Why Did Protestants Remove Books From The Bible?

Asher Chee |

Sometimes, when we talk with Roman Catholics, they might ask the well-known question,

“Why did Protestants remove books from the Bible?”

This question is unfair because it assumes that those books are supposed to be in the Bible, but Protestants removed those books from the Bible. The question should really be whether those books should be in the Bible in the first place.

Roman Catholicism’s Deuterocanonical Books

The Roman Catholic Bible has seven books that are not found in the Protestant Bible:

  1. Tobit
  2. Judith
  3. 1 Maccabees
  4. 2 Maccabees
  5. Wisdom of Solomon
  6. Ecclesiasticus
  7. Baruch

Roman Catholics call these books “deuterocanonical”. To be clear, both Protestants and Roman Catholics agree on the same 27 books of the New Testament. Rather, the disagreement is about whether these seven deuterocanonical books are part of the Old Testament.

Historical Jewish Exclusion of the Deuterocanonical Books

What we call the “Old Testament” today was the Jewish Scriptures—the Bible of Jesus, his fellow Jews, and the first Christians. Jesus and the first Christians adopted the Jewish Scriptures, and they did not disagree with their fellow Jews about which books were in the Bible. Therefore, as Christians, we should follow their example. Our Old Testament should have the same books as the Jewish Scriptures.

During the time of Jesus, the Jews recognized 24 books as scripture. These 24 books are actually the same as the 39 books of the Protestant Old Testament. The numbers are different because the books were counted in different manner. Many books in the Old Testament were originally counted as one book in the 24-book canon of the Jewish Scriptures.

Other groups of Jews thought that there were 22 books in the Bible rather than 24. However, this difference in number of books was not because anyone added or removed books from the Jewish Scriptures. Rather, it was because the books were counted in a different manner. In this 22-book canon, the books of Judges and Ruth were counted as one book, and the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations were counted as one book.

In either case, the deuterocanonical books were not included in the Jewish Scriptures. This indicates that the Jews did not consider the deuterocanonical books as part of the Bible.

Historical Christian Rejection of the Deuterocanonical Books

It is certainly true that there were many Christians throughout history who accepted the deuterocanonical books as part of the Bible. However, this was not unanimous. Many other Christians did not think that the deuterocanonical books were part of the Bible, including the following three notable examples.

Gregory of Rome

Gregory of Rome was a Christian who lived during the sixth century CE. He wrote about the deuterocanonical books:

About this thing we do not act improperly if we bring forth testimony from these books, even though they are not canonical, yet they are brought out for the edification of the Church. Therefore, Eleazar in a battle struck and brought down an elephant, but fell under the same animal that he killed.

— Great Morals 19.34.

Gregory explicitly stated that the deuterocanonical books were “not canonical”. In other words, Gregory thought that these books were not part of the Bible. We know that Gregory was talking about the deuterocanonical books because he went on to mention a story which comes from the Book of First Maccabees.

This is significant because Roman Catholics believe that Gregory was a Pope—the leader of all the Christians in the world during his time! Was “Pope” Gregory removing books from the Bible? Of course not. He simply thought that the deuterocanonical books were not part of the Bible in the first place.

Jerome

Jerome was a Christian who lived during the 4th century. He wrote about the deuterocanonical books:

Therefore, just as the Church reads the books of Judith, Tobit, and the books of Maccabees, but does not receive them among the canonical scriptures, so let it read these two volumes for the edification of the people, not to confirm the authority of church dogmata.

— Prologue to the Books of Solomon.

In context, the “two volumes” are the books of the Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. According to Jerome, the Church did not consider these deuterocanonical books as being part of the Bible.

This is significant because Jerome was the person who produced the Latin Vulgate—the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church! Was “Saint” Jerome removing books from the Bible? Of course not. He simply thought that the deuterocanonical books were not part of the Bible in the first place.

Cardinal Thomas Cajetan

Cardinal Thomas Cajetan was a Roman Catholic leader who lived during the sixteenth century CE. At the end if his commentary of the Book of Esther, Cajetan wrote:

And here we conclude the commentaries on the historical books of the Old Testament, because the rest of the books (namely, Judith, Tobit, and the books of the Maccabees) are counted by the divine Jerome as outside of the canonical books, and placed among the apocrypha, together with the Book of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. This is clear in Helmeted Prologue. ... those books (and if there are any other similar in a canon of the Bible), are not canonical, that is, they are not regular to confirm those things which are of the faith.

— Commentaries on all the Authentic Historical Books of the Old Testament.

Cajetan agreed with Jerome that the deuterocanonical books were outside of the canonical books, and should be placed in the apocrypha. In other words, Cajetan thought that these books were not part of the Bible.

Interestingly, Cajetan was one of the primary Roman Catholic opponents of Martin Luther. This is very ironic because Roman Catholics often blame Martin Luther for removing the deuterocanonical books from the Bible. Yet, Cajetan agreed with Luther that the deuterocanonical books were not part of the Bible.

This is significant because Cajetan was a Cardinal—a high rank in the Roman Catholic hierarchy; just one rank below Pope! Was Cardinal Cajetan removing books from the Bible? Of course not. He simply thought that the deuterocanonical books were not part of the Bible in the first place.

Conclusion

In the year 1546, at the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Church officially defined the deuterocanonical books as part of the Bible for the first time in History. Before that time, Christians disagreed freely about whether the deuterocanonical books were part of the Bible—even Roman Catholics like Cardinal Cajetan! Nonetheless, the Ancient Jews never accepted the deuterocanonical books as part of the Bible, and there is no evidence at all that Jesus or the first Christians changed that status quo.

So actually, the question should be: Why did Roman Catholics add books to the Bible?