What is the biblical canon?

A biblical canon is an agreed-upon collection of sacred texts that a specific Jewish or Christian religious community accepts as authoritative scripture. These collections developed over time through debate and consensus among religious authorities, resulting in distinct differences between Jewish and various Christian biblical canons. While they share many common manuscripts and texts, denominations often differ on the exact number, order, and inclusion of certain books.

What we know

• The English word canon derives from the Greek kanon, meaning rule or measuring stick, and has been used since the 14th century to describe the list of accepted biblical books. [2]
• The Jewish Tanakh contains 24 books divided into the Torah, Nevi'im, and Ketuvim, and is written primarily in Biblical Hebrew with portions in Aramaic. [2, 3]
• Christian Bibles consist of the Old Testament, which reorganizes and expands upon the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament, which typically contains 27 books. [2, 3]
• Catholic and Eastern Christian traditions include deuterocanonical works in their Old Testament canons, whereas Jewish and Protestant canons do not. [2, 5]

Still open

• Scholars debate which of the three major ancient editions (the Septuagint, Masoretic Text, or Samaritan Pentateuch) is closest to a hypothetical original Urtext of the Hebrew Bible.

Where to go next

• a case in pointWhat books are in the Hebrew Bible?
• how it workedHow did the Bible come to be compiled?
• what followedWhat is biblical inerrancy?
• the bigger pictureWhat are religious texts in general?
• compared withHow does the Septuagint differ from the Masoretic Text?
• an unexpected connectionHow does Islamic tradition view biblical scripture?The Islamic concept of the Tawrat identifies not only with the Pentateuch but is often extended to other books of the Hebrew Bible.

Sources

• [1]biblical canon (Wikidata Q51623) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Biblical canon · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Bible · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Biblical inerrancy · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Hebrew Bible · CC BY-SA 4.0