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Catholic And Protestant BiblesIntroduction: The DifferencesThe Protestant Bible omits seven entire books and parts of two other books when compared tothe Catholic Bible - namely, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, First andSecond Maccabees - and parts of Esther (10:14 to 16:14) and Daniel (3:24- 90; 13; 14).These seven books came to the Christians from the Septuagint, a pre-Christian Greek translationof the Jewish Scriptures put together for Alexander the Great for his library in Alexandria. ThisGreek translation was the main one used by the early Christians in putting together the NewTestament, all of which was written in Greek. In the Septuagint these seven books are placedamong and given equal rank. with the older Hebrew books and they are still found in the CatholicBible today. Since the Hebrew Scriptures are older than the Septuagint, the list of books in theformer is called the First Canon or collection, while the catalog of books in the latter is called theSecond Canon or collection. The seven additional books are found only in the Second Canonand have been always associated with it.Jewish Opposition: Jesus as the MessiahJewish opposition to the additional books of the Second Canon was due to the circumstances inwhich the Jews lived and to the spirit of the times. During the last centuries which preceded thecoming of Christ, the Jews - because of the captivities, persecutions and antagonisms fromoutside nations, became more and more conservative and looked with increasing suspicion onanything that was new. Since the additional books were of comparatively recent origin and sincesome of them were written in Greek - the language of paganism - they naturally aroused theopposition of the Jews.Then the fact that the early Christians used the Septuagint in their controversies with the Jewsover Jesus as the Messiah only served to confirm the Jewish opposition to this collection of theSacred Scriptures. The Jews found it difficult to defend the Christian argument that Wisdom2:12-21, written about a hundred years before the coming of Christ, was a perfect explanation forwhy Jesus had to suffer and die and then rise from the dead to be the true Messiah.What is difficult to understand is that the origin of the Jewish feast of Hanukkah, a feastobserved by Jesus as found in John 10:22, is found in both 1 Maccabees 4:36-59 and 2Maccabbes 10:1-8. In both these texts it specifies that this feast shall be observed by the Jewson an annual basis as is done to this very day. The Jewish feast of Hanukkah was established byand started during the time of Judas Maccabeus. Yet the Jews do not recognize these two booksand so do not have any Biblical proof for this feast which is so very important to them.The Protestant Bible: Its DevelopmentWhen Martin Luther set out to translate the Bible into German, he utilized the Jewish Scriptures,or First Canon, as the basis of his translation of the Old Testament. His premise, which wasinfluenced by the Jews who provided him with the Scriptures to translate, was that the CatholicChurch had added books to the Bible at a later date, which was not true. These books were partof the Old Testament as found in the Septuagint even before Jesus Christ was born.

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The Protestants of the sixteenth century also objected to the additional books because of some ofthe doctrinal teachings of these books. The Second Book of Maccabees, for example, containsthe doctrine of purgatory; prayers and sacrifices for the dead (12:39-46). The book of Tobitteaches the importance in the eyes of God of good works. The Protestants could not reject someof these books without excluding all of the additional books. Hence, in drawing up their list ofOld Testament books, they went back to the First Canon of Biblical books of the PalestinianJews. They removed the additional seven books, which had been in the Bible up until 1517, andplaced them at the end of the Bible in a special appendix. In addition, they labeled them as"apocryphal" (spurious, uninspired), a designation which helped to lower them in the estimationof Protestant readers.The Lutheran and Anglican Bibles still carry these books in the appendix or give them asecondary place. But the other Protestant churches reject them entirely. In 1827 the British andForeign Bible Society decided not to print or handle Bibles that contained the additional booksand not to aid financially companies that published Bibles containing them. As a result thesebooks have practically disappeared from Protestant Bibles.The Catholic Bible: Why ItConsiders These Seven Books CanonicalLuther's Protestant Bible came out in German in 1520. Before his Bible the Catholic Bible hadbeen translated into Spanish, Italian, Danish, French, Norwegian, Polish, Bohemian, Hungarianand English. There were exactly 104 editions in Latin; 38 editions in the German language, 25editions in the Italian language, 18 in French. In all there were 626 editions of the Bible with198 of them in the language of the laity. Yes, some Catholic Bibles were chained up in thechurches. Before the invention of the movable type printing press made the cost of owning aBible more accessible to the minority of people who could read, each Bible had to be copied byhand. It took one monk two years to make a copy of just one Bible. So Bibles were veryvaluable and they had to be chained up so that they would not be stolen. This makes a lot moresense than banks chaining up pens, which are not nearly as valuable as the Bible.The Catholic Church has always considered the seven books of the Second Canon as inspiredand of the same rank as the other Hebrew Scriptures. Her attitude is based upon the following:1) The Apostles and New Testament writers quoted principally from the Septuagint. In fact, ofthe three hundred and fifty Old Testament quotations found in the New Testament, about threehundred are taken from the Septuagint.2) Some of the New Testament writers made use of the additional books themselves, particularlyof the Book of Wisdom, which seems to have been St. Paul's favorite volume. The Epistle of St.James - to take another example - shows an acquaintance with the Book of Sirach(Ecclesiasticus). If the Apostles and New Testament writers used some of the additional books,did they not thereby approve the entire Septuagint collection? The Catholic Church believesthey did,3) The additional books were accepted in the Church from the beginning. The Epistle of PopeClement, written before the end of the first century, makes use of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) andWisdom, gives an analysis of the book of Judith, and quotes from the additional sections from thebook of Esther. The same is true of other early Christian writers.

