Bible Differences

In our last post we commented on the canonization of the Bible that took place in Carthage in 397 AD. Some of the books listed in that decision appear unusual to readers of the King James Bible. Basically it boils down to this - the Bibles used by Catholics and Protestants are not the same. A Catholic explains the differences this way.

Bible translations developed for Catholic use are complete Bibles. This means that they contain the entire canonical text identified by Pope Damasus and the Synod of Rome (382) and the local Councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), contained in St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation (420), and decreed infallibly by the Ecumenical Council of Trent (1570). This canonical text contains the same 27 NT Testament books which Protestant versions contain, but 46 Old Testament books, instead of 39. These 7 books, and parts of 2 others, are called Deuterocanonical by Catholics (2nd canon) and Apocrypha (false writings) by Protestants, who dropped them at the time of the Reformation. The Deuterocanonical texts are Tobias (Tobit), Judith, Baruch, Ecclesiasticus (Sirach), Wisdom, First and Second Maccabees and parts of Esther and Daniel. Some Protestant Bibles include the "Apocrypha" as pious reading.

The King James Bible, the one used by English speaking Latter-day Saints, is considered a Protestant Bible by scholars. Isn't it interesting that Catholics do not make a big deal about Protestants taking books out of the Bible? Both Catholic and Protestants tend to be really concerned about Mormons who are allegedly adding to the Bible by accepting the Book of Mormon. To be consistent, the scripture in Revelation that we are discussing in this series of posts condemns both those who add and those who take away.

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Why charge Mormons with adding to the Bible without a peep for Protestants who took away from the Bible defined in 397 AD? Why this lack of consistency? Could it be that they know the true meaning of these verses?

Now that we've laid an historical foundation, we will address the specific charge of Mormons adding to the Bible in our next post. Stay tuned!