The 7 Books in the Catholic Bible Not in the Protestant Bible
July 17, 2026
A Catholic Bible holds 73 books. A Protestant Bible holds 66. The gap is seven books that sit in the Old Testament of the Catholic edition and were left out of the Protestant one, plus a few extra passages tucked inside two books both traditions share.
This piece names all seven, says what each one is about in a sentence or two, and explains in plain terms why the two Bibles ended up with different tables of contents. There is no argument here about who is right. The goal is to let you read either Bible without getting lost.
The seven books at a glance
Here are the seven, in the order they appear in a Catholic Old Testament:
- Tobit. A short, warm story about a faithful family, an angel in disguise, and a journey that ends in a marriage and a healing.
- Judith. A dramatic account of a widow who saves her town from an invading army through nerve and cunning.
- Wisdom (also called the Wisdom of Solomon). A reflection on living wisely, the reward of the just, and the folly of chasing empty things.
- Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus). A long collection of practical advice on work, friendship, speech, money, and family, closer to Proverbs than to anything else.
- Baruch. A short book tied to the prophet Jeremiah's scribe, written as Israel reflects on exile and return.
- 1 Maccabees. A history of the Jewish revolt against a foreign king who tried to stamp out their faith, the events behind Hanukkah.
- 2 Maccabees. A retelling of part of that same struggle, with more focus on the people and their courage than on the battles.
Catholics call these the deuterocanonical books, which means "second canon." That name does not mean second-rate. It marks the fact that the church settled their status a little later than the books everyone already agreed on.
The extra passages inside shared books
The count of seven covers whole books, but the difference does not stop there. Two books that both Bibles carry are longer in the Catholic edition:
- Daniel gains three sections: the Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men, the story of Susanna, and the story of Bel and the Dragon.
- Esther gains several passages that add prayers and detail to the version Protestants read.
So even a reader who knows Daniel and Esther well will find pages in a Catholic copy that are not in a Protestant one.
Why the two Bibles differ
The short version is that the difference goes back to which Old Testament the early church leaned on.
Centuries before Christ, Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek. That Greek collection, the Septuagint, included these seven books. The early Christian church, which spoke and wrote in Greek across much of the Mediterranean, used the Septuagint widely, so those books traveled with it for centuries.
Later, Jewish authorities settled on a shorter Hebrew canon that did not include them. During the Reformation in the 1500s, Protestant reformers chose to follow that shorter Hebrew list for the Old Testament, and the seven books were set aside. The Catholic Church, at the Council of Trent, formally confirmed the longer list it had used all along.
That is the whole story in plain terms. One tradition kept the longer Greek collection, the other returned to the shorter Hebrew one, and the seven books are the space between them. For a fuller walk through the history and the wording differences, see what makes a Catholic Bible different.
Where you still see these books today
Even outside Catholic use, these books left marks that most people never trace back to the source.
Hanukkah comes straight out of 1 and 2 Maccabees, which record the rededication of the temple after the revolt. The phrase "the whole nine yards" is not from here, but plenty of familiar sayings about wisdom and friendship echo lines from Sirach. And the story of Susanna, folded into Daniel, is one of the oldest courtroom dramas in Western writing.
Many older Protestant Bibles, including early printings of the King James Version, actually included these books in a separate section labeled the Apocrypha, placed between the Old and New Testaments. Over time most editions dropped that section, which is why a modern Protestant Bible looks shorter than one from a few hundred years ago.
How to read them for yourself
If you want to see the text rather than read about it, the Douay-Rheims is a good place to start. It is a traditional English Catholic translation that carries all 73 books, so the seven are right there in their usual spots in the Old Testament.
The fastest way in is to let the book pick a passage for you. The random Catholic verse tool draws from the full Catholic canon, so it can land you inside Sirach or Wisdom or Tobit without you needing to know where to flip. Reading a few verses cold, with no plan, is a low-pressure way to get a feel for books you have never opened.
The 73 vs 66 count, laid out
Here is the arithmetic in one place so it stops being confusing:
| Catholic | Protestant | |
|---|---|---|
| Old Testament books | 46 | 39 |
| New Testament books | 27 | 27 |
| Total | 73 | 66 |
The New Testament is identical, all 27 books, in both. Every book of the difference lives in the Old Testament, and it comes to exactly seven whole books plus the extra passages in Daniel and Esther.
