Most people speak about “the Bible” as though every Christian tradition uses the same collection of books. But Protestant, Catholic, and Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bibles do not all share one table of contents.

In this Author’s Notes conversation, Lula Starling explores the 66-book Protestant canon familiar to many Americans, the 73-book Catholic canon, and the 81-book canon identified by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The episode also looks at the Apocrypha in the original 1611 King James Bible and what happens when the tradition we inherited begins to feel universal.

This conversation is not declaring one tradition right or accusing another of hiding or fraudulently removing books. It is an invitation to ask which Christian tradition we mean, how that tradition treated its canon, and what the history can teach us about certainty.

Follow Author’s Notes with Lula Starling for more conversations that question, explore, and look beyond what we inherited.

Sources and further reading

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church — Canonical Books
https://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/english/canonical/books.html

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — Books of the Bible
https://www.usccb.org/offices/new-american-bible/books-bible

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — Understanding the Bible
https://www.usccb.org/bible/understanding-the-bible

Cambridge University Press — Authorised Version of the English Bible, 1611
https://www.cambridge.org/universitypress/bibles/bible-versions/king-james-version/text-editions/authorised-version-english-bible-1611

Church of England — Articles of Religion, Article VI
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/articles-religion