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Protestants have 66 books in their bible. Why do Catholics have 73 books? 

 

Recently, Fr. J Friedel, Pastor of Our Lady of the Lake in Branson and Our Lady of the Ozarks in Forsyth, reflected on the Book of Wisdom in his Sunday homily.  He gave a little background on how the “Wisdom literature” in the bible came about.   He shared that these books are listed separately because they are “Deuterocanonical” meaning that they are the “second canon” list of sacred writings.  They were added later to the canon to the Old Testament by both the Jews (in Greek Alexandria) and the early Christian Church. 

 

After Mass I was asked by a parishioner why protestant religions reject the Book of Wisdom and other Old Testament books (seven in total) from their bible.  Here is my attempt at a semi-short answer. 

 

Since the early days of Christianity there have been 73 books for the bible that are believed to be divinely inspired.  It was around 367 AD that St. Athanasius comprised a list of 73 books. After some lengthy debate, this list was approved by Pope Damasus I in 382 AD and was formally approved by the Church Council of Rome in that same year. Later Councils at Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397 AD) ratified this list of 73 books. The Council of Trent, in 1546, in response to the Reformation removing 7 books from the canon (canon is a Greek word meaning “standard”), reaffirmed the original St. Athanasius list of 73 books. 

 

It was during the Protestant Reformation (early 1500s) that Martin Luther challenged the validity of some of the books on being divinely inspired.  Luther claimed they did not fit God’s message of salvation men.  He disagreed with praying for the deal that is mentioned in Maccabees. He argued that the Catholic Church had no right to decide matters of scripture canonicity. (Completely ignoring the fact that he had awarded himself that very right.)  Luther held that the internal worth of a book was the chief factor in deciding if it should be kept or not. 

 

To help justify this rejection of these seven books that had been in the Bible since before the days of the apostles, Luther and the early Protestants cited as their chief reason the fact that the Jews of their day did not honor these books, dating back to the Jewish Council of Javneh in 90 AD.  But the Reformers were only aware of European Jews; they were unaware of African Jews, such as the Ethiopian Jews who accept the deuterocanonical books as part of their bible.  The Reformers ignored the fact that there were multiple canons of the Jewish Scriptures circulating in first century, appealing to a post-Christian Jewish council. In short, they went to enormous lengths to rationalize their rejection of these books – ignoring the fact that Jesus referenced these books in his preaching. 

 

Another argument to support the 73 canonical books is the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (believed to have been written between 150 BC and 70 AD). These scrolls included the book of Tobit and the book of Sirach, proving that the people back then thought them canonical, because they were found with the book of Isaiah and other Old Testament books. 

 

At the end of the day, it seems a little silly to argue whether or not the inspired Word of God consists of 73 books or 66 books.  All 73 books provide sound teaching and reflection. Personally, I would be okay if the Church had limited the canon to just 66 books (less reading).  But then again, we may not be inspired to pray for our dead, the souls in purgatory --- and may perpetual light shine unto them. Amen. 



Author Bio:
Deacon Dan Vaughn