Another reason I'm glad I'm Catholic is because my favorite story and prayer is in the Catholic edition. The Bible is the Bible. That's what I think. But the Protestant version has 39 books in the Old Testament, and the Catholic has 46. My favorite story is about the Archangel Raphael and the deliverance prayer, in Tobit.
See the Bibles are the same, except the Catholics include seven more books. So you Protestants who drop the Bible, like it's a hot potato, with a look of disdain, upon finding out that its Catholic, think about it. Everything you wanted to look for, is in the Catholic Bible. Actually, it's we Catholics, who should be dropping the Protestant Bible like a hot potato because it just may be useless to us--if we're looking up one of the seven books that Protestant Bibles don't have.
The reason certain books, testimonies, writings are in the Bible, is logistics; you can't include everything. Choices had to be made. Repetition, unverifiable writings, heresy, craziness, etc., was left out. So the Jewish canon chose only 39 books, and the Protestants followed. The Catholics included more because they were following the Greek language that was used. The Jews were using Aramaic. Those churches that used the Greek Old Testament were using the 46 books, and the tradition has been carried on. These seven books are called deuteroncanonical, or second canon. They include:
JudithTobit
Baruch
1 & 2 Maccabees
Sirach
Wisdom of Solomon
I love the stories in these seven books. Another reason to be glad I'm Catholic
