Catholic and Protestant Bibles: What is the Difference?

Catholic Exchange.com ^ | 02-06-07 | Mary Harwell Sayler

[Salvation]

Mary Harwell Sayler	Other Articles by Mary Harwell Sayler Printer Friendly Version
Catholic and Protestant Bibles: What is the Difference?

---

March 6, 2007

Question: What's the difference between a Catholic Bible and a Protestant one? Is our Old Testament the same as a Jewish Bible? If not, why?

Answer: The most noticeable differences occur in the number of books included and the order in which they have been arranged. Both the Jewish Bible and the Hebrew canon in a Protestant Bible (aka Old Testament) contain 39 books, whereas a Catholic Bible contains 46 books in the Old Testament. 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. Then, in A.D. 70, warring peoples almost completely destroyed the sacred structure, which has never been rebuilt. Without this central place of worship, the Jews began looking to the Bible as their focal point of faith, but to assure the purity of that faith, only Hebrew scriptures were allowed into the Jewish canon. By then, however, the earliest Christians spoke and read Greek, so they continued to use the Septuagint or Greek version of the Bible for many centuries. After the Reformation though, some Christians decided to accept translations into Latin then English only from the Hebrew texts that the Jewish Bible contained, so the seven additional books in the Greek translation became known as the Apocrypha, meaning "hidden." Since the books themselves were no secret, the word seemed ironic or, perhaps, prophetic because, in 1947, an Arab boy searching for a lost goat found, instead, the Dead Sea scrolls, hidden in a hillside cave.

Interestingly, the leather scrolls had been carefully wrapped in linen cloth, coated in pitch, and placed in airtight pottery jars about ten inches across and two feet high where, well-preserved, they remained for many centuries. Later, other caves in the same area yielded similar finds with hundreds of manuscripts no longer hidden. Indeed, the oldest copies of the Bible now known to exist are the Dead Sea scrolls of the Septuagint.

Because of this authentic find from antiquity, many publishers in the twentieth century added back the books of Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, First and Second Maccabees, as well as additions to Esther and Daniel. So now, when an edition of the Bible says "with Apocrypha" on the cover, the extra books from the Septuagint will usually be placed between the Old and New Testaments or at the end of the Bible. Catholic Bibles already contained those books, however, so you'll find them interwoven with other Old Testament books of history and wisdom writings. 

For the New Testament, it's a different story — and short. All of the books were written in Greek or Aramaic from the start. Although some debate occurred about which Gospels or Epistles should be included, all Christians eventually accepted all of the same 27 books in the same order. So, as long as you choose an edition that does not add explanatory notes opposed to a Catholic perspective, any reputable translation of the New Testament is fine.

 

© Copyright 2007 Catholic Exchange

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for sharing Calvin's testimony and insights! And thank you for the encouragements.

...the certainty of faith, which proceeds not from the acumen of the human mind, but solely from the illumination of the Spirit

Beautifully and truly said.

[Alamo-Girl]

BTW, if you care to bother, I've tried but failed to 'get it'--to learn well the indent quote html and the specific font html and haven't. If you could lay it out for me how you do it, I'll print it off and tape it near my screen.

Do not type the periods in between the less than and greater than symbols below:

To indent, begin with <.DIR.> end with <./DIR.>

To italicize, begin with <.I.> end with <./I.>

So to indent a quote, begin with <.DIR.><.I.> end with <./I.><./DIR.>

To set a font, begin with <.FONT. FACE="Arial".> end with <./FONT.> I use Arial, but pick your own favorite, e.g. Garamond.

[Alamo-Girl]

By which I take God to mean: the way you deal with people subject in any way to your judgment, and the criteria by which you qualify valid, admissible evidence pertaining to their individual cases, altogether specify the same exact "system of justice" that you yourself will receive on Judgment Day. In effect, we humans "write the book" stipulating the equitable standards that inevitably will be applied to our own particular cases, in the fullness of Time....

Beautifully and truly said. Thank you so much for your wise exhortation!

[Cvengr]

Discussing Scripture void of the human spirit or the ministry of the Holy Spirit reduces the study to religion whcih is no better than any other comparative religion.

We, as believers, are the richest generation in human history, if for no other reason, than we today are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, are gifted by Him with specific spiritual gifts tailored for us by His Providence to perform good works in the performance of His Will.

We advance to spiritual maturity by continuing to walk with Him as we build up Bible doctrine in our souls and are tested when it continually runs through our hearts.

Without that faith running through our hearts, we are akin to a body without blood running through its veins. We will simply become dead in short order without the human spirit being pumped through our thinking processes of our heart, rejuvenating our souls.

The indwelling of the Holy SPirit might not always be experienced and many believers might not even know they have such a gift, because while we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we are never commanded to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Such an action is His ministry.

Likewise, our testimonials to one another may also be used by the Holy Spirit to supernaturally communicate to our human spirit His revealed word. It's not what comes into the man that defiles him, it is what emanates from him which might defile him. Through faith in Christ we are able to hae God the Holy Spirit perform all the work in sanctification and continue to grow us in our hearts.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for sharing your testimony, kosta50. Cvengr's reply was so well said, I feel no need to add to it.

But I do want to ask you the question I posed earlier to anyone interested:

Who do you believe?

[Quix]

Your helpfulness is indicative of how far you've come, imho, in your spiritual maturing process. Always so welcome. Thanks.

I have printed it and taped it near my screen. I wonder if there are a list of fonts available on FR? I really want to make those UFO DVD's available for your library. Thankfully, the research is increasingly showing that THE NAME OF JESUS STOPS the abductions cold--even when they've been going on for generations in the same family. So, maybe will eventually get some things boxed up. LOL. LUB, Did this show up in comic sans? I have my IE7 set to that font so I can't tell what is and isn't except when your font shows up! Interesting that.

[Quix]

Insofar as any believer remains in fellowship with Him through faith in Christ, we bear good fruit.

Matt 13, 17

Mark 4

Luke 13, 17
= = =


INDEED! AMEN! AMEN!

[Alamo-Girl]

This should show up in Comic Sans MS.

The Comic Sans didn't work for you because you need a space between the words: <.FONT. FACE=".COMIC. SANS. MS".>

Thank you so much for your encouragements and for keeping me in your ping circle!

[Quix]

Paul was not taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ by flesh and blood, it was revealed to him.

Herein lies the first problem. The Hebrew God does not "download" the Gospel but teaches it by spoken word. As Jarsolav Pelikan says in his famous book Whose Bible Is It, the OT says that God spoke to Moses and gave him the Law, word by word [The Koran makes the same "authoritative" claim with Allah dictating to Mohammad].

To me, those lines represent a perspective that appears wholesale to be full of ill-informed &/or nonsensical assertions!

I heard the last 24 hours some excellent teaching from very learned and wise folks indwelt by Holy Spirit.

One of the wise assertions they made about the books missing from Protesty Bibles is that those books--quite in contrast to the books IN the Protesty Bible--DID NOT ATTEST TO JESUS THE CHRIST. Whereas Jesus The Christ AS GOD IS attested to in all the OLD Testament and NEW Testament books in the Protesty Canon. Works for me. The Written Word attesting to The Living Word or it's not The Living Word written!

That would rather exclude ALL other religious texts--(EXCEPT PERHAPS the valid and Biblically quoted BOOK OF ENOCH). They do not attest to Jesus The Christ as God's Son; King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So, as usual, the Muslim, Koran straw dog doesn't hold any more water than it ever does. It's rather odd that you, a Christian, insist on throwing the useless mention in. I suppose that Koran/Muslim straw dog will likely be proffered in yet more posts. But it seems rather silly non-sequitir to the max.

This assertion from that perspective: The Hebrew God does not "download" the Gospel indicates, to me, a wholesale and extreme poverty of experience as well as understanding of the Scriptural text.

Downloading is a very APT label for what DADDY AND THE SON do from time to time via Holy Spirit. And it is SOOOOO WONDERFUL when they do.

Of course, they ALSO teach--often over very long drawn out steps. But far from always. I'm beginning to wonder if there are NO??? Orthy's who've experienced such? Extremely sad, if so.

Thankfully, as has been wisely said, the one with an experience need never be at the mercy of a mere argument.

[Quix]

Our behavior is a visible expression of our "personality" (which really isn't a singular term).

LOL!
ROTFLOL!
GTTM!

I know a number of English teachers and fellow psychologists at my college who'd shake their heads in disbelief at that thoroughly inaccurate assertion!

Of course, I suppose, in the case of a Multiple Personality Disorder, there COULD be a case made for using persopnaliTIES. LOL.

But you weren't writing about MPD's.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your engaging post!

Truly, God gives all of us who receive Him the power to be filled with the Holy Spirit – but not everyone asks:

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. – John 1:12-13

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? – Luke 11:13

As for me, I cannot any longer imagine life without The Holy Spirit.

[Quix]

However, we all respond to noxious stimulation in a predictable, physiologically conceptualized ways, and in that sense we really do not have specific personalities when we are born.

That perspective SEEMS clearly to have arisen out of experience totally devoid of children and totally devoid of the scientific research and virtually totally devoid of knowledge on the topic. Shocking. I'd thought better of our school systems even as poor as they are.

1. Major features of an individual's personality are set at conception.
2. Some things can be moderated and shaped--to a degree even somewhat behaviorally reversed with GREAT PERSISTENT EFFORT--but the genetics sets the major traits of the personality. 3. A) Extroversion vs introversion is overwhelmingly genetic
B) Emotional stability vs instability is overwhelmingly genetic
C) Temperament--inborn emotional excitability--whether reactive intense and fidgity or easygoing, quiet and placid is very OVERWHELMINGLY genetic.

Overall, genetic influences predict roughtly 40 to 50% of our individual variations in many personality traits. [p. 82, EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY by David G Myers]

Clearly, close to half the personality is decided at conception. Of course, there are many other factors which environment shape and mold--including the spiritual environement and the choices of the individual as well as a variety of experiences in the major intelligence domains.

But, in my experience, I can almost always tell, after 15 minutes with a baby less than 24 HOURS old--I can usually tell major features of the baby's personality at that age.

So, the assertion is simiply thoroughly false, wrong, inaccurate per science and per many psychologists' experiences and certainly many mothers' experiences.

Of course, facts won't stop brash statements but they can at least help correct them.

[Quix]

So, if behavior is an expression of 'how we are' as humans, then we are pretty much born with very similar and predictable 'personalities.'

I guess that's what I deserve for assuming a given post only had one absurdly inaccurate statement.

The 16PF scale measures personality on 16 dimensions, scales. And the dissimilarities between the various points on the scales are enormously significant and not similar at all. I think psychology 101 would have cleared up this nonsense--unless such a course was missed, somehow.

Hans Eysenck measures personality on 2 SUPERORDINATE DIMENSIONS--UNSTABLE VS STABLE on the North/South axis and INTROVERTED VS EXTROVERTED on the East/West axis. But those two dimensions include a vast number of potential QUITE VARIED COMBINATIONS OF:

UPPER LEFT QUADRANT: moody, anxiouis, rigid, sober, pessimistic, reserved, unsociable, quite

LOWER LEFT QUADRANT: passive, careful, thoughtful, peaceful, controlled, reliable, even-tempered, calm

LOWER RIGHT QUADRANT: sociable, outgoing, talkative, responsive, easygoing, lively, carefree, leadership

UPPER RIGHT QUADRANT: touchy, restless, aggressive, excitable, changeable, impulsive, optimistic, active.

And the MMPI certainly can describe a huge number of personality differences.

So, yet again, the assertion is totally devoid of fact and simply blatantly false.

I REALLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND where so many so thoroughly false beliefs, perspectives are coming from. And if this sort of "missing facts" by so many light years is remotely true of the theologies involved as it is basic scientific facts about humans . . . goodness! That's scary. But it could help explain why so many perspectives about the Canon and other Scriptural truths are so farrrrrrrr off base. This is beginning to scare me toward more earnest prayer.

[Quix]

But children do not sin until they are old enough to know right from wrong! Yet they exhibit distinct 'personalities.' I do agree that our personalities change — better, yet, evolve but I think it is not an established fact that some are born with 'criminal traits.'

GOODNESS! I have a hard time recalling a post with so many inaccurate assertions in a long time.

Spiritually, I would agree that children do not technically sin until they reach some age of accountability. HOWEVER, I've observed rebellion and defiance in infants. I think most parents with any fair-mindedness about it at all would agree. Certainly by 2 years such things are VERY EVIDENT.

And, we also have the sins of the fathers visited upon children to the 3rd and 4th generation as Scripture makes clear. So I find the point greatly moot, AT BEST.

Do personalities evolve? Not greatly. There's some refinement, mellowing . . . but the basic personality structure does not change much birth to death--especially for most people.

Are some children born with criminal traits? Some experts would say yes; some no. I think the most Biblical perspective is yes, some are. And, there's some science to back it up. It gets very complicated and I don't care to dig it all out.

[Quix]

In fact, just about everything we know is learned and not something we are born with.

I suppose it depends on what is meant by "know." But at face value, the above perspective is again wholesale wrong. As I've outlined above, WE KNOW/HAVE OUR BASIC PERSONALITY STRUCTURE GENETICALLY AT CONCEPTION.

But I think it's a moot point. WHAT OUR PERSONALITY IS WHEN WE GRADUATE FROM THIS LIFE WILL BE REFLECTED IN HEAVEN WHOLESALE--minus the evil. This boot camp is not for naught! LOL.

[Forest Keeper]

Our personalities will not be expressed, because there will be no reason to express them. Surely, we won't be arguing on a religion forum. :)

When we both get to Heaven and find out that Reformed theology is correct, you tell me that you won't argue about it! :) But seriously, I see no reason at all for our personalities to be extinguished. My personality is a great part of what makes me ...... ME! My personality (and/or taste) says what kinds of people I get along with best, what my favorite food is (I do believe we will eat in Heaven), that I love music more than other people, and that I LOVE to argue in general. :) With the dross melted away, why can these things not survive?

Jesus also had a human personality, and we know that it was not destroyed at the cross. From everything we're told, the post-resurrection Jesus acted the same as the pre-crucifixion Jesus. When I think of the term "dying to self" I think of extinguishing the sinful nature and of having TOTAL allegiance to God, not to self. I don't see how this must affect what I consider to be "sin-neutral" aspects of our personalities.

[Quix]

I don't know if we'll have the same earthly personality but we'll certainly be recognizable by our friends and family who are there.

Do you have a biblical reference to that claim?

1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

MESSAGE VERSION:
12We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

AMPLIFIED VERSION:
Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand [b]fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been [c]fully and clearly known and understood [[d]by God].

[Quix]

ooops.

OK, thanks tons and you, too on the pings.

[Forest Keeper]

... The canons are clear on ordination to the episcopacy but I suppose an ecumenical council could change them.

OK, thanks.

[Forest Keeper]

My best guess is there's a fundamental failure to communicate" here.

Sweatiest movie ever. :)