Catholic Bible

The Catholic Bible

Handwritten Bible at Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. This Bible was written in Belgium in 1407 AD, for reading aloud in a monastery.

See here for list of the List of the Books of the Bible with abbreviations

Structure of the Catholic Bible

• 46 Old Testament books
  • Pentateuch: 5 books
    • "penta" means five
  • Historical: 16 books
    • includes the 5: BIblical Novellas
  • Wisdom: 7 books
  • Prophetic: 18 books
• 27 New Testament books
  • Gospels: 4 books
  • Acts: 1 book
  • Pauline Epistles: 14 books
    • Epistle means "letter"
  • Catholic Epistles: 7 books
  • Revelation: 1 book

Old Testament

Pentateuch

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

Historical Books

• also called "Historical Introduction

Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah

Biblical Novellas

Tobit
Judith
Esther
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees

Wisdom

Job
Psalm(s)
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs
Wisdom
Sirach

Prophets

• also called "Prophetic Books"

Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Baruch
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

New Testament

Gospels

Matthew
Mark
Luke
John

Acts

• sometimes considered part of the Gospels since Acts is essentially Part II of the Gospel of Luke
  • but was separated from the Gospels so that the Gospels would all correspond to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ
  • and Acts would tell the narrative history of the Apostolic period (life of the Apostles)

Acts of the Apostles

New Testament Letters

Pauline Epistles

Romans
1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians
Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
1 Thessalonians
2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy
2 Timothy
Titus
Philemon
Hebrews

Catholic Epistles

James
1 Peter
2 Peter
1 John
2 John
3 John
Jude

Revelation

Revelation

Deuterocanonical books & Protestant exclusions

• "deutero" = second, so "belonging to the second canon"
  • also called "biblical apocrypha"
• the Deuterocanonical books are seven books from later Old Testament writings that were accepted and studied at the time of Christ
  • they also included additions to other OT works, including a Psalm
    • but which later Jews (after 1st century AD) and, later, Protestants, disregarded
    • primarily because of their references to intercessions of the saints, prayers to the dead, purgatory, resurrection of the body and confession
  • Protestants call these books "Apocrypha" and do not consider them canonical
• the books were part of the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Old Testament), which was the most commonly used OT form during the 1st century A.D. (times of Christ)
• Martin Luther excluded the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation from his canon (list of divine scripture
  • because he claimed these books contradicted sola gratia (salvation by grace alone) and sola fide (justification by faith alone)
  • Protestant doctrines of justification and salvation are called the "five solae"
• see
  • Answering the Most Common Objection to the Deuterocanonical Books | Catholic Answers Magazine
  • The Deuterocanonical Books slide show