The full 73-book Catholic canon, listed
If you want the whole list rather than just the seven that differ, here are all 73 books in the order a Catholic Bible prints them. The seven deuterocanonical books are marked so you can see exactly where they sit.
Old Testament (46 books)
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, Sirach, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
The seven in italics (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees) are the ones a 66-book Protestant Bible leaves out.
New Testament (27 books)
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.
That is 46 plus 27, which lands at the 73-book total. A Protestant Bible drops the seven italicized Old Testament books and lands at 66, with the exact same 27 in the New Testament.
What each of the seven books actually contains
The list of names is the easy part. Knowing what you are opening is more useful, so here is each of the seven side by side, with rough length and the kind of reading it is.
| Book | Chapters | Kind of book | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tobit | 14 | Narrative | A blind father, a son sent on a journey, and an angel traveling with him unrecognized. Ends in healing and a marriage. |
| Judith | 16 | Narrative | A widow saves her besieged town by walking into the enemy camp alone. Short, tense, and unlike anything else in either canon. |
| Wisdom | 19 | Wisdom writing | Reflection on justice, mortality, and why chasing empty things fails. Written in polished Greek. |
| Sirach | 51 | Wisdom writing | The longest of the seven. Practical advice on money, friendship, speech, parenting, and work. Reads much like Proverbs. |
| Baruch | 6 | Prophetic | Short. Exile, confession, and return, tied to Jeremiah's scribe. Includes a letter warning against idols. |
| 1 Maccabees | 16 | History | A straight historical account of the revolt against Antiochus IV and the rededication of the temple. |
| 2 Maccabees | 15 | History | Covers part of the same period again, with more attention to the people who suffered through it than to the campaigns. |
A few things stand out from the table. Sirach is by far the longest at 51 chapters, more than three times the length of most of the others, so a reader who wants the most substantial of the seven should start there. Baruch is the shortest at 6 and can be read in a sitting. And the two Maccabees books are not a sequence: 2 Maccabees is not a continuation of 1 Maccabees but a separate telling that overlaps in time.
If you want a starting point rather than the whole set, Tobit is the friendliest way in. It is short, it is a story rather than an argument, and it does not need any background to follow.
The 7 books of the Catholic Bible, in one sentence each
For readers who came here just wanting the names in a form that is easy to remember:
- Tobit is a family story with an angel in it.
- Judith is a siege broken by one woman.
- Wisdom is a meditation on living rightly.
- Sirach is a long book of practical advice.
- Baruch is a short reflection on exile.
- 1 Maccabees is the history of the revolt.
- 2 Maccabees is that history told again, closer to the people.
Those seven, plus the added passages in Daniel and Esther, are the entire difference between a 73-book Catholic Bible and a 66-book Protestant one.
Common questions
How many books are in the Catholic Bible? 73: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. A Protestant Bible has 66, so the Catholic count runs seven books higher.
What are the seven extra books in the Catholic Bible? Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees. Catholics call them the deuterocanonical books.
Why does the Catholic Bible have 73 books and the Protestant 66? The Catholic Old Testament follows the longer Greek Septuagint list, which included these seven books. Protestant Bibles follow the shorter Hebrew list, which set them aside during the Reformation.
Are these the same as the Apocrypha? Nearly, but the two lists are not identical. Protestants usually call these books the Apocrypha, and Catholics call them deuterocanonical and treat them as full scripture. The catch is that the Apocrypha section printed in the original King James Version held 14 items, including 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, and the Prayer of Manasseh, which a Catholic Bible does not carry. What is the Apocrypha sets the two lists side by side.
Do Catholic and Protestant Bibles share the New Testament? Yes. Both hold the same 27 New Testament books with no difference in the list. The entire gap is in the Old Testament.
Which translation includes all 73 books? Traditional Catholic translations like the Douay-Rheims carry the full canon. You can also draw from it at random with the Catholic verse tool.
What are all 73 books of the Catholic Bible? 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The full list, in Catholic order, is set out in the section above, with the seven deuterocanonical books marked.
How many books are in the Catholic Old Testament? 46. That is seven more than the 39 in a Protestant Old Testament, and those seven are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, and 2 Maccabees.