This is the second part of a series where I compare Catholicism and Protestantism. Anyone needing to be brought up to speed can start with this post: Comparing Catholics and Protestants. Part One.In a comparison chart sent to me by Amanda of steelingspoons, the second difference between the two religious groups is listed as Bible. According to the website, the differences are given as Catholic:Includes apocrypha and Protestants:Excludes apocrypha.
Immediately, a Catholic would see a bit of bias in listing the differences this way. When putting together their versus of the Bible, the Protestants left out a number of scriptural texts from the Old Testament which they call The Apocryha - these scriptural texts are referred to as The Deuterocanonical books by Catholics. The Deuterocanonical books are as follows:
* Tobit
* Judith
* Additions to Esther (Vulgate Esther 10:4-16:24[9])
* Wisdom
* Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus
* Baruch, including the Letter of Jeremiah (Additions to Jeremiah in the Septuagint[10])
* Additions to Daniel:
o Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children (Vulgate Daniel 3:24-90)
o Susanna (Vulgate Daniel 13, Septuagint prologue)
o Bel and the Dragon (Vulgate Daniel 14, Septuagint epilogue)
* 1 Maccabees
* 2 Maccabees
The Deuterocanonical books are also considered canonical by the Orthodox Church.
The Protestants exclude these books because, they say, these books are not included in the Hebrew Bible as we know it today. The Jews exclude these books from their canon because, although these books were widely used by Greek speaking Jews, there are no surviving texts written in Hebrew. These books were, however, widely used by early Christians who were, for the most part, Greek speaking.
Many contend that these books were used by the Jews during the time of Christ and there are several allusions to the book of Sirach in the New Testament.
On an odd note, the story behind the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah can only be found in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabbees - books accepted by Catholics and Orthodox Christians, but not Jews or Protestants.
New American Bible - Online.
