A comparative look at Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic, and Jewish Scriptures, and English translations
The term Bible developed from a Greek term for “scroll,” originally referencing Egyptian papyrus (the ancient source of paper), and then meaning book. Biblia meant plural “books” but developed a singular meaning in medieval Latin. The Bible is in that sense a “book of books,” also often referred to interchangeably as Scripture or Scriptures in English. For example, the Orthodox Christian tradition, which did not develop the fixed sense of the Bible as one volume but used different volumes for liturgical readings and individual study, commonly used the Greek plural form. The development of the manuscript Codex (bound volume) format for books in the first millennium AD helped advance the development of “canons” of scriptures in various traditions, relying on a fixed table of contents for the Bible. Modern editions of the Septuagint (the Greek Scriptures that the Christian New Testament used) draw on the Codices Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, and Vaticanus, key survivng texts. Those key surviving codices from the fourth century (Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, on vellum), and fifth century (Alexandrinus, on parchment), AD/CE, included the Greek Old and New Testament in one volume each. The Masoretic Hebrew text used as a primary source for many English Bibles is thought to have been mainly copied and edited between the seventh and 10th centuries, with the oldest complete extant manuscript being the Leningrad Codes from the early 11th century. The Orthodox Christian Bible draws on the Greek Septuagint Old Testament. Traditionally, Orthodox Christian scriptures commonly were bound in books for liturgical purposes, most prominently the Gospel book, the Epistles book, the Psalter, and also the Prophetologion of Old Testament reading selections for services.
–THE ORTHODOX BIBLE USES THE SEPTUAGINT GREEK SCRIPTURES USED BY THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
The Orthodox Christian Bible typically includes 49 books of the Old Testament, and 27 books of the New Testament; although Slavonic Bibles add IV Maccabees to the Old Testament. Total: 76 or 77 Books. The numbering sometimes differed as in the list of St. John of Damascus, for example, with 17 less books of the Old Testament, as some books are combined: Judges-Ruth, I-II Kings (Samuel), III-IV Kings, I-II Paralipomena (Chronicles), I Esdras-Nehemiah, Jeremiah-Lamentations, the 12 Prophets. Orthodox Bibles based on the Septuagint (older Greek texts translated from earlier versions of the Hebrew) include additional books called “worthy to be known” that in Protestant and Catholic Bibles are called the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books and in those other versions of the Bible are grouped separately between the Old and New Testaments.
–HEBREW BIBLE
In the Hebrew Bible today, known as the Tanakh, which as what is called the Masoretic text developed later than the Septuagint, there are 24 books arranged in three sections, the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings. The earliest contained the first five books of the Bible. It is called the Torah in Hebrew and the Pentateuch (meaning five books) in Greek; the second oldest part was a collection of narrative histories and prophecies (the Nevi’im); the third collection (the Ketuvim) contains psalms, proverbs, and narrative histories. “Tanakh” is an alternate term for the Hebrew Bible composed of the first letters of those three parts of the Hebrew scriptures: the Torah (“Teaching”), the Nevi’im (“Prophets”), and the Ketuvim (“Writings”). The Masoretic Text is the medieval version of the Tanakh, in Hebrew and Aramaic, that is considered the authoritative text of the Hebrew Bible by modern Rabbinic Judaism.
The Torah or Teaching (or Pentateuch in Greek) has 5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Nevi’im or the Prophets consists of 8 books: Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Minor Prophets.
The Ketuvim or the Writings has 11 books: Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra/Nehemiah, and Chronicles.
Tanakh is a term used for the Hebrew Bible, drawing from the terms for the three parts of the scriptures. The Masoretic Text developed as the medieval version of the Tanakh in Hebrew and Aramaic regarded as authoritative by modern Rabbinic Jerusalem.
Although the standard version of the English Bible as developed in Protestantism, including the King James Version, drew on the Masoretic text mainly for what it called the Old Testament (though influenced by the Septuagint in the ordering of books and some details), it split three books in half — Samuel, Kings, Chronicles– and separated Ezra and Nehemiah. Also while the Minor Prophets count as one book in the Hebrew Bible, they are counted as 12 books in the English Bible: Hosea – Joel – Amos – Obadiah – Jonah – Micah – Nahum – Habakkuk – Zephaniah – Haggai – Zechariah – Malachi. As a result, the modern English Bible often consists of a total of 39 books. in the Old Testament, plus 27 in the New Testament.
–THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BIBLE, based today mainly on the Hebrew Masoretic text but with significant influence from the Greek Septuagint, for example especially in the Pentateuch (first five books) and Psalms.
The Roman Catholic Bible includes 46 books of the Old Testament, including 7 Deuterocanonical books, plus the 27 books of the New Testament. Total: 73 books.
The Clementine Vulgate in Latin and the original Douay Rheims Bible in English (1609-1610) also included in an appendix three additional apocryphal books: The Prayer of Manasseh, and 3 and 4 Esdras, which raised the total to 76 books.
–KING JAMES BIBLE OF 1611
39 in the Old Testament, 14 in the Apocrypha (some were additions to other Old Testament books), 27 in the New Testament. Total: 76 Books.
–MODERN ENGLISH PROTESTANT BIBLES
21st Century American Evangelical Protestant = 66 total books), including most modern editions of the King James Bible sold in America.
| Orthodox Old Testament Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Kingdoms (1 Samuel) 2 Kingdoms (2 Samuel) 3 Kingdoms (1 Kings) 4 Kingdoms (2 Kings) 1 Chronicles (1 Paraleipomenon) 2 Chronicles( 2 Paraleipomenon) * 1 Ezra ** 2 Ezra ** (Ezra) Nehemiah Tobit Judith Esther 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees 3 Maccabees Psalms (151 in number) Job Proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes Song of Songs Wisdom of Solomon Wisdom of Sirach Hosea Amos Micah Joel Obadiah Jonah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi Isaiah Jeremiah Baruch Lamentation of Jeremiah Epistle of Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel *** * Includes the Prayer of Manasseh **Also known as 1 & 2 Esdras *** “Susanna” is at the beginning of Daniel, “Bel and the Serpent” at the end. Also includes the “Hymn of the Three Young Men.” | Roman Catholic Old Testament Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Kings 2 Kings 3 Kings 4 Kings 1 Chronicles (1 Paraleipomenon) 2 Chronicles( 2 Paraleipomenon) 1 Esdras 2 Esdras (Nehemiah) Tobit Judith Esther 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees Psalms (150 in number) Job Proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes Canticle of Canticles Wisdom of Solomon Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) Hosea Amos Micah Joel Obadiah Jonah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi Isaiah Jeremiah Baruch * Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel * Includes Epistle of Jeremiah | Protestant Old Testament Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy Joshua Judges Ruth 1 Samuel 2 Samuel 1 Kings 2 Kings 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Ezra Nehemiah Esther ** Job Psalms (150 in number) Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon Isaiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel ** Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Haggai Zechariah Malachi * Esther does not include those sections called “Additions to Esther.” **Daniel here does not include those sections separately labeled as the “Hymn of the Three Young Men,” “Susanna,” “Bel and the Serpent.” |
ORDER OF BOOKS
The ordering of the first books of the Bible in Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic Bibles, the so-called Octateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth), are based on the ordering of the Septuagint or Greek Old Testament. However, Protestant and Catholic Bibles tend to follow the Hebrew Masoretic text of the Old Testament generally, and place the “Apocrypha” or “Deuterocanonical” books together separately between the Old and New Testaments (most modern Protestant Bibles do not include the “Apocrypha,” although the King James Bible in the Anglican tradition does).
Orthodox Christian Bibles do not set the “Apocrypha” or “Deuterocanonical” books apart in the middle, but rather weave them into the whole, and they are known as books “worthy to be read” in Orthodox Christian tradition. Traditional Orthodox Bibles also placed the “General Epistles” in the New Testament immediately after the Acts of the Apostles, and some also placed all the personally addressed Epistles at the end of the Epistles.