Biblical canon
Information about Biblical canon
A biblical canon is a list of Biblical books which establishes the set of books which are considered to be authoritative as scripture by a particular Jewish or Christian community.
These lists, or canons, have been developed through debate and agreement by the religious authorities of those faiths. Believers consider these canonical books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people. Although the canons are in agreement regarding most of the books of the Bible, there is variation regarding some books. Texts excluded from a particular canon are considered apocryphal; however, many disputed works considered "apocryphal" by some Churches are considered 'deuterocanonical', or fully canonical, by others. There are differences between the Jewish and Christian canons, and between the canons of different Christian denominations. The differing criteria and processes of canonization dictate what the communities regard as the inspired books.
The canons listed below are usually considered closed (i.e. additional books cannot be added). By contrast, an open canon would allow additional books, should they meet the criteria. The closure of the canon reflects a belief that public revelation has ended and thus the inspired texts may be gathered into a complete and authoritative canon.
New Testament Greek and Latin texts presented enough significant differences that a manuscript tradition arose of presenting diglot texts, with Greek and Latin on facing pages. New Testament manuscript traditions include the Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Bezae, Textus Receptus, Vulgate, and others.
Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic Text) as the Tanakh. Evidence suggests that the process of canonization of the Tanakh occurred between 200 BCE and 200 CE. The first suggestion of a Jewish canon comes in the 2nd century BCE. The book of 2 Maccabees, itself not a part of the Jewish canon, describes Nehemiah (around 400 BCE) as having "founded a library and collected books about the kings and prophets, and the writings of David, and letters of kings about votive offerings" (2Macc 2:13-15). The Book of Nehemiah suggests that Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem and the Second Temple (8). Both I and II Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus likewise collected sacred books (such as 1Macc 3:42-50, 2Macc 15:6-9). They do not, however, suggest that the canon was at that time closed; moreover, it is not clear that these sacred books were identical to those that later became part of the canon. Today, there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish canon was set.
The Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch from the Jews. They do not accept any other parts of the Bible. Moreover, they did not expand their Pentateuchal canon even by adding any Samaritan compositions.
Both texts from the Church Fathers and old Samaritan texts provide us with reasons for the limited extent of the Samaritan "Canon". According to some of the information the Samaritans parted with the Jews at such an early date that only the books of Moses were considered holy; according to other sources the group intentionally rejected the Prophets and (possibly) the other Scriptures and entrenched themselves in the Law of Moses.
The small community of the remnants of the Samaritans in Palestine includes their version of the Torah in their canon[2] The Samaritan community possesses a copy of the Torah that they believe to have been penned by Abisha, a grandson of Aaron.
The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian Bible. Though the Early Church used the Old Testament according to the canon of the Septuagint (LXX), the apostles did not otherwise leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the New Testament developed over time.
The writings attributed to the apostles circulated amongst the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected form by the end of the first century AD. Justin Martyr, in the early second century, mentions the "memoirs of the apostles," which Christians called "gospels" and which were regarded as on par with the Old Testament.[3] A four gospel canon (the Tetramorph) was in place by the time of Irenaeus, c. 160, who refers to it directly.[4] By the early 200's, Origen may have been using the same 27 books as in the modern New Testament, though there were still disputes over the canonicity of Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and Revelation (see also Antilegomena).[5] Likewise by 200 the Muratorian fragment shows that there existed a set of Christian writings somewhat similar to what is now the New Testament, which included the four gospels and argued against objections to them.[6] Thus, while there was a good measure of debate in the Early Church over the New Testament canon, the major writings were accepted by almost all Christians by the middle of the second century.[7]
In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave a list of exactly the same books as what would become the New Testament canon,[8] and he used the word "canonized" (kanonizomena) in regards to them.[9] The African Synod of Hippo, in 393, approved the New Testament, as it stands today, together with the Septuagint books, a decision that was repeated by Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419. These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed.[10] Pope Damasus I's Council of Rome in 382, if the Decretum Gelasianum is correctly associated with it, issued a biblical canon identical to that mentioned above,[11] or if not the list is at least a sixth century compilation.[12] Likewise, Damasus's commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383, was instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West.[13] In 405, Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, Exsuperius of Toulouse. When these bishops and councils spoke on the matter, however, they were not defining something new, but instead "were ratifying what had already become the mind of the Church."[14] Thus, from the fourth century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon (as it is today),[15] and by the fifth century the East, with a few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of the canon.[16] Nonetheless, a full dogmatic articulation of the canon was not made until the Council of Trent of 1546 for Roman Catholicism,[17] the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox.
