What Is the Catholic Bible? How Is It Different?
Short answer
The Catholic Bible contains 73 books, seven more than the 66-book Protestant Bible. Those extra books — called deuterocanonical books by Catholics and Apocrypha by Protestants — include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1–2 Maccabees, plus additions to Esther and Daniel. The difference goes back to which ancient Jewish canon each tradition followed, and it was formally settled at the Council of Trent in 1546.
Pick up a Catholic Bible and a Protestant Bible side by side, and you will notice something right away: the Catholic one is longer. That difference confuses a lot of readers who assume every Christian Bible contains exactly the same books.
It doesn’t — and the reason has less to do with anyone adding or removing Scripture recently and more to do with an ancient question about which Jewish canon the earliest Christians were actually using. This page explains exactly which books differ, why the difference exists, and how the Catholic Church settled the question centuries ago.
The extra books, explained
The Catholic Old Testament includes seven books not found in Protestant Bibles: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom (of Solomon), Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees, along with longer versions of Esther and Daniel that include additional material. These are called deuterocanonical books, meaning “second canon” — a description of when their status was formally settled, not a claim that they carry lesser authority. Their content ranges from wisdom literature to the history of Jewish resistance under persecution, and 2 Maccabees 12 is the passage the Catholic Church points to as biblical support for praying for the dead.
Why the difference exists
The Catholic Old Testament follows the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was widely used by Jews of the diaspora and quoted often by New Testament writers, and which included these additional books. The Protestant Old Testament instead follows the Hebrew Masoretic canon that Jewish scholars finalized in the centuries after Christ, which excluded them.
Even Jerome, translating the Latin Vulgate in the 4th century, had reservations about the deuterocanonical books’ full authority, though he included them. The 16th-century Reformers, led by Martin Luther, ultimately removed them from the Protestant canon, though early Protestant Bibles often still printed them in a separate “Apocrypha” section for historical reading rather than doctrine.
The Council of Trent’s decision
In direct response to the challenges of the Reformation, the Catholic Church’s Council of Trent formally and definitively affirmed the 73-book canon in 1546, declaring the deuterocanonical books fully inspired Scripture on equal footing with the rest of the Old Testament. This settled, for Catholics, a question that had been debated informally for centuries.
New Testament and translations
The New Testament is identical, all 27 books, across Catholic and Protestant Bibles — every canon difference lies entirely in the Old Testament. Popular Catholic English translations include the New American Bible (NAB), the Douay-Rheims, and the RSV Catholic Edition (RSV-CE). This fuller canon is also why some Catholic devotional content, including prayers for souls in purgatory on this site, draws directly on passages like 2 Maccabees 12 that Protestant Bibles simply do not contain.
Key Bible verses
- “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” — 2 Timothy 3:16
- “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” (Catholic/Orthodox canon) — 2 Maccabees 12:46
- “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.” (Catholic/Orthodox canon) — Wisdom 3:1
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Catholic Bible?
The Catholic Bible has 73 books — 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament — compared to the 66-book Protestant Bible, which has 39 Old Testament books.
What are the extra books in the Catholic Bible called?
They’re called deuterocanonical books by Catholics (meaning “second canon,” not lesser authority) and Apocrypha by Protestants. They include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1–2 Maccabees.
Why did Protestants remove these books?
The 16th-century Reformers followed the later Jewish Masoretic canon rather than the Greek Septuagint the early church used, and rejected the extra books’ full doctrinal authority, though early Protestant Bibles often still printed them for historical reading.
Is the New Testament different between Catholic and Protestant Bibles?
No. Both share the same 27 New Testament books. All the canon differences are in the Old Testament.