Many teachings of the Catholic faith came from Sacred Tradition or Oral Tradition, it was passed down through words of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Apostles, to the church fathers and the next generations with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The other one came from Sacred Scriptures, which we all know as the Holy Bible.
It is a compilation of sacred scriptures that contain events and teachings. The Bible is derived from the Greek and Latin word ‘Biblia’, which means ‘book’. It contains two major sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Holy Bible was compiled by the Catholic Church. The compilation began in the Council of Rome led by Pope St. Damasus I where he listed the Old Testament Scriptures and St. Athanasius of Alexandria’s list of New Testament Scriptures. During the Council of Rome in 382 A.D., he made the Holy Bible Canonical The original scriptures were written in Greek, when the Pope commissioned St. Jerome to translate into Latin, which resulted in the creation of the Vulgate Bible.
There are 46 Books.
The term ‘Old Testament’ was coined by St. Melito, the bishop of Sardis. He refers to it as the Old Covenant because God’s faithful followed the Jewish Law.
There are 27 books.
Christians are guided by Christ’s teachings and examples because He is the new covenant. After our Lord’s ascension, the New Testament was written from the Gospels of the four Evangelist and the apostles which can be found in their Acts and Epistles (letters).
There are different versions and some are for vernacular languages, but the popular version is the English which is the most used language in the world. Catholics must use the version that was approved by the church. During the Protestant reformation, made their own versions of the Bible, such as the King James Bible. There are individuals who use mistranslations to demonstrate their beliefs that contradict Catholic teachings.
There are 73 books in the Catholic Bible, 46 from the Old Testament and 27 from the New Testament. While the Protestant Bible has 66 books, 39 from the Old Testament and 27 from the New Testament.
Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, eliminated seven books from the Old Testament because of his belief in their lack of historical accuracy and theological value. These books are called ‘Apocrypha’ or ‘Deuterocanonical’. The main reason for his removal of these seven books is that they contradict his beliefs. Such as the Book of Maccabees, which contains prayers for the dead, which he did not believe in. He also considered removing the Epistle of St. James because it contradicts his belief in ‘Faith Alone’ but his followers opposed it.
“For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead”
[James 2:17-26]
Protestant Bibles are usually modified with the translation of the verses. Thus, changing the original form it was written. This is the reason why some Protestant Bibles are thinner than Catholics.
No. The scriptures were divided into Chapters during the 13th century by Cardinal Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury. Robert Estienne, a Protestant layman, divided it into verses during the 16th century.
Yes. One example is Purgatory. Although its name cannot be found, a reference to it was written. From Isaias 4:4, 1 Corinthians 3:15, and Revelation 21:27.
We should use the versions of the Bible that were approved by the Catholic Church.
You can search it on the internet or you can simply open the Bible and search for the books that were removed by the Protestants such as Tobit and Maccabees. The presence of these books indicates that it is likely Catholic. But we recommended using the Douay-Rheims because it is widely used by the clergy, including in the readings of the Holy Mass.
Also read this article for more information: https://sanhedrin.net/2021/11/the-holy-bible/
