Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance.11 They say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” 12 This is what the wicked are like- always carefree, they increase in wealth.13 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.14 All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed your children.16 When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me 17 till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.18 Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin.19 How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! 20 As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.27 Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.

With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text struggles at their death; their bodies are healthy Syriac (see also Septuagint); Hebrew Their eyes bulge with fat The meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.

Which Bible has all 88 books?

The Ethiopian Bible is the oldest and most complete bible on earth. Written in Ge’ez an ancient dead language of Ethiopia it’s nearly 800 years older than the King James Version and contains 81-88 books compared to 66.

Is it 70 or 72 in the Bible?

On the Road with Jesus: The Mission of the Seventy

  • A sermon by, Jim Somerville, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., July 7, 2013
  • The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
  • Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Today we continue a series called “On the Road with Jesus” from a section of Luke’s Gospel where Jesus’ disciples are—literally—on the road with him. And that seems perfect, because for some time now I’ve been imagining the church of Jesus Christ as a big crowd of people following along behind him down some dusty country road.

  1. I don’t know why it’s a country road.
  2. It could just as easily be a street in the inner city.
  3. But in my imagination that’s how it is: Jesus up front, in the lead, and a whole crowd of people following along behind.
  4. Some are as close to Jesus as they can get, trying to hear every word he says.
  5. Others are following along at a distance, just happy to be part of the crowd.

Some are helping those who have stumbled to get back on their feet again, while others are calling to those who have wandered off the path. Some aren’t really part of the crowd at all, but they’re curious enough to follow along for a while and listen to what Jesus has to say.

Some may choose to stay with him while others will fall away, but again, in my imagination, the church is a big, happy crowd of people following along behind Jesus and the only time it gets in trouble is when it stops and builds a building, because then it has to decide who’s in and who’s out. And who has to pay the utility bills.

But for the duration of this series let’s imagine that we are on the road with Jesus, journeying toward Jerusalem, watching everything he does, listening to everything he says, and trying to learn everything we can in this lengthy section of Luke’s Gospel called the Travel Narrative, which extends from chapter 9, verse 51, through chapter 19, verse 27.

Last week we looked at the end of chapter 9, where three would-be followers of Jesus were warned that the journey wasn’t going to be an easy one and we were reminded that it never is. In his commentary on that passage Alan Culpepper writes: “Therefore, one should not rush into discipleship with glib promises.

On the contrary, the radical demands of discipleship require that every potential disciple consider the cost, give Jesus the highest priority in one’s life, and, having committed oneself to discipleship, move ahead without looking back.” Which makes me want to ask: are you still with me? Are you ready to continue this journey? If you are, then let’s move on into chapter 10, and the mission of the seventy.

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way.

See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.

  1. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid.
  2. Do not move about from house to house.
  3. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.

Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me. The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.

See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20, NRSV). Before we go any further let’s settle the question of how many disciples were sent out because I see some of you looking in the pew Bibles and wrinkling your brows.

“It says here there were 72 disciples. Why did the preacher say there were only 70?” That’s a fair question. I looked up the answer myself because last Monday, when I started working on this sermon, I used a commentary that has the New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version side by side.

The NIV says there were 72 and the NRSV says there were 70. I wrote it down in my notes like this: “NIV 72, NRSV 70.” It looked like a basketball score where the NIV had beaten the NRSV by two points at the buzzer. But listen to this explanation, because it’s one of the reasons I love Bible study: It turns out that in Genesis 10 there is a list of all the nations of the earth, and at that time, in the Hebrew text, there were 70.

But later, when the Hebrew was translated into Greek, the number was translated as 72. So half the ancient copies of Luke’s Gospel mention 70 disciples and the other half mention 72, but in both cases Luke seems to be telling us that Jesus sent out as many disciples as there were nations in the ancient world, and that’s significant.

In the chapter just before this one Luke tells us that Jesus sent out twelve disciples, and that’s an important number. There were twelve tribes in Israel, remember? It makes me think Jesus was trying to reach all of Israel with the good news of God’s coming Kingdom. But in this chapter he sends out seventy “others,” Luke says (meaning other disciples), and it’s as if he is trying to reach all the nations on earth with the good news.

The mission is getting bigger and broader, but it is, essentially, the same mission. Listen as I read from Luke 9, beginning with verse 1: “Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.

  • He said to them, ‘Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic.
  • Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there.
  • Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere.” In chapter 10 he sends out these 70 others, and let me ask you to listen to the similarities between these two commissions.

Jesus says: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road.

Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.

Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you.

