A Protestant Bible is any Christian Bible translation or revision that comprises 39 books of the Old Testament (according to the Jewish Hebrew Bible canon, sometimes known to non-Protestants as the protocanonical books) and the 27 books of the New Testament for a total of 66 books.
Contents
- Early Protestant Bibles
- Excluded books
- Included books
- Old Testament
- New Testament
- Notable translations
- References
This practice was standardized among Protestants following the 1825 decision by the British and Foreign Bible Society. This is often contrasted with the 73 books of the Catholic Bible, which includes 7 deuterocanonical books according to Roman Catholic Canon Law 825, as a part of the Old Testament.
Early Protestant Bibles
From the Reformation, Protestants have usually excluded the books which Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians consider to be Deuterocanonical, viewing them as non-canonical. However, prior to an 1825 British and Foreign Bible Society decision, most Protestant Bibles did include these additional books within the same printed bibles. It was usually to be found in a separate section under the heading of Apocrypha and sometimes carrying a statement to the effect that the such books were non-canonical. A surviving quarto edition of the Great Bible, produced some time after 1549, does not contain the Apocrypha although most copies of the Great Bible did. A 1575 quarto edition of the Bishop's Bible also does not contain them. Subsequently, some copies of the 1599 and 1640 editions of the Geneva Bible were also printed without them.
Excluded books
A Protestant Bible excludes the seven books which Catholics and Eastern Christians consider to be deuterocanonical as Protestants view these as non-canonical. The outcome is a 400-year gap in the chronology of the Christian scriptures.
Included books
The books that comprise a Protestant Bible with their commonly accepted names among the Protestant churches are given below. Note that "1", "2", or "3" as a leading numeral is normally pronounced as the ordinal number, thus "First Samuel" for "1 Samuel".
Old Testament
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
New Testament
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, Revelation.
Notable translations
Most Bible translations into English conform to the Protestant canon and ordering. Notable English translations include:
A 2014 study into the Bible in American Life found that of those survey respondents who read the Bible, there was an overwhelming favouring of Protestant translations. 55% reported using the King James Version, followed by 19% for the New International Version, 7% for the New Revised Standard Version (printed in both Protestant and Catholic editions), 6% for the New American Bible (a Catholic Bible translation) and 5% for the Living Bible. Other versions were used by fewer than 10%.