That God Thing

Bible Canon Part Three

The Jewish scriptures are called the Tanakh after the initials of the three parts of the Jewish traditional scriptures: “T” for Torah which is the teachings of Moses (first five books), “N” for Nevi’im which is the books of the prophets, and “Kh” for Ketuvim which is the Writings including the psalms and wisdom literature. The Torah is the foundation of both law and tradition and is also called the Pentateuch. The books of the Tanakh are the same as in the Christian Old Testament albeit in different order and small variations in textual acceptance. In the Tanakh there are 24 books but these are divided into 39 books in the Old Testament. The canon for the Tanakh was accepted sometime in the mid-160s BC and are so recognized by Rabbinic Judaism.

“Canon” refers to the recognized collections of texts that a particular community considers authoritative and inspired. Word “canon” comes from Greek for “rule” or “measuring stick” which reflects the process of determining which texts meet the standards for faith and practice.

The Old Testament as used by the in the era of Jesus and by his followers was the same text as the Tanakh but as mentioned in the Transmission section, the trade language of that time was Koine Greek and the translation from Hebrew to Greek as the Septuagint was in use in that era. The language in which the New Testament was transmitted was Koine Greek with a few passages and words transliterated from Aramaic, the common Jewish language of the time.

Both the Rabbinical Jewish tradition and the foundational (historical) Christian community consider the canon to be closed – meaning that no more additions are to be made to the existing canon. Obviously there is a conflict between the two canons as the Jewish canon closed in the mid-160s BC while the entirety of the New Testament postdates the life of Jesus. The canon of the Christian New Testament contains 27 books that were selected as both authoritative and inspired by God and were recorded by the apostles of Jesus, from eyewitness testimony of Jesus’ life or by those who encountered him directly after the Resurrection. All of the original texts were dated to the First Century and attributed to those with direct contact to Jesus or his immediate followers. The Apostle Paul apparently did not have personal contact during the lifetime of Jesus but his was direct and after the Resurrection; his witness was also attested by the Apostles. The setting of the cannon from the numerous writings available centered upon those with apostolic sanction, use by the earliest disciples and were in conformity with all other texts accepted as inspired. The final compilation was confirmed by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD which was the accepted “close” date for the Christian canon of the full Bible.

Additional Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible