Official Catholic Bible

I have a Douay Rheims Bible which still contains these books, though they were considered Apocryphal to begin with and were not included in all Catholic Bibles (Bibla Sacra / Latin Vulgat). Here is what the Translators of the Douay Rheims Wrote: -START- THE PRAYER OF MANASSES with the second & third Books of Esdras, extant in most Latin and vulgar Bibles, are here placed after all the Canonical Books, of the old Testament: because they are not received into the Canon of Divine Scriptures by the Catholic Church. THE THIRD & FOURTH BOOKS OF ESDRAS: For help of the readers, especially such as have not leisure to read all, we have gathered the contents of the chapters; but made no Annotations: because the text it self is but as a Commentary to the Canonical Books; and therefore we have only added the concordance of other Scriptures in the margin. -END- ~~~~~~~~~~~ For the first 300 years of Christianity, there was no Bible as we know it today. Christians had the Old Testament Septuagint, and literally hundreds of other books from which to choose. The Catholic Church realized early on that she had to decide which of these books were inspired and which ones weren't. The debates raged between theologians, Bishops, and Church Fathers, for several centuries as to which books were inspired and which ones weren't. In the meantime, several Church Councils or Synods, were convened to deal with the matter, notably, Rome in 382, Hippo in 393, and Carthage in 397 and 419. The debates sometimes became bitter on both sides. One of the most famous was between St. Jerome, who felt the seven books were not canonical, and St. Augustine who said they were. Protestants who write about this will invariably mention St. Jerome and his opposition, and conveniently omit the support of St. Augustine. I must point out here that Church Father's writings are not infallible statements, and their arguments are merely reflections of their own private opinions. When some say St. Jerome was against the inclusion of the seven books, they are merely showing his personal opinion of them. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. However, A PERSONS PRIVATE OPINION DOES NOT CHANGE THE TRUTH AT ALL. There are always three sides to every story, this side, that side, and the side of truth. Whether Jerome's position, or Augustine's position was the correct position, had to be settled by a third party, and that third party was the Catholic Church. Now the story had a dramatic change, as the Pope stepped in to settle the matter. In concurrence with the opinion of St. Augustine, and being prompted by the Holy Spirit, Pope St. Damasus I, at the Council of Rome in 382, issued a decree appropriately called, "The Decree of Damasus", in which he listed the canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments. He then asked St. Jerome to use this canon and to write a new Bible translation which included an Old Testament of 46 books, which were all in the Septuagint, and a New Testament of 27 books. ROME HAD SPOKEN, THE ISSUE WAS SETTLED. "THE CHURCH RECOGNIZED ITS IMAGE IN THE INSPIRED BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. THAT IS HOW IT DETERMINED THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE." Fr. Ken Baker The decisive shot had been fired. St. Jerome acquiesced under obedience (Hebrews 13:17) and began the translation, and completed it in 404 A.D.. In 405, his new Latin Vulgate* was published for the first time. *The word "vulgate" means, "The common language of the people, or the vernacular". ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is a book (PDF) that explains the History of the Bible, and the Catholic Canon in regards to the Apocrypha i.e., III & IV Esdras & Prayer of Manasses. It is a very interesting book, if your are really interested in the history of the bible, I really recommend this book. http://www.catholicapologetics.info/scripture/oldtestament/Canon.pdf