Have a question about our Catholic faith that you always wanted the answer to?

On this page, our very own Deacon Doug Farwell will answer your questions. His answers to your questions will be posted here and in the weekly bulletin.

Your name will be kept anonymous, and you can submit your questions to the parish email at: ssimt@dor.org

What seven books are found almost exclusively in Catholic versions of the Bible?

Those books are: Baruch, Judith, First & Second Maccabees, Tobit, Wisdom, and Sirach (Ecclesiasticus). Depending on the Catholic version of the Bible, these books may be listed separately under the category of “Deuterocanonical,” meaning a “second” or “subsequent” canon and canonized during the Council of Trent from 1545–63.

Protestant versions of the Bible contained these books until the mid-1800s and listed them as “Apocrypha,” coming from the Greek word meaning “to hide away.” The reason for the Protestant characterization is because Protestants don’t recognize these seven books as canons of scripture. Eventually, these were books dropped altogether from most Protestant versions as they were considered less important.

The deuterocanonical books were originally in the “Septuagint”–a third century B.C. Greek translation of the Old Testament, which served as the scripture of the Apostles and many generations that followed. This was in response to the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther criticized the Catholic Church for not having scriptural support for some of its practices. The deuterocanonical books provided scriptural support for Catholic doctrines, e.g., praying for the dead.

Here are some versions of the more popular Catholic Bibles: New American Bible Revised Edition (NABRE), Revised Standard Version- Catholic Edition (RSV-CE), New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) and the Douay-Rheims Bible.

Catholic Bibles also have an “Imprimatur and a nihil obstat” found after the title page in the front of the Bible. The Imprimatur is an official approval from a clergy, usually a Bishop, that this version of the Bible is acceptable and does not contradict Church teachings. The nihil obstat is the Church certification that the book is not objectionable on moral and doctrinal grounds.

Peace, Deacon Doug