50 Fun Facts About Catholic Bible

How many books are in the Catholic Bible?

Protestant Bibles have 66; the difference is the seven deuterocanonical books plus extra passages in Esther and Daniel.

How many books make up the Old Testament of a Catholic Bible?

That is 39 shared with the Hebrew Bible plus seven deuterocanonical books; the New Testament's 27 are the same for all Christians.

What term describes the seven Old Testament books Catholics accept that are absent from the Hebrew canon?

Protestants file them under 'Apocrypha'; the word means roughly 'second canon' and was coined in 1566.

Which 16th-century theologian, a convert from Judaism, coined in 1566 the term for books of 'second canon'?

He applied it to books whose canonical recognition came 'secondarily', in both Testaments.

Which of these is NOT one of the seven books unique to the Catholic Old Testament?

Ecclesiastes is in every canon; the seven are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The seven disputed books are all found in which ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures?

Made by Alexandrian Jews from the 3rd century BC, it was the Old Testament most early Christians actually read.

Which 16th-century council fixed the Catholic canon in 1546 and declared the Vulgate the Church's authentic Latin Bible?

Earlier councils at Rome (382), Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) had listed the same books; Trent made it dogma against Luther.

Which pope commissioned Jerome in 382 to revise the Latin Gospels, the start of the Vulgate?

Jerome went on, largely on his own initiative, to translate most of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek.

Jerome did most of his Vulgate translation work while living for 34 years near which town?

The Roman aristocrat Paula funded his monastery beside the Church of the Nativity; he died there in 420.

What are the Latin Bible translations that predate the Vulgate collectively called?

The 'Old Latin' texts were what Jerome was asked to tidy up; surviving manuscripts run from about 350 to the 13th century.

The two official post-Trent Latin Bibles, of 1590 and 1592, are named after which two popes?

The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate remained the standard Latin text until the Nova Vulgata of 1979.

Which pope promulgated the Nova Vulgata, the Church's official Latin Bible, in 1979?

Vatican II had ordered a revised Latin Psalter, and Paul VI appointed the commission in 1965; the apostolic constitution was Scripturarum thesaurus.

The first complete Catholic Bible in English was translated by exiles in which French town?

The New Testament appeared at Rheims in 1582 and the Old Testament at Douai in 1609-10, giving the Douay-Rheims its name.

Which 18th-century bishop revised the 1582-1610 English Catholic Bible into its long-standard form?

The original was thick with Latinisms; Challoner issued his New Testament in 1749-52 and Old Testament in 1750.

Which 1943 Pius XII encyclical encouraged Catholic translations from Hebrew and Greek rather than the Vulgate?

Raymond Brown called it a 'Magna Carta for biblical progress'; the Jerusalem Bible and New American Bible followed from it.

Which 1970 Catholic translation became the basis of the US Mass lectionary?

Fifty-one scholars worked on it from 1944; it grew out of the Confraternity Bible and translated from Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.

The 1966 Jerusalem Bible was inspired by a French translation by Dominicans at which school?

J. R. R. Tolkien contributed to the English edition; the translation famously renders God's name as Yahweh.

Vatican II's 1965 Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation is known by what Latin title?

The bishops approved it 2,344 to 6; it is one of the council's principal documents.

What mark near the front of a Catholic Bible shows a bishop has approved it as free of doctrinal error?

The word means 'let it be printed'; a nihil obstat from a censor usually precedes it.

In the Book of Tobit, which archangel travels in disguise with young Tobias?

He tells Tobias that a fish's burnt heart and liver drive out demons and its gall cures blindness; Tobias's dog comes too.

In Tobit, what blinds the pious Tobit as he sleeps in his courtyard?

Physicians' ointment finished the job; the fish gall from the Tigris eventually restores his sight.

Which demon kills Sarah's suitors on their wedding nights in the Book of Tobit?

Raphael helps exorcise him and Sarah marries Tobias.

Which Assyrian general does Judith behead in his tent to save her city of Bethulia?

The scene was painted by Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi and Klimt, and sculpted by Donatello.

Most modern Catholic scholars classify the Book of Judith as what?

Its historical anachronisms, such as Nebuchadnezzar ruling the Assyrians, led to it being called perhaps the first historical novel.

