Do Catholics Believe in the Old Testament?

Catholics receive the Old Testament as Scripture. Catechism 121 (1) says its books are divinely inspired, retain a permanent value, and that the Old Covenant has never been revoked. Catechism 120 counts forty-six Old Testament books, or forty-five if Jeremiah and Lamentations are one, which includes the deuterocanonical books. What Bible Do Catholics Use? prints that list beside the Protestant lists. Catholics do not treat every command in those books as the rule of the Church now. Catechism 577 (2) says Jesus came not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it.

Key Points

• Catechism 121 (1): “The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value, for the Old Covenant has never been revoked.”
• Catechism 123 (1) says Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God, and that the Church has opposed rejecting it on the pretext that the New has rendered it void. The paragraph names that rejection Marcionism.
• Dei Verbum 16 (3) says God is the inspirer and author of both Testaments, and that the books of the Old Testament “with all their parts” acquire their full meaning in the New. Dei Verbum 15 says those books contain some things which are incomplete and temporary, and nevertheless show true divine pedagogy.
• Catechism 582 (2) says Jesus perfects the dietary law and records that he declared all foods clean. Acts 15 (5) is the council that did not require Gentile believers to be circumcised.
• Do Jews Believe in the Old Testament? is the Tanakh, twenty-four books in Chabad’s count, which is not titled the Old Testament and does not include the New Testament or the Catholic deuterocanon. What Is the Apocrypha? is the Protestant name for that extra class.

An Indispensable Part of Scripture

Catechism 121 (1):

The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and retain a permanent value, for the Old Covenant has never been revoked.

Catechism 123 (1) says Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God. The Church “has always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament under the pretext that the New has rendered it void (Marcionism).” Catechism 129 says Christians read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen, and that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as revelation. It repeats an old saying: the New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.

Dei Verbum 15 (3) says the plan of the old covenant was directed to prepare for the coming of Christ, to announce that coming by prophecy, and to indicate its meaning through types. The books, “though they also contain some things which are incomplete and temporary, nevertheless show us true divine pedagogy.” Christians should receive them with reverence.

Why Not Every Law of Moses

Catechism 577 (2) says that at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presented God’s law, given on Sinai, in light of the grace of the New Covenant. The paragraph quotes him:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.

That wording is the Catechism’s English. The King James Version of Matthew 5:17Matthew 5:17 · King James VersionThink not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.Matthew 5:17 · King James VersionOpen source (4) is the same claim in the 1769 text: he did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfil. This page does not paste that second wording beside the Catechism’s.

Catechism 582 (2) says Jesus perfects the dietary law by a divine interpretation, and it includes the clause that he declared all foods clean. Mark 7:18–23Mark 7:18–23 · King James Version^7:18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; ^7:19 Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? ^7:20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. ^7:21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, ^7:22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: ^7:23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.Mark 7:18–23 · King James VersionOpen source (6) is the passage. Acts 15 (5) is the Jerusalem council. Gentile believers were not required to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses as the condition of belonging. Dei Verbum 15 (3) is the council’s own pair of words for the same books: some things in them are incomplete and temporary, and they still show divine pedagogy.

Receiving the books is not the same act as imposing every civil and ceremonial command on the Church. The Catechism’s claim is that Jesus fulfils the Law, including by bringing the dietary rules to the meaning Mark 7 states.

The Deuterocanon

Catechism 120 (1) numbers the Old Testament at forty-six books, forty-five if Jeremiah and Lamentations are counted as one. What Bible Do Catholics Use? lists them and names the seven that are not in the Westminster Confession’s Old Testament: Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, and Baruch. Catholic writers call these the deuterocanon. Protestant confessions call that class the Apocrypha.

Dei Verbum 16 (3):

God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New.

The same paragraph says the books of the Old Testament “with all their parts,” caught up into the proclamation of the Gospel, acquire and show their full meaning in the New Testament and in turn shed light on it. “With all their parts,” read with Catechism 120, is the council’s reason for keeping the deuterocanon inside the Old Testament rather than in a separate appendix. The Apocrypha on this site is that set of books, with the notice that Catholic and Orthodox churches receive them as deuterocanonical and the Protestant canon of sixty-six does not. What Is the Apocrypha? separates them from books such as Enoch that neither the Catholic list nor the Protestant list receives.

Do Jews Believe in the Old Testament? is a third list: the Tanakh. Chabad’s twenty-four-book count does not include Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, or the books of Maccabees, and it does not include the New Testament.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Don’t Catholics Follow All the Old Testament Laws?

Catechism 577 (2) says Jesus fulfils the Law rather than abolishing it. Catechism 582 says he declared all foods clean. Acts 15 (5) did not lay circumcision and the whole law of Moses on Gentile believers. Dei Verbum 15 (3) says some things in the old books are incomplete and temporary. The books stay Scripture. Catechism 121 (1) says the Old Covenant has never been revoked.

Do Catholics Use a Different Bible Than Protestants?

Catechism 120 (1) includes the deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament. Westminster, quoted on What Bible Do Catholics Use?, does not. Both lists include Genesis through Malachi in the shared Hebrew books, and both include the New Testament. The difference this page is about is the deuterocanon, not a different Jesus.

Is the Old Testament or the New Testament More Important?

Dei Verbum 16 (3) says God is the author of both, and that the New lies hidden in the Old and the Old is made manifest in the New. Catechism 121 (1) calls the Old Testament indispensable. The paragraphs do not rank one Testament as the only one the Church believes.

The Churches on This Site

• Catholic
• What Bible Do Catholics Use?
• What Is the Apocrypha?
• Do Jews Believe in the Old Testament?
• Common Arguments