Question
Please, there is other question: How many books does the catholic bible have? The bibles we read have 66 books. What are the names of those extra books of the catholic bibles?
Answer
The Table of Contents of the New American Bible (NOT New American Standard Bible), a modern (copyright 1970) Catholic translation, lists in the Old Testament, in addition to the 39 Old Testament books in Protestant Bibles, Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch, 7 books in all. All are grouped in the Old Testament. They are called “apocryphal” books, meaning “of doubtful authenticity.” These books were never accepted as part of the inspired Scriptures and included in the Hebrew Bible, our Old Testament, by the Jews. They were not included in the Hebrew books of Scripture. Jesus placed His stamp of approval on the Scriptures recognized by the Jews as inspired Scripture (John 10:35). The Jews divided these into three categories – Law, Psalms, and Prophets (Luke 24:44), but they included all but only the 39 Old Testament books in the Protestant Bible. Jerome, the great scholar (born about 357 A.D.), who translated most of the Scriptures into Latin, and whose translation became the basis of the The Vulgate, the Bible used by Catholics until modern times, did not accept these books as inspired Scripture. During the Counter Reformation, the Catholic reaction to the Protestant Reformation, the Pope insisted these apocryphal books were inspired Scripture because they contained some references advocating praying for the dead. Of course, Catholics used this to support praying dead relatives out of the imaginary place called “Purgatory.” There is no sound basis to consider these books as part of inspired Scripture. Some of them particularly 1 and 2 Maccabees, have value as historical sources for the period of silence between Malachi and Matthew. Since not even Catholics claim they are part of the New Testament, no one should consider them as authoritative guides for us today (Hebrews 8:6-13).
