Have you ever wondered what Bible to buy for you or your family and not been sure which to choose? There certainly is a big choice out there! And so it can be difficult to know where to start…. The Bible is known to be the bestselling book in the world. Overall around 3.9 billion copies are known to have been sold, but with many more free copies distributed yearly, it is difficult to come up with exact figure of how many are in circulation, which is certainly much higher.

Differences between Protestant and Catholic Bibles

Did you know there are differences between Protestant and Catholic Bibles? Catholic Bibles contain—and have always contained—all of the books of the Bible that have been traditionally accepted by Christians dating back to the time of Jesus. These accepted books total 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Protestant Bibles, however, have seven fewer books in their Old Testament.

These seven books excluded in the Protestant Bible are:

• Baruch
• Sirach
• 1 and 2 Maccabees
• Tobit
• Judith
• Wisdom of Solomon
• plus portions of Esther and Daniel

The above books were rejected by Protestant Reformers in the 1500s because elements in these books did not support certain Protestant theology and doctrines. Prior to the sixteenth century, however, all Christians used Bibles containing all 46 books of the Old Testament. During the first century, there was much debate among the early Christians as to what made up the canon of Scripture. The Church, having been given authority by Jesus Christ and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, compiled the Bible in the form that it exists today. The video below also offers some explanation.

Different Translations

Here’s another complication when choosing which Bible to buy or read. There are dozens of translations of the Bible into English, none of which are perfect. “It depends on what you want to accomplish with your reading of the Bible,” said John Martignoni, director of evangelisation at the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama, and founder of the Bible Christian Society.

There are two main ways biblical translation is done:

• Formal equivalence: one that was translated more literally, for use in Bible study,
• Dynamic equivalence: one that is not strictly word for word, providing perhaps a “smoother” reading experience.

View this video for more information:

There are many contemporary translations of the Bible into English but only a few are officially approved by the Catholic Church to be free from inaccuracy and excessive bias. Among these are the:

• English Standard Version
• Revised Standard Version
• New Revised Standard Version
• Jerusalem Bible
• New Jerusalem Bible
• Contemporary English Bible
• Good News Bible

The first three use a kind of translation called ‘formal equivalence’ and the last three use a more informal style called ‘dynamic equivalence.’ The first three are recommended for Catholic Bible study because they translate from the original languages in a way that is more word-for-word from the original languages. However the others mentioned make for smoother reading.

The best way to tell if a translation has been approved or not is to look for the words ‘Catholic Edition’ on the cover. This will let you know not only that it is an approved translation, but also that all 73 books of the Catholic Bible are included, not just the 66 books of Protestant editions.

As a rough guide:

• If you have a scholarly interest in the Bible, go for the Revised Standard Edition or New Revised Standard Edition.
• If you want a Bible that is easier to read and understand, choose the Jerusalem Bible, New Jerusalem Bible or the Good News Bible.
• If you want a Bible to follow Mass with, choose the English Standard Version.
• If you want a Bible that is particularly suitable for children, choose the Good News Bible.

There is no reason why a Catholic cannot collect two or three different translations. Often it is possible to get a better sense of what is being said in a passage by comparing different translations.