why does the Catholic Bible have more
books than other Bibles we'll talk about
that today
[Music]
it's possible that you went to a wedding
one time and of a Catholic friend and
we're there and then you all of a sudden
heard or reading from a book that you're
like it's that book in the Bible because
I don't remember it maybe the book of
Tobit which has a great reading that's
used at a lot of different Catholic
weddings and you can ask yourself and
maybe do a little research and realize
that the Catholic Old Testament has
seven books more than what we'd call the
Protestant Old Testament and so you can
see why what's what's the difference why
are those books there and why aren't
they in the Protestant version as well
and why the Catholic Church add them
well the question really should be is
why did the protestant church take those
books out because that really began
those books were in the Old Testament
throughout the whole history of
Christianity the early days of the
church up through the Middle Ages
and Martin Luther during the Reformation
decided to remove those seven books he
had different reasons for doing that one
is that the Jewish rabbis no longer had
those and many copies of the Old
Testament and other reasons too was that
some of the things that were brought
forward in these seven books were
doctrines that Luther didn't really
agree with like praying for the dead
which happens in the second book of
Maccabees so the books that are in the
Catholic Old Testament that I've been
removed from the Protestant Old
Testament are Tobit Judith wisdoms serac
Baruch and first and second Maccabees
now if you look at those books that a
lot of times those books were books that
were part of the Jewish Diaspora meaning
they were written in Greek and they had
to do with Jews in exile so there was
always some suspicion when Jewish rabbis
began compiling their versions and there
were many different versions of what we
would call the Old Testament a lot of
times books that were written in Greek
were viewed with some suspicion but
during the time of Jesus all these books
were in use by rabbis were in use by by
Jewish believers in and around the time
of Jesus so I just want to say a
recommendation to you that the church
believes and has believed for believed
especially the first 1500 years but the
Catholic Church continues to believe
that these books are the inspired Word
of God they are part of the Old
Testament canon if you haven't checked
them out before I really recommend that
you do the book of Tobit is an
incredible
venture story has some incredible
insights about love and marriage and
family the book of wisdom of course has
great insights for how we are called to
live the book of Sirach as well and then
first and second Maccabees to me are
basically the brave heart of the Bible
to tell tell about the Maccabean revolt
in the centuries before Jesus against
the oppressors of the people of Israel
and how God's people were called to be
faithful to him even when it meant &
Pasta them their very lives
so these extra books are not actually
extra they are part of the Old Testament
that we have received that's part of our
history and part of our patrimony that
helps us to become the people that God
has created us to be