  1. First of all, we would need to know that this is a big job, and that it’s going to take more than 12 of us, even more than 70 (or 72) of us. Those are nice, symbolic numbers but if we are going to reach the whole world with the good news it’s going to take all of us—every believer will have to become a missionary. I believe that when Jesus says, “Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest,” he means other laborers. When he says, “Go your way,” he’s taking it for granted that we are already in that number, we are among the “sent ones.” We’re like field hands trying to get in a big crop and watching the storm clouds roll in from the west. “Quick!” we say. “Send somebody into town to round up a few more day laborers! We’ve got to get this crop in before the storm comes!”
  2. Secondly, just as following Jesus is not easy, being on mission for him is not easy. “I am sending you out as lambs into the midst of wolves,” he says, and you wonder why he would do that at all. Why would he send his little flock into the midst of a murderous pack? The only reason I can come up with is that he doesn’t have a choice; it has to be done. He can’t wait until conditions are safer or easier. There is an urgency to this mission that is communicated in his next sentence: “Greet no one on the road,” he says. In other words, don’t even stop to say hello. Don’t even wave to your fellow travelers. Keep your head down, your mission in view. Don’t get distracted.
  3. Thirdly, there seems to be this understanding that we shouldn’t wait until we raise enough money for this mission trip: we should just go. “Don’t carry a purse,” Jesus says, which could also be translated as wallet, or moneybelt, or any kind of emergency financial resources. “Carry no bag, or sandals,” he says, which might mean that you shouldn’t even take time to pack a suitcase; you’ve got to get on the road. And don’t worry about making hotel reservations in advance. Jesus says, “When you arrive on the mission field simply walk up to the first house you find and say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a person of peace is there they will open the door, and take you in, and give you what you need. So don’t be going from door to door looking for a softer bed or a better meal. Stay put! Be grateful! Eat what they put in front of you!
  4. Fourthly, do the work of a missionary. It’s interesting that Jesus tells both the Twelve and the Seventy to do the same thing. In Luke 9 he sends the twelve out to “proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal.” In Luke 10 he sends the seventy out to “cure the sickand say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.'” At this stage of his ministry, at least, Jesus’ disciples are instructed to do the same things they have seen him doing: healing people and telling them about the Kingdom. Later on, after his death and resurrection, he will give them further instructions, but for now this is enough: heal people and do it as a sign that God’s kingdom is on its way into the world.
  5. Fifthly, and finally, don’t get discouraged. I love it that Jesus says if you go into a town and they welcome you cure the sick and tell them the Kingdom has come near but if they don’t welcome you wipe the dust off your feet and tell them the Kingdom has come near because it’s true either way, whether they receive it or not. And so, just before he sends them out, Jesus says: “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” And that’s a comfort, isn’t it? This is not about you. It’s about God and God’s purposes. You’re just the messenger. In last week’s passage I skipped right over the part where a Samaritan village doesn’t receive Jesus and James and John ask if he wants them to call down fire from heaven. But Jesus doesn’t take it personally. If those Samaritans won’t receive him he will simply move on, and they will never know how close the Kingdom came.
You might be interested:  How Many Tablespoons In An Ounce?

So, let me summarize: It’s not just the Twelve who are sent on a mission, and it’s not just the Seventy. If we’re going to get this message to the world it’s going to take all of us, that whole, big, boisterous crowd of disciples following along behind Jesus.

  1. And this is what we’re going to have to do.1.
  2. Realize what a big job this is, and pray for extra help.2.
  3. Understand that it won’t be easy, but that it is urgent.3.
  4. Don’t wait until you have enough resources: just go! 4.
  5. Do the work of a missionary: heal the sick and tell people the Kingdom has come near.5.

Don’t get discouraged; they’re not rejecting you, they’re rejecting God. Got it? Good. Now go. I’m sure that’s what Jesus said to the Seventy, and I’m almost sure one of them raised a hand to say, “I can tell people the Kingdom has come near, but how am I supposed to cure the sick?” Because in Luke 9 Jesus gave the Twelve “power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases” (vs.1), but in Luke 10 Jesus doesn’t give the Seventy anything but these marching orders.

It’s kind of where we are, isn’t it? I prayed for someone at the hospital yesterday and said, “I don’t have any healing power in my hands. I can’t heal the sick. But I know somebody who can, and I know how to ask and he knows how to answer and so I’m asking you, Jesus, to do for this man what I can’t.

Help him, and heal him, and get him up off this hospital bed.” When I finished that prayer his wife looked at me as if the Kingdom had come near, not because I have any power of my own, but because I know who has the power and I’m not afraid to ask for it.

Today we are sending out several mission teams with just those kinds of credentials. They don’t have any power of their own but they know who has it and they’re not afraid to ask for it. And they know that it’s not just physical healing people need, but healing of every kind, the kind that will make their lives, and not just their bodies, whole.

So they’re going to go off to places like Ghana, and Arkansas, South Africa, Singapore, and the Philippines to do what they can for people, and to ask Jesus to do what they can’t, and to claim it all as a sign that the Kingdom of God has come near. But they aren’t the only ones.

  1. Look around.
  2. There are all the rest of us.
  3. And we have a mission, too.
  4. In fact, this year-long, every-member mission trip to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Richmond, Virginia, is perfectly in line with what Jesus asks the Seventy to do: to remember what a big job it is and to pray for additional help; to remember that it won’t be easy but it is urgent; to go, and not wait until we have adequate resources; to heal the sick and tell people the Kingdom has come near; and finally, to not get discouraged.

And that may be the hardest part of all. We’ve been on this mission trip for 301 days and the Kingdom of Heaven still hasn’t come to Richmond, Virginia, not completely. It could make you want to give up. And if you’ve never started it might make you want to say, “See? I told you so.” But look at what happened in this passage: the Seventy returned with joy.

  • With joy, I say, because there is joy in this work.
  • I’ve seen it myself.
  • Some of you have had a hard time getting off the bus and onto the mission field but when you did, when you finally just made up your mind to do something, you found joy in it.
  • I’ve heard the stories over and over again in the last ten months.

And in today’s reading Jesus heard that kind of story. The Seventy said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he rejoiced right along with them. In fact, he may have gotten a little carried away. He said, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.

  • See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you.” Well, maybe.
  • I wouldn’t go around testing that theory, especially if you’re on the mission trip to Arkansas.
  • Those snakes get pretty big.
  • But listen to what he says next: “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven,” because in the end, this is all that will matter.

