Why do Catholics add books to the Bible?

This is the wrong question. The better question to ask is, "Why did Protestants take books out of the Bible?" If you are unfamiliar with which books I am referring to, let me explain.

First of all, it is important to understand that there are three main branches of Christianity.

>>Catholic

>>Orthodox (do not recognize the authority of the pope)

>>Protestant (which broke off from Roman Catholicism under the leadership of Martin Luther, a Catholic priest himself, for a number of reasons in 1517. There are multiple different denominations within this category - Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, assemblies of God, etc.)

All three of these groups have the same 27 books in the New Testament, however, they differ when it comes to the books in the Old Testament. While a Protestant Bible will have 39 books in the Old Testament, Catholic and Orthodox Bibles will have the same 39 plus the deuterocanonical books (referred to as the "apocrypha" by most Protestants.) The term "deuterocanonical" has been used by the Roman Catholic church since the 16th century to describe the following books: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah, Prayer of Manasseh, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, as well as additions to Esther and Daniel. These books are not part of the Hebrew Bible (the scriptures used in Judaism). Protestants have used the term "Apocrypha" to describe these books, as they are not believed to be a part of the canon of scripture. Canon is defined as "the collection or list of sacred books accepted as genuine." The word "apocrypha" comes from the Latin word for "hidden writings." However, it has been brought to my attention that this is not an accurate description of these books due to the fact that they were never "hidden." The so-called "apocrypha" was in the King James Version of the Bible, first printed in 1611, which was used by Catholics and Protestants alike. The apocrypha was also included in the Septuagint, (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in 3rd and 2nd c. BC), and the Vulgate (latin version of Bible which was adopted by the Catholic church in 4th c. AD.) The Dead Sea Scrolls, found in 1946, which date back to the 2nd century, earlier than any other Hebrew manuscripts, include some of the apocryphal books. To me it has become clear that to say that the deuterocanonical books were not added until later by the Catholics (at the Council of Trent in the 16th century AD) is false. You could argue this is when it was made official, but the books have been included with scripture long before this.

Today in my New Testament class I learned that it apparently took several hundred years to definitively remove these books from the canon of Scripture. The Protestant Reformation began in 1517. The apocryphal books were included in early Protestant translations of the Bible -- In the Luther Bible (in German) and the King James Version (in English) in 1611 the apocryphal books were included in their own section separate from the Old and New Testament. The books were taken out for financial and theological reasons. Quite simply, it was more expensive to print Bibles with these books in them....more paper. Additionally, a lot of the content in the deuterocanonical/apocryphal books is supportive of the theology of the Catholic Church: praying for the dead, petitioning “saints” in Heaven for their prayers, worshipping angels, and “alms giving” atoning for sins. It just doesn't make sense to me....take praying for the dead, for instance - This had been practiced for 1500 years prior to Martin Luther - but now all of the sudden it is wrong and these books are wrong. I don't know these are just my initial thoughts - I could research this for hours and I'm sure I will at some point.

It could be argued in favor of the Protestant canon that the New Testament never quotes from any of the apocryphal books. This is definitely something to consider. I learned today that the New Testament quotes the most from Isaiah and Psalms.

Please comment if you know anything further on this topic or if you disagree with anything I've said...I have only just begun looking into this topic...