# Bible - Catholic and Protestant **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 12, 2003, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-catholic-and-protestant/194602 "2003-08-12T07:27:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Homer\_J.Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a698b9/32.png) [@Homer\_J.Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer_J.Simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-catholic-and-protestant/194602/1 "2003-08-12T07:27:24Z")
This might belong in General Questions, so please move this if it doesn’t belong here. Which official Catholic declarations name the books of the New Testament? Are there official declarations from Protestant Churches, too? What are they? ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-catholic-and-protestant/194602/2 "2003-08-12T08:04:51Z")
In the spirit of GQ - I refer you to Part 5 of the excellent [Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbible5.html) by **Eutychus** and **Dex**. As for GD… the thread continues… Grim ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-catholic-and-protestant/194602/3 "2003-08-12T13:13:35Z")
It’s been done a couple of times in the context of GD, as well – don’t have links at my fingertips, and svchost.exe just went up as I opened this thread, so pasting in a link would be impossible for me right now anyway. Note that Orthodox and Anglican (and Methodist) definitions on the Old Testament vary from either Catholic or mainstream Protestant, as well. And the Copts may add in another book yet beyond that. But AFAIK everyone (well, everyone Christian) is agreed on the same 27 books for the New Testament. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-catholic-and-protestant/194602/4 "2003-08-12T15:14:16Z")
For an early 20th century Catholic perspective, the 1907-1919 Catholic Encyclopedia provides discussions of the [Canon of the Old Testament](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03267a.htm) and the [Canon of the New Testament](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03274a.htm) Basically, while the canon was shaped by discussion for many years, the Councils of Hippo (393), Carthage (393), Carthage (397), and Carthage (419) all produced identical lists of scripture and the Catholic Church has not made any changes since that time. The Orthodox and Protestant histories are noted in the two preceding articles, but they are presented from the militantly Catholic and less nuanced pre-Vatican II perspective (and are certainly not from an Orthodox or Protestant perspective). While Martin Luther considered removing a few of the New Testament books (_Revelation_, _Letter of James_, _Letter of Jude_, (others?)), he was prevailed upon by his associates to leave them alone and there is no difference between the Protestant and Catholic New Testaments. Similarly, among the Orthodox, there were a few individual voices raised against _Revelation_ and/or the _Letter to the Hebrews_ as late as the ninth century, but I have never seen any evidence that the NT canon of the Orthodox church has ever differed from the canon of the Catholic church. I am not sure what declarations either the Orthodox or the Protestants may have made regarding the NT canon. Most of the disputes regarding the canon have revolved about the Old Testament (as noted in most of the following links). Regarding the texts that are included in the Apocrypha, the **GQ** thread [Christian Bible - KJV and apocrypha](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=138944) gave a fairly polite accounting. The **GD** thread [about the different versions of the bible](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=158124) had a decent review of both English translations and original source texts (interrupted by a few rancorous hijacks). In **GQ** , there have been several threads (some of them providing information to “flesh out” the discussions rather than answering your specific question). Presented oldest first: [Which is the most authentic version of the bible?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37424) [The origins of the Bible](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83686) (Predates the SDStaff report on the subject. Includes references to the creation of the Jewish Canon.) The silly thread, [Dead sea rolls](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=116187), points to some other threads and sites with information. [Who uses the Apocrypha?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125300) ---
**Author:** ![Homer\_J.Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a698b9/32.png) [@Homer\_J.Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer_J.Simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-catholic-and-protestant/194602/5 "2003-08-12T20:51:29Z")
Thanks, Tom. I looked through a lot of the stuff and found answer to most of my questions. However, have any of the Protestant churches considred including books that were rejected by the Catholic Church? I saw references to considering removing books, but not adding books. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bible-catholic-and-protestant/194602/6 "2003-08-13T02:20:57Z")
I doubt that anyone would ever try to add to their canons. Most of the stuff that has been rejected has already failed on the points of either being too recent (non Apostolic) or containing ideas that were not consistent with the theology of the church. The only way to introduce something new would be to find a work that was actually written by an apostle–and how would you prove the provenance of a work dated to the first century? (Irving Wallace tried this stunt in one of his overblown potboilers, The Word, but the odds against it happening are greater than the odds of him writing a good book (and even in his book it was a fake).)