It won’t matter how many demons we cast out, or how many snakes we stepped on, or how successful we were in our mission. It will only matter how faithful we were. Did we actually do what Jesus told us to go and do?” Because if we did I believe we will one day hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.

Are there 39 or 46 books in the Old Testament?

An Overview of the Old Testament Books and Their Categories – The Old Testament is a collection of books that are considered sacred by Jews and Christians. These books were written over a period of approximately 1,000 years and are divided into several categories, each one with its unique purpose, message, and style.

Are there 24 or 39 books of the Old Testament?

The number of books – The number of books in the Hebrew canon is thus 24, referring to the sum of the separate scrolls on which these works were traditionally written in ancient times. This figure is first cited in II Esdras in a passage usually dated about 100 ce and is frequently mentioned in rabbinic (postbiblical) literature, but no authentic tradition exists to explain it. Britannica Quiz Christianity Quiz English Bibles list 39 books for the Old Testament because of the practice of bisecting Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles and of counting Ezra, Nehemiah, and the 12 Minor Prophets as separate books.

How many books are in original Bible?

Tony Watkins explores how the 66 books of the Bible were put together, why they were included and not others, and how we can be confident that the Bible we have today is the ‘word of God’. Christians believe the Bible to be the ‘word of God’. It’s vital, then, that we can be confident that it contains the right books.

When we talk about the books of the Bible, we often use the word ‘canon’ (from the Greek word for ‘measuring stick’). The ‘canon of Scripture’ is the standard set of biblical books. When you pick up any of the common Bible translations, such as the New International Version, English Standard Version, or Christian Standard Bible, you find the same 66 books in them: 39 in the Old Testament (OT) and 27 in the New Testament (NT).

Yet some Bibles have a longer Old Testament. Roman Catholic Bible also include the ‘deuterocanonical’ (‘second canon’) books, and the Orthodox Church’s ‘longer canon’ adds a few more. We call this extra material the ‘Apocrypha’ (from a Greek word meaning ‘to hide away’).

Evangelicals don’t accept these books as Scripture, though they are interesting and helpful. There are also other ancient Jewish texts, collectively known as the Pseudepigrapha (meaning ‘written under a false name’), which are not included in any Bible. Why are there these differences? What about other ‘gospels’ and early letters that are not included in any Bibles? Who decided which books are in or out, and why? These questions go back a very long way, and there are many misunderstandings about the answers.

Perhaps that is not surprising, as the process of clarifying the canon took centuries and was not straightforward. The most important thing to grasp is the fundamental reason why these 66 books became the canon. It is not because the early Christians particularly liked these books.

And it’s not because they were widely accepted, or because some church council decided to make them authoritative. Rather, it is because the early church recognised that these books had an inherent authority for how Christians live and what they believe. They believed that these books would have that same authority through all generations.

The church understood them as Scripture—as the authoritative words of God, given through human authors (Zechariah 7:12; 1 Peter 1:10–12).

Which Bible has 80 books?

1609: The first printing of the King James Bible ; originally with All 80 Books.1611: The King James Bible revised and printed; all 80 Books. The Apocrypha was Officially Removed in 1885 Leaving Only 66 Books.

Which Bible has the 7 missing books?

The Protestant Bible and Catholic Bible are not the same book. Here’s what you need to know about the difference. Advertisement Advertisement November 8, 2019 at 2:10 p.m. | Updated November 11, 2019 at 3:51 p.m. by Bible ctfpwb Editor’s note: This article is part of a series answering religious questions.

  • Each week, we will answer one submitted faith question.
  • This week’s question was not submitted but was a timely divergence.
  • To send a submission, visit or email [email protected].
  • Question: I believe the Catholic Bible has more books than the Protestant one.
  • What are they? A: There are seven books in the Catholic Bible – Baruch, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach, Tobit and Wisdom – that are not included in the Protestant version of the Old Testament.

These books are referred to as the deuterocanonical books. The history of why this came to be is a bit complicated but offers several interesting implications. Between 400 and 200 B.C., Jews were formalizing the books that make up the Torah and the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, which in Hebrew contained a smaller number of books.

What Bible has 84 books?

Purchase options and add-ons – The oldest and most comprehensive Bible ever discovered is the Ethiopian Bible. The King James Bible has 66 books, but the Ethiopic Bible has a total of 84 books Written in the ancient dead language of Geez which was formerly spoken in Ethiopia, it is over 800 years older than the King James Version.

  1. The Ethiopian Bible has a number of books that were excluded from the KJV, such as the Books of Enoch, Esdras, Buruch, and all three Books of Maccabees.
  2. Twenty of these books are found in the Ethiopian Bible but are absent from the Protestant Bible.
  3. Why isn’t the Ethiopian Bible which has all the original scrolls discussed like the king James version bible ? Why is the King James Version of the Bible more popular than the Ethiopian Version?.in this book You will learn how Christianity came to Ethiopia as well as the differences between the King James Bible and the Ethiopian Bible, the books in the Ethiopian Bible, and much more.

click the buy now link to purchase a copy of this book and learn more about the history of the Ethiopian bible.

What are the 27 books of the Bible called?

Malachi – Malachi, whose name means “my messenger,” spoke to the Israelites after their return from exile. The theological message of the book can be summed up in one sentence: The Great King will come not only to judge his people, but also to bless and restore them.

