One Year Catholic Bible Reading Plan

Description

I am so excited for you to spend the next year in the”Catholic Bible.” Before you begin, let me explain first what makes a Catholic Bible a Catholic Bible.

Quite simply, an intact Bible meaning it contains all 73 Books of the Bible.  These Bibles will be labeled Catholic Bible or will say, “with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha.”  From EWTN, “In 1534, Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. He grouped the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament under the title “Apocrypha,” declaring. “These are books which are not held equal to the Sacred Scriptures and yet are useful and good for reading.” Luther also categorized the New Testament books: those of God’s work of salvation (John, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, I Peter, and I John); other canonical books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, rest of Pauline epistles, II Peter, and II John); a non-canonical books (Hebrews, James, Jude, Revelation, and books of the Old Testament).

Many Church historians speculate that Luther was prepared to drop what he called the “non-canonical books” of the New Testament but refrained from doing so because of possible political fallout. Why Luther took this course of action is hard to say. Some scholars believe Luther wanted to return to the “primitive faith,” and therefore accepted only those Old Testament books written in Hebrew originally; others speculate he wanted to remove anything that disagreed with his own theology. Nevertheless, his action had the permanent consequence of omitting the seven deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament in Protestant versions of the Bible.”

Even though Martin Luther grouped and then eventually removed seven Books of the Bible, he still thought they were of some value to be read, “These books which are not held equal to the Sacred Scriptures and yet are useful and good for reading.”