Books of the Bible - Definition


Books of the Bible - Definition

The canonical list of the Books of the Bible differs between Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox, even though there is a great deal of overlap. Below a table is presented to compare the canons of the various denominations for both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. A discussion of the differences is found in the article on Biblical canon.

It should be noted that the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic churches may have minor differences in the list of accepted books. The list given here for these churches is the most broad list of canonical books -- that is, if at least one eastern church accepts the book, it is included in the list here. The books included by the Catholic Church are universally included in the eastern canons.

Contents

1 The Tanakh and the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Old Testaments

2 The New Testament of all modern Christians

3 Notes

4 See also

The Tanakh and the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Old Testaments

Tanakh	Protestant Old Testament	Catholic Old Testament	Orthodox Old Testament
Torah or Pentateuch
Genesis	Genesis	Genesis	Genesis
Exodus	Exodus	Exodus	Exodus
Leviticus	Leviticus	Leviticus	Leviticus
Numbers	Numbers	Numbers	Numbers
Deuteronomy	Deuteronomy	Deuteronomy	Deuteronomy
Nevi'im or Prophets
	Historical books
Joshua	Joshua	Joshua	Joshua
Judges	Judges	Judges	Judges
	Ruth	Ruth	Ruth
Samuel	1 Samuel	1 Samuel	1 Samuel
Samuel	2 Samuel	2 Samuel	2 Samuel
Kings	1 Kings	1 Kings	1 Kings
Kings	2 Kings	2 Kings	2 Kings
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
	1 Chronicles	1 Chronicles	1 Chronicles
	2 Chronicles	2 Chronicles	2 Chronicles
	Ezra	Ezra	Ezra
			1 Esdras⁶
	Nehemiah	Nehemiah	Nehemiah
		Tobit¹	Tobit¹
		Judith¹	Judith¹
	Esther	Esther²	Esther²
		1 Maccabees¹, ⁵	1 Maccabees¹, ⁵
		2 Maccabees¹, ⁵	2 Maccabees¹, ⁵
			3 Maccabees⁶
			4 Maccabees⁶
	Wisdom books
	Job	Job	Job
	Psalms	Psalms	Psalms⁹
			Odes⁶, ⁷
	Proverbs	Proverbs	Proverbs
	Ecclesiastes	Ecclesiastes	Ecclesiastes
	Song of Solomon	Song of Solomon	Song of Solomon
		Wisdom¹	Wisdom¹
		Sirach¹	Sirach¹
			Psalms of Solomon⁶
	Major prophets
	Isaiah	Isaiah	Isaiah
	Jeremiah	Jeremiah	Jeremiah
	Lamentations	Lamentations	Lamentations
		Baruch¹,³	Baruch¹,³
			Letter of Jeremiah¹, ⁸
	Ezekiel	Ezekiel	Ezekiel
	Daniel	Daniel⁴	Daniel⁴
Minor prophets
Hosea	Hosea	Hosea	Hosea
Joel	Joel	Joel	Joel
Amos	Amos	Amos	Amos
Obadiah	Obadiah	Obadiah	Obadiah
Jonah	Jonah	Jonah	Jonah
Micah	Micah	Micah	Micah
Nahum	Nahum	Nahum	Nahum
Habakkuk	Habakkuk	Habakkuk	Habakkuk
Zephaniah	Zephaniah	Zephaniah	Zephaniah
Haggai	Haggai	Haggai	Haggai
Zechariah	Zechariah	Zechariah	Zechariah
Malachi	Malachi	Malachi	Malachi
Ketuvim or Writings¹⁰
Psalms
Job
Proverbs
Song of Songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Ecclesiastes
Esther
Daniel
Ezra
Nehemiah
Chronicles

The New Testament of all modern Christians

The Gospels

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

The History

Acts

The Letters of Paul

Romans

Titus

The General Letters

Hebrews¹¹

James¹¹

1 Peter

2 Peter

1 John

2 John

3 John

Jude¹¹

The Prophecy

Revelation¹¹ or Apocalypse

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church adds a few additional books to its New Testament: Jubilees, Book of Enoch, the Shepherd of Hermas, 1 Clement, Acts of Paul, and some uniquely Ethiopian books.

Notes

Return links: Tanakh/Old Testament — New Testament

¹ This book is not in the Protestant Old Testament.
² The Catholic and Orthodox Book of Esther includes 103 verses not in the Protestant Book of Esther.
³ In Catholic Bibles, Baruch includes a sixth chapter called the Letter of Jeremiah. Baruch is not in the Protestant Old Testament.
⁴ In Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, Daniel includes three sections not included in Protestant Bibles. The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men are included between Daniel 3:23-24. Susanna is included as Daniel 13. Bel and the Dragon is included as Daniel 14. These are not in the Protestant Old Testament.
⁵ The Latin Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims place First and Second Maccabees after Malachi instead of Esther.
⁶ These books are not in the Protestant and Catholic Old Testaments.
⁷ The Book of Odes includes the Prayer of Manasseh. This book is not present in the Catholic or Protestant Old Testaments.
⁸ Eastern Orthodox Bibles have the books of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah separate.
⁹The Eastern Orthodox church adds one extra Psalm to the Book of Psalms.
¹⁰These books are found among the historical and wisdom books of the Christian canons.
¹¹Martin Luther wished to remove these books from the canon, but this did not occur. Nonetheless, in German editions of Luther's Bible, these are printed at the end of the New Testament, rather than the order given above.