The New Testament is a collection of 27 books, usually placed after the Old Testament in most Christian Bibles. The name refers to the new covenant (or promise) between God and humanity through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The New Testament chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus, the growth and impact of the early church, and instructive letters to early churches.

    Is there 39 books in the New Testament?

    This is a list of the 27 books of the New Testament, ordered canonically according to most Christian traditions.

    Which Bible has 100 books?

    Purchase options and add-ons – The Ethiopian Bible is the oldest and most complete bible on earth.Written in Ge’ez an ancient dead language of Ethiopia it’s nearly 800 years older than the King James Version and contains over 100 books compared to 66 of the Protestant Bible.

    How many books are in the Russian Orthodox Bible?

    Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon “Ethiopian Bible” redirects here. For translations of the Bible into Ethiopian languages, see and, Ethiopian Orthodox monk from Debre Damo Monastery with an illuminated Bible

    Part of on
    Oriental Orthodox churches
    Subdivisions

    • Autonomous churches grouped by tradition:
    • Armenian:,
    • Syriac:
    Independent churches

    • Independent churches grouped by tradition:
    • Coptic:
    • Syriac:
    and theology

    Ecumenical Councils:

    Historical topics and events:

    Liturgy and practices

    Major figures

    Related topics

    Biblical canon used by Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches The Orthodox Tewahedo biblical canon is a version of the used in the two Churches of the Ethiopian and Eritrean traditions: the and the, At 81 books, it is the largest and most diverse in traditional,

    Why were the 7 books removed from the Bible?

    Defending The Deuterocanonicals | EWTN

    DEFENDING THE DEUTEROCANONICALS James Akin When Catholics and Protestants talk about “the Bible,” the two groups actually have two different books in mind.

    In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformers removed a large section of the Old Testament that was not compatible with their theology. They charged that these writings were not inspired Scripture and branded them with the pejorative title “Apocrypha.” Catholics refer to them as the “deuterocanonical” books (since they were disputed by a few early authors and their canonicity was established later than the rest), while the rest are known as the “protocanonical” books (since their canonicity was established first).

    Following the Protestant attack on the integrity of the Bible, the Catholic Church infallibly reaffirmed the divine inspiration of the deuterocanonical books at the Council of Trent in 1546. In doing this, it reaffirmed what had been believed since the time of Christ. Who Compiled the Old Testament? The Church does not deny that there are ancient writings which are “apocryphal.” During the early Christian era, there were scores of manuscripts which purported to be Holy Scripture but were not.

    Many have survived to the present day, like the Apocalypse of Peter and the Gospel of Thomas, which all Christian churches regard as spurious writings that don’t belong in Scripture. During the first century, the Jews disagreed as to what constituted the canon of Scripture.

    In fact, there were a large number of different canons in use, including the growing canon used by Christians. In order to combat the spreading Christian cult, rabbis met at the city of Jamnia or Javneh in A.D.90 to determine which books were truly the Word of God. They pronounced many books, including the Gospels, to be unfit as scriptures.

    This canon also excluded seven books (Baruch, Sirach, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, and the Wisdom of Solomon, plus portions of Esther and Daniel) that Christians considered part of the Old Testament. The group of Jews which met at Javneh became the dominant group for later Jewish history, and today most Jews accept the canon of Javneh.

    However, some Jews, such as those from Ethiopia, follow a different canon which is identical to the Catholic Old Testament and includes the seven deuterocanonical books (cf. Encyclopedia Judaica, vol.6, p.1147). Needless to say, the Church disregarded the results of Javneh. First, a Jewish council after the time of Christ is not binding on the followers of Christ.

    Second, Javneh rejected precisely those documents which are foundational for the Christian Church—the Gospels and the other documents of the New Testament. Third, by rejecting the deuterocanonicals, Javneh rejected books which had been used by Jesus and the apostles and which were in the edition of the Bible that the apostles used in everyday life—the Septuagint.

    The Apostles & the Deuteros The Christian acceptance of the deuterocanonical books was logical because the deuterocanonicals were also included in the Septuagint, the Greek edition of the Old Testament which the apostles used to evangelize the world. Two thirds of the Old Testament quotations in the New are from the Septuagint.

    Yet the apostles nowhere told their converts to avoid seven books of it. Like the Jews all over the world who used the Septuagint, the early Christians accepted the books they found in it. They knew that the apostles would not mislead them and endanger their souls by putting false scriptures in their hands—especially without warning them against them.

    1. But the apostles did not merely place the deuterocanonicals in the hands of their converts as part of the Septuagint.
    2. They regularly referred to the deuterocanonicals in their writings.
    3. For example, Hebrews 11 encourages us to emulate the heroes of the Old Testament and in the Old Testament “Women received their dead by resurrection.

    Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life” (Heb.11:35). There are a couple of examples of women receiving back their dead by resurrection in the Protestant Old Testament. You can find Elijah raising the son of the widow of Zarepheth in 1 Kings 17, and you can find his successor Elisha raising the son of the Shunammite woman in 2 Kings 4, but one thing you can never find—anywhere in the Protestant Old Testament, from front to back, from Genesis to Malachi—is someone being tortured and refusing to accept release for the sake of a better resurrection.

    If you want to find that, you have to look in the Catholic Old Testament—in the deuterocanonical books Martin Luther cut out of his Bible. The story is found in 2 Maccabees 7, where we read that during the Maccabean persecution, “It happened also that seven brothers and their mother were arrested and were being compelled by the king, under torture with whips and cords, to partake of unlawful swine’s flesh.

    ut the brothers and their mother encouraged one another to die nobly, saying, ‘The Lord God is watching over us and in truth has compassion on us, ‘ After the first brother had died, they brought forward the second for their sport. he in turn underwent tortures as the first brother had done.

