99 Fun Facts About Catholic Bible

How many books are in the Catholic Bible?

73 books: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. Most Protestant Bibles have 66, because the Reformers set aside seven Old Testament books that are not in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Protestant Bibles group seven Catholic Old Testament books under what name?

The Apocrypha is the Protestant name for them; the Church of England still reads these books 'for example of life and instruction of manners', but not to establish any doctrine.

What term describes the seven Old Testament books Catholics accept that are absent from the Hebrew Bible?

Deuterocanonical means 'of a second canon': the word marks books whose place in the Bible was disputed for a time, not ones that rank lower, and Catholics hold them fully canonical.

Which 16th-century theologian, a convert from Judaism, coined in 1566 the term for books of 'second canon'?

Sixtus of Siena, a Dominican convert from Judaism, coined 'deuterocanonical' in his 1566 Bibliotheca Sancta for books whose canonical standing was settled later, in both Testaments.

Which of these is NOT one of the seven books unique to the Catholic Old Testament?

Ecclesiastes is in every canon; the seven are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 1 and 2 Maccabees.

The seven extra books of the Catholic Old Testament are all found in which ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures?

The Septuagint was the Old Testament of the early Church, and the New Testament writers took most of their quotations from it, which is how its extra books passed into Christian Bibles.

Which 16th-century council fixed the Catholic canon in 1546 and declared the Vulgate the Church's authentic Latin Bible?

The Council of Trent defined the canon on April 8, 1546, anathematizing anyone who rejected the listed books, and declared Jerome's Vulgate the authentic Latin text.

Which pope commissioned Jerome in 382 to revise the Latin Gospels, the start of the Vulgate?

Pope Damasus I, whose secretary Jerome was, asked him in 382 to revise the Latin Gospels; the pope died two years later, long before Jerome began translating the Old Testament from Hebrew.

Jerome did most of his Vulgate translation work while living for 34 years near which town?

The Roman aristocrat Paula funded his monastery beside the Church of the Nativity; he died there in 420.

What are the Latin Bible translations that predate the Vulgate collectively called?

Vetus Latina, 'Old Latin', names scattered texts rather than one book: no complete Old Latin Bible survives, and its Old Testament is known only in parts.

The name Vulgate comes from the Latin vulgata, meaning what?

Common: the vulgata editio was the edition in general use, a title Jerome's Latin Bible earned only in the Middle Ages, after it had displaced the older translations.

Which pope promulgated the Nova Vulgata, the Church's official Latin Bible, completing a revision begun under Paul VI?

John Paul II issued it in 1979; the project had begun when the Second Vatican Council asked for a clearer Latin psalter for daily prayer, and Paul VI widened the task to the whole Bible.

The Catholic Bible that English exiles finished in 1610 is named after Rheims and which other town?

Douai housed the exiles' college, but the town expelled it in 1578 and it sheltered at Rheims until 1593, so the New Testament came out there in 1582 and the Old Testament at Douai later.

Which pope's 1943 encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu urged Catholic translators to work from Hebrew and Greek rather than the Vulgate?

Pius XII wrote that the original text carries more authority than any translation, however good; until then Catholic Bibles in modern languages were normally made from the Latin.

Which 1970 Catholic translation became the basis of the US Mass lectionary?

The New American Bible began as a translation from the Latin; in 1944, after Rome encouraged work from the original languages, the bishops had their scholars start again from Hebrew and Greek.

The 1966 Jerusalem Bible was inspired by a French translation by Dominicans at which school?

The Jerusalem Bible followed La Bible de Jérusalem (1956), produced by Dominicans of the École Biblique in Jerusalem; J. R. R. Tolkien contributed to the English edition.

Vatican II's 1965 Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation is known by what Latin title?

Dei verbum, 'the Word of God', called for easy access to Scripture for all the faithful and for new translations from the original texts, even ones made jointly with other Christians.

Which Latin mark in a Catholic Bible shows a bishop has authorized its publication?

Imprimatur, 'let it be printed', follows a censor's nihil obstat, 'nothing hinders'; neither means the bishop agrees with the book, only that nothing in it harms faith or morals.

In the Book of Tobit, which archangel travels in disguise with young Tobias?

Raphael, calling himself Azariah, guides Tobias to Media and tells him a fish's burnt heart and liver drive out demons and its gall cures blindness.

In Tobit, what blinds the pious Tobit as he sleeps in his courtyard?

Sparrow droppings fall into Tobit's eyes as he sleeps by the courtyard wall (Tobit 2:10), forming white films; physicians' ointments only worsen it until fish gall restores his sight.

Which demon kills Sarah's suitors on their wedding nights in the Book of Tobit?

Asmodeus has killed seven of Sarah's bridegrooms before Tobias drives the demon off with the smoke of a burning fish heart and liver; it flees to Egypt, where it is bound hand and foot.

Which Assyrian general does Judith behead in his tent to save her city of Bethulia?

Holofernes had drunk himself senseless at his own banquet; Judith took his sword from the bedpost and struck twice (Judith 13), a scene painted by Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi and Klimt.

Most modern Catholic scholars classify the Book of Judith as what?

Most Catholic scholars read Judith as a theological novel: its anachronisms, such as Nebuchadnezzar ruling the Assyrians from Nineveh (Judith 1:1), signal didactic fiction rather than history.

1 Maccabees is best known for recounting the origin of which Jewish festival?

Hanukkah's eight days come from 1 Maccabees, but its famous miracle of the oil does not: that story first appears in the Talmud, written down centuries later.

Which Seleucid king's bans on Jewish practices provoked the Maccabean revolt?

Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlawed circumcision and Sabbath observance and desecrated the Temple in 167 BC, provoking the revolt led by Mattathias and his son Judas Maccabeus.

Catholics cite 2 Maccabees 12 as scriptural support for which practice?

2 Maccabees 12:44-46 praises Judas Maccabeus for having atonement made for his fallen soldiers, calling prayer for the dead 'holy and pious'; Catholics cite it for purgatory.

In 1 Maccabees, Judas's brother Eleazar is crushed to death after stabbing which animal from underneath?

An elephant: Eleazar took the one in royal armour to be carrying the enemy king, fought his way to it and stabbed it from below, and the dying beast fell on top of him.

By what Latin name, roughly 'church book', is the Book of Sirach also known?

Ecclesiasticus was known only in translation for centuries; then, from 1896, large parts of its lost Hebrew original came to light among worn-out manuscripts stored in a Cairo synagogue.

Who translated Ben Sira's Hebrew wisdom book into Greek in Egypt and added his own prologue?

His grandson made the translation after moving to Egypt, and his prologue begs readers' indulgence, since words first spoken in Hebrew lose their force in another language.

Scholars place the Greek-speaking Jewish author of the Book of Wisdom in which city?

Alexandria is the likely home: he wrote in Greek, belonged to its Jewish community by most accounts, and aimed a long polemic at the animal worship of Egypt.

The Book of Baruch is named after the scribe of which prophet?

Jeremiah dictated his prophecies to Baruch; when King Jehoiakim sliced up the scroll and burned it piece by piece, Baruch wrote the whole thing out again.

Which woman, falsely accused by two elders, does young Daniel save in chapter 13 of the Catholic Book of Daniel?

Susanna goes free when Daniel questions the two elders apart: one says he saw her under a mastic tree, the other under an oak, and the lie is exposed.

In 'Bel and the Dragon', how does Daniel prove Bel's priests eat the offerings?

He scatters ashes to catch footprints: by morning the floor shows that the priests, their wives and children crept in through a secret door under the table to eat the food.

The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children is inserted into which scene in Daniel?

The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three are inserted into the fiery furnace scene (Daniel 3:24-90); Azariah is Abednego's Hebrew name and the song became the canticle Benedicite.

Which Hebrew Bible book never mentions God, a silence its Greek additions in Catholic Bibles fill with prayers?

Esther's Hebrew text has no divine name or title at all; Jerome, finding the Greek passages missing from the Hebrew, moved them to the end of the book in his Latin Bible.

Which churches' Old Testament goes beyond the Catholic one, adding books such as 3 Maccabees and 1 Esdras?

Eastern Orthodox Bibles follow the old Greek Old Testament more fully than Rome does, so they keep texts such as 1 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh that Catholic Bibles leave out.

Which printer's 1450s Bible, Europe's first major book from movable type, used the Latin Vulgate text?

Johannes Gutenberg left gaps for the headings and capital letters, which each buyer had added by hand in colour, so the surviving copies all look different.

Ancient Aramaic and Hebrew copies of Tobit, a book long known only in translation, turned up in 1952 among which find?

The Dead Sea Scrolls held fragments of Tobit in Aramaic and Hebrew, which settled an old argument: the book was first written in a Semitic language, probably Aramaic, not in Greek.

In the three-year cycle of Sunday Mass readings, which Gospel has no year of its own?

John has no year: Matthew, Mark and Luke take one each, while John is read in Lent and Eastertide every year and fills five Sundays of Mark's year.

At Sunday Mass in Eastertide, which book replaces the Old Testament as the first reading?

Acts takes over the first reading throughout the Easter season, so apart from the vigils of Easter and Pentecost all three Sunday readings come from the New Testament and the Old is heard only in the psalm.

The Catholic Rheims New Testament of 1582 was among the sources used by the translators of which English Bible?

King James Version translators were never officially told to consult it, yet the Catholic exiles' wording is now recognised to have left a large mark on their 1611 text.

The 1966 RSV Catholic Edition adapted a translation produced by which body?

The RSV Catholic Edition (1966) adapted the Revised Standard Version, copyrighted by the National Council of Churches' Division of Christian Education, placing the deuterocanonical books in their Catholic Old Testament order.

Vatican II taught that Scripture flows 'from the same divine wellspring' as what?

Sacred Tradition, the council said, joins Scripture to form a single deposit; the teaching office that interprets both was described as their servant, not their master.

In the Book of Tobit, which animal goes along with Tobias and his angelic guide on their journey?

A dog follows them out of the house and runs along behind them on the way home, and painters of Tobias and the angel, Verrocchio among them, put it at their feet.

Which gathering of 382 is credited in the Decretum Gelasianum with the earliest Catholic canon list?

The Council of Rome of 382 under Pope Damasus I is credited, via the Decretum Gelasianum, with the list; Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) confirmed the same canon.

Which bishop's Easter letter of 367 lists the New Testament's 27 books?

Athanasius set out the list in the letter he sent each year to announce the date of Easter; Catholic and Protestant Bibles still share those same 27 books.

Which New Testament letter was long counted as Paul's fourteenth, though its text never names an author?

Hebrews puzzled even the early Church: Origen concluded that who wrote it 'only God knows', and Catholic Bibles now list it apart from Paul's thirteen letters.

A 2008 Vatican letter said the divine name Yahweh must be replaced in the liturgy by what word?

Lord: the letter appealed to the oldest Greek and Latin Bibles, which wrote 'Lord' wherever the Hebrew text had the four-letter name, a practice the first Christians simply kept.

In 2 Maccabees, seven brothers and their mother accept torture and death rather than eat what?

Pork was forbidden by Jewish law; the king's men tried to force it on them, and several of the brothers died declaring that God would raise them to life again.

Which Catholic fantasy novelist and Oxford professor helped translate the 1966 Jerusalem Bible?

J.R.R. Tolkien is named among its principal collaborators. He later called that credit an undeserved courtesy on the editor's part.

Which apostle is promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven, a passage Catholics tie to the papacy?

Peter receives the keys after declaring Jesus the Messiah. Crossed keys still appear on papal coats of arms and on the arms of the Holy See.

Which Old Testament book supplies most of the prayers in the Catholic Liturgy of the Hours?

Psalms forms the backbone of the Church's daily prayer, and one is sung after the first reading at Mass. Nearly half of the collection carries the name of King David.

Which Catholic prayer opens with the angel Gabriel's greeting at the Annunciation, from Luke's first chapter?

Hail Mary begins with the angel's own words to the Virgin, which is why the prayer is also known as the Angelic Salutation.

Which grandfather of Noah is the longest-lived person in the Bible, said to have reached 969 years?

Methuselah became a byword for extreme old age. By the arithmetic of Genesis he dies in the very year the flood begins.

Which Hebrew word of praise, sung before the Gospel at Mass, do Catholics drop from the liturgy during Lent?

Alleluia falls silent for the whole of Lent, replaced by a plainer acclamation, and returns at Easter. The word means 'praise Yah'.

Which final book of the Catholic Bible, also called the Apocalypse, records visions seen on Patmos?

Revelation opens with letters to seven churches in Asia. 'Apocalypse' simply means an unveiling, not a catastrophe.

By what Latin-derived name do Catholics know Golgotha, the site outside Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified?

Calvary comes from the Latin calvaria, 'skull', a straight translation of Golgotha, which the Gospels call the place of the skull.

On which Mediterranean island is Paul shipwrecked and bitten by a viper while being taken to stand trial?

Malta still keeps the feast of St Paul's Shipwreck every 10 February. The islanders took him for a god when the snakebite did him no harm.

Which reformer's 1534 Bible moved the seven disputed Old Testament books into a section of their own?

Martin Luther did not cut the books, as is often said. He printed them after the Old Testament under a heading that called them useful reading but not equal to Scripture.

By what name do Catholic Bibles group Genesis through Deuteronomy, the books Jewish tradition calls the Torah?

Pentateuch means 'five scrolls'. The same books are also called the Law, or the Five Books of Moses after their traditional author.

On which mountain does Moses receive the Ten Commandments, a peak the Book of Deuteronomy calls Horeb?

Mount Sinai is the name Exodus uses, and scholars generally treat Horeb as a second name for the same peak. The emperor Justinian built St Catherine's Monastery at its traditional site in the sixth century.

Which reluctant prophet boards a ship to escape God's order to preach against the Assyrian city of Nineveh?

Jonah is thrown overboard to calm a storm and swallowed alive before he finally obeys. Nineveh repents, and he is displeased that God spares it.

Which judge of Israel loses his strength when Delilah arranges for his hair to be cut as he sleeps?

Samson wore his hair uncut as the sign of a Nazirite vow. Blinded and set to grind grain, he later brings a Philistine temple down on himself and his captors.

Which king of Israel, builder of the first Jerusalem Temple, is the traditional voice of the Book of Wisdom?

Solomon gives the book its other title, the Wisdom of Solomon, yet most scholars date it to the first century BC, long after his reign.

In the Catholic Old Testament, young Tobias cures his father's blindness with the gall of which creature?

A fish caught in the Tigris supplies the cure. The angel guiding Tobias also has him burn its heart and liver to drive off a demon.

In the Catholic Book of Daniel, which prophet does an angel carry to Babylon to feed Daniel in the lions' den?

Habakkuk has just made a stew in Judea when the angel tells him to deliver it. The scene comes from Bel and the Dragon, a chapter Protestant Bibles leave out of Daniel.

Which conqueror of Jerusalem dreams of a huge statue with feet of iron and clay in the Book of Daniel?

Nebuchadnezzar watches a stone cut by no human hand shatter the statue and grow into a mountain. Daniel reads its metals as kingdoms that will each give way.

Which priest-king of Salem, named in the first Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass, brings bread and wine to Abraham?

Melchizedek appears in only a few verses of Genesis, blessing Abraham after a battle. Church Fathers read his offering as a foreshadowing of the Eucharist.

Which Jewish feast recalls the night the Israelites marked their doorframes with lamb's blood in Egypt?

Passover takes its name from God passing over the marked homes during the final plague. The Gospels place the Last Supper in the week of this festival.

Which Moabite widow follows her mother-in-law Naomi to Judah and becomes King David's great-grandmother?

Ruth wins the love and protection of Boaz, a wealthy relative, through her kindness to Naomi. Matthew's Gospel later names her in the family tree of Jesus.

Which prophet is lifted to heaven in a whirlwind as a chariot and horses of fire appear, in 2 Kings?

Elijah lets his mantle fall as he rises, and his successor Elisha picks it up. Catholic Carmelites honour him as their spiritual father and traditional founder.

Which prophet's book contains the Emmanuel prophecy that Matthew's Gospel applies to the birth of Jesus?

Isaiah first offers the sign to King Ahaz during a war that threatened Judah. The child's name, Emmanuel, means 'God is with us'.

What name does Exodus give the flaky food, tasting of honey wafers, that fed the Israelites in the desert?

Manna spoiled overnight, with one exception: a double share fell on the sixth day and kept fresh, because none fell on the seventh.

What sacred object did the Israelites build to hold the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments?

Ark of the Covenant is also a title Catholics give Mary in the Litany of Loreto. The chest itself was acacia wood plated with gold and carried on poles.

Which friend from Bethany, the brother of Martha and Mary, does Jesus raise from the tomb in John's Gospel?

Lazarus had already lain in the tomb for days. His home town is now called Al-Eizariya, Arabic for 'the place of Lazarus'.

In which Galilean village does Jesus turn water into wine at a wedding, his first sign in John's Gospel?

Cana is where his mother notices the wine has run out and prompts the miracle. John never gives her name anywhere in his Gospel.

What Latin name do Catholics give Mary's song of praise in Luke's Gospel, sung each day at Evening Prayer?

Magnificat is simply the opening word of the song in Latin, where it means 'magnifies'. Mary sings it while visiting her pregnant cousin.

The Beatitudes open which famous discourse of Jesus, which fills chapters 5 to 7 of Matthew's Gospel?

Sermon on the Mount also contains the Our Father as most Catholics recite it. Luke gives a shorter parallel that Jesus delivers on level ground.

Which Luminous Mystery of the Rosary recalls Jesus shining with light on a mountaintop before his closest apostles?

