Why are there more Old Testament Books in the Catholic Bible than in the Protestant Bible?

Answer 1

. Catholic Answer

Because when Martin Luther, may he rest in peace, left the Catholic Church to found his own religion, he had nothing to found it on as Our Blessed Lord founded the Catholic Church, and said that there would only be ONE Church, and that He would be with it until the end of the world. Having nowhere to turn to justify himself, he decided to base a religion solely on the Bible, neglecting to mention to people that the Catholic Church had written the New Testament in the first two centuries, decided which books would comprise it, in the fourth and fifth centuries, and managed to preserve it for fifteen centuries. So, Martin Luther made up his own Bible by throwing books out of the Bible that supported the Church's teachings. Other protestants objected at him throwing books out of the New Testament, but they have been unable to explain how you can be saved by "faith alone" when the only time those two words appear together in the New Testament is in the letter of St. James with that troublesome word NOT in front of them (M. Luther wanted to throw out St. James as well, surprised?) St. James 2:24 "Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only. There are dozens of examples in both the New and Old Testaments, is it any wonder the protestants threw those books out of the Bible? The Catholic "canon" of the Old Testament is taken from the Septuagint, the Bible used by Our Blessed Lord, and translated into Greek in the third century B.C. and used by most Jews for four centuries.

Answer 2

During the Protestant Reformation (Martin Luther is widely credited with starting this) many parts of Catholicism were removed in an effort to go back to Biblical Christianity without the traditions of the intervening centuries. The books mentioned were either believed to be apocryphal or non-authoritative for various reasons.

Answer 3

When the early Christians split from mainstream Judaism, the Hebrew canon had not yet been established. With considerable ill-feeling between Christians and Jews, the Church was unable to establish what books were regarded as inspired in the Jewish faith. The eastern patriarchs selected books they believed to be inspired, while the church in Rome selected a slightly different canon - all without knowing exactly which books had become part of the Jewish canon.

Until the Protestant Reformation, the Christian Church saw no reason to formally define the books of the Old Testament, relying on tradition, the Pope, and the Council of Rome (A.D. 382) which did formally define the Canon. The Reformation brought about debate as to exactly what books must be included. Most modern Protestants, and Protestant churches historically, accept the same thirty nine books as are now in the Hebrew scriptures. The Roman Catholic includes seven more books, reaffirming this by sixteenth century Council of Trent, in response to Protestant arguments.