    And when he was at his last breath, he said, ‘You accursed wretch, you dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life'” (2 Macc.7:1, 5-9). One by one the sons die, proclaiming that they will be vindicated in the resurrection. “The mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable memory.

    Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it with good courage because of her hope in the Lord. She encouraged each of them,, ‘I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you.

    Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws,'” telling the last one, “Do not fear this butcher, but prove worthy of your brothers.

    Accept death, so that in God’s mercy I may get you back again with your brothers” (2 Macc.7:20-23, 29). This is but one example of the New Testaments’ references to the deuterocanonicals. The early Christians were thus fully justified in recognizing these books as Scripture, for the apostles not only set them in their hands as part of the Bible they used to evangelize the world, but also referred to them in the New Testament itself, citing the things they record as examples to be emulated.

    1. The Fathers Speak The early acceptance of the deuterocanonicals was carried down through Church history.
    2. The Protestant patristics scholar J.N.D.
    3. Elly writes: “It should be observed that the Old Testament thus admitted as authoritative in the Church was somewhat bulkier and more comprehensive than the,

    It always included, though with varying degrees of recognition, the so-called Apocrypha or deuterocanonical books. The reason for this is that the Old Testament which passed in the first instance into the hands of Christians was, the Greek translation known as the Septuagint.

    1. Most of the Scriptural quotations found in the New Testament are based upon it rather than the Hebrew.
    2. In the first two centuries,
    3. The Church seems to have accept all, or most of, these additional books as inspired and to have treated them without question as Scripture.
    4. Quotations from Wisdom, for example, occur in 1 Clement and Barnabas.

    Polycarp cites Tobit, and the Didache Ecclesiasticus. Irenaeus refers to Wisdom, the History of Susannah, Bel and the Dragon, and Baruch. The use made of the Apocrypha by Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian and Clement of Alexandria is too frequent for detailed references to be necessary” (Early Christian Doctrines, 53-54).

    The recognition of the deuterocanonicals as part of the Bible that was given by individual Fathers was also given by the Fathers as a whole, when they met in Church councils. The results of councils are especially useful because they do not represent the views of only one person, but what was accepted by the Church leaders of whole regions.

    The canon of Scripture, Old and New Testament, was finally settled at the Council of Rome in 382, under the authority of Pope Damasus I. It was soon reaffirmed on numerous occasions. The same canon was affirmed at the Council of Hippo in 393 and at the Council of Carthage in 397.

    • In 405 Pope Innocent I reaffirmed the canon in a letter to Bishop Exuperius of Toulouse.
    • Another council at Carthage, this one in the year 419, reaffirmed the canon of its predecessors and asked Pope Boniface to “confirm this canon, for these are the things which we have received from our fathers to be read in church.” All of these canons were identical to the modern Catholic Bible, and all of them included the deuterocanonicals.

    This exact same canon was implicitly affirmed at the seventh ecumenical council, II Nicaea (787), which approved the results of the 419 Council of Carthage, and explicitly reaffirmed at the ecumenical councils of Florence (1442), Trent (1546), Vatican I (1870), and Vatican II (1965).

    • The Reformation Attack on the Bible The deuterocanonicals teach Catholic doctrine, and for this reason they were taken out of the Old Testament by Martin Luther and placed in an appendix without page numbers.
    • Luther also took out four New Testament books—Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation—and put them in an appendix without page numbers as well.

    These were later put back into the New Testament by other Protestants, but the seven books of the Old Testament were left out. Following Luther they had been left in an appendix to the Old Testament, and eventually the appendix itself was dropped (in 1827 by the British and Foreign Bible Society), which is why these books are not found at all in most contemporary Protestant Bibles, though they were appendicized in classic Protestant translations such as the King James Version.

    The reason they were dropped is that they teach Catholic doctrines that the Protestant Reformers chose to reject. Earlier we cited an example where the book of Hebrews holds up to us an Old Testament example from 2 Maccabees 7, an incident not to be found anywhere in the Protestant Bible, but easily discoverable in the Catholic Bible.

    Why would Martin Luther cut out this book when it is so clearly held up as an example to us by the New Testament? Simple: A few chapters later it endorses the practice of praying for the dead so that they may be freed from the consequences of their sins (2 Macc.12:41-45); in other words, the Catholic doctrine of purgatory.

    • Since Luther chose to reject the historic Christian teaching of purgatory (which dates from before the time of Christ, as 2 Maccabees shows), he had to remove that book from the Bible and appendicize it.
    • Notice that he also removed Hebrews, the book which cites 2 Maccabees, to an appendix as well.) To justify this rejection of books that had been in the Bible since before the days of the apostles (for the Septuagint was written before the apostles), the early Protestants cited as their chief reason the fact that the Jews of their day did not honor these books, going back to the council of Javneh in A.D.90.

    But the Reformers were aware of only European Jews; they were unaware of African Jews, such as the Ethiopian Jews who accept the deuterocanonicals as part of their Bible. They glossed over the references to the deuterocanonicals in the New Testament, as well as its use of the Septuagint.

    They ignored the fact that there were multiple canons of the Jewish Scriptures circulating in first century, appealing to a post-Christian Jewish council which has no authority over Christians as evidence that “The Jews don’t except these books.” In short, they went to enormous lengths to rationalize their rejection of these books of the Bible.