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4) The oldest Christian Bibles in existence (Codex Vaticanus, etc.) contain the additional booksintermingled with the rest, just as we find them in the Catholic Bibles today.5) The oldest Christian lists of Biblical books contain the additional books. In 382 PopeDamasus in a Roman Council issued a formal list of Old and New Testament books and the listcontains the same books as we have in the Catholic Bibles of today.6) Finally, Christian art of the first four centuries - especially that found in the catacombs andcemeteries - furnishes among others the following illustrations from the additional books: Tobiaswith the fish (Tobit 6), Susanna (Daniel 13), Daniel and the dragon (Daniel 14), the angel withthe three children in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:49), Habacuc and Daniel in the lion's den(Daniel 14:35).The New Testament: Still Differences in Catholic & Protestant TranslationsThe Protestant New Testament contains the same books as the Catholic New Testament.Although Luther showed great hostility to St. James's Epistle because of its doctrine of thenecessity of good works (2:14-26; cf Matthew 25:31-46) and contemptuously called it an "epistleof straw," he clearly saw that he had no more reason for excluding that book than he had forrejecting the other books of the New Testament. The differences between the Protestant andCatholic New Testament arise from changes in specific passages in various books of the NewTestament.In the passage from 1 Corinthians 11:27, "Whosoever shall eat this bread OR drink the chalice ofthe Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord," the AuthorizedVersion (AV) of King James replaced "or" by "and." Inspired by doctrinal and anti-Catholicbias, the editors purposely changed the text in order to remove the argument for communionunder one kind. Today all Scriptural scholars agree that "OR drink the chalice" is the correctreading. Modern critical Protestant editions of the Bible - the Revised Version and the StandardVersion - have rejected the reading of the Authorized Version and restored the old or Rheims-Douay reading.A further deliberate change in the interest of the Protestant doctrine on original sin is introducedinto several passages. The Reformers maintained that human nature was essentially corrupted bythe Fall. Man's intellect is positively darkened and his free will destroyed.In I Corinthians 7:9 where the Rheims-Douay Version reads: "If they do not contain themselves,let them marry"; the Authorized Version changed the passage to read: "But if they cannotcontain, let them marry." The same Authorized Version changes "do not" to "cannot do" inGalatians 5: 17: "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for theseare contrary to one another, so that you do not the things that you would. II The aim of the editorsin both instances was to introduce into the Scriptures the false Lutheran doctrine concerning thetotal depravity of human nature because of original sin. St. Paul is made to affirm that aChristian cannot lead a stainless virtuous life. The critical editions of the bible, however - theRevised and Standard Versions-refused to adopt this reading and returned to the reading of theRheims ~ Douay.

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To the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6:13, the Authorized Version adds the doxology or the longending: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." The RevisedVersion, however, as well as all critical editions, omit this doxology - and correctly so. Thedoxology is not a part of the Lord's Prayer. It is not found in 81. Luke's version of the OurFather.In St. Matthew's Gospel, the intimate connection between verses 13 and 14 shows that theoriginal text had no clause between the two verses. The long ending is not found in two of theoldest Bibles still in existence - namely, the codex 8inaiticus and the codex Vaticanus. In thecourse of time, however, the doxology began to appear on the margin or was written in the textwith red ink, until finally in some later manuscripts it becomes a part of the Bible. According tothe almost unanimous opinion of scholars the doxology is an interpolation which worked its wayinto some Bibles from the early Christian liturgy.

