Hi OTWOMD. My name is Rachel from the Archdiocese of Dubuque in Iowa. I stumbled upon your blog through a friend and she said you respond to queries about faith and everything catholic. I just want to shed some light about something confusing. During one of our bible studies in our youth group, the facilitator asked us to find a certain passage in Esther. When I looked up my Bible which I just recently bought in a nearby Christian Store, I noticed that the passage I was looking for is not in the Bible. My friend’s Bible has it and so does my other group mates, except mine. A friend told me that maybe my Bible is not Catholic. My Bible is a King James version. Now I’m confused. Isn’t all Bible the same and has similar contents? Is there really such a thing as a Catholic Bible? Thank you so much and I hope you would respond. I do not know this stuff maybe you clear it out for me. (sent September 21, 2010 1;45 am)

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Dear Rachel,

First of all thank you for trusting me with your question. I am not an expert in Scripture but what I will share to you is in the best of my knowledge. I am not actually confident in answering questions which demand greater clarity and accountability since I have this fear that I may give you a wrong answer but I will I try my best according to what i only know.

The Bible literaly means “Two Books”. Obviously, these two books is in reference to the Old Testamnet and the New Testament. Under these two main divisions of the Bible are separate books like Genesis, Exodus, Judges, Matthew, john etc.

Now all Bibles are NOT THE SAME. Your friend is right when she said that maybe your Bible is not a Catholic Bible.

Originally, there is no such thing as catholic Bible. The term was only used in order to delineate what Bible is used in the Catholic Church and what is not.

In order to understand this, let us go back to the pre-christian history.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Jewish religion even before Christ came has only Old Testament as their Bible. In this Jewish Old Testament Bible, the Jews excluded several books which they believed is not from God. These books are:

• Tobias
• Judith
• Wisdom
• Ecclesiasticus
• Baruch
• 1 & 2 Machabees
• and some parts of Esther (10:14 to 16:14) and Daniel (3:24- 90; 13; 14).

But these books where studied by the early Christians after Christ’s Ascension and found that they are consistent with what has Christ taught them. They came into the hands of the early christians because these books where included in what we call the “Septuagint” or the Greek Old Testament. During Christ’s time, Greek Speaking Jews are considered second class citizens. They are looked down upon by the Jews who are Hebrews. Even before, racial and religious discrimination already existed. And because the Septuagint is written and translated in Greek and not in Hebrew just like the Jewish Old Testament, the Jews did not accept them in the Canon of the Bible just for the mere reason of Language difference. Not only that, Jews during those times always associate everything Greek to Paganism that is why a Greek translation of the Old Testament was vehemently opposed by the Jews. A greek OT at that time is “something new” and everything new that comes in the Jews were either rejected or met with criticism. That is why you can just imagine how the Pharisees reacted when they found out that there is a greek translation of the Laws of Moses. They probably considered the Septuagint as a Blasphemy.

But the Early Christians which is now the Catholic Church does not think that way. In Christ’s teaching, the Gentiles will contribute so much in the spread of Christianity. That’s why these books of the Septuagint were studied critically and found that they were truly inspired by the Holy Spirit (as all books in the Bible are) even if they are in Greek and is consistent with the Teachings of Christ that is passed on from generations to generations until our present time.

The OT in Hebrew is called the First Canon of the OT or first collection. The Septuagint is called the Second Canon or Second Collection.

Now the Protestants led by Luther of the 16th century made this matter worst and confusing. When Luther and his followers bolted out of the Catholic Church, they objected to the Second canon or the Septuagint because of doctrinal teachings which to them is not compatible with their protest.

In 2nd Book of the Maccabees (12:39-46), for example, it contains the Catholic doctrine of purgatory and prayer and sacrifices for the dead. Luther’s primary protest at that time were about indulgences to escape purgatory. So it is understandable they they would really oppose to the inclusion of these books. The Protestants adapted the First canon or the Hebrew Old Testament Collection in 1517 and placed the seven books at the end of the Bible as an appendix and labeled them as “Apocryphal Books”.

Because of this, they lowered the rank of the seven books as a mere addendum rather than Major Books of the Old Testament. The Aprocryphal books became known through the efforts of the protestants but the Catholic Church, in order to correct this error, named the Seven books as “Deuterocanonicals” which in Greek literaly means ‘belonging to the second canon’.

The Catholic Church has always considered these books as inspired and of the same rank as the other Old Testament books. As what I have mentioned above, the Church studied and scrutinized these Deuterocanonicals in the Septuagint thoroughly and considered their inclusion in the Bible based on the following facts:

• The New Testament and the Apostles of Christ mentions these books of the Septuagint. Out of the 350 quotations found in the New testament, 300 of these were taken directly from the Septuagint.

• The New Testament writers including Saint Paul used the Deuterocanonicals specifically the Book of Wisdom in which it seems that he used this book most frequently. The Epistle of James in the NT shows direct relationship and acquaintance with the Book of Ecclesiasticus.

• The Seven Books or the Deuterocanonicals were acepted by the Catholic Church from the very beginning, proof of this is the usage of Pope Clement and and the early Christian writers during the 1st Century of the passages from Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom to analyze the book of Judith and quotations from the Book of Esther.

• The oldest Christian Bibles in existence included the Seven Books in the Old Testament just like we see in our Catholic Bibles today. Thus, proving that the Catholic Church has been using the Seven Books ever since.