    Rewriting Church History In later years they even began to propagate the myth that the Catholic Church “added” these seven books to the Bible at the Council of Trent! Protestants also try to distort the patristic evidence in favor of the deuterocanonicals.

    1. Some flatly state that the early Church Fathers did not accept them, while others make the more moderate claim that certain important Fathers, such as Jerome, did not accept them.
    2. It is true that Jerome, and a few other isolated writers, did not accept most of the deuterocanonicals as Scripture.
    3. However, Jerome was persuaded, against his original inclination, to include the deuterocanonicals in his Vulgate edition of the Scriptures—testimony to the fact that the books were commonly accepted and were expected to be included in any edition of the Scriptures.

    Furthermore, it can be documented that in his later years Jerome did accept certain deuterocanonical parts of the Bible. In his reply to Rufinus, he stoutly defended the deuterocanonical portions of Daniel even though the Jews of his day did not. He wrote, “What sin have I committed if I followed the judgment of the churches? But he who brings charges against me for relating the objections that the Hebrews are wont to raise against the story of Susanna, the Son of the Three Children, and the story of Bel and the Dragon, which are not found in the Hebrew volume, proves that he is just a foolish sycophant.

    1. For I was not relating my own personal views, but rather the remarks that they are wont to make against us” (Against Rufinus 11:33 ).
    2. Thus Jerome acknowledged the principle by which the canon was settled—the judgment of the Church, not of later Jews.
    3. Other writers Protestants cite as objecting to the deuterocanonicals, such as Athanasius and Origin, also accepted some or all of them as canonical.

    For example, Athanasius, accepted the book of Baruch as part of his Old Testament (Festal Letter 39), and Origin accepted all of the deuterocanonicals, he simply recommended not using them in disputations with Jews. However, despite the misgivings and hesitancies of a few individual writers such as Jerome, the Church remained firm in its historic affirmation of the deuterocanonicals as Scripture handed down from the apostles.

    1. Protestant patristics scholar J.N.D.
    2. Elly remarks that in spite of Jerome’s doubt, “For the great majority, however, the deutero-canonical writings ranked as Scripture in the fullest sense.
    3. Augustine, for example, whose influence in the West was decisive, made no distinction between them and the rest of the Old Testament,

    The same inclusive attitude to the Apocrypha was authoritatively displayed at the synods of Hippo and Carthage in 393 and 397 respectively, and also in the famous letter which Pope Innocent I dispatched to Exuperius, bishop of Toulouse, in 405″ (Early Christian Doctrines, 55-56).

    It is thus a complete myth that, as Protestants often charge, the Catholic Church “added” the deuterocanonicals to the Bible at the Council of Trent. These books had been in the Bible from before the time canon was initially settled in the 380s. All the Council of Trent did was reaffirm, in the face of the new Protestant attack on Scripture, what had been the historic Bible of the Church—the standard edition of which was Jerome’s own Vulgate, including the seven deuterocanonicals! The New Testament Deuteros It is ironic that Protestants reject the inclusion of the deuterocanonicals at councils such as Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), because these are the very same early Church councils that Protestants appeal to for the canon of the New Testament.

    Prior to the councils of the late 300s, there was a wide range of disagreement over exactly what books belonged in the New Testament. Certain books, such as the gospels, acts, and most of the epistles of Paul had long been agreed upon. However a number of the books of the New Testament, most notably Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, and Revelation remained hotly disputed until the canon was settled.

    They are, in effect, “New Testament deuterocanonicals.” While Protestants are willing to accept the testimony of Hippo and Carthage (the councils they most commonly cite) for the canonicity of the New Testament deuterocanonicals, they are unwilling to accept the testimony of Hippo and Carthage for the canonicity of the Old Testament deuterocanonicals.

    Ironic indeed! THE FATHERS KNOW BEST: Old Testament Canon During the Reformation, for largely doctrinal reasons Protestants removed seven books from the Old Testament (1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach, Wisdom, Baruch, Tobit, and Judith) and parts of two others (Daniel and Esther), even though these books had been regarded as canonical since the beginning of Church history.

    As Protestant Church historian J.N.D. Kelly writes, “It should be observed that the Old Testament thus admitted as authoritative in the Church was somewhat bulkier and more comprehensive, It always included, though with varying degrees of recognition, the so-called apocrypha or deuterocanonical books” (Early Christian Doctrines, 53).

    Below we give patristic quotations from each of the deuterocanonical books. Notice how the Fathers quoted these books along with the protocanonicals. Also included are the earliest official canon lists. For the sake of brevity these are not given in full.

    When the canon lists cited here are given in full, they include all the books and only the books found in the modern Catholic Bible. (Note: Some books of the Bible have gone under more than one name. Sirach is also known as Ecclesiasticus, 1 and 2 Chronicles as 1 and 2 Paralipomenon, Ezra and Nehemiah as 1 and 2 Esdras, and 1 and 2 Samuel with 1 and 2 Kings as 1, 2, 3, and 4 Kings that is, 1 and 2 Samuel are named 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Kings are named 3 and 4 Kings.

    This confusing nomenclature is explained more fully in Catholic Bible commentaries.) The Didache “You shall not waver with regard to your decisions, Do not be someone who stretches out his hands to receive but withdraws them when it comes to giving ” (Didache 4:5 ).

