The Protestant Bible is missing several books from the original Bible assembled in 364 AD by the Council of Laodicea. The Jews in Palestine had more books than those in Rome, for instance (such as 3 Maccabees in addition to 1&2 Maccabees), so that is why there are more "extra" books in Orthodox Bibles than in Catholic Bibles. I've been raised Protestant and I recently found out that there are more books in the Catholic Bible (which is the original one) than in the Protestant Bible. The Protestant Bible, of which the NIV is one version, is seven books shorter than the Bible used by Roman Catholics. The books Protestants will call the Apocrypha are actually called deuterocanonical books Tobit,Judith, Wisdom, Sirach,Baruch, 1 & 2 Maccabees. One very dominant differential character in their beliefs is the importance of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. BUT WHY, I WONDER, DID THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH REMOVE: 1st Ezra (the Ezra in the NAB version of the Bible which is the official English version of the Catholic Bible as seen on the Vatican’s website: www.vatican.va is actually 2nd Ezra in the Septuagint. Protestants offer various explanations to explain why they reject the deuterocanonical books as Scripture. By Rachael Turkienicz. The Cannon. I can go on and on, but the question is just: WHY did they remove these books? Even the Roman Catholic Church made a distinction between the Apocrypha and the other books of the Bible prior to the Protestant Reformation. Share . **I seem to remember … It is historically demonstrable that Catholics did not add the books, Protestants took them out. Why would the Church want to hide these books in our Bibles? God says not to take anything away from the Bible, and that's exactly what they did. Protestants then edited their version by removing some books from the Bible, and their traditions have been changing ever since their separation. Because, if you read the book of the Wisdom of Solomon 2:1-24, you’ll see that the wise king of Israel was talking about Jesus (? Well I have a few possible answers to the questions that I have asked: In my opinion Solomon is … Why did Solomon sound so evil in this book? They charged that these writings were not inspired Scripture and branded them with the pejorative title "Apocrypha." They will say Catholics added them but they have always been in the Bible. Why The Protestant Bible Has Fewer Books than the Catholic Bible March 14, 2018 Gene Veith Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Martin Luther, without any authority whatsoever, removed those seven books and placed them in an appendix during the reformation. The Eastern church called these books "worthy to be read"; Protestants consider them "not worthy to be read," and removed them. How to Play Dreidel. Until then, they had been included at least in an appendix of Protestant Bibles. However, the Jewish councils that rejected them (e.g., School of Javneh (also called “Jamnia” in 90 – 100 A.D.) were the same councils that rejected the entire New Testatment canon. Today, most protestant Bibles do not include the Apocrypha and few have ever read the Apocrypha. The Catholic bible also include chapters in the books of Esther and Daniel not found in the Protestant Bibles. Hanukkah. With this background, we can now address why the Protestant versions of the Bible have less books than the Catholic versions. An answer to a Catholic friend about why the so called apocrypha was removed from the Bible Did you know that Martin Luther removed SEVEN books from the Old Testament out of the Protestant Bible? It was the Catholic Church that first taught the Protestants that the Bible was the Word of God.The Church produced this book, then handed it to believers, and said this is the Word of God.It is infallible and inerrant. The reason why the Protestants, who claim to follow the Bible more that those apostates Catholics and Orthodoxs do (even if they follow mutilated Bibles) took those books from the Bible because they disagreed with doctrines sustained in Scripture there, like praying for the dead, the intersession of the saints, praying to angels. Why is it not included in the Protestant Bible? When Catholics and Protestants talk about "the Bible," the two groups actually have two different books in mind. The books missing from Protestant Bibles are: Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Wisdom, Sirach, 1 and 2 Maccabees, and parts of Esther and Daniel. You might also like 9 Things You Didn’t Know About Hanukkah. The Apocrypha was removed from the Protestant Bible altogether at the time of the Reformation. Protestants did not take these books out of their Bibles, but they did remove them from their traditional positions in the Old Testament and put them int a section of their own, in between the Old and New Testaments. They called this section the “Apocrypha”, meaning “hidden”, because of the questionable canonicity of the books. Why did the Vatican vote to have these 14 books removed from our Bible? Only 11 of these are included in the Catholic Bible today but all 14 can still be found in the Orthodox Bible. During the Protestant revolt in the 16th century, the Protestants removed seven books. The books that tell the Hanukkah tale didn't make it into the Hebrew Bible -- but they are in the Catholic one. They called this section the “Apocrypha”, meaning “hidden”, because of the questionable canonicity of the books. In fact they were trying to get the Epistle of James out of … (The word "Bible" means "the Book.") But history reveals that the Apocrypha has been a part of what we call the "Bible" longer than it has not. The Bible as we have it today, which consists of 66 books, took a very long, thoughtful process to come together. An example of this is Cardinal Cajetan. 2nd Ezra in the NAB version of the Bible is actually Nehemiah in the Septuagint), **3rd Macc and Psalm 151? Posted on May 13, 2010 by John Oakes wrote in Apocrypha, Bible Manuscripts and Textual Questions, Church History, General, Reliability of the Bible, Versions of the Bible. He grouped the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament under the title "Apocrypha," declaring. Donate. Why the Maccabees Aren’t in the Bible. The Protestant church generally does not believe these books are inspired and therefore canonical, that is authoritative and deserving to be a part of the Bible as the Word of God. Protestants did not take these books out of their Bibles, but they did remove them from their traditional positions in the Old Testament and put them int a section of their own, in between the Old and New Testaments. ), due to the fact that in his writing, he talks Hanukkah. The Protestants attempt to defend their rejection of the deuterocanonicals on the ground that the early Jews rejected them. Let's explore the five most common of these myths and see how to respond to them. In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformers removed a large section of the Old Testament that was not compatible with their theology. Protestant Reformer Martin Luther COGwriter Although Protestants like to think positively about Martin Luther because of his supposed belief in sola Scriptura (the Bible alone), the truth is that Martin Luther changed parts of the Bible and discounted the value of many books. My Jewish Learning is a not-for-profit and relies on your help. I call these explanations "myths" because they are either incorrect or simply inadequate reasons for rejecting these books of Scripture. He is the man who opposed Martin Luther at Augsburg. Answer by Rev. Why did Protestants do this? Luther didn't remove any books, actually. Here are several reasons why many Christian authorities reject the writings of the Apocrypha: 1. Luther, if I am correct here, was around before the 1611 translation of the King James Bible, and had his own version … Did you know that Solomon wrote a number of books that were not included in the Bible? In 1518, he published A Commentary on all the Authentic Historical Books of the Old Testament. Martin Luther removed multiple books from the Old Testament. Since the full Canon was not officially affirmed by Catholics until Trent, neither did Protestants. Screenshot of the links of how the Vatican eliminated 14 books of the Bible. So that the public can’t learn about inconvenient information. The earliest writings of the Bible were likely composed in the 10th century B.C. Why are Protestant Bibles missing these books? https://consciousreminder.com/2017/03/12/vatican-remove-14-books-bible-1684 Myth 1 . Why is that? The missing books you refer to in the KJV are most likely the apocryphal books which are generally not found in any Protestant translation (NASB, NAS, NIV, RSV, etc.). Why were some books excluded from the Bible? Mark J. Gantley, JCL on 5/1/2005: The canon of Scripture is the list of 73 books that belong to the Bible. The people who translated the King James Bible did not remove books from the Bible either (though the originals that they translated from were flawed, leading to some less than perfect translations). Luther had a tendency to grade the Bible according to his preferences. 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