1 Maccabees is best known for recounting the origin of which Jewish festival?

It describes the recapture of Jerusalem and rededication of the Temple in 164 BC.

Which Seleucid king's bans on Jewish practices provoked the Maccabean revolt?

The Hasmonean dynasty that resulted ruled an independent Judea until Rome arrived.

Which parts of 2 Maccabees resonated most with early and medieval Christians?

Eleazar and the mother with seven sons became models for Christian martyr sermons; Luther disliked doctrines the book supported.

Unlike 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees was originally written in which language?

An unknown diaspora Jew in Egypt wrote it around 150-100 BC; it is not a sequel but an independent account.

By what Latin name, roughly 'church book', is the Book of Sirach also known?

Ben Sira wrote it in Hebrew around 180 BC; he is the only biblical author to sign his work.

Who translated Ben Sira's Hebrew wisdom book into Greek around 117 BC, adding a prologue?

The prologue is the earliest witness to the three-part Hebrew canon of Law, Prophets and Writings.

The Book of Wisdom was actually composed in Greek by a Jewish author in which city?

Most scholars date it to the first century BC, making it one of the latest Old Testament books.

The Book of Baruch is named after the scribe of which prophet?

Augustine credited Jeremiah himself with Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations and the Letter of Jeremiah.

The story of Susanna and the Elders appears in Catholic Bibles as which part of Daniel?

Young Daniel saves her from a false adultery charge by questioning the two elders separately.

In 'Bel and the Dragon', how does Daniel prove the idol Bel's priests are eating the offerings?

The tale is Daniel chapter 14 in Catholic Bibles and places Daniel at the court of Cyrus.

The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children is inserted into which scene in Daniel?

Azariah is Abednego's Hebrew name; the hymn of praise the three sing became the canticle Benedicite.

Which two books of the Hebrew Bible never explicitly mention God?

The Greek Esther adds prayers and explicit references to God, which is why Catholic Esther is longer.

Which three disputed books did the 1592 Latin Bible and first English Catholic Bible print only in an appendix?

They were never made canonical for Catholics, unlike the seven deuterocanonical books.

The 1450s Gutenberg Bible was an edition of what?

Of some 160-180 copies, 49 survive substantially; the earliest dated copy is marked 15 August 1456.

Codex Vaticanus has been in the Vatican Library since at least what century?

The 4th-century manuscript came to Western scholars' attention through Erasmus's correspondence with the library's prefects.

Since the 1969 Ordo Lectionum Missae, Sunday Mass readings follow a cycle of how many years?

Years A, B and C feature Matthew, Mark and Luke respectively; weekday readings run on a two-year cycle.

How many readings, including a psalm, does the post-Vatican II Sunday Mass lectionary provide?

Typically an Old Testament reading, a responsorial psalm, a New Testament epistle and a Gospel.

Monsignor Ronald Knox's mid-20th-century English Bible was translated from which base text?

The crime-writing priest produced it in three volumes, with two renderings of the Psalms.

The 1966 RSV Catholic Edition adapted a translation produced by which body?

It slotted the deuterocanonical books into their traditional Old Testament order rather than an appendix.

Per the Letter of Aristeas, which Alexandrian king commissioned the Greek translation of the Jewish law by 72 scholars?

The story of 72 translators gave the version its name, 'the Seventy', abbreviated LXX.

The Confraternity Bible of 1941-69 was produced to replace which older English Catholic version?

Its project morphed into the New American Bible after Pius XII's 1943 encyclical.

Which gathering of 382, cited in the Decretum Gelasianum, first listed the Catholic canon of scripture?

Hippo (393) and Carthage (397 and 419) followed with the same list; Florence repeated it in 1442.

How many books does the Catholic New Testament contain?

Identical to every other Christian tradition; the disputes are all in the Old Testament.

How many Pauline epistles does the Catholic New Testament count, with Hebrews listed separately?

The seven general epistles run from James to Jude, and the Apocalypse of John closes the canon.

A 2008 Vatican letter ruled that the divine name Yahweh in liturgical texts must be rendered how?

The Jerusalem Bible of 1966 had printed Yahweh throughout its Old Testament.

How many books are in the 'narrow' biblical canon of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Churches?

It adds works such as Enoch, Jubilees and three books of Meqabyan to the Septuagint books.