1/30/2022

I will continue answering questions that have been asked. The next question comes up occasionally, and leads to an interesting discussion about how Protestants and Catholics view the Bible. The differences are significant. The question:
Why are there seven more books in the Catholic Bible (73) than in the Protestant (66)? The difference in Bibles arises in the Old Testament, as the New Testament is pretty much the same for both Catholics and Protestants. The books in question we call “deuterocanonical”: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I & II Maccabees, and Esther, plus some parts of a couple of other books. These books were written in Greek. The first “canon” of scripture (list of books that should be in the Bible, in this case the Old Testament) arose around the time of Christ when the Rabbis who served those Jews outside of Palestine (sometimes called the diaspora) decided to draw up a list of those books which were “sacred.” This list included the seven books listed above. It was drawn up for the sake of Jews who lived far from the Temple in Jerusalem so as to give them a guide to what were considered the most sacred books which should be read in the Synagogue on the Sabbath. In order to be better understood, they translated the entire Bible (then just the Old Testament) into Greek, so as to be accessible to those Jews who did not speak Hebrew. This translation is called the Septuagint, which dates from about 100 B.C.
After the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., the Jews in Palestine got together and drew up their own canon of scripture at around 100 A.D. The books included were those written in Hebrew; those excluded were those written in Greek (listed above). At the same time, the New Testament was being written after Christ died, ending around 100 A.D. There are 27 books in the New Testament. Early Church Fathers used and referred to the Septuagint version (e.g. Origen, d. 245), local Synods in Hippo in 393 A.D., Carthage in 397 & 419 A.D., and a letter of Pope Innocent I in 405 A.D. also officially listed 73 books in the Bible. The Council of Florence in 1442 definitively listed the books in the Bible as 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The decree was affirmed at the Council of Trent (1647).
When Martin Luther translated the Bible into German in 1534 A.D., he chose to group the seven deuterocanonical books as “Apocrypha,” commenting that they were not to be considered on equal footing with the other (Hebrew) books of the Old Testament. He essentially opted to recognize the Hebrew canon over the Septuagint (Greek) canon of scripture. Likewise, he categorized New Testament books in order of importance. Other churches weighed in, and the end result is that the Protestant Bible has seven less books than the Catholic Bible.
The whole affair raises the question: who has authority to determine which books belong in the Bible and which ones do not belong there? As Catholics, we recognize both Scripture and Tradition as sources of Divine Revelation. Protestants do not, tending to lean solely on scripture (sola scriptura). For Catholics, the Bible springs from the Church, which has the authority to decide which books are in it and which are not. Thus, the Church decided that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John belonged in the Bible, while those of Thomas and Mary Magdalene, for example, did not. The Catholic Church has a magisterium to resolve conflicts and maintain unity. However, lacking the magisterium and choosing to depend on scripture alone, Protestants have no easy way to settle questions such as where the Bible comes from and what books should be in it. This does not mean that the magisterium can arbitrarily set the number of books in the Bible it has a mission to make that determination after due deliberation, prayer, and discernment, as well as to be the ultimate interpreter of the meaning of texts in the Bible where there is dispute, all under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Tradition cannot contradict the Bible, but it also has a privileged position in the interpretation of the Bible. Remember, we view the Church not just as the hierarchy, but as the very Body of Christ. Who better to interpret the meaning of scripture?
I hope that this is not too confusing. May the Lord bless all of you!

Father Albert, O.S.B.