Catholic Books that are not in Protestant Bibles
Catholics have 7 books in our Bibles that Protestants do not and these are only found in the Old Testament. We call them Deutero-canonical Books (belonging to the second canon, the Greek version). Protestants call them Apocrypha (pious, non-biblical, books). Joe Heschmeyer does a great job explaining this.
A common argument against these 7 books by Protestant apologists is that they are never quoted by New Testament authors, demonstrating for Christ and the Apostles and the Early Church that these books do not belong in the Bible as the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God. However, there are problems with this line of thinking.
First thing, this is an argument from silence, which is a terrible argument to make. To say, “There’s nothing said by the Apostles about Y, therefore they must have believed X.”
Second, there is a distinction between quotes, references, and allusions. Jonah is not quoted, but Jesus does reference the book. If you are talking about actual quotations, we have these facts to recall:
There are around 200 quotes in the New Testament from the Old Testament, not the commonly cited 800+.
There are 10 Old Testament books in Protestant Bibles that are never quoted by New Testament authors: Judges, Ruth, Ezra, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Obadiah, Jonah, and Zephaniah.
Third, Saint Paul will also quote pagan authors that are not Scripture, so this isn’t an infallible principle that can be uniformly applied. Mere quotation is not enough.
Fourth, the Protestant apologist must then widen this principle from direct quotations to now include allusions and references, such as when Jesus references “the sign of Jonah”, yet never quoted it. But then Catholics can point to:
Romans 1:19-20, where Saint Paul builds his case against pagans denying God’s existence runs very similar (St. Paul is abridged) to Wisdom’s case against pagan worship. And in Romans 3 and 5 talking about the reward for blameless souls, being created for corruption, and the “Wages” one of sin, and one of holiness. Clearly, Saint Paul is in dialogue with Wisdom in formulating his thoughts.
Hebrews 11:25 is considered by many scholars to be a reference to the famous martyrdom of the Jewish mother and her seven sons in 2 Maccabees 8.
Wisdom 2:17-20, which is read during the Passion, contains amazing insights into the Pharisees and chief priests who wished to condemn Christ.
Fifth, essentially, there is a standard for Catholic books that is much higher (direct quotations) than for Protestant books (quotes, but now also references and allusions).
Sixth, the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) was the Old Testament version that the Apostles cited overwhelmingly in their direct quotations. The Septuagint has some or all of these Catholic books in every version we have. So to say that Protestants have Jesus’ Old Testament and the Catholics snuck in some more post-Constantine (or whenever) is indefensible.
Seventh, the Early Church used the Septuagint and quoted from some of these books, especially Wisdom. Here are quotes from the Church Fathers before Constantine.
96 AD, 1 Clement 3 cites Wisdom as Scripture
180 AD, Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, chapter 26 is referring directly to Wisdom 9:13-17
198-203 AD, St. Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 5:14, he cited Wisdom 2:12 as Scripture
Ibid, Stromato 4:16, he cites as Scripture Wisdom 3:2-4
210 AD, Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem 3:22, cited Wisdom 2:12
Early 200s, St. Hippolytus of Rome, Expository Treatise Against the Jews, 9, he points out Wisdom 2 referencing Christ as the just man.
248 AD, Origen, Contra Celsus 7:8 he quotes Wisdom 1:5, and treats it like Scripture, though doesn’t call it Scripture.
252 AD, St Cyprian of Carthage Ep. 51, calls Wisdom Scripture with “it is written”.
290 AD, St. Methodius of Olympus, Banquet of the Ten Virgins, 2:3, quotes Wisdom many times as Scripture.
Eighth, Saint Augustine, in his book On the Predestination of the Saints (1:27), written in 428-429 AD, says that the Book of Wisdom
“ought not to be repudiated, since for so long a course of years that book has deserved to be read in teh Church of Christ from the station of the readers… and to be heard by all Christians, from bishops downwards, even to the lowest lay believers, penitents, and catechumens, with the veneration paid to divine authority.”