We investigate the spectrum of finite-length carbon nanotubes in the presence of onsite and nearest neighbor superconducting pairing terms. A one-dimensional ladder-type lattice model is developed to explore the low energy spectrum and the nature of the electronic states. We find that zero energy edge states can emerge in zigzag class carbon nanotubes as a combined effect of curvature-induced Dirac point shift and strong superconducting coupling between nearest neighbor sites. The chiral symmetry of the system is exploited to define a winding number topological invariant. The associated topological phase diagram shows regions with non-trivial winding number in the plane of chemical potential and superconducting nearest neighbor pair potential (relative to the onsite pair potential). A one-dimensional continuum model reveals the topological origin of the zero energy edge states: A bulk-edge correspondence is proven, which shows that the condition for non-trivial winding number and that for the emergence of edge states are identical. For armchair class nanotubes the presence of edge states depends on the nanotube's boundary shape.