Why are extra books in Catholic bible questioned by protestants?

Answer 1

The "extra" books in the Catholic Bible are called the Apocrypha. At the time of Jesus there was no "bound" "Book" called the Bible. Greek was the common language of the time, and many Jews living in the outer regions of the Roman Empire could no longer speak or read Hebrew. The Septuagint (LXX) is the Greek Translation of the scrolls in use at the time of Jesus. Many early Christians were pointing to "this or that" scroll as proof that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament Prophesies about the Messiah. In 80 AD a group of Rabbis (the Mazzorites) gathered 'canonized' scrolls into what Christians call the "Old Testament." I understand the reasoning was: God Spoke Hebrew, therefore the completeness of the collection cannot exceed the number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet; God Spoke Hebrew, therefore all the inspired scrolls must be written in the Hebrew Language. To fit the number of "books", to the total count of the alphabet, the 12 minor prophets and Ezra and Nehemiah one grouping and finalized them as the "Tanek" Many of the "Old Testament" citations quoted in the New Testament are the exact words used in the LXX. The LXX was used as the "Official" Bible (Old Testament) by the "c"hurch up to the time of the Reformation. The Reformers used the Mazzorite Text to translate Scripture into their language. (In doing this they did away with certain "truths" held by the Catholic "C"hurch, as they only appeared in the LXX. For the same reason Luther tried to eliminate the Epistle of James from the NT, as it did not agree with his theology of "Faith alone") That is the the basic history of the different number of "books" in Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish Bibles.