How many books are there in the Holy Bible? The answer to that is 66. There are a total of 66 books in the Bible. The books have been written by forty different writers for more than 1,500 years. Still, it has one reliable plot running all the way through, and it has one author—God.
But how can you be certain that you have the right 66 books in the Bible? Keep in mind that story of the Bible is about the plan of God to rescue the people—men and women—from the devastating consequences of the Fall, a plan that was conceived in eternity, shown through the prophets, and performed by the Son of the God, Jesus Christ.
The Bible is the book without an error
Every writer of the books in the Bible wrote it in their own style and language, using their own mind, and in some cases, research. Still, every book was so overruled by the Holy Spirit that mistake was not permitted to creep into his work. For that reason, the Bible is understood by Christians to be a book without an error.
The collection of the 66 books is referred to as the Canon of the Scripture. That term comes from the Hebrew word kaneh (a rod) and the Greek word kanon (a reed). Among other things, the terms referred equally to the measuring rod of the ruler and the carpenter of the scribe. It then became a common word for anything, which was the measure by which others were to be judged.
Church leaders utilized it to refer to the body of Christian doctrine acknowledged by the churches after the apostles. Origen and Clement of Alexandria, in the third century, were potentially the first to use the word to refer to the Scriptures.
Since then, it became more typical in Christian use with reference to a collection of books, which are fixed in their number, divine in their origin, as well as universal in their authority.
Did you know that there was a bit of discussion among Christians in the earliest centuries over which books belonged to the Bible? Certainly, the number of books had long been resolved by the time of the church leader Athanasius in the 4th century.
Nonetheless, there are efforts today to undermine the clear witness of history. It came from a host of publications from the novel to the academic challenge of the long-held convictions of Christians and the clear proof of the past.
You see, Dan Brown, in The Da Vinci Code, mentioned that over 80 gospels were considered for the New Testament. However, only relatives were picked for inclusion, and among there are John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew. A professor of Popular Science, Richard Dawkins, at Oxford, England, has made the same commentaries.
Why do Roman Catholic Bibles have more books in the Old Testament?
Keep in mind that Roman Catholic Bibles have a total of 73 books compared to 66. That’s because Roman Catholics have seven additional books in their Old Testament, including:
- Baruch
- Sirach
- Wisdom of Solomon
- 1-2 Maccabees
- Judith
- Tobit
These books also have other material, which was included in the books of Ester and Daniel by later Greek interpreters. All of that together is what Catholics refer to as the Deuterocanonical. It is widely referred to as Apocrypha.
On top of that, Eastern Orthodox Bibles have more Apocryphal books like the Prayer of Manasseh, 2 Esdras, and 3 Maccabees. The Ethiopian Orthodox use still others, such as Jubilees and Enoch. Those are all old Jewish writings from well after the period of the Old Testament, which the Jews never accepted or intended as Scripture but which some old Gentile Christians mistook for part of the Jewish Canon.
Some of those materials have cultural and historical value for researchers. Nevertheless, the Apocrypha isn’t real, inspired Scripture and should be added in the Bible.
Why do Jewish Bibles have less records than the Old Testament in Christians?
The Jewish Scriptures are organized in a different manner but have the same books. The Jewish Bible lists 24 books only instead of the 39 in the Old Testament. However, that’s because some of the books that Christians provided are combined into a single book in the Jewish Canon.
Chronicles, Kings, and Samuel are each one book instead of two. Nehemiah and Ezra are combined into a single book as well. Further, the prophets Nahum, Malachi, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Jonah, Habakkuk, Micah, Obadiah, Amos, Haggai, Joel, and Hosea are grouped together as “The Twelve.”
Therefore, even though it’s numbered differently, it’s actually describing the same selection of Scriptures.
In short, the Bible is a collection of 66 books. You will find 27 books in the New Testament and 39 books in the Old Testament. If you’re looking to purchase your own bible, we’d suggesting checking out alabaster co.