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.
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....
Church Ages, part 2: The Patmos Vision
60-1204E §26
The next, I'd just like to take a little time on answering this, I'm going to read the headline: THREE FAITHS TRANSLATED OF ONE BIBLE BEGINS. Washington, October the 15th. Catholic, Protestant and Jewish scholars working as a team have begun a new joint translation of the Scriptures that may prove to be the long-waited canon Bible. Some more things here I'd like to study a little bit before I make the announcement of it. In other words, you see just exactly what we're talking about, just exactly what the Scripture...
God keeps His Word
57-0115 §26
...here just recently. And he said... I was talking about baptizing a girl. He asked me how I baptized her; "By immersing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." He said, "The Catholic church used to do that." I said, "When?" He said, "In the early days." I said, "What early days?" He said, "The early days of the Catholic church." I said, "How early was the Catholic church?" Which I had all the sacred histories laying there, the Foxe "Book Of The Martyrs." I had Pemberman's "Early Ages." I had all the Josephus writing...
Influence
63-1114 §7
Let us turn tonight in the Old Testament, to get what we wish to make a context from, as we read from Isaiah, the 6th chapter of the book ... the prophet Isaiah. I like Isaiah's writings. He was a great prophet. Did you ever know that Isaiah wrote the entire Bible, like a prelude to it? He did. Isaiah starts out in the creation, in the middle of the Book come John the Baptist, and the last in the millennium. So he ... There is sixty-six books of the Bible, and sixty-six chapters of Isaiah, so it's just certainly a...
Fellowship by redemption
55-0403 §21
...ere's one hundred and twenty-four scientific, proven facts about modern science." He said, "If I should take you up there, it would take you two years to read through those books, constantly, every day." And said, "When you got through the twenty-four books of them, ... or, the hundred and twenty-four books," he said, "the next thing you do, you'd have to forget every bit of it, 'cause they done found something new that'll outdo that." When he said that, I thought, But praise be to God, I know a Book that's been he...