Inspired Bible :66 Book (protestant), 73 Books (catholic), or More (Orthodox traditions)?
1) Direct Answer
The inspired canon is the 66 books—Genesis to Revelation. Nothing to add and nothing to take away.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says all Scripture is God-breathed and sufficient to thoroughly furnish the believer (2 Timothy 3:16–17). That speaks of a complete body of writings that fully equips.
- Jesus identified the Old Testament as “the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms” (Luke 24:44). He also marked its bounds “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias” (Luke 11:51), which covers the full Hebrew canon.
- The oracles of God were committed to the Jews (Romans 3:2). Jesus affirmed their Scriptures; He never placed other writings on equal footing.
- God then spoke in the Son and through those He sent (Hebrews 1:1–2; John 14:26; John 16:13). The New Testament came through apostles and their close associates, confirmed by God (Hebrews 2:3–4).
- We are told the faith was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). And the Word warns not to add to or take from what God has given (Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:5–6; Revelation 22:18–19).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Jesus endorsed the recognized Scriptures of Israel; the apostles, led by the Holy Spirit, gave the New Testament. That forms a complete, Spirit-sealed witness.
- The extra books can be historical or moral in places, but they were not received by Jesus and the apostles as Scripture, nor do they carry the “It is written” authority in the New Testament.
- Since God warns against adding to His Word, we hold to the closed canon He vindicated: the 66 books.
Short reinforcement
You see, God keeps His Word pure. The Bible is complete—one Book, from Genesis to Revelation, perfectly in step, without the need of additions.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Church Ages, part 1: Revelation Chapter 1
60-1204M §5
...the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me to warn the people and to place this. And I cannot do it in a church like this sufficiently. And then if I sit down and just wrote the book... I feel that if I got to the pulpit and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit amongst the Christians came upon me to help me, then I would be more sufficient to write the book then, after I took it off the tape, because there we'd get the inspiration of it. The books, of course, will be kind of straightened up a little because in here we put...
We would see Jesus
61-0409 §41
Watch the Jews. They believed it solemnly, some of them that were ordained to life. Others, staunch orthodox in their beliefs, broad-backed, they wouldn't even make a letter... They had to come through a lineage of priesthood---down, down, down, down, from grandfather to grandfather, grandfather---to be a Levite, to be a teacher. But they'd been taught in a tradition instead of the real Word. Jesus said, "You're the father ... your father is the devil." But those poor little fishermen, humble, who would receive and...
Sirs, we would see Jesus
64-0318 §12
Now, if God was going to judge the world (and He is), if we'd say... If I might say to the French Catholic, "What do you think He'll judge it by?" "The French Catholic church." The Roman Catholic believes He'll judge it by that church. The Orthodox, Greek Orthodox Catholic, believes He'll judge it by that. The Methodists will say, "Our church"; the Baptists, "Our church"; the Pentecostal... See, it would be so confusing a person wouldn't know what to do. But He said He would judge the world by Jesus Christ; and Jes...
Condemnation by Representation
60-1113 §50
Now you show me one place in the Bible where anybody was ever baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It's not there! It's man-made theology that's been hybred into the church, giving a chance for an idol---like is coming into the nation now. I can prove to you by history and by the Bible that anybody that's baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is baptized in the Catholic church---by their own catechism. They said, "Will any Protestants be saved?" They said, "Some of them, they accep...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 7:E-68
To begin with, there is no basis for the claims that the 'Lamb's Book of Life' is not the same as the 'Book of Life.' The Book of Life might be called the Lamb's Book of Life, or Christ's Book of Life, or even Thy Book and Book of the Living. Only names are written in it. Revelation 13:8, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, (the beast) whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Revelation 17:8, "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; a...