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.
God using His Gift
56-0311E §28
If Jesus Christ... Not only Catholics take it out, but Protestants too. Sure they do. They knifed it and cut it and, "This is inspired, and that's not. And this..." to make it fit your petty doctrine. Brother, every word of it's inspired. And every word of it is just as good today as it was the day that Jesus sealed the book there with His blood at Calvary. Every promise is "yea" and "amen" to the believer.
The Indictment
63-0707M §23
Each man putting his own interpretation makes it say something different. Brings it back to the original organization of the Catholic church, which the Catholic church believes that God is in his church, and the Word has nothing to do with it, and God is in his church. And we Protestants, as we find in Revelation 17, that all of them heaped up together, and that the Catholic church was the mother of all organizations. And we see that the Protestant organization, yet blindly, blindly, has the same nature of the Cath...
God using His Gift
56-0311E §27
Oh, my righteous indignation was burnt up the other night when I heard that Catholic teacher, national-wide, said "This Bible wasn't nothing but ... try to live by it was like wading through a bunch of mud puddles." Blaspheming! And said, "What was it?" Said, "Maybe God took a notion up in heaven He was going to send you down a Bible. So He got some angels, and wrote it, and had a little angel come to the corridors of glory, and come down and hand it to you." Said, "It was a Catholic creed." Said, "The apostles, an...
A Trial
64-0427 §10
Why, all that Bible's inspired! God watches over His Word. God's got to judge the world some day. And if He's going to judge it by the church, what church will He judge it by? If He judged it by the Catholic church (you Catholic would say so), which Catholic church, then---the Greek Orthodox, the Roman, or which one? If He judged it by the Baptist, you Methodists are lost. If He judged it by the Methodist, you Baptists are lost. If He judged it by the Pentecost, you're both lost, see. He isn't going to judge it by...
Thirsting for Life
57-0613 §71
Nothing against Catholic people. My people are Catholic. I'm an Irishman. My mother and father both are Catholic people, come from Catholic families. But me, I love the Lord Jesus, and been borned again. I'm a Nazarene, Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic, born-again Christian. Amen. And I love you all. Catholic don't mean... A Catholic man or woman is just as much in the sight of God as anybody else. Certainly. I just differ with them in their doctrine. I don't protest the Catholic people. I protest Catholic doctrine....