These groups believe that, in spite of the disagreements about certain books in early Christianity and, indeed, still today, the New Testament supports the view that Paul (2 Timothy 4:11–13), Peter (2 Peter 3:15–16), and ultimately John (Revelation 22:18–19) finalized the canon of the New Testament. Some note that Peter, John, and Paul wrote 20 (or 21) of the 27 books of the NT and personally knew all the other NT writers. (Books not attributed to these three are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, James, and Jude. The authorship of Hebrews has long been disputed.)
Evangelicals tend not to accept the Septuagint as the inspired Hebrew Bible, though many of them recognize its wide use by Greek-speaking Jews in the first century. They note that early Christians knew the Hebrew Bible, since around 170 Melito of Sardis listed all the books of the Old Testament that those in the Evangelical faiths now use (without mentioning, at least explicitly, the Book of Esther and, on the other hand, explicitly including the deuterocanonical Book of Wisdom). Melito's canon is found in Eusebius EH4.26.13–14[18]:
However, Melito's account, as well as including the Book of Wisdom, does not determine that the specific documentary tradition used by the Jews was necessarily that which was eventually assembled into the Masoretic text, several centuries later.
Many modern Protestants point to the following four "Criteria for Canonicity" to justify the selection of the books that have been included in the New Testament:
The basic factor for recognizing a book's canonicity for the New Testament was divine inspiration, and the chief test for this was apostolicity. The term apostolic as used for the test of canonicity does not necessarily mean apostolic authorship or derivation, but rather apostolic authority. Apostolic authority is never detached from the authority of the Lord. See Apostolic succession.
It is sometimes difficult to apply these criteria to all books in the accepted canon, however, and some point to books that Protestants hold as apocryphal which would fulfill these requirements. In practice, Protestants hold to the Jewish canon for the Old Testament and the Catholic canon for the New Testament.
The Vulgate is an early 5th century version of the Bible in Latin which is largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin
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These lists, or canons, have been developed through debate and agreement by the religious authorities of those faiths. Believers consider these canonical books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people. Although the canons are in agreement regarding most of the books of the Bible, there is variation regarding some books. Texts excluded from a particular canon are considered apocryphal; however, many disputed works considered "apocryphal" by some Churches are considered 'deuterocanonical', or fully canonical, by others. There are differences between the Jewish and Christian canons, and between the canons of different Christian denominations. The differing criteria and processes of canonization dictate what the communities regard as the inspired books.
The canons listed below are usually considered closed (i.e. additional books cannot be added). By contrast, an open canon would allow additional books, should they meet the criteria. The closure of the canon reflects a belief that public revelation has ended and thus the inspired texts may be gathered into a complete and authoritative canon.
Canonic texts
A canonic text is a single authoritative edition for a given work. The establishing of a canon text may involve an editorial selection from biblical manuscript traditions with varying interdependence. Significant separate manuscript traditions in the canonic Hebrew Bible are represented in the Septuagint, the Masoretic text, and the Dead Sea scrolls.New Testament Greek and Latin texts presented enough significant differences that a manuscript tradition arose of presenting diglot texts, with Greek and Latin on facing pages. New Testament manuscript traditions include the Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Bezae, Textus Receptus, Vulgate, and others.
Jewish canon
Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic Text) as the Tanakh. Evidence suggests that the process of canonization of the Tanakh occurred between 200 BCE and 200 CE. The first suggestion of a Jewish canon comes in the 2nd century BCE. The book of 2 Maccabees, itself not a part of the Jewish canon, describes Nehemiah (around 400 BCE) as having "founded a library and collected books about the kings and prophets, and the writings of David, and letters of kings about votive offerings" (2Macc 2:13-15). The Book of Nehemiah suggests that Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem and the Second Temple (8). Both I and II Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus likewise collected sacred books (such as 1Macc 3:42-50, 2Macc 15:6-9). They do not, however, suggest that the canon was at that time closed; moreover, it is not clear that these sacred books were identical to those that later became part of the canon. Today, there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish canon was set.
Samaritan canon
The Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch from the Jews. They do not accept any other parts of the Bible. Moreover, they did not expand their Pentateuchal canon even by adding any Samaritan compositions.
Both texts from the Church Fathers and old Samaritan texts provide us with reasons for the limited extent of the Samaritan "Canon". According to some of the information the Samaritans parted with the Jews at such an early date that only the books of Moses were considered holy; according to other sources the group intentionally rejected the Prophets and (possibly) the other Scriptures and entrenched themselves in the Law of Moses.
