Protestant Bible

A Protestant Bible is any Christian Bible translation or revision that comprises 39 books of the Old Testament (according to the Jewish Hebrew Bible canon, sometimes known to non-Protestants as the protocanonical books) and the 27 books of the New Testament for a total of 66 books. A Protestant Bible excludes the seven books which Catholics and Eastern Christians consider to be deuterocanonical as Protestants view these as non-canonical.

This practice was standardized among Protestants following the 1825 decision by the British and Foreign Bible Society.[1] This is often contrasted with the 73 books of the Catholic Bible, which includes 7 deuterocanonical books according to Roman Catholic Canon Law 825, as a part of the Old Testament.[2]

Early Protestant Bibles

From the Reformation, Protestants have usually excluded the books which Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians consider to be Deuterocanonical, viewing them as non-canonical. However, prior to an 1825 British and Foreign Bible Society decision, most Protestant Bibles did include these additional books within the same printed bibles. It was usually to be found in a separate section under the heading of Apocrypha and sometimes carrying a statement to the effect that the such books were non-canonical. A surviving quarto edition of the Great Bible, produced some time after 1549, does not contain the Apocrypha although most copies of the Great Bible bible did. A 1575 quarto edition of the Bishop's Bible also does not contain them. Subsequently, some copies of the 1599 and 1640 editions of the Geneva Bible were also printed without them.[3]

Included books

The books that comprise a Protestant Bible with their commonly accepted names among the Protestant churches are given below. Note that "1", "2", or "3" as a leading numeral is normally pronounced as the ordinal number, thus "First Samuel" for "1 Samuel".[4]

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, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

New Testament

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation.

Notable translations

Most Bible translations into English conform to the Protestant canon and ordering. Notable English translations include:

A 2014 study into the Bible in American Life found that of those survey respondents who read the Bible, there was an overwhelming favouring of protestant translations. 55% reported using the King James Version, followed by 19% for the New International Version, 7% for the New Revised Standard Version (printed in both Protestant and Catholic editions), 6% for the New American Bible (a Catholic Bible translation) and 5% for the Living Bible. Other versions were used by fewer than 10%.[5]

See also

References

  1. Howsham, L. Cheap Bibles: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the British and Foreign Bible Society. Cambridge University Press, Aug 8, 2002.
  2. Code of Canon Law, 825
  3. http://www.tbsbibles.org/pdf_information/307-1.pdf
  4. Library of Congress Rule Interpretations, C.8. http://www.itsmarc.com/crs/mergedProjects/lcri/lcri/c_8__lcri.htm
  5. Goff, Philip. Farnsley, Arthur E. Thuesen, Peter J. The Bible in American Life, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, p. 12
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