| What
extra books are found in the Roman Catholic Bible? |
Comments on the Deuterocanonical
Books
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If
you are considering
becoming a Roman Catholic, you will have to accept the following
books as being part of the Inspired Word of God. These books,
in
the view of Roman Catholicism, are just as much Scripture as
are
the books of Genesis, Isaiah,
the Gospel of John, the Book of Acts, or the Book of Romans. You will
need to study these books, meditate on these books, listen to sermons
on these books, do your own personal Bible study in these books, pray
from these books, and obey the principles found in these
books.
These books include:
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What
statements can be made as
to the authenticity or inauthenticity of the Deuterocanoncal books
found in the Roman Catholic Bible? First,
although each of these books appears in the Greek Septuagint
(LXX), none of them have ever appeared in the Hebrew Bible (Masoretic
Text).
Second,
Jesus did not include any of the Deuterocanonical books in His canon of
Scripture, for He
referenced the same order of books as as they appear in the Hebrew
Bible, not the order found in the LXX
(Matt.
23:35; Luke 11:51). A fixed Hebrew canon existed long before
Jesus' day. Third,
most of these books were written initially in Greek, and cannot have
been part of the Hebrew canon of Scripture. Fourth, though the
NT alludes
frequently to Deuterocanonical books, never once does the NT call them
Scripture. |
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Tobit is not found in the Hebrew
Bible. According to the Introduction
Tobit was written by an unknown author, probably in the 2nd Century
B.C. The "inspired author" used the literary form of religious
novel. The Introduction assigns the same
status
to the book of Judith, and incidentally, to the book of Jonah. Tobith
was found in Qumran in four scrolls written in Aramaic and in one
scroll written in Hebrew. |
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Judith is not found in the
Hebrew Bible. There is no extant copy of the Hebrew original. The
earliest copy we have was written in Greek and appeared in the LXX..
It was written by an unknown author in the late 2nd Century or early
1st Century B.C. Jerome did not initially consider it canonical,
although he later included it in the Vulgate. |
Additions to Esther.
It should be noted with regard to the book of Esther as a whole, that
the RC
Church does not view Esther as a historical document. " The
solution to the difficulties of the book is to be found in its literary
presentation rather than in a forced attempt to square detailed data of
the narrative with facts."
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The
additions to Esther are not found
in the Hebrew Bible. According to the RC Church, Esther was likely
written toward the close of the 4th Century B.C. The
additions to Esther all appear in Greek, not Hebrew, which
precludes their authenticity. |
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1
Maccabees is not found in the Hebrew
Bible. According to the Preface
of the New American Bible, "The lost original Hebrew
text of 1 Maccabees is replaced by its oldest extant form in Greek."
According to the Introduction,
"the Greek translation [is] full of Hebrew idioms." 1 Maccabees was
written about 100 B.C. |
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2 Maccabees does not appear in
the Hebrew Bible. |
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The Book of Wisdom does not
appear in the Hebrew Bible. |
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Sirach does not appear in the
Hebrew Bible. |
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Baruch does not appear in the
Hebrew Bible. |
Additions to Daniel: With
regard to the Book of Daniel itself, the RC Church takes the liberal
view of denying that Daniel wrote the book. Instead it proclaims that
the book was actually
composed by an anonymous author under the reign of Antiochus IV
Epiphanes between 167 and 164 B.C.
That view completely invalidates the predictive element of most of the
book of Daniel, making it prophecy written after the fact. This is a
disservice to God and to His ability to predict the future in writing.
It illustrates an antisupernatural
bias found elsewhere in footnotes in other Bible books, particularly in
the early chapters of Genesis and also in its discussion of the plagues
of Exodus.
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The
Additions to Daniel were written
in Greek and do not appear in the Hebrew Bible. They cannot,
therefore, have been an authentic part of the Hebrew Book of Daniel. |
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