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Catholic Forum: The Bible canon-73 books or 66 books?

Michie

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So why does the Catholic Bible have 73 books, while the Protestant Bible has only 66 books? Some Protestants believe that the Catholic Church added 7 books to the Bible at the Council of Trent in response to Luther's Reformation, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Continued below.
The Bible Canon – 73 Books or 66 Books? - Catholic Stand
 

Glaucus

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No, it’s not.
You've mistaken. The argument is always Catholic canon or Protestant canon. There are other options as in, there are other canons too. 81 in the Ethiopian Church, too, for example.
 
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Michie

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81 in the Ethiopian Church? I had no idea. Why so many?
You've mistaken. The argument is always Catholic canon or Protestant canon. There are other options as in, there are other canons too. 81 in the Ethiopian Church, too, for example.
 
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BibleCanon

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The Council of Trent did not "add" any books to the canon - you can see the Deuterocanonical books in use in antiquity all the way back to the early centuries of Christianity. This is not an opinion, it is a factual statement. Here are examples of a few canon lists which observed books within the deuterocanon/"apocrypha":

  • Muratorian Fragment (170 AD): Wisdom of Solomon
  • List within the Codex Claromontanus (~300-350 AD): Wisdom, Sirach, 1-2 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees (not in RC or EO canons), Judith, Tobit
  • Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechesis 4 (~350 AD): Baruch, Epistle of Jeremiah, additions to Daniel
  • The Cheltenham/Mommsen List (~360 AD): Judith, Tobit, 1-2 Maccabees and although Wisdom and Sirach aren't explicitly named, the stichometric values suggest that these were included as well
  • Synod of Laodicea (~363 AD): Baruch, Epistle of Jeremiah
  • etc... many more ancient lists which include these books
Even one of the most cited list, Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter in 367 which was the first time that the New Testament Books in Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Canons appeared in their exact form, even this one includes the OT books of Baruch, Jeremiah's Epistle and possibly ending of Daniel. Athanasius also suggested that some of the remaining books of Wisdom, Sirach, Judith, Tobit, should be read even though they're not received as canonical necessarily.

Luther himself also agreed with Athanasius, having included the Deuterocanon in the Luther Bible. Please let no one say that the Council of Trent "added" books, this is clearly not factual.
 
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Mark_Sam

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When talking to Protestants, I always make sure not to say "The Catholic canon has seven more books," but rather "The Protestant canon has seven fewer books." It actually makes a difference how you phrase it.

Also, it is a little tedious, but it is worth pointing out that the Protestant Bible didn't really exist before the Protestant Reformation. Until said reformation, there were two sets of Old Testament (in the West):
*The 46 books, in the following order: five Books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four Books of Kings (or two Books of Samuel and two Books of Kings), two Books of Chronicles, two Books of Ezra (Ezra and Nehemiah), Tobith, Judith, Esther, Job, the Book of Psalms, four Books of Solomon (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom), Sirach, Isaiah, Jeremaiah, Lamentations, Baruch (with the Letter of Jeremiah), Ezekiel, Daniel, the Twelve Books of the Minor Prophets, and two Books of the Maccabees. This is how it is in the Septuagint and the Vulgate, and was used by the Christian West.

*The 24 books, in the following order: The Torah, that is the Five Books of Moses; Eight Books of the Prophets, these are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Prophets; and Eleven Books of the Writings, these are Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song og Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra (i.e. Ezra and Nehemiah) and Chronicles. This is how it is in the Hebrew Scriptures, and was used by the Jews.

So the modern Protestant canon is a chimera: it uses the Hebrew Scriptures only, but with the Greek/Latin division and order of the books. Does it matter? Probably not. But when the canon is given, the order is always fixed. So the Reformation wasn't a true return to Hebrew orthodoxy. It effectively made its own canon. Again, it's not a major point, but it is just one of many things showing that the Reformation wasn't a return "the the sources" (ad fontes), but its own thing with its own new ideas.
 
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