The Bible

The main source for Christian belief is the Bible, a collection of texts written by numerous authors, which includes a vast array of Jewish religious texts referred to as the Old Testament. The main resource of Christian belief is the New Testament, containing a series of texts claiming to be eye-witness accounts of Jesus’ earthly mission (the Gospels), as well as a larger number of followers’ letters, predominantly those written by Saul of Tarsus (Saint Paul).

There are distinct differences between the Protestant and the Catholic Bibles: there are seventy-two books found in Catholic editions, forty-five in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New. Protestant copies usually lack the so-called Apocryphral books of Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and I, II Machabees, as well as sections of other texts, notably Esther 10:4-16:24, and Daniel 3:24-90; 13:1-14:42, which are not found in the Jewish Torah.

Various complete versions of the Bible can be found online at the following links: (the apocrypha are linked under the heading to the left of “Non-canonical books”)

King James Version ( KJV )

New International Version ( NIV )

Revised Standard Version ( RSV )

New American Standard Bible ( NASB )

New King James Version ( NKJV )

Darby Translation

Young’s Literal Translation

KJV with comparison to Latin Vulgate, Greek New Testament, and Hebrew Tanach


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