Final answer:
The New Testament of a Catholic Bible consists of 27 books. These include the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation, and the canon was established by the western Church by 1442. While there are variations in the sacred texts among Christian denominations, the number of NT books in the Catholic Bible remains consistent with the standard Christian Bible.
Step-by-step explanation:
The New Testament (NT) of a Catholic Bible contains 27 books. These books consist of the Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, the Pauline and General Epistles, and Revelation. Unique to the Catholic tradition, the Bible includes the Apocrypha, which is a set of texts considered canonical in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions but not in Protestant traditions. However, the books within the Apocrypha are part of the Old Testament, not the New Testament.
The New Testament canon was solidified in the western Church during the Renaissance, specifically by 1442. It captures the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and the early history of Christianity, regarded as fulfillment of prophecies from the Hebrew Bible. The four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are central to the NT, recounting the life and teachings of Jesus.
Differences in sacred texts do exist among various Christian denominations. For example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes the Book of Mormon in their religious texts, which is not found in the Catholic Bible. The Catholic Bible remains distinct due to its inclusion of additional texts in the Old Testament, not for having more books in the New Testament than the standard 27.