Why
did the Catholic Church remove books from the bible?
Where can
I find more about what the Catholic Church teaches?
The Catholic Church established the
canon of the bible. The word canon means
"measuring rod" or "standard". By "canon of
the bible" we are referring to the authoritative
list of inspired books in the bible. Where did
the bible come from? It didn't fall preprinted
from the sky so how do we know for sure what belongs
in the bible. The Church listed the books of
the bible in AD 382 at the Synod of Rome and in this
list it approved the 46 books of the Septuagint as
the canon for the Old Testament. It wasn't
until the Protestant Reformation in the Sixteenth
Century when Martin Luther removed 7 books from the
bible which didn't agree with his theology. In
response to Luther's actions the Council of Trent in
AD 1546, dogmatically reaffirmed the 73 book canon
which included the 46 books of the Septuagint that
had been established by the early church. The
Council of Florence also approved this same 73 book
canon in AD 1441. So you can see the Catholic
Church did not add seven books to the bible as some
Protestants claim. Martin Luther subtracted
seven books to promote his own novel ideas.
The Council of Trent merely reaffirmed the canon of
the bible which the Church had established 1200
years earlier.
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church
contains the teachings of the Church. In
the Catechism you will find what and why the Church
teaches. There is also a newly published
"Compendium". Which is a faithful and sure
synthesis of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Compendium is in question and answer format
making it a little easier to read.
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