The small community of the remnants of the Samaritans in Palestine includes their version of the Torah in their canon[2] The Samaritan community possesses a copy of the Torah that they believe to have been penned by Abisha, a grandson of Aaron.
Christian canons
)
A folio from P46, early 3rd c. New Testament manuscript
The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian Bible. Though the Early Church used the Old Testament according to the canon of the Septuagint (LXX), the apostles did not otherwise leave a defined set of new scriptures; instead the New Testament developed over time.
The writings attributed to the apostles circulated amongst the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected form by the end of the first century AD. Justin Martyr, in the early second century, mentions the "memoirs of the apostles," which Christians called "gospels" and which were regarded as on par with the Old Testament.[3] A four gospel canon (the Tetramorph) was in place by the time of Irenaeus, c. 160, who refers to it directly.[4] By the early 200's, Origen may have been using the same 27 books as in the modern New Testament, though there were still disputes over the canonicity of Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and Revelation (see also Antilegomena).[5] Likewise by 200 the Muratorian fragment shows that there existed a set of Christian writings somewhat similar to what is now the New Testament, which included the four gospels and argued against objections to them.[6] Thus, while there was a good measure of debate in the Early Church over the New Testament canon, the major writings were accepted by almost all Christians by the middle of the second century.[7]
In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave a list of exactly the same books as what would become the New Testament canon,[8] and he used the word "canonized" (kanonizomena) in regards to them.[9] The African Synod of Hippo, in 393, approved the New Testament, as it stands today, together with the Septuagint books, a decision that was repeated by Councils of Carthage in 397 and 419. These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon as already closed.[10] Pope Damasus I's Council of Rome in 382, if the Decretum Gelasianum is correctly associated with it, issued a biblical canon identical to that mentioned above,[11] or if not the list is at least a sixth century compilation.[12] Likewise, Damasus's commissioning of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383, was instrumental in the fixation of the canon in the West.[13] In 405, Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, Exsuperius of Toulouse. When these bishops and councils spoke on the matter, however, they were not defining something new, but instead "were ratifying what had already become the mind of the Church."[14] Thus, from the fourth century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon (as it is today),[15] and by the fifth century the East, with a few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of the canon.[16] Nonetheless, a full dogmatic articulation of the canon was not made until the Council of Trent of 1546 for Roman Catholicism,[17] the Thirty-Nine Articles of 1563 for the Church of England, the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism, and the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox.
Modern interpretation
Many Evangelical Christian groups do not accept the theory that the Christian Bible was not known until various local and Ecumenical Councils, which they deem to be "Roman-dominated", made their official declarations.These groups believe that, in spite of the disagreements about certain books in early Christianity and, indeed, still today, the New Testament supports the view that Paul (2 Timothy 4:11–13), Peter (2 Peter 3:15–16), and ultimately John (Revelation 22:18–19) finalized the canon of the New Testament. Some note that Peter, John, and Paul wrote 20 (or 21) of the 27 books of the NT and personally knew all the other NT writers. (Books not attributed to these three are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, James, and Jude. The authorship of Hebrews has long been disputed.)
Evangelicals tend not to accept the Septuagint as the inspired Hebrew Bible, though many of them recognize its wide use by Greek-speaking Jews in the first century. They note that early Christians knew the Hebrew Bible, since around 170 Melito of Sardis listed all the books of the Old Testament that those in the Evangelical faiths now use (without mentioning, at least explicitly, the Book of Esther and, on the other hand, explicitly including the deuterocanonical Book of Wisdom). Melito's canon is found in Eusebius EH4.26.13–14[18]:
However, Melito's account, as well as including the Book of Wisdom, does not determine that the specific documentary tradition used by the Jews was necessarily that which was eventually assembled into the Masoretic text, several centuries later.
Many modern Protestants point to the following four "Criteria for Canonicity" to justify the selection of the books that have been included in the New Testament:
- Apostolic Origin — attributed to and based on the preaching/teaching of the first-generation apostles (or their close companions).
- Universal Acceptance — acknowledged by all major Christian communities in the ancient world (by the end of the fourth century).
- Liturgical Use — read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly worship services).
- Consistent Message — containing a theological outlook similar or complementary to other accepted Christian writings.
The basic factor for recognizing a book's canonicity for the New Testament was divine inspiration, and the chief test for this was apostolicity. The term apostolic as used for the test of canonicity does not necessarily mean apostolic authorship or derivation, but rather apostolic authority. Apostolic authority is never detached from the authority of the Lord. See Apostolic succession.
