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Question Title Posted By Question Date
Names of Books in the Bible Chas Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Question:

In some of the older Catholic Bibles, we see the names of some of the books as: Esdra, Josue, 1,2,3,4 Kings, Paralipomenon and Apocalypse. Now I see these changed to
Ezra, Joshua, 1,2 Samuel and 1,2 Kings, Chronicles and Revelations. Why the change?

Thanks and God Bless.



Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Chas:

With the exception of the Catholic Edition of the Protestant Revised Standard Version, the old names of the books of the Old Testament did not change in Catholic Bibles until the 1970s New American Bible.

The difference is that the Douay-Rheims and other editions based upon it used names derived from Latin (Jerome's Latin Vulgate). The Catholic Bibles after 1970, and the Protestant Bibles, use names derived from the Hebrew. Also some names, such as Paralipomenon was changed to Chronicles to be consistent with the Bibles produced by the Protestants. This was done to provide a consistency and avoid confusion when citing Biblical texts.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

 

 


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