Differences between the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Bibles

[aneeshm]

I only recently came to learn that the Bibles used by all three denominations are different. I tried googling for differences, but I couldn't come up with a coherent explanation of what these differences are. Could someone in the know please explain all the differences to me?

And, given that even the Holy Book of each denomination is different, can they be called the same religion? Theologically, IMO, they differ enough to qualify them to be different religions altogether.

 

[Bad Player]

The Catholic and Protestants use the same Bibles essentially but some words are translated differently in the 'Catholic' translations. I assume that the Orthodox guys use the same Bible. However the Catholics have a secondary text which is, I think, a helper text but not considered as necessarily true (the Apocrapher???).

 

[Princeps]

It's all the same I think. Protestants translated the bible to many languages, while Roman Chatolics insisted on using the latin version. I don't know wheter that is true today.

I don't know about the Greek chatolics... but I assume the bible is the same.

 

[puglover]

Catholics count as part of the inspired word of God the Apocrypha, which are a collection of books whose origins are considered questionable by Protestants. That's really the only difference in the texts. Every other difference lies in interpretation.

 

[GenMarshall]

Here are the following books found in the Catholic Bible that is missing from the Protestant Bible:

Tobias
Judith
Wisdom
Ecclesiasticus
Brauch
1 & 2 Machabees

All of which form the seven Deutero-Canonical books found in the Catholic Bible.

It's all the same I think. Protestants translated the bible to many languages, while Roman Chatolics insisted on using the latin version. I don't know wheter that is true today.

Incorrect, Roman Catholic Bibles are typically published in different languages .

 

[Cuivienen]

Until very recently, though, that was the case. The Orthodox church and Protestant churches allowed publication in multiple languages, but the Catholic church was adamant about Latin-only. I think John Paul II was the one who did away with that.

The main differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism don't come in terms of scripture (I believe the Apocrypha are acknowledged by Orthodoxy as well), but in terms of church councils. Most notably, the Catholic church and most Protestant churches accept the additional of filioque ("and the Son") to the Council of Chalcedon whereas Orthodox do not. (The full phrase is "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father [and the Son]. "And the Son" was added later, and is acknowledged as having not been in the original text by Catholicism, but Catholicism and descendant Protestantism accept it anyway.)

 

[Mirc]

@Cuivienen: True, we do not say "The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the son". I don't really know much about the Protestant church and scripture, and I do not know enough about Catholicism to be able to see the differences in the Bible.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I read somewhere that the Orthodox Bible has the most stuff in it. It has the catholic one, but has 1-2 extra things.
Dunno for sure ... maybe i missread - i'll look around.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Until very recently, though, that was the case. The Orthodox church and Protestant churches allowed publication in multiple languages, but the Catholic church was adamant about Latin-only. I think John Paul II was the one who did away with that.

Buf! Wrong. In catholic world always have been bibles traduced to all languages since centuries ago. There are Bibles in Spanish since 16th or 17th century. It was the Liturgy that was usually said in latin until about 50 years ago only, until Vatican II.

 

[Red Door]

The Protestants take out the Septuagent, or the 7 books written in Greeks. Also, there is a lot of translation differences between the 3.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

One of the major differences between the Orthodox Church and the Catholics/Protestants is a passage in the Old Testament where Moses is referred to as having horns.

Catholics and Protestants translate that word as something else, and say that it is a metaphor. Orthodox Christians believe that Moses actually was given horns by god. If you go into an Orthodox Church, you might see an icon of Moses with horns on his head.

 

[PrincepsAmerica]

One of the major differences between the Orthodox Church and the Catholics/Protestants is a passage in the Old Testament where Moses is referred to as having horns.

Catholics and Protestants translate that word as something else, and say that it is a metaphor. Orthodox Christians believe that Moses actually was given horns by god. If you go into an Orthodox Church, you might see an icon of Moses with horns on his head.

Truly a pivotal difference.

 

[Kyriakos]

One of the major differences between the Orthodox Church and the Catholics/Protestants is a passage in the Old Testament where Moses is referred to as having horns.

Catholics and Protestants translate that word as something else, and say that it is a metaphor. Orthodox Christians believe that Moses actually was given horns by god. If you go into an Orthodox Church, you might see an icon of Moses with horns on his head.

That is the first time i have heard of that.. But that would be the old testament anyway.

All of the new testament was writen in greek though. See, the christian god chose it over latin He probably had read homer as well.

 

[puglover]

Truly a pivotal difference.

Why can't we just get along?

 

[Mirc]

One of the major differences between the Orthodox Church and the Catholics/Protestants is a passage in the Old Testament where Moses is referred to as having horns.

Catholics and Protestants translate that word as something else, and say that it is a metaphor. Orthodox Christians believe that Moses actually was given horns by god. If you go into an Orthodox Church, you might see an icon of Moses with horns on his head.

Horns?

That is the first time i have heard of that.. But that would be the old testament anyway.

All of the new testament was writen in greek though. See, the christian god chose it over latin He probably had read homer as well.

Same, I've never heard of this before. Actually I've never seen him represented with horns.

 

[aneeshm]

Suggests an obvious joke.

What do you call Moses with horns?
Horny Moses!

 

[Heretic_Cata]

One of the major differences between the Orthodox Church and the Catholics/Protestants is a passage in the Old Testament where Moses is referred to as having horns.

Catholics and Protestants translate that word as something else, and say that it is a metaphor. Orthodox Christians believe that Moses actually was given horns by god. If you go into an Orthodox Church, you might see an icon of Moses with horns on his head.

O RLY ? I never heard of/seen that. Wiki seems to say he IS sometimes depicted with horns. I am somewhat disapointed tho, they are small calf horns. I was expecting HUGE minotaur horns.

Strangely enough, i didn't see any references that the Orthodox Church likes him with horns or not.

 

[SeleucusNicator]

OK, I did some research on this.

Apparently, the "Moses with Horns" things comes from the LATIN church -- St. Jermone mistranslated "horns of light" as "horns", so in early Christian art, Moses is shown with horns. The translation error is NOT on the part of the Orthodox Church.

My misunderstanding was because the person who first pointed out to me that Moses has horns in some traditions was a Greek friend of mine, who became aware of this because an icon of Moses in his (Greek Orthodox) church here in Chicago has horns.

 

[brachy-pride]

I only recently came to learn that the Bibles used by all three denominations are different. I tried googling for differences, but I couldn't come up with a coherent explanation of what these differences are. Could someone in the know please explain all the differences to me?

And, given that even the Holy Book of each denomination is different, can they be called the same religion? Theologically, IMO, they differ enough to qualify them to be different religions altogether.

The new testament "the christian bible" is identical

The difference is the old testament, "the jewish bible"

The difference is that catholics use the old testament jews from the city of Alexandria used 2000 years ago, and not the "standard jewish text" which was agreed by jews in a later date.

It is not a really big difference, just a few books, and not that important books

The only important issue about that I can think of is that catholics pray for the forgiveness of sins of the dead people, and ask saints in heaven for help, while protestants dont.

In the book of maccabes (I am sure I spelled that wrong) you have an example of people praying to the death, and jeremias listening to people from heaven, catholics use that text as evidence that what they do is correct, protestants dont accept that book so for them it is irrelevant.

 

[manlyboy]

I recall Bertrand Russell saying that the Maccabees were the sole source of resistance when the Seleucids were forcibly trying to hellenize the area. And it's not going too far to say that they single-handedly saved monotheism from extinction. That would make the book of Maccabees quite a crucial one, wouldn't it?