It is sometimes difficult to apply these criteria to all books in the accepted canon, however, and some point to books that Protestants hold as apocryphal which would fulfill these requirements. In practice, Protestants hold to the Jewish canon for the Old Testament and the Catholic canon for the New Testament.
See also
- Books of the Bible for a side-by-side comparison of Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant canons.
- Table of books of Judeo-Christian Scripture
- Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible
- Standard Works - several books (including the Bible) that constitute the open scriptural canon of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church)
Footnotes
1. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Samaritans
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 302–303; cf. Justin Martyr, First Apology 67.3
4. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 301; cf. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.11.8
5. ^ Both points taken from Mark A. Noll's Turning Points, (Baker Academic, 1997) pp 36–37
6. ^ H. J. De Jonge, "The New Testament Canon," in The Biblical Canons. eds. de Jonge & J. M. Auwers (Leuven University Press, 2003) p. 315
7. ^ The Cambridge History of the Bible (volume 1) eds. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (Cambridge University Press, 1970) p. 308
8. ^ Lindberg, Carter (2006). A Brief History of Christianity. Blackwell Publishing, 15. ISBN 1405110783.
9. ^ David Brakke, "Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria's Thirty Ninth Festal Letter," in Harvard Theological Review 87 (1994) pp. 395–419
10. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) p. 320; F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 230; cf. Augustine, De Civitate Dei 22.8
11. ^ Lindberg, Carter (2006). A Brief History of Christianity. Blackwell Publishing, 15. ISBN 1405110783.
12. ^ F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 234
13. ^ F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 225
14. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) p. 320; Bruce Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origins, Development, and Significance (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987) pp. 237–238; F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 97
15. ^ F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 215
16. ^ The Cambridge History of the Bible (volume 1) eds. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (Cambridge University Press, 1970) p. 305; cf. the Catholic Encyclopedia, Canon of the New Testament
17. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia, Canon of the New Testament
18. ^ Fathers, New Advent.
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 302–303; cf. Justin Martyr, First Apology 67.3
4. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 301; cf. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3.11.8
5. ^ Both points taken from Mark A. Noll's Turning Points, (Baker Academic, 1997) pp 36–37
6. ^ H. J. De Jonge, "The New Testament Canon," in The Biblical Canons. eds. de Jonge & J. M. Auwers (Leuven University Press, 2003) p. 315
7. ^ The Cambridge History of the Bible (volume 1) eds. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (Cambridge University Press, 1970) p. 308
8. ^ Lindberg, Carter (2006). A Brief History of Christianity. Blackwell Publishing, 15. ISBN 1405110783.
9. ^ David Brakke, "Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria's Thirty Ninth Festal Letter," in Harvard Theological Review 87 (1994) pp. 395–419
10. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) p. 320; F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 230; cf. Augustine, De Civitate Dei 22.8
11. ^ Lindberg, Carter (2006). A Brief History of Christianity. Blackwell Publishing, 15. ISBN 1405110783.
12. ^ F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 234
13. ^ F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 225
14. ^ Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) p. 320; Bruce Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origins, Development, and Significance (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987) pp. 237–238; F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 97
15. ^ F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 215
16. ^ The Cambridge History of the Bible (volume 1) eds. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (Cambridge University Press, 1970) p. 305; cf. the Catholic Encyclopedia, Canon of the New Testament
17. ^ Catholic Encyclopedia, Canon of the New Testament
18. ^ Fathers, New Advent.
References
- Anchor Bible Dictionary
- Ante-Nicene Fathers, Eerdmans Press
- Apostolic Fathers, Lightfoot-Harmer-Holmes, ISBN 978-0-8010-5676-5
- Encyclopedia of the Early Church, Oxford
- Beckwith, R.T. OT Canon of the NT Church ISBN 978-0-8028-3617-5
- Brakke, David. "Canon formation and social conflict in fourth century Egypt," in Harvard Theological Review 87:4 (1994) pp. 395–419. Athanasius' role in the formation of the N.T. canon.
- Bruce, F.F., Canon of Scripture ISBN 978-0-8308-1258-5
- Davis, L.D. First Seven Ecumenical Councils ISBN 978-0-8146-5616-7
- Ferguson Encyclopedia of Early Christianity
- Fox, Robin Lane. The Unauthorized Version. 1992.
- Gamble. NT Canon ISBN 1579109098
- Hennecke-Schneemelcher. NT Apcrypha
- Jurgens, W.A. Faith of the Early Fathