Guide · Low-Medium · 9 min
Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Ethiopian canons: what are the differences?
A comparative overview of major Christian biblical canons and why their lists of books are not identical.
# Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Ethiopian canons: what are the differences?
Quick summary
Christian traditions do not all use exactly the same biblical canon. The New Testament is broadly shared at 27 books, but the Old Testament differs, especially around deuterocanonical, apocryphal, and wider traditional books.
Protestant canon
Most Protestant Bibles use 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Books such as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and Maccabees are usually not part of the Protestant Old Testament canon, though they may appear in an Apocrypha section in some editions.
Catholic canon
The Catholic canon includes the deuterocanonical books as part of the Old Testament. This means Catholic Bibles have more Old Testament books than most Protestant Bibles.
Orthodox canons
Eastern Orthodox traditions often have a broader Old Testament, shaped strongly by the Greek Septuagint tradition. Exact lists can vary among Orthodox churches and editions.
Ethiopian canon
The Ethiopian Orthodox tradition preserves one of the broadest biblical canons, including books not found in most other Christian Bibles, such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees in its wider tradition.
The main point
The difference is not simply “who has the real Bible?” It is a history of reception, liturgy, language, translation, and ecclesial authority. A neutral guide should name the traditions clearly rather than treating one list as universal by default.
Read also
- What is the biblical canon?
- Why do some Bibles have more books than others?
- What are the deuterocanonical books?
- Why is the Book of Enoch not in most Bibles?
Sources and recommended reading
Editorial note: this article is written in an informational, non-confessional tone. Where traditions disagree, the page should describe differences of reception, use, and canon without presenting one tradition as the universal default.
Internal links
Why is the Book of Enoch not in most Bibles?
What is the difference between apocrypha, deuterocanonical, and pseudepigrapha?