Why does the Protestant "Apocrypha" include more texts than Catholic Bibles have?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jas31784
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jas31784

Guest
I have a Protestant friend who has a Bible with the “Apocrypha” . I know Catholics accept these books however in their "Apocrypha " section there’s also these three books, 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manesseh which aren’t in our modern Catholic Bibles.

Does anyone know how this came to be? I thought the early reformers just put all of the books in the Vulgate that weren’t in the Hebrew Bible in this section?
 
Last edited:
I have a Protestant friend who has a Bible with the “Apocrypha” . I know Catholics accept these books however in their "Apocrypha " section there’s also these three books, 1 and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manesseh which aren’t in our modern Catholic Bibles.

Does anyone know how this came to be? I thought the early reformers just put all of the books in the Vulgate that weren’t in the Hebrew Bible in this section?
It’ll vary from protestant to protestant as there isn’t a single “protestant apocrypha”.

Most zealously swear-off any books in addition to the 66-book canon in the first place.

Perhaps this is a more Orthodox-influenced collection of scripture?

How many apocryphal books? 14?
 
Last edited:
No it’s the King James Version of 1611 and it says it was translated from the Vulgate in the beginning.
 
It’s interesting to note they also separate like Susanna and Bel and the Dragon whereas in our Bibles it’s chapter 13 and 14 of Daniel.
 
Actually, the 1 & 2 Esdras in the KJV Apocrypha is the Catholic 3 & 4 Esdras Vulgate apocrypha. It was never canonical in the CAtholic Church, but WAS added to the Vulgate nevertheless. It is also interesting in that the Council of Trent wished to keep those two books in the Vulgate’s apocrypha “lest they utterly perish.” Yet it is the Protestant KJV which has preserved them all these centuries in English!
 
And the Prayer of Manesseh? Is that in the Vulgate too?

That’s interesting. I always thought all of the books in the Vulgate were reaffirmed as Canon. I didn’t realize some were in it that were not considered Canon. What does that mean exactly that the Church finds them useful to read but not in making doctrine?
 
Last edited:
The Prayer of Manasseh is not in the Catholic Bible. It is considered apocryphal.
Esdras 1 and 2 are in the Catholic Bible under the names Ezra and Nehemiah.
 
The Ethiopian Othrothox Bible has 81 books. The Catholic Bible has 73 books.
 
Yah except the 1611 KJV has Ezra and Nehemiah but in the apocryphal section have 1 and 2 Esdras ( which from the comment above I believe are 3 and 4 Esdras in the Vulgate) and the rest of the Deuterocanonical books and the Prayer of Manesseh.
 
I will have to breakout my 1883 KJV bible and take a look. It is old and crumbly.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top