An old joke goes that a door-to-door Bible salesman knocked on the front door of a house to sell his holy wares, only to be told by the homeowner: “Sorry, we don’t read the Bible. We’re Catholic.”
It’s a punchline that draws a chuckle, but is it one rooted in truth? Knowing that the Bible is the backbone of the Christian faith and that the Roman Catholic Church is its largest denomination, it almost seems absurd to assert that its Scripture could have no place in the lives of millions. Still, when we think of people we know who can deftly quote chapter and verse, they more often than not seem to belong to Protestant denominations instead. So what’s the truth? Is it true that Catholics don’t read the Bible? Let’s take a closer look.
Sharing Space With Rituals
What is true, admittedly, is that Protestant faiths have placed more emphasis on personal Bible study. This has its roots in the Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther’s doctrine of sola scriptura: the belief that the Bible itself, not its learned readers, is the only authority on matters of faith. Other Protestant denominations have mitigated this belief by merely making Scripture the foremost authority rather than the solitary one. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church maintained that extrabiblical ecclesiastical traditions, such as the rituals of the sacraments and the teachings of the Church, were equally important to the lives of parishioners. The Bible’s importance despite a lack of primacy is what informs the misconception that Catholics don’t read their own Scripture.
Apocryphal Origins
Not only is it true that Catholics do read the Bible, but they read from an expanded version that contains additional books. The Catholic Church’s edition of the Bible contains 14 additional books in the Old Testament—books that were part of the Septuagint, an early Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, but are not quoted in the books of the New Testament. These books comprise the Apocrypha, or what the Catholic Church refers to as the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament, and the inclusion or omission of these 14 books is perhaps the largest difference between Catholic and Protestant Bibles.
There’s No Mass Without the Bible
The claim that the Bible plays no part in Catholicism becomes more absurd when one considers Mass and the outsize role that Scripture plays in that ritual. Even if everyday Bible study isn’t a part of parishioners’ lives, religious education and participation in Mass familiarizes Catholics with the words of the Bible. That being said, if it ever is a matter of needing someone to cite chapter and verse, that does seem to be Protestant territory.
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