The Catholic Bible Has Too Many Books

The Old Testament in the Bible (KJV) consists of 39 books (Genesis – Malachi).

The Old Testament in the Catholic Bible contains 46 books, which is seven more than the OT of the KJV.  These addition books are called the Apocrypha.

1. Apocrypha – 1. A writing or statement of doubtful authorship or authenticity; spec. those books included in the Septuagint and Vulgate versions of the Old Testament, which were not originally written in Hebrew and not counted genuine by the Jews, and which, at the Reformation, were excluded from the Sacred Canon by the Protestant party, as having no well-grounded claim to inspired authorship. (OED)
2. The seven additional books are: Tobit, Judith, 1Maccabees, 2Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch. These books were/are not part of the Jewish canon (collection of books) of scripture, as the OED states above.

The Jewish Hebrew scriptures contain 24 books.  Those 24 books contain the 39 books in the KJV OT. 

The reason that the KJV has 39 books instead of 24 is because some of the original 24 books were broken up into separate books.  The Jewish canon is categorized in three sections: The Law, The Prophets, and the Psalms (or the writings). 

Following is a list of the 24 books of the Jewish scriptures (some of the books are expanded which contain multiple books):

3. The Five Books of Moses (The Law)

1) Genesis

2) Exodus

3) Leviticus

4) Numbers

5) Deuteronomy

4. The Eight Books of the Prophets (The Prophets)

6) Joshua

7) Judges

8-9) Samuel – (Samuel is 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel in the KJV)

10-11) Kings – (Kings is 1 Kings and 2 Kings in the KJV)

12) Isaiah

13) Jeremiah

14) Ezekiel

15-26) The Twelve (minor prophets) –  (“The Twelve” (minor prophets) were separated into 12 books, (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi)

5. The Eleven Books of the Writings (The Psalms or The Writings)

27) Psalms

28) Proverbs

29) Job

30) Song of Songs

31) Ruth

32) Lamentations

33) Ecclesiastes

34) Esther

35) Daniel

36-37) Ezra/Nehemiah – (Ezra/Nehemiah are separated in the KJV)

38-39) Chronicles (Chronicles is 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles in the KJV)

The order that the Jewish scriptures were laid out. 

6. The order of the books was different than that of the KJV, but the books themselves were all the same, the only difference being that some of the books were grouped together into one book (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, minor prophets, Ezra/Nehemiah).
7. The order in which the Jewish canon was laid out, and the fact that it was divided into three main sections (the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (or the Writings)) is very important in light of a couple of things that Jesus said when trying to find out which books should be in the OT and which ones should not.

Notice that the Jewish scriptures did not contain any of the Apocryphal books that the Catholic Bible does. 

8. The Jews never considered those books authentic or genuine. They were not written in Hebrew as the Jewish scriptures were, but were rather found in the Septuagint which was a corrupt Greek translation of the OT.
9. Jesus did not quote from the Greek Septuagint; He referred to the OT as having jots and tittles (Mat 5:18), which are unique to Hebrew, not Greek.
10. “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Mat 5:18)
11. When the KJV was translated, the Apocryphal books were put in a separate section between the New and Old Testaments, not mixed with the Old Testament books like the Catholic Bible has them. The reason for that was that the KJV translators knew that they were not scripture like the 39 books of the OT are.

Scriptural evidence for the 39 books of the Hebrew/KJV OT.

12. Jesus recognized the three divisions in the Old Testament.
    1. “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.” (Luk 24:44).
    2. Jesus was here affirming the three divisions of the Jewish canon, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (or Writings – the Psalms was the first book of the Writings), all three of which spoke of Him.
    3. He didn’t mention a fourth division.
13. Jesus made another statement that implicitly shows the beginning and ending of the Jewish canon.
    1. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” (Mat 23:35).
    2. Jesus said that the Pharisees and their fathers were responsible for the blood of the prophets (Mat 23:30-31).
    3. He listed the first prophet Abel who was killed in Genesis (Gen 4:8), the first book of the Jewish canon, and the last prophet Zacharias who was killed in the last book of the Jewish canon, the book of Chronicles (2Ch 24:20-21).
    4. Remember that Chronicles was the last book of the Jewish canon, not Malachi like in the KJV.
    5. Jesus was saying to the Pharisees that they were responsible for the blood of all the prophets, from the first prophet who was killed which is found in the first book of their scriptures to the last prophet who was killed which is found in the last book of their scriptures.
14. The Apocryphal books found in the Catholic Bible (at least some of them), such as the Maccabees, take place in the 400 years between the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, yet Jesus didn’t make reference to those books or anything that happened in them.

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