If the books of the Bible are really the word of God, then why 73 books in the Catholic Bible and 66 books in the Protestant Bible?

Point: it's not quite as simple as you suggest (some Protestants have 79 or 81 books in their official Bibles)

Why: because different denominations

- have different opinions regarding which documents are and are not "inspired of god"

- have different opinions regarding whether or not uninspired documents should or should not be included in Bibles

The simple answer is that men will always seek to thwart God's truth!

If the Catholics hadn't included the apocrypha books that were never really accepted as being divine someone else would have found a way to pervert the bible.  In fact, the perversion of the bible has continued since before Christ (Levites wanted a different bible from the Pharisees) all the way through to modern day perversions like the NWT.

The reality is that ANYONE who wants to really know the truth will spend time and effort to find the truth, instead of hoping for a simple handed to them truth!

Point: it's not quite as simple as you suggest (some Protestants have 79 or 81 books in their official Bibles)

Why: because different denominations

- have different opinions regarding which documents are and are not "inspired of god"

- have different opinions regarding whether or not uninspired documents should or should not be included in Bibles

The 7 books in the word of God were removed by a heretic 1000 years after it was canonized by the Church that Jesus created. Because the advent of the printing press coincided with the heretic's blossoming, propagandized movement there are now 2 "words of God."  One is original; the other is a heresy.