    1. Pseudo-Barnabas “Since, therefore, was about to be manifested and to suffer in the flesh, his suffering was foreshown.
    2. For the prophet speaks against evil, ‘Woe to their soul, because they have counseled an evil counsel against themselves’, saying, ‘Let us bind the righteous man because he is displeasing to us’ ” (Epistle of Barnabas 6:7 ).

    Clement “By the word of his might established all things, and by his word he can overthrow them. ‘Who shall say to him, “What have you done?” or who shall resist the power of his strength?’ ” (Epistle to the Corinthians 27:5 ). Polycarp “Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood,

    1. When you can do good, defer it not, because ‘alms delivers from death’,
    2. Be all of you subject to one another, having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you.
    3. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed !” (Epistle to the Philadelphians 10 ).

    Irenaeus “Those, who are believed to be presbyters by many, but serve their own lusts and do not place the fear of God supreme in their hearts, but conduct themselves with contempt toward others and are puffed up with the pride of holding the chief seat and work evil deeds in secret, saying ‘No man sees us,’ shall be convicted by the Word, who does not judge after outward appearance, nor looks upon the countenance, but the heart; and they shall hear those words to be found in Daniel the prophet: ‘O you seed of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has deceived you and lust perverted your heart’,

    You that have grown old in wicked days, now your sins which you have committed before have come to light, for you have pronounced false judgments and have been accustomed to condemn the innocent and to let the guilty go free, although the Lord says, ‘You shall not slay the innocent and the righteous’ ” (Against Heresies 4:26:3 ; Dan.13 is not in the Protestant Bible).

    Irenaeus “Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out that as many believers as God has prepared for this purpose, to multiply those left on the earth, should both be under the rule of the saints and to minister to this Jerusalem and that kingdom shall be in it, saying, ‘Look around Jerusalem toward the east and behold the joy which comes to you from God himself.

    Behold, your sons whom you have sent forth shall come: They shall come in a band from the east to the west. God shall go before with you in the light of his splendor, with the mercy and righteousness which proceed from him’ ” (ibid.5:35:1 ; Baruch was often reckoned as part of Jeremiah, as it is here).

    Hippolytus “What is narrated here happened at a later time, although it is placed at the front of the book, for it was a custom with the writers to narrate many things in an inverted order in their writings. e ought to give heed, beloved, fearing lest anyone be overtaken in any transgression and risk the loss of his soul, knowing as we do that God is the judge of all and the Word himself is the eye which nothing that is done in the world escapes.

    Therefore, always watchful in heart and pure in life, let us imitate Susannah” (Commentary on Daniel 6 ; the story of Susannah is not in the Protestant Bible). Cyprian “So Daniel, too, when he was required to worship the idol Bel, which the people and the king then worshipped, in asserting the honor of his God, broke forth with full faith and freedom, saying, ‘I worship nothing but the Lord my God, who created the heaven and the earth’ ” (Epistles 55:5 ; Dan.14 is not in the Protestant Bible).

    Cyprian “In Genesis, ‘And God tested Abraham and said to him, “Take your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the high land and offer him there as a burnt offering, “‘, Of this same thing in the Wisdom of Solomon, ‘Although in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality,

    1. ‘, Of this same thing in the Maccabees, ‘Was not Abraham found faithful when tested, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness'” (Treatises 7:3:15 ).
    2. Council of Rome “Now indeed we must treat of the divine Scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she ought to shun.
    3. The order of the Old Testament begins here: Genesis, one book; Exodus, one book; Leviticus, one book; Numbers, one book; Deuteronomy, one book; Joshua Nave, one book; Judges, one book; Ruth, one book; Kings, four books ; Paralipomenon, two books; Psalms, one book; Solomon, three books: Proverbs, one book; Ecclesiastes, one book; Canticle of Canticles, one book; likewise Wisdom, one book; Ecclesiasticus, one book,

    Likewise the order of the historical : Job, one book; Tobit, one book; Esdras, two books ; Esther, one book; Judith, one book; Maccabees, two books” (Decree of Pope Damasus ). Council of Hippo ” that besides the canonical Scriptures nothing be read in church under the name of divine Scripture.

    But the canonical Scriptures are as follows: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the Son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, the Kings, four books, the Chronicles, two books, Job, the Psalter, the five books of Solomon, the twelve books of the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Ezra, two books, Maccabees, two books,

    ,” (canon 36 ). Augustine “The whole canon of the Scriptures, however, in which we say that consideration is to be applied, is contained in these books: the five of Moses, and one book of Joshua Nave, one of Judges; one little book which is called Ruth,

    1. Then the four of Kingdoms, and the two of Paralipomenon,
    2. Here are also others too, of a different order,
    3. Such as Job and Tobit and Esther and Judith and the two books of Maccabees, and the two of Esdras,
    4. Then there are the Prophets, in which there is one book of the Psalms of David, and three of Solomon.

    But as to those two books, one of which is entitled Wisdom and the other of which is entitled Ecclesiasticus and which are called ‘of Solomon’ because of a certain similarity to his books, it is held most certainly that they were written by Jesus Sirach.

    1. They must, however, be accounted among the prophetic books, because of the authority which is deservedly accredited to them” (On Christian Instruction 2:8:13 ).
    2. Augustine “God converted and turned the latter’s indignation into gentleness ” (On the Grace of Christ and Original Sin 1:24:25 ; this passage is not in the Protestant Bible).

    Augustine “We read in the books of the Maccabees that sacrifice was offered for the dead. But even if it were found nowhere in the Old Testament writings, the authority of the Catholic Church which is clear on this point is of no small weight, where in the prayers of the priest poured forth to the Lord God at his altar the commendation of the dead has its place” (On the Care That Should be Taken for the Dead 1:3 ).

