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How many books are in the Roman Catholic Old Testament?
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biblical literature
Two-page spread of the Book of Ecclesiastes from Johannes Gutenberg's 42-line Bible, c. 1450â55.
The Roman Catholic Old Testament consists of 46 books.
This canon was officially established by the Council of Trent (1545â1563), which affirmed the inclusion of the deuterocanonical booksâsuch as Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and the two Books of the Maccabeesâthat are not found in the Hebrew Bible or the Protestant Old Testament.1
While the Hebrew canon contains 24 books, the Christian tradition often arrives at a different count by dividing certain texts into multiple parts (such as Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles) and incorporating the additional books found in the Septuagint.2