08/31/2026
CATHOLIC BIBLE vs PROTESTANT BIBLE
WHY DO CATHOLIC BIBLES HAVE 73 BOOKS WHILE MOST PROTESTANT BIBLES HAVE 66?
If Catholics and Protestants both believe that the Bible is the Word of God, why do their Bibles contain different numbers of books?
Did Catholics add seven books?
Did Protestants remove them?
Or is the real story more complicated?
The answer takes us into one of the most interesting questions in Christian history: Which books belong to the canon of Sacred Scripture?
1. THE DIFFERENCE IS SMALLER THAN MANY PEOPLE THINK
When someone hears “73 books versus 66 books,” it can sound as though Catholics and Protestants have completely different Bibles.
They do not.
Catholic and Protestant Bibles both contain the same 27 books of the New Testament: the four Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the letters of St Paul and the other Apostolic letters, and Revelation. The main difference is in the Old Testament.
The Catholic Bible contains 46 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books: 73 books altogether. Most Protestant Bibles contain 39 Old Testament books and the same 27 New Testament books: 66 books altogether.
So the first thing to understand is simple:
THE NEW TESTAMENT IS THE SAME.
The main difference concerns the Old Testament canon.
2. WHAT ARE THE SEVEN BOOKS?
The seven books included in the Catholic Old Testament but not in most Protestant Bibles are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees.
Catholic Bibles also contain additional passages in Esther and Daniel.
The Catholic Church calls these the Deuterocanonical books, meaning books belonging to the canon but whose canonical status was historically disputed in some traditions. Many Protestants traditionally call these writings the Apocrypha.
The important point is that these books are not random additions to the Catholic Bible.
They belong to a much older history of Jewish and Christian Scripture, including the ancient Greek biblical tradition known as the Septuagint, and they were received and used within the life of the early Church.
3. SO WHERE DID THE DIFFERENCE COME FROM?
The Old Testament did not arrive in the ancient world as a single modern volume with one universally agreed table of contents.
There were different textual and canonical traditions, including the Hebrew Scriptures and the Greek Scriptures used widely among Jews in the ancient world.
The early Church inherited and used these Scriptural traditions. Over time, questions concerning which writings belonged to the biblical canon were discussed and discerned within the Church.
The Catholic Church eventually maintained the broader Old Testament canon that includes the Deuterocanonical books.
During the Protestant Reformation, the Reformers generally adopted the shorter Old Testament canon corresponding more closely to the Hebrew collection of books, while the Catholic Church retained its broader canon.
So the most accurate way to describe the difference is not simply:
“Catholics added seven books.”
Nor is it simply:
“Protestants removed seven books.”
The deeper historical reality is that Catholics and Protestants came to recognise different Old Testament canons.
4. DID THE CATHOLIC CHURCH INVENT THIS CANON AT THE COUNCIL OF TRENT?
This is another common misconception.
The Council of Trent did definitively reaffirm the Catholic canon in the sixteenth century, but Trent did not suddenly create seven previously unknown books.
The Catholic Church had already been using and recognising these books within its biblical and liturgical tradition for centuries.
The Catechism states that it was through Apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings belonged in the list of Sacred Scripture. The Catholic canon was also reflected in earlier Christian canonical lists and Western Church councils, including those associated with Hippo and Carthage.
Trent therefore represents an important definitive reaffirmation of the Catholic canon in the context of the Reformation; it was not the moment when the Church suddenly invented the seven books.
5. WHY DOES THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ACCEPT THESE BOOKS?
For Catholics, the answer goes deeper than simply saying, “They have always been in our Bible.”
The Church believes that Sacred Scripture was received within the living faith and Apostolic Tradition of the Church.
The Catechism teaches that “it was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books.” The Church therefore recognises the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament as inspired Sacred Scripture.
This is also why Catholics do not view Scripture as something that exists independently of the community that received, preserved and proclaimed it.
The Bible is Sacred Scripture, but the canon itself had to be recognised.
And for the Catholic Church, that discernment belongs within the life of the Church and her Apostolic Tradition.
6. WHAT WOULD THE CATHOLIC BIBLE LOSE WITHOUT THESE BOOKS?
This is where the seven books become much more than a number.
TOBIT gives us a beautiful story of faith, family, suffering, prayer and God’s providence.
JUDITH presents courage, faith and trust in God in the face of overwhelming danger.
WISDOM contains profound reflections on righteousness, death, immortality and the destiny of the just.
SIRACH offers practical wisdom concerning family, friendship, humility, speech, discipline and the fear of God.
BARUCH contains prayers of repentance, confession and hope in God’s mercy.
1 MACCABEES preserves important history surrounding the persecution of God’s people and the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple.
And 2 MACCABEES contains the famous account of prayers and sacrifices being offered for the dead, a passage particularly significant in Catholic discussions of prayer for the faithful departed.
These are not merely “seven extra books.”
They contain history, wisdom, prayer, theology and witness that form part of the Catholic understanding of Sacred Scripture.
7. SO WHICH BIBLE IS “THE REAL BIBLE”?
This is where we need to be careful.
The Catholic Church does not teach that Protestants have no Bible.
Protestant Christians possess and read the same 27 books of the New Testament and the same 39 books of the Old Testament that Catholics also recognise.
The difference is that the Catholic Church recognises a broader Old Testament canon.
Therefore, the better question is not:
“Which Bible has more books?”
The deeper question is:
“Which books belong to the canon of Sacred Scripture?”
That is a question of history, tradition and the Church’s understanding of how the canon was received.
8. 73 BOOKS. 66 BOOKS. WHAT SHOULD WE REMEMBER?
CATHOLIC BIBLE
46 Old Testament
27 New Testament
= 73 BOOKS
MOST PROTESTANT BIBLES
39 Old Testament
27 New Testament
= 66 BOOKS
THE SAME 27-BOOK NEW TESTAMENT.
THE MAIN DIFFERENCE: THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON.
And there is something even more important than the numbers.
Catholics do not believe that the Bible is merely a collection of unrelated books.
The Old Testament prepares for Christ.
The New Testament reveals Christ and proclaims the fulfilment of God’s saving plan in Him.
As the Catechism teaches, the two Testaments are united by the one divine plan of salvation: the Old prepares for the New, and the New fulfils the Old.
So when we look at 73 versus 66, we are really looking at a much deeper question about Scripture, history, Tradition and the Church.
And perhaps that is the simplest way to remember it:
73 BOOKS.
66 BOOKS.
THE SAME 27-BOOK NEW TESTAMENT.
A DIFFERENCE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON.
It is more than a question of “Who has more books?”
It is a question of which books belong to Sacred Scripture.
And for Catholics, the answer is rooted in the faith and Apostolic Tradition received and preserved by the Church.
One Sacred Scripture.
One plan of salvation.
And at the centre of it all: Jesus Christ.
SOURCES
*Sacred Scripture: Luke 24:27; Luke 24:44–45; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Maccabees 12:43–46.
*Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120–123, 128–130: the canon of Scripture and the unity of the Old and New Testaments.
*Catechism of the Catholic Church, 105–108: divine inspiration and the Church’s reception of Sacred Scripture.
*United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Questions about the Bible: Catholic and Protestant biblical canons and the Deuterocanonical books.
*Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible: the development of the Hebrew and Greek biblical traditions and the Catholic canon.
Be Prayerful. Be Inspired.
©Catholic Dailies