    Council of Carthage ” that nothing except the canonical Scriptures should be read in the Church under the name of the divine Scriptures. But the canonical Scriptures are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings, Paralipomenon, two books, Job, the Psalter of David, five books of Solomon, twelve books of the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, two books of Esdras, two books of the Maccabees,

    ,” (canon 47 ). Apostolic Constitutions “Now women also prophesied. Of old, Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron, and after her, Deborah, and after these Huldah and Judith, the former under Josiah and the latter under Darius” (Apostolic Constitutions 8:2 ).

    Jerome “What sin have I committed if I follow the judgment of the churches? But he who brings charges against me for relating the objections that the Hebrews are wont to raise against the story of Susannah, the Song of the Three Children, and the story of Bel and the Dragon, which are not found in the Hebrew volume, proves that he is just a foolish sycophant.

    I was not relating my own personal views, but rather the remarks that they are wont to make against us. If I did not reply to their views in my preface, in the interest of brevity, lest it seem that I was composing not a preface, but a book, I believe I added promptly the remark, for I said, ‘This is not the time to discuss such matters'” (Against Rufinius 11:33 ).

    Pope Innocent I “A brief addition shows what books really are received in the canon. These are the things of which you desired to be informed verbally: of Moses, five books, that is, of Genesis, of Exodus, of Leviticus, of Numbers, of Deuteronomy, and Joshua, of Judges, one book, of Kings, four books, and also Ruth, of the Prophets, sixteen books, of Solomon, five books, the Psalms.

    Likewise of the histories, Job, one book, of Tobit, one book, Esther, one, Judith, one, of the Maccabees, two, of Esdras, two, Paralipomenon, two books,,” (To Exuperius 7 ). African Code ” that besides the canonical Scriptures nothing be read in church under the name of divine Scripture.

    But the canonical Scriptures are as follows: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua the Son of Nun, Judges, Ruth, the Kings, four books, the Chronicles, two books, Job, the Psalter, the five books of Solomon, the twelve books of the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Ezra, two books, Maccabees, two books,

    Let this be sent to our brother and fellow bishop, Boniface, and to the other bishops of those parts, that they may confirm this canon, of these are the things which we have received from our fathers to be read in church” (canon 24 ). : Defending The Deuterocanonicals | EWTN

    Why Catholics have 73 books in the Bible?

    The Original Catholic Canon – In about 367 AD, St. Athanasius came up with a list of 73 books for the Bible that he believed to be divinely inspired. This list was finally approved by Pope Damasus I in 382 AD, and was formally approved by the Church Council of Rome in that same year.

    Later Councils at Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397 AD) ratified this list of 73 books. In 405 AD, Pope Innocent I wrote a letter to the Bishop of Toulouse reaffirming this canon of 73 books. In 419 AD, the Council of Carthage reaffirmed this list, to which Pope Boniface agreed. The Council of Trent, in 1546, reaffirmed St.

    Athanasius’s original list of 73 books.

    Which Catholic Bible has all 73 books in it?

    History of Translation – The NRSV is rooted in the King James Version tradition. The KJV, or Authorized Edition, was first published in 1611 after over eight decades of scholarship, starting with William Tyndale, to create an English translation. The KJV is considered one of the literary and formative masterpieces of the English language.

    In the 1870s, due to changes in the English language and additional archaeological discoveries of older manuscripts, a major revision was undertaken by a committee of fifty British and American scholars. The Revised Version, the first and only authorized KJV revision, was published in the 1880s in Great Britain.

    The Revised Version was brought to the United States by two of the American committee members, revised again, and released in 1901 as the American Standard Version by Thomas Nelson & Sons. Both the RV and the ASV retained the Elizabethan language and pronouns such as thou, thee, and thy, and verb forms such as art, hast, hadst, and didst, The copyright was transferred to the International Council of Religious Education in 1928, and the organization later became the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. In the 1930s, another revision began which was published as the Revised Standard Version and presented to President Harry Truman in September of 1952. Significant changes were rendering the divine name YHWH as “Lord,” consistent with the KJV and RV but that the ASV had rendered as “Jehovah.” The RSV also reserved the archaic pronouns and verbs of the earlier translations for addressing God, but updated them to more current vernacular otherwise.

    In 1966 the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSV-CE) was published following an adaptation by the Catholic Biblical Association. The RSV-CE uses the Catholic traditional order of Old Testament books, including the deuterocanonical books, as established by the Vulgate translated by St. Jerome in the late fourth and early fifth centuries.

    When a third edition was issued in 1977 with three additional books provided by the Eastern Orthodox Church, the RSV became officially authorized by all major Christian churches. The New Revised Standard Version was released in 1989. The committee’s task was to update the translation with the latest archaeological discoveries, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, early Greek manuscripts, and recent updates in Semitic language studies.

    Is the Bible a collection of 72 books?

    The canon or official list of books of the Catholic Bible is comprised of 72 books (73 if Lamentations is separate from Jeremiah). The Old Testament has 45 (or 46) books and the New Testament has 27. The Old Testament was written before the time of Christ and is basically the Jewish Bible.

    What Bible has 77 books?

    The Wycliffe Bible, as it has come to us, contains 77 books: All the books present in the current canon of the Protestant Old and New Testament, plus ten belonging to what Jerome called the Apocrypha. Its contents follows closely that of the Latin Vulgate, which was its main source.