Whether the Catholic Church added books to the Bible

The Article

The Catholic Position

The Catholic Church did not add books to the Bible. The seven deuterocanonical books (Tobit, Judith, 1-2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch) were part of the Septuagint used by the early Church and were included in every Christian Bible for over 1,100 years before Protestant reformers removed them.

Against the Position

Objections Raised

Hebrew canon argument

The Jews did not include these books in their canon. Jesus and the apostles used the Hebrew Bible, not the expanded Septuagint.

Council of Trent argument

The Catholic Church only officially added these books at Trent (1546) in response to the Reformation, proving they were not previously considered canonical.

On the Contrary

The Historical Counter-Witness

The council of Hippo lists as canonical all the books now found in the Catholic Bible, including Wisdom, Sirach, Tobit, Judith, and the two books of Maccabees.

The Response

I Answer That

The historical sequence is clear. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament, completed c. 200-100 BC) included the deuterocanonical books. The New Testament authors predominantly quoted from the Septuagint, not from the shorter Hebrew canon. The early Church used the Septuagint as its Old Testament.

The councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397, 419) produced the first formal canonical lists, which included the deuterocanonicals. Pope Innocent I confirmed the list in 405. The Council of Florence (1442) reaffirmed it. For over a thousand years, every Christian Bible contained these books.

Martin Luther moved the deuterocanonicals to an appendix in 1534, and later Protestant editions removed them entirely. Luther also questioned the canonicity of James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation (which he called 'an epistle of straw' and 'neither apostolic nor prophetic'), though these survived in the Protestant canon.

The claim that Jerome rejected the deuterocanonicals is misleading. Jerome initially preferred the Hebrew canon but accepted the Church's judgment. His Vulgate translation included the deuterocanonical books. The Church's authority to determine the canon is the same authority it exercises in all doctrinal matters.

Ad Singula

Reply to Each Objection

Reply to Objection 1

The Jewish canon was not finalised until after Christianity. The Council of Jamnia (c. AD 90) may have settled the Pharisaic canon, but this post-dates the founding of the Church. Jesus and the apostles quoted from the Septuagint in the majority of their Old Testament citations. The New Testament contains allusions to Wisdom, Sirach, and 2 Maccabees.

Reply to Objection 2

Trent reaffirmed what Hippo, Carthage, Florence, and fourteen centuries of liturgical practice had already established. A definition does not create a reality; it formally recognises it. Nicaea defined Christ's divinity in 325; that does not mean the Church invented Christ's divinity in 325.