• The Oldest Christian lists of Biblical books included the Seven Books as what Pope Damasus issued as a formal list of OT and NT books in the Roman Council

• The Passages and Chapters of the Deuterocanonicals or the Seven Books were illustrated in various Christian catacombs and cemeteries from the 1st century up to the 4th century which includes Tobias with the fish (Tobias 6), Susanna (Daniel 13), Daniel and the dragon (Daniel 14), the angel with the Hannaniah, Azariah and Mishael in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:49), Habakkuk and Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 14:35).

So you see, the Catholic Church does not just include or exclude Books in the Bible out of whim unlike what the Jews and Protestants did. The Catholic Church for centuries have brilliant biblical scholars and exegists who studies ancient texts of the Bible and devout their life in thei field. It is fitting to say that the Catholic Church has the Sole Authority in declaring which Books in the Bible are inspired or Apocryphal, defintely, the seven books which are not included in the Protestant Bibles are inspired contrary to what they claim and would like to belive.

And talking about Apocryphal Books, the Cathol;ic Church considers books that are Apocryphal if they were not inspired. So if you happen to hear a Biblical Scripture not inluded in Bible such as the Gospel of Judas or the Book of Eve, these are are the true apocryphal books which contains teachings that are contrary to what Christ taught the Apostles.

So if you hear the word “Apocrypha”, in Catholic parlance, it refers to the Books not included in the Bible and NOT the Seven Books which the Protestants call as such.

CATHOLIC VS. PROTESTANT BIBLE

Aside from the seven books which is found on the Bible and rejected by Luther during the reformations, there are also many passages which Luther and the Protestant changed in order to favor their whims. Such in the case of the Epistle of Saint James wherein Luther was hostile to it since it mentions the “doctrine of necessity of good works”. Luther called it as an “epistle of Straw” because according to him and his protestant reform, Sola Fide or Faith Only can save man. So basically, Luther is saying, it doesnt matter if you dont do good works or be a good samaritan to your neighbor, as long as you have faith you will be saved. This is a classic example of Luther censoring the Bible to favor his proposterous doctrines out of anger against the Catholic Church. The following examples are the passages which the Protestant deliberately changed:

• In the passage from I Corinthians 11:27, “Whosoever shall eat this bread OR drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord,” the Authorized Version (AV) of King James replaced “or” by “and.” Inspired by doctrinal and anti-Catholic bias, the editors purposely changed the text in order to remove the argument for communion under one kind. Today all Scriptural scholars agree that “OR drink the chalice” is the correct reading.

• A further deliberate change in the interest of the Protestant doctrine on original sin is introduced into several passages. The Reformers, as we know, maintained that human nature was essentially corrupted by the 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 cannot contain, let them marry.”

• The same Authorized Version changes “do not” to “cannot do” in Galatians 5:17: “For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary to one another, so that you do not the things that you would.”

• To the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:13, the Authorized Version adds the doxology or the long ending: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” The Revised Version, however, as well as all critical editions, omit this doxology – and correctly so. The doxology is not a part of the Lord’s Prayer. It is not found in St. Luke’s version of the Our Father.

• In St. Matthew’s Gospel, the intimate connection between verses 13 and 14 shows that the original text had no clause between the two verses. The long ending is not found in two of the oldest extant Bibles – namely, the codex Sinaiticus and the codex Vaticanus. In the course of time, however, the doxology began to appear on the margin or was written in the text with red ink, until finally in some later manuscripts it becomes a part of the Bible. According to the almost unanimous opinion of scholars the doxology is an interpolation which worked its way into some Bibles from the early Christian liturgy.

The King James Version (AV) also adopted the Protestant form of the Gloria in excelsis Deo in Luke 2:14. Before considering the intrinsic merits of this reading,

AV – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”

RV and SV – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom He is well pleased.”

RD – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.”

HOW TO DISTINGUISH A CATHOLIC BIBLE FROM OTHERS

So how would you know if your Bible is a Catholc Bible or Not? There are two ways:

1. Look for the Deuterocanonicals (a.k.a. the Seven Books of the Septuagint) in the index of the Bible. If it is included then you are assured that your Bible is Catholic. Some Catholic Bible also inludes in the cover the label “With Deuterocanonicals” to distinguish it from the Protestant Bible.

2. Know the Authorized Catholic English Translation of the Bible. These are:

• Douay Rheims - This is the oldest English translation available and is frequently compared with the King James version because of its use of “Thee”, “Thou” and other older forms of words. This translation is considered highly accurate but can be more difficult to read for some people.

• Revised Standard (RSV) – This was a joint translation project between American Protestants and Catholics with the Catholic Church completing the translation of the Apocrypha. This translation is considered the most accurate modern translation but still contains “Thee” and “Thou” when referring to God. This translation along with the New American Bible was approved for liturgical use in the United States.

• Revised Standard 2nd Edition – This version is almost identical to the regular Revised Standard but updates the language by getting rid of “Thee” and “Thou”.

• New American Bible (NAB) – This version is the most common American translation. It was written for an eighth grade reading level and contains the most “modern” language of the primary Catholic translations. The New American Bible is available in more versions than any other Catholic Bible.

• Jerusalem Bible – The Jerusalem Bible, completed in 1966, is very similar to the Revised Standard Version 2nd edition in that it is a modern English language translation. It was produced under the direction of the Dominican scholars at the reknowned Ecole Biblique de Jerusalem.

So next time, when you purchase a Bible, make sure its complete with the Seven Books.

The Word of God that is either censored or changed is not inpired by the Holy Spirit but by Man’s whim and arrogance.

Peace and All Good,