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Catholic Bible

The Bible is the great story of Godʻs love for his People - a long love letter written by God to each one of us! We, in turn, accept the Sacred Scriptures with great love and reverence. The Roman Catholic Church teaches us to be contextualists when we read Scripture, that is, to read Scripture passages in context, not to pick out details while paying no attention to the whole message. The Catholic Church interprets the whole message with a view to its heart and mystery: Jesus Christ, of whom the whole Bible speaks, even the Old Testament. Therefore we should read the Sacred Scriptures in the faith that gave rise to them, the same living faith of the Church.

The Bible is a collection of books - a library - of different kinds of writing or different literary forms. It is the end product of a five-step process that took about 2,000 years. The five steps of the process are: events, oral tradition, written tradition, editing, and becoming canonical.

The books of the Catholic Bible (Canon) are:

Old Testament (46 Books)

The Historical Books
Genesis (Gen), Exodus (Ex), Leviticus (Lev), Numbers (Num), Deuteronomy (Deut), Joshua (Josh), Judges (Judg), Ruth (Ruth), 1 Smauel (1 Sam), 2 Samuel (2 Sam), 1 Kings (1 Kings), 2 Kings (2 Kings), 1 Chronicles (1 Chron), 2 Chronicles (2 Chron), Ezra (Ezra), Nehemiah (Heh), Tobit (Tob), Judith (Jud), Esther (Esther), 1 Maccabees (1 Mac), 2 Maccabees (2 Mac)

The Wisdom Books
Job (Job), Psalms (ps), Proverbs (Prov), Ecclesiastes (Eccles), song of Solomon (Song), Wisdom (Wis),
Sirach/Ecclesiasticus (Sir)

The Prophets
Isaian (Is), Jeremiah (Jer), Lamentations (Lam), Baruch (Bar), Ezekiel (Ezek), Daniel (Dan), Hosea (Hos), Joel (Joel), Amos (Amos), Obadiah (Obad), Johan (Jon), Micah (Mic), Nahum (Hahum), Habakkuk (Hab), Zephaniah (Zeph), Haggai (Hag), Zechariah (Zech, Malachi (Mal)

New Testament (27 Books)

The Gospels
Matthew (Mt), Mark (Mk), Luke (Lk), John (Jn)

The Acts of the Apostles (Acts)
Romans (Rom), 1 Corinthians (1 Cor), 2 Corintians (2 Cor), Galatians (Gal), Ephesians (Eph), Philippians (Phil), Colossians (Col), 1 Thessalonians (1 Thess), 2 Thessalonians (2Thess), 1 Timothy (1 Tim), 2 Timothy (2 Tim), Titus (Tit),
Philemon (Philem), Hebrews (Heb)

The Catholic Letters
James (Jas), 1 Peter (1 Pet), 2 Peter (2 Pet), 1 John (1 Jn), 2 John (2 Jn), 2 John (3 Jn), Jude (Jude),
Revelation/Apocalypse (Rev)