Seventy-three canonical books: forty-six in the Old Testament, twenty-seven in the New. Full text, searchable, with each chapter on its own page.
The one writing to you is just a Christian like yourself. No chair, no degree in theology, no authority. He shares here an experience of his own — one he would not wish on anyone else — and so decides to set it down.
When I was converted, I went straight to buy a Bible. On Amazon, online, without thinking too much: I picked it by the cover, by the price, by the reviews. I started in Genesis with the discipline of someone in love, and went on day after day.
Halfway through the Old Testament I noticed something didn't add up. Books were missing — books I saw quoted in other Catholic sources — Tobit, Wisdom, Maccabees. I went to investigate. I discovered I had bought a Protestant Bible. No one had warned me. I didn't know I had to ask.
It wasn't a grave error — what I read was still the Word of God, and Providence does not waste a soul who has opened the book. But seven whole books of the Old Testament were missing, plus important passages from Esther and Daniel. The Catholic Church has recognised them as inspired since the earliest centuries. The reformers of the sixteenth century removed them. I, a recent convert, knew none of this.
This page exists, in part, so that others may not go through the same. Here you find the full Catholic Bible in the public domain, free to read. And just below, modern Catholic editions we recommend buying — because having a Bible at home, on the shelf, within reach, leaves a mark on a life.
Let no one start to read the Bible without knowing which Bible they hold.
We read here from the public-domain text. But a well-made Bible, bound in cloth, on your shelf, is a lifetime of company. These are the Catholic editions we recommend, with ecclesiastical approval.
The English Catholic Bible since 1582 (NT) and 1610 (OT), revised by Bishop Challoner in the 18th century. Standard English Catholic text for centuries; the public-domain translation read here. Baronius leather edition with extensive notes.
Mgr. Ronald Knox's 20th-century translation from the Latin Vulgate, praised for its literary English. Used by the Church in England and Wales for liturgy from 1955 to 1969. A profoundly readable Catholic Bible.
The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, with the deuterocanonical books in their proper places. Widely used by scholars and serious students of Scripture. The "Ignatius Bible" is the most popular RSV-CE printing.
Scholarly Catholic translation with extensive exegetical notes from the École Biblique de Jérusalem. The standard Catholic study Bible in English. Beautiful prose; thorough apparatus.
Lumen Lectio is currently activating its US affiliate program. Outbound links go to Amazon search; we may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases once the program is live, at no extra cost to you. We only recommend Catholic editions with ecclesiastical approval.
Books marked with a gold dot and left border are deuterocanonical — present in the Catholic Bible, absent in Protestant translations.
The Catholic Bible and the Protestant Bible share the same New Testament, but their Old Testaments differ. Understanding why helps you choose a Bible — and read it more deeply.
46 in the Old Testament · 27 in the New Testament. Includes the seven deuterocanonical books and the Greek additions to Esther and Daniel.
39 in the Old Testament · 27 in the New Testament. Follows the Hebrew Masoretic canon, fixed by rabbinical Judaism after the Church had already been founded.
The first Christians read the Old Testament in the Septuagint — the Greek translation used throughout the Mediterranean from the third century BC onwards. It is the Septuagint Jesus quotes, the Septuagint the apostles preach from, the Septuagint the Fathers of the Church comment upon. And the Septuagint includes these seven books.
The Council of Hippo (393), the Council of Carthage (397) and Pope Innocent I (405) already listed the 73 books as inspired Scripture. This was the Bible of the Church for more than a thousand years.
In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther chose to follow the Hebrew Masoretic canon — a shorter list, fixed by rabbinical Judaism at the end of the first century, after Christianity had already been established. Luther also had doctrinal objections to specific passages (in 2 Maccabees 12, for instance, there is a clear reference to prayer for the dead, the foundation of the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory).
In response to the Reformation, the Council of Trent (1546) solemnly reaffirmed the canon of 73 books, dogmatically, in its Fourth Session. The Church added nothing — it confirmed what it had always read.
The reader who skips the deuterocanonical books loses the entire history of the Maccabean resistance and the Feast of the Dedication (Hanukkah, which Jesus celebrates in John 10:22). Loses the Book of Tobit, with the angel Raphael and the first explicit theology of Christian marriage. Loses the Wisdom of Solomon, which prefigures Christ so clearly that many thought it Christian when first discovered. Loses Sirach, with its praises of mercy and the fear of the Lord that the Catholic liturgy continually quotes.
The Catholic Bible does not have extra books. The Protestant Bible has fewer. The difference is historical, doctrinal, and matters.