The Bible

I've been chatting with a friend about the Bible lately, particularly concerning the additional books which can be found in Roman Catholic Bibles.

So I'm going to be using this blog to help me think through certain issues, and examine some of the reasons for the differences in content.

In the Bible I use, there are 66 books. 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament. (Easy to remember because 3 x 9 = 27.

Perhaps some would suggest that what I'm considering is a waste of time.

But I don't agree. In 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17 we read :

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I suppose what I'm looking at is whether the additional books found in some Bibles, (called either Aprocphyal books or Deuterocanonical books) come within the scope of this verse; i.e. are they God-breathed and hence useful for all that is mentioned, or only human writings which should not be used as a basis for faith, and have only a limited use for the man (or woman) of God.