The Catholic Understanding of the Bible8t. Jerome, still considered one of the world's greatest biblical scholars, issued this stem warningover 1500 years ago: "Fanning, building, carpentry, etc., all require an apprenticeship, but whenit comes to interpreting God's Word ... any doddering old fool or dilettante can blithely dissectit and have a go at explaining it - masters in their ignorance!"1 . Since God speaks in the Bible through human beings, and in a human fashion, those whowish to better understand the Bible should give careful attention to the ways in which the sacredwriters thought and expressed themselves. You should ask yourselves these important questionsthat guide most thought processes; Who? What? Where? When? Why? & How?

1. Who wrote it and who was it written to? Is there one or more than one author puttogether in the same work? Do we know for sure who wrote it? Do we know muchabout who it was written to or for?

2. What form of writing was used to convey the information? Poetry, letter, gospel, songs,sayings, etc.?

3. Where was the author writing from and where were the recipients the author was writingfor located? Was the author writing from prison or while in forced exile? What was theculture like of the recipients?

4. When was it written? What was their thought process like at that time?5. Why was it even written? As a record, defense, explanation, for worship, etc.? How was

it written? By the author or a scribe or a bunch of scribes? On stone tablets, by hand, onscrolls, etc.? Was it an oral tradition that was written down many years after it wasspoken? How well was it preserved as the monks made copies over the centuries?

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II. Modem Tools used in Understanding the Bible: Most scholars of today make use ofhistorical research, literary analysis, and the findings of archaeology, anthropology and othersciences. They seek to discover the social, economic, political and cultural settings of biblicaltimes. They are trying to discover what the ancient Bible writers had to say. These approachesare used to help each other.

1. Textural Approach: Scholars begin their work with the handicap of not having theoriginal text of any book of the Bible, All we have are copies, made years after theoriginals. The task of the textual approach is to verify as much as possible that the copieswe have are accurate reproductions of the missing originals. Through painstakingcomparison of ancient manuscripts, they try to correct errors which have crept into them.

2. Form Approach: The form approach tries to identify the literary form which the biblicalauthor used. Like the books in a library, the Bible contains various kinds of writings, andconfusion could lead to a faulty interpretation. Each literary form has its own rules forcomposition and presentation of the truth. Poetry, for example, allows greater freedom ofexpression than does history.

3. Source Approach: It is the task of the source approach to discover the origin of thematerials which the biblical authors used to tell their story. The history in the books ofKings and Chronicles is probably based upon the court records dutifully preserved by theroyal scribes. The Psalms are songs and prayers gathered by the priests and people forofficial Temple worship.

4. Redaction Approach: This approach focuses on the editing of the biblical books. Someunknown editor or editors gathered the sources, selected materials and wove them intothe biblical accounts. Sometimes the editor put similar stories back to back, as he did inthe two stories of Creation (Genesis 1:1-2:4a and 2:4b-25). Other times he wove twoaccounts of the same story together, as he did in the story of Noah and the flood (seeGenesis 6:11-13 repeats 6:5-8).

5. Historical Approach: With the help of archaeology, history and dating techniques, thehistorical approach determines the age of a document or text and verifies the informationfound in the biblical record. For example, the book of Wisdom is attributed to KingSolomon, but was probably written in Greek about 800 years after he died. The authorknew too much about Alexandria in Egypt to be Solomon.

Although it is bound under one cover and bears a single title, the Bible is not a single, unifiedbook. It is, in fact, a library. The Bible is a collection of some seventy-three different works bydifferent authors, using very different styles and perspectives, composed over a span of severalcenturies, and in three different languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek). The rich diversity of theBible is one of its glories because it allows the stories of God's people to be told from variousperspectives. Each of the Biblical authors, no matter how much separated in time, culture, andliterary style, shares a conviction that God's presence is felt in human history and that Godinvites the human family to respond with faith and integrity.The Bible was not composed just to teach science, catalog historical facts or prophesy the riseand fall of humanity. It is above all a book of faith. A group of people recognized God'spresence in their community, recorded their experiences over several centuries, and eventuallycollected and edited those traditions into the one volume we call the Bible. In betterunderstanding the Bible we come to experience more deeply the loving presence of the Lord andwhat He is trying to communicate to us.

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