Transcription
If you've ever tried to borrow a Bible from a Catholic, you're in for a surprise. Seven surprises, actually. That's because there are a lot of different Bible translations that have 66 books, but the Catholic Bible has 73 books. There's seven other books in the Old Testament and even more sections in two other books.
So you might be wondering what all these extra books are all about. They're not even extra books at all, so stick around 'cause I'll explain that at the end of the video.
From the books of Genesis to Nehemiah, Catholic and Protestant Bibles seem the same. But then there's Tobit, sandwich right between Nehemiah and Judith, or in the space between Nehemiah and Esther. If you're a non-Catholic, this book is kind of a fever dream.
The story starts with Tobit, a wealthy Israelite who goes blind and prays to God that he's had enough and asks God to let him die. But then he remembers that he's got a bunch of money stashed in a town called Media. So he sends his son, Tobias, on a mission to go get it before he dies.
Meanwhile, over in Media, there's a woman named Sarah, who's lost seven husbands to a demon, and she's also asking God to just let her die. But God decides to send an angel instead to help them both. So the angel Raphael disguises himself as a human to tag along with Tobias on his journey to Media.
On the way, Tobias decides to bathe in the Tigris River and immediately gets attacked by a giant fish. Raphael tells him to kill it and save the guts because they might come in handy later.
When they get to Media, with fermenting fish guts in tow, Tobias meets Sarah. And Raphael tells him to marry her. So naturally, Tobias does. But first, he has to deal with the demon, which is where the fish guts come in. Tobias burns the fish heart and liver, and the demon goes away. Now married, Tobias grabs the money and brings his new wife and the undercover angel back home. He still got one last part of the fish with him though: the fish gallbladder.
When they get back, Tobias puts the fish gallbladder on Tobit's eyes to cure his blindness. Tobit's thrilled, of course, and so he breaks into a hymn of praise. That's when Raphael tells them that he's actually an angel and he goes back to Heaven. Before the story ends, Tobit warns Tobias to leave Nineveh because God is going to destroy the city for its wickedness. Tobias takes the advice, buries his parents after they die, of course, and moves to Media, where things finally settle down.
The point of this story is to show how faithfulness to God, even through hard times, will be rewarded, and that God will always care for his people, no matter what happens.
Right after Tobit, the story of Judith is pretty wild. Her name literally means "Jewish woman," and her story is about how she, a widow, saves her entire city. Judith lives in a town called Bethulia that's under attack by an Assyrian army. Things are looking so bad that the people are ready to give up and surrender. But Judith tells them to have some faith and trust in God.
Judith comes up with a plan to save her people. She puts on her best outfit, calls her maid, and heads out of the city, pretending to join the enemy. The Assyrian general is impressed by her beauty and wisdom, so he trusts her completely. One night, he gets drunk in his tent, and Judith takes the chance to kill him. Without their leader, the Assyrian army freaks out and retreats. The city is saved, and Judith becomes a hero. Afterward, Judith leads her people in thanking God and then lives the rest of her life in peace. It's a great story about trusting God, how he can deliver his people in unexpected ways, and how women can do amazing things for his plan.
Most Protestant Bibles include the Book of Esther, but they leave out a few sections that you'll find in Catholic Bibles. If you're not familiar with Esther's story, it's basically about a Jewish girl who becomes queen and, with her Uncle Mordecai's help, bravely saves her people by standing up to the king.
Now, about those other sections: originally, they were part of the story. But when St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin to make it more accessible, he moved most of them to the end. Martin Luther later dropped these chapters altogether. The sections included some details and reflections on the story, like Mordecai's prayer to God asking for help to defeat his enemies, and also some of Esther's prayers, plus a description of a dream that Mordecai had. The Catholic version of Esther also references God and the Lord more than once, mostly in the prayers of Mordecai and Esther. The Protestant version doesn't include specific references to the name of God, which makes parts of the book a bit shorter.
First and Second Maccabees are right after Esther and before The Book of Job. These books tell the story of a Jewish priest named Mattathias and his five sons. In the first book of Maccabees, the land of Judea is under the rule of a king who bans the Jewish faith and supports the Greek way of life, or Hellenism. He and his family decide to start a resistance. After Mattathias dies, his son Judas Maccabeus, a military leader, chooses to continue the resistance, and he uses brilliant tactics to defeat the larger armies of the king. Under his lead, the Jewish people reclaimed their Temple and rededicated it to God. This is now known as the celebration of Hanukkah. First Maccabees is all about unity in faith and zeal for God, and it also explains why the Jewish people suffer because of their disobedience to God through sin.
Second Maccabees is basically the dramatic, emotional sibling of First Maccabees. It covers the same Jewish rebellion against persecution but adds more flare to the storytelling and focuses on slightly different religious themes. It starts a bit earlier than First Maccabees, and it's all about boosting morale and showing how God steps in to handle his enemies. The book highlights some heavy themes, like how God created everything from nothing and the power of staying faithful no matter what. One of the stories is about seven brothers and their mom who were killed for refusing to break God's laws. It's heartbreaking but gives us an example of faith and courage under pressure.
Second Maccabees also dives into some Catholic theology, like honoring saints and praying for the dead. When Judas Maccabeus finds Jewish soldiers who died wearing amulets of an idol, God, he prays for them so that they may be forgiven of their idolatry against God. This isn't really a Protestant's cup of tea, since Protestants don't pray for the dead or honor saints. Overall, this book is a mix of action, faith, and lessons on staying strong even when the world's against you, with a bit of theological spice thrown in.
Wisdom of Solomon is right after that uncomfortable romance that you probably know as Song of Songs. We don't actually know who wrote Wisdom of Solomon because it wasn't Solomon. The author wrote in the person of Solomon to emphasize his teachings. As you probably expected, this book mostly centers around the themes of divine wisdom, God's mercy and justice, and the foolishness of having other idols instead of God. It was written around 50 years before Jesus was born, and the first few chapters of Wisdom serve as context for the later teachings of Jesus, as well as the basis for some theology about Jesus that shows up in the New Testament.
Sirach, also called Ecclesiasticus or Church Book, is pretty much a life advice column written by a philosopher named Ben Sira. It's packed with practical tips for living, from how to treat your parents to how to handle money and avoid bad people. Ben Sira doesn't really sugarcoat anything. He's got practical and poetic advice for everything, like friendship, education, wealth, religion, and law. The main focus of Sirach is to share the importance of God's wisdom and to have proper respect for the Lord by living in a righteous way.
Baruch is a lesser-known part of the Catholic Bible, and you can find it between Lamentations and Ezekiel, which is probably also a lesser-known corner of the Bible, anyways. But Baruch still has important things to say. It was written, of course, by Baruch, an assistant to the Prophet Jeremiah, and it's set in Babylon. In the story, Baruch reads a scroll to the Jewish exiles who are living in Babylon. The exiles respond in a confession of sins and a prayer to God for mercy. Baruch's story then encourages the Jewish people that they will eventually return to their homeland. The book ends with the Letter of Jeremiah, which warns against having idols instead of worshiping God. This book teaches the importance of repentance to God and faithfulness to his law. Noticing a theme yet? Anyways, just like Esther, there's a few sections in the Book of Daniel that you can find in Catholic Bibles but not in some Protestant versions.
The main story of Daniel describes the classic Bible stories that you might have heard of already, like Daniel in the Lion's Den and the story of three men who refuse to worship a golden statue, get thrown in the furnace, and miraculously survive without any burns. Daniel also includes other stories, like Daniel and his friends refusing to eat the King's food because it had been offered to other gods, and later, during a banquet, mysterious writing on the wall appears, written by the Finger of God to condemn the king to judgment, which is where we get "the writing on the wall" from.
But there's three sections that aren't included in Protestant Bibles: the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, the Tale of Susanna, and the Story of Bel and the Dragon. Azariah's prayer and the song of the young men is basically just part of the fiery furnace story where they pray and praise God even in the fire. The Tale of Susanna describes a holy woman who was wrongly accused of adultery by two evil judges, but Daniel saves her from the death penalty by exposing the lies of the judges. And in the Story of Bel and the Dragon, Daniel proves that Bel, a statue of a god, isn't actually real by making a bet with the king. The king believes that the statue of Bel actually eats and drinks the offerings of the priests, but Daniel shows him how the priests actually enter through a secret entrance and eat all the offerings themselves. Later, when the people worship a dragon, Daniel kills it without weapons by feeding it a mixture of tar. This proves to the people that Daniel's God is the only true God. The Book of Daniel is meant to teach us about staying faithful even under pressure and also that God is always in control of the situation.
So if these books are in the Catholic Bible, why aren't they in the Protestant Bible? Well, I want to make a longer video that explains some of this, but here's the short version: There's a lot of debate on what actually happened, but in the early days of Christianity, there wasn't really a settled decision on what should be in the Bible. Catholics believe that the canon, or the collection of accepted books in scripture, was decided later on during the 4th Century by five different councils and authorities. Certain Old Testament books and some pieces of other books were later dropped by Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century since they didn't align with his beliefs about Christianity. But there's a lot of different opinions and beliefs about what really happened, so the history might depend on who you ask. The good thing is, Catholics and Protestants both share the same 27 books of the New Testament, so we have that in common. And if you want to learn more about topics like this, stick around.