The Transfiguration joined the Rosary only in 2002, when the Luminous Mysteries were introduced. The Church keeps its feast on 6 August.

On the road to which village do two disciples fail to recognise the risen Jesus until they sit down to supper?

Emmaus is where the pair finally know him as he breaks the bread at table. Luke names only one of the two disciples, Cleopas.

Which prisoner does the Jerusalem crowd ask Pontius Pilate to release instead of Jesus?

Barabbas was in prison as a bandit. Some manuscripts of Matthew call him Jesus Barabbas, so the crowd is choosing between two men with the same first name.

Which passer-by is forced by soldiers to carry the cross of Jesus, as the fifth Station of the Cross recalls?

Simon of Cyrene came from a city in what is now eastern Libya. Mark's Gospel names his sons, Alexander and Rufus, as if its first readers knew them.

In Catholic art, which creature stands for John among the winged symbols of the Gospel writers?

An eagle was believed able to look straight into the sun. The Gospel symbols trace back to the living creatures in a vision of the prophet Ezekiel.

Matthew, Mark and Luke share so many stories in similar order that scholars call them what?

The Synoptic Gospels can be set side by side and seen together, which is what the name means. John tells the story so differently that he stands apart.

Which New Testament book, written as a sequel to Luke's Gospel, follows the early Church from Jerusalem outward?

Acts of the Apostles shares its author with Luke's Gospel. It ends with Paul a prisoner in the imperial capital, still waiting for his trial.

On which feast, fifty days after Easter, do tongues of fire descend on the apostles gathered in Jerusalem?

Pentecost is often called the birthday of the Church. The disciples were in the city for a Jewish festival, the Feast of Weeks, when the Spirit came.

Which letter of Paul, the longest he wrote, stands first among his letters in the New Testament?

Romans was taken down by a scribe named Tertius. Paul's letters to churches are arranged roughly from longest to shortest, not in the order he wrote them.

Paul's famous hymn to love, a favourite reading at Catholic weddings, comes from which of his letters?

1 Corinthians was written to a divided congregation. The hymn's point is that no spiritual gift, however impressive, has any value without love.

Which letters on a Catholic crucifix abbreviate the Latin title that Pilate had fixed to the cross of Jesus?

INRI stands for the Latin for 'Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews'. John's Gospel says the notice was written in several languages for passers-by to read.

Which letter, the shortest by Paul, asks a Christian slave-owner to welcome back the runaway Onesimus?

Philemon runs to just 335 words in the original. Paul asks its recipient to take Onesimus back no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother.

Which Old Testament book is the shortest of all, a single chapter of 21 verses about the fall of Edom?

Obadiah is one short vision against Edom, a mountain nation said to descend from Esau, the brother of Jacob. It blames Edom for gloating when Jerusalem fell.

Which Old Testament book, chanted at Tenebrae in Holy Week, is made up of five poems, most of them acrostics?

Lamentations grieves for Jerusalem after its fall to Babylon. All but the last of its poems work through the alphabet letter by letter.

What label, from a word for 'hidden', do Protestant Bibles give the disputed books Catholics keep as Scripture?

Apocrypha is the heading for a block of fourteen books that traditional Protestant Bibles print between the Testaments, more than Catholics count as Scripture.

Which Latin phrase, printed in many Catholic Bibles, records that a Church censor has cleared the text?

Nihil obstat means 'nothing stands in the way'. It comes from a censor of books, delegated by a bishop, who checks the text against Catholic faith and morals.

Which traditional monastic practice prays slowly through a Scripture passage in stages that end with contemplation?

Lectio Divina is Latin for 'divine reading'. Benedict of Nursia established it in the 6th century, and the Carthusian monk Guigo II later set out its steps.

Catholics number the Ten Commandments following the division set out by which Church Father from North Africa?

Augustine folded the ban on images into the first commandment and split the ban on coveting in two, which is why Catholic lists differ from those of many other churches.

Which disciple is chosen by casting lots to replace Judas Iscariot among the twelve apostles?

Matthias was picked over the other nominee, Joseph called Barsabbas, after a gathering of about 120 believers prayed and drew lots.

Which Archbishop of Canterbury of the Magna Carta era is credited with dividing the Bible into its modern chapters?

Stephen Langton worked out the scheme in the early 1200s. Verse numbers came much later, from the Paris printer Robert Estienne in the 1550s.

On the road to which city is Saul, the future apostle Paul, struck blind by a light from heaven?

Damascus is where a reluctant disciple named Ananias is sent to lay hands on Saul and restore his sight, in a house on the Street Called Straight.