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Q. How are Catholic Bibles different from other Bibles? A. The difference is that the Catholic Bible has additional books contained in the Old Testament that other Bibles (Bible translations) do not. These books are the Apocrypha, also known as the Deutercanonicals. They include such books as Tobit, Judith, I and II Maccabees, etc. These books were not preserved by the Jews down through the centuries, but Christians preserved them, seeing them as having spiritual value. The Jews, as well as Protestants, deny that they are inspired by God or have binding spiritual authority. Catholics feel otherwise, and made them officially part of the canon of Scripture at the Council of Trent (which led the Counter-Reformation against the early Protestants like Martin Luther) in the sixteenth century. In this regard, earlier in their history, indeed before the Roman Empire fell (476 A.D.), two of the leading Catholic writers, Jerome and Augustine, had a major debate over the Apocrypha. Jerome, who translated much of the Greek and Hebrew for the New and Old Testaments into Latin for the Catholics (the Latin Vulgate version), denied that these books were inspired. Augustine felt otherwise, and believed them to have canonical authority. However, Augustine's position didn't win out officially until over a thousand one-hundred years after his death. I don't believe these added books in the Catholic version of the Bible are inspired. One can find demonstrable historical errors in them that are nearly impossible to explain away. I wouldn't want to say II Maccabees is as historically sound as (say) Daniel or I and 2 Kings .
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