Answer
Wiki User
11/16/2010
Roman Catholic Answer
The Catholic Church uses the Bible as determined, in antiquity, by the Sacred Ecumenical Counsels of the Church and again enumerated at the Council of Trent. Those who formented the protestant revolt threw out all the books of the Deutero-Canon which had been in the Scriptures that Our Blessed Lord, Himself, used.from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994
IV. The Canon of Scripture
120. It was by the apostolic Tradition that the church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. (Cf. Dei Verbum 8
Wiki User
11/16/2010
Roman Catholic Answer
The Catholic Church uses the Bible as determined, in antiquity, by the Sacred Ecumenical Counsels of the Church and again enumerated at the Council of Trent. Those who formented the protestant revolt threw out all the books of the Deutero-Canon which had been in the Scriptures that Our Blessed Lord, Himself, used.from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994
IV. The Canon of Scripture
120. It was by the apostolic Tradition that the church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. (Cf. Dei Verbum 8§ 3) This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New. (Cf. Denzinger-Schonmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum {1965})
The Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Ester, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hose4a, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
The New Testament: the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of St. Paul to the Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, and Jude, and Revelation (the Apocalypse).
101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressing the words of men, are in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men." (Dei Verbum 63)
103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerate the Lord's Body. She never cease to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body. (Cf. Dei Verbum 21)
107 The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures." (Dei Verbum 11) {emphasis mine}
108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book." Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living." (St. Bernard, S. Missus est hom. 4,11; J.P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latinia {Paris: 1841-1855} 183, 86) If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures." (Cf. Lk 24:45)