Topic summary

Catholic Bible

Catholic Bible

Catholic Church canon of Bible books The prologue of the Gospel of John, Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, 1922 edition A Catholic Bible is a Christian Bible whose revision, translation or version was produced by Catholics and reflects a Catholic understanding of scripture, in accordance with the prescriptions of Catholic canon law, and is often approved by the Catholic Church. More generally, it can refer to a Christian Bible that includes the 73-book canon recognized by the Catholic Church, in contrast to the 76 to 79 books recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the 81 of the Ethiopian Church, and the 66 recognized by most protestants. Both the Catholic and Orthodox canons include some of the deuterocanonical books (and parts of books) of the Old Testament which are in the Greek Septuagint, but are absent from the Hebrew Masoretic Text. According to the Decretum Gelasianum (a work written by an anonymous scholar between AD 519 and 553), Catholic Church officials cited a list of books of scripture presented as having been made canonical at the Council of Rome (382). Later, the Catholic Church formally affirmed its canon of scripture with the Synod of Hippo (393), followed by a Counc