THE BIBLE:
THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN
THE CATHOLIC BIBLE
AND
THE PROTESTANT BIBLE

The primary difference between the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible is to be found in the Old Testament. There are seven books found in the Catholic Old Testament that are not part of the Protestant Old Testament. They are: TOBIT, JUDITH, 1ST BOOK OF MACCABEES, 2ND BOOK OF MACCABEES, THE BOOK OF WISDOM, ECCLESIASTICUS, THE BOOK OF BARUCH and additional parts of THE BOOK OF DANIEL, and additional parts of the BOOK OF ESTHER.

There are also differences in the New Testament. The difference is not in the number of books or chapters, but in the way certain words were translated into English from the original language that they were written in. Does it matter? Yes! Consider the following verse from the New Testament:

Catholic Version: Bible: The New Jerusalem Bible

Matthew 19:9

"Now I say this to you: anyone who divorces his wife-I am not speaking of an illicit marriage-and marries another, is guilty of adultery."

Protestant Version: Bible: The New International Version

Matthew 19:9

"I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

In the Catholic version  Jesus does not say that a person can remarry if their spouse has been unfaithful.  Jesus says: "I am not speaking of an illicit marriage", which means the sin of fornication between two unmarried persons.    No where in this Bible passage does Jesus allow for remarriage in the case of adultery.  He says that once a couple officially gets married, they are not allowed to divorce and remarry, unless their spouse should die.

The Protestant Bible would seem to allow divorce in the case of marital unfaithfulness(adultery).

Another Catholic Bible, the Douay-Rheims version,  states it this way: Matthew 5: 31-32, "But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery:  and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery."

Clearly, Jesus does not allow married people to divorce and remarry.  If He did you would have chaos in families and in society as we see in the world today with people doing as they want.  They divorce and remarry and millions of children and spouses suffer because of it. If Christ had said ok you can divorce when ever you feel like it,  healthy family life for many would never have been realized.

*****

The Catholic Old Testament verses The Protestant Old Testament

Those seven books and the additional segments of the Book of Daniel and the Book of Esther, that the Catholic Old Testament has, were removed from the Old Testament by Jewish rabbis that held a synod in 100 A.D. . The Catholic Church did not go along with their decision and kept those 7 books and segments of the Book of Daniel and the Book of Esther as part of the Old Testament. When the Protestant reformers established their own version of the Bible centuries later, they adhered to the Old Testament which had been established by that Synod of Jewish rabbis in 100 A.D., and Martin Luther did not regard the 7 books and the other parts of Daniel and Esther as Scripture but as "useful and good for reading".

For more information see The Catholic Catechism by John A. Hardon S.J., Publisher: Doubleday, A division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., Copyright (c) 1975, for information on the differences between the Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible.

*****