Who Told You the Bible Has Only 66 Books? — This Week on Catholic Share

Dear Catholic Share Reader,

This Sunday is the Fourth Sunday of Easter — Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus tells us plainly in John’s Gospel: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” The sheep know His voice, and they follow Him — not strangers. In a world full of competing voices, that promise has never felt more urgent.

📰 THIS WEEK ON CATHOLIC SHARE

This week we published a powerful series on the biblical canon — where your Bible came from, who defined it, and why it matters. If you’ve ever been asked why your Catholic Bible has “extra books,” these articles will arm you with the history and the confidence to answer.

Who Told You the Bible Has Only 66 Books?

Ask any Protestant this simple question and watch the silence that follows. Most have never considered who assembled their Bible — or that other Christians use larger ones. This article walks you through the most common Protestant responses and shows why every one of them eventually leads back to the Catholic Church. It’s the single most effective apologetics question you can ask, and this piece teaches you how to ask it with both clarity and charity. → Read the full article: https://www.catholicshare.com/who-told-you-the-bible-has-only-66-books/

• From Carthage to Ethiopia: The Biblical Canon’s African Roots — The Bible was formally defined at councils held in North Africa, and Ethiopia independently preserved the largest canon in Christianity. Two African traditions, one powerful confirmation of the Catholic position. → https://www.catholicshare.com/from-carthage-to-ethiopia-the-biblical-canons-african-roots/

• What Luther Didn’t Want You to Read in the Bible — The seven deuterocanonical books contain prophecies of Christ’s passion, prayers for the dead, and teachings on almsgiving that proved too Catholic for the Reformers to keep. This article walks through what’s actually in them — and why Luther removed them. → https://www.catholicshare.com/what-luther-didnt-want-you-to-read-in-the-bible/

• No Catholic Church, No Bible: Five Historical Facts — Catholics wrote the New Testament, the Church existed before the Bible did, Catholic councils defined the canon, Catholic monks preserved every manuscript, and Sola Scriptura isn’t found in Scripture. Five facts. One unavoidable conclusion. → https://www.catholicshare.com/no-catholic-church-no-bible-five-historical-facts/

• The Book of Enoch and What Catholics Should Know — Jude quotes it directly. Ethiopia considers it Scripture. The Catholic Church does not. This article explains why — and what Enoch’s story teaches us about why the Church’s teaching authority matters. → https://www.catholicshare.com/the-book-of-enoch-and-what-catholics-should-know/

• Why the Apostles’ Bible Isn’t the Protestant One — The apostles overwhelmingly quoted from the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament that included the deuterocanonical books. Roughly 300 of 350 Old Testament citations in the New Testament follow the Septuagint — not the Hebrew canon Protestants later adopted. → https://www.catholicshare.com/why-the-apostles-bible-isnt-the-protestant-one/

• How Many Books Belong in the Bible, Really? — Christians carry Bibles of 66, 73, 78, or 81 books, and most have no idea the others exist. This article compares all four canons and asks the question that shatters Sola Scriptura: if the Bible is the sole authority, who decides what’s in it? → https://www.catholicshare.com/how-many-books-belong-in-the-bible-really/

⛪ SUNDAY REFLECTION — Fourth Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday)

Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36–41 | Psalm 23 | 1 Peter 2:20b–25 | John 10:1–10

“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.”

We hear Psalm 23 so often that the words can wash over us like background music. But this Sunday, the Church pairs that beloved psalm with Jesus’ own declaration: “I am the gate for the sheep.” And suddenly the psalm isn’t just poetry — it’s a portrait of a Person.

Notice what Jesus says the Good Shepherd does. He calls His sheep by name. He walks ahead of them. He leads them to pasture. And the sheep follow — not because they understand everything, but because they recognize His voice. That word recognize is the heart of this Gospel. The Christian life is not primarily about figuring everything out. It’s about learning to recognize a voice.

Peter, in the first reading, is a man who has learned that voice the hard way. This is the same Peter who denied Jesus three times. Now he stands before thousands and proclaims with absolute conviction: “God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” The crowd is “cut to the heart.” They ask, “What are we to do?” Peter’s answer is direct: “Repent and be baptized.” Three thousand souls responded that day.

What changed Peter? Not a theological argument. Not a book. An encounter with the Risen Lord — and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter heard the Shepherd’s voice, and he could never unhear it.

The second reading from 1 Peter makes this even more personal: “You had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” Every one of us has gone astray. Every one of us has followed voices that were not the Shepherd’s — the voice of ambition, of comfort, of fear, of the crowd. The promise of Good Shepherd Sunday is not that we will never wander. It’s that the Shepherd never stops calling.

This is also why the canon question — the theme of this week’s articles — matters so deeply. We need a shepherd, not just for our daily lives but for truth itself. Jesus didn’t leave us a book and walk away. He founded a Church, gave it authority, and promised the Holy Spirit would guide it. The same Shepherd who calls you by name also gave you the Scriptures through His Church — so that you would have His voice in written form, preserved and handed down across two thousand years.

As you go to Mass this Sunday, listen. Not just with your ears, but with your heart. The Shepherd is speaking — in the readings, in the Eucharist, in the silence after Communion. He knows your name. He is walking ahead of you. Follow Him.

🙏 CLOSING

Thank you for reading. If any of these articles helped you or someone you know, share them — it’s the most powerful way to support this ministry.

God bless you.

Godwin Delali Adadzie CatholicShare.com

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