What do Catholics believe about the Bible and the Catholic Bible?

When Catholics speak of the Bible, they begin with a conviction that runs through the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Scripture is not merely a great human book, but God's own Word communicated through human authors. The Church teaches that God inspired the sacred writers — choosing them and acting in and through them — so that, as true authors, they 'consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more' (CCC 106). Because of this divine authorship, the books of Scripture 'firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures' (CCC 107). Catholics therefore hold Scripture in the highest reverence: the Church 'has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord' (CCC 141), because both nourish and govern the whole Christian life.

One of the most common questions people ask is why the Catholic Bible has 73 books when most Protestant Bibles have 66. The seven additional books — Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch, along with longer portions of Daniel and Esther — are called the deuterocanonical books (meaning second canon). Catholics do not regard them as a late addition. The Church teaches that 'it was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New' (CCC 120). These books were part of the Greek Septuagint widely used in the early Church, and they were listed as canonical at councils in Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397 AD). They were set aside from the Old Testament by Protestant reformers in the sixteenth century, who chose to follow a shorter Hebrew list. Catholics have continued to receive all 73 books as the complete canon.

Catholics also understand that the Bible is best read within the living Tradition of the Church rather than in isolation. Scripture and Tradition together form a single sacred deposit of the Word of God. As the Catechism teaches, the Church 'does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honoured with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence' (CCC 82). This does not mean Tradition is bolted on top of the Bible or competes with it; rather, Scripture and Tradition flow from the same divine source and point to the same Christ. The Magisterium — the teaching office of the Church — is not above the Word of God but serves it, guarding and faithfully handing on what has been revealed. This is why Catholics read Scripture within the community of the Church rather than as a purely private exercise.

The Church also teaches that Scripture must be interpreted according to sound principles. Because it was written by human beings in particular times and cultures, the reader must attend to what the human authors truly intended — their literary forms, historical setting, and modes of expression (CCC 109-110). But because Scripture is also divinely inspired, it 'must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written' (CCC 111). The Church recognizes both a literal sense (the meaning conveyed by the words themselves) and spiritual senses — allegorical, moral, and anagogical — that open Scripture to its full depth (CCC 115-117). This rich way of reading the Bible has nourished Christian theology, prayer, and worship for two thousand years.

For Catholics, the Bible is not primarily a rulebook or a historical archive — it is a living encounter with God. St. Jerome, the great fourth-century Scripture scholar who translated the Bible into Latin, gave us the famous saying that ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ — a line the Catechism itself quotes when it teaches that the Church 'forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures' (CCC 133). Catholics are encouraged to read Scripture daily, to hear it proclaimed at Mass (where a wide span of the Bible is read across the Sunday and weekday cycles), and to let it shape their prayer through ancient practices like Lectio Divina. If you want to explore the faith further, you might begin by finding a Catholic Mass near you where the Scriptures are proclaimed and broken open every week, or browse the saints, many of whom were passionate students and lovers of Scripture.