[HarleyD]

You listed a quote of 22 books. Catholics and Orthodox have always including the other books.

Josephus combined various books. For example, Chronicles is counted once whereas it shows up in the Protestant (and Catholic) editions as 1st and 2nd Chronicles. Ezra and Nehemiah are combined as well as Jeremiah and Lamentations. Here is the list below which mirrors the Protestant bible:

1-5. Books of Moses.
6. Joshua.
7. Judges and Ruth.
8. Samuel.
9. Kings.
10. Chronicles.
11. Ezra and Nehemiah.
12. Esther.
13. Isaiah.
14. Jeremiah and Lamentations.
15. Ezekiel.
16. Daniel.
17. Twelve Minor Prophets.
18. Job.
19. Psalms.
20. Proverbs.
21. Ecclesiastes.
22. Song of Songs.

Of course the Catholics and Orthodox included other books. That is the point of this discussion, isn't it? This list, btw, was not only confirmed by Josephus but by Eusebius in the 4th century. So there is plenty of history behind this history.

Your point does not make sense. (Church that no longer considers the inerrant scriptures anything more than mere writings...)

From New Advent (the Catholic encyclopedia):

...The Bible, as the inspired recorded of revelation, contains the word of God; that is, it contains those revealed truths which the Holy Ghost wishes to be transmitted in writing. However, all revealed truths are not contained in the Bible (see TRADITION); neither is every truth in the Bible revealed...

The Bible

So, while the writings are inspired not everything is revealed*. It is up to the Church to tell you other things; much like Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormons. So, if some day the Pope is at a cocktail party and feels very inspired with something like global warming, then all he needs to do is jot it down and history is made.

* (We'll ignore the issues the Catholic Church has with Paul's writings.)

[af_vet_1981]

Josephus combined various books.

No, he did not combine various books. He wrote that there were 22 books.

The one holy catholic and apostolic church divided those 22 books into 39 books, without the authority of the Sanhedrin authority on which Protestantism relies, and added some of the other holy books translated in the Septuagint to comprise the Bible. All the scripture that Protestantism removed from its version of the Bible in the 16th Century was in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterocanonical_booksboth the Catholic and Orthodox Canon of the Bible.

The Catholic deuterocanonical scriptural texts are:

Tobit
Judith
Additions to Esther (Vulgate Esther 10:4–16:24)[9]
Wisdom (also called the Wisdom of Solomon)
Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus)
Baruch, including the Letter of Jeremiah (Additions to Jeremiah in the Septuagint)[10]
Additions to Daniel:
Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children (Vulgate Daniel 3:24–90)
Susanna (Vulgate Daniel 13, Septuagint prologue)
Bel and the Dragon (Vulgate Daniel 14, Septuagint epilogue)
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees

It is a good thing that Protestantism was unsuccessful at removing Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation from the Bible as well.

IN BRIEF

134 All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, "because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ" (Hugh of St. Victor, De arca Noe 2,8:PL 176,642: cf. ibid. 2,9:PL 176,642-643).

135 "The Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God and, because they are inspired, they are truly the Word of God" (DV 24).

136 God is the author of Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by means of them. He thus gives assurance that their writings teach without error his saving truth (cf. DV 11).

137 Interpretation of the inspired Scripture must be attentive above all to what God wants to reveal through the sacred authors for our salvation. What comes from the Spirit is not fully "understood except by the Spirit's action' (cf. Origen, Hom. in Ex. 4, 5: PG 12, 320).

138 The Church accepts and venerates as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New.

139 The four Gospels occupy a central place because Christ Jesus is their center.

140 The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God's plan and his Revelation. The Old Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfills the Old; the two shed light on each other; both are true Word of God.

141 "The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord" (DV 21): both nourish and govern the whole Christian life. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Ps 119:105; cf. Is 50:4).