Which Bible has the most books?

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible, with 81 books in its standard canon and nine more in its broader canon. See the article on the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible for the full list.

Why does the Protestant Bible have fewer books than the Catholic Bible?

Protestant Bibles follow the shorter Hebrew canon for the Old Testament, while the Catholic Bible follows the longer Greek Septuagint list, which includes the books called the Apocrypha by Protestants and the deuterocanon by Catholics.

Bible Canons Compared: Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Ethiopian

All of these churches share the same 66 books. The differences are in what comes after them — and the table below shows exactly where each tradition stops or keeps going.

What every tradition shares

The 66 books of the Protestant Bible, 39 of the Old Testament and 27 of the New, are received as scripture by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Ethiopian Orthodox churches alike, so they are not listed in the table. The differences are all in the additional books, most of them Jewish writings from the last centuries before Christ that were included in the Greek Septuagint. Protestant Bibles, following the Hebrew canon, leave them out, though the original 1611 King James Version printed them between the Testaments.

The books outside the 66, tradition by tradition

Books beyond the 66 and the traditions that receive them as scripture
Book	Protestant	Catholic	Eastern Orthodox	Oriental Orthodox	Ethiopian Orthodox
Tobit	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Judith	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Wisdom of Solomon	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Baruch	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Epistle of Jeremiah	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	—
Additions to Esther and Daniel	—	Yes	Yes	Yes	—
1 and 2 Maccabees	—	Yes	Yes	Varies	—
3 Maccabees	—	—	Varies	Varies	—
1 Esdras	—	—	Varies	Varies	—
Prayer of Manasseh	—	—	Varies	Varies	—
Psalm 151	—	—	Varies	Varies	Yes
2 Esdras (Ezra Sutuel, 4 Ezra)	—	—	—	—	Yes
1 Enoch	—	—	—	—	Yes
Jubilees	—	—	—	—	Yes

“Yes” means documented as received as scripture by that tradition. “Varies” means churches within the tradition differ. A dash means it is not documented as canonical in that tradition's published list, not that the tradition condemns it. The Ethiopian Orthodox church is itself one of the Oriental Orthodox churches, listed separately because its canon is the broadest. It has its own Meqabyan books, which are not the same as the Maccabees. 4 Maccabees is printed as an appendix in some Greek Orthodox Bibles but is not part of the canon of these churches generally.

Why the lists differ

Nobody voted these books in or out in a single moment. Churches settled their lists at different times, using different Old Testaments: the Protestant churches after the Reformation chose the Hebrew canon, the Catholic Church confirmed the longer Septuagint-based list at the Council of Trent in 1546, and the Orthodox churches have never closed theirs as tightly, which is why so many rows say “Varies.” The Ethiopian Orthodox church kept copying 1 Enoch and Jubilees long after they fell out of use everywhere else, and those two books survive complete only in its ancient language, Geʿez.

Read them yourself

Every book in the table is carried here in full, and each book page says which churches receive it. The collections gather them by tradition: the Apocrypha, the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible.

Common questions

Which Bible has the most books?: The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Bible, with 81 books in its standard canon and nine more in its broader canon. See the article on the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible for the full list.
Why does the Protestant Bible have fewer books than the Catholic Bible?: Protestant Bibles follow the shorter Hebrew canon for the Old Testament, while the Catholic Bible follows the longer Greek Septuagint list, which includes the books called the Apocrypha by Protestants and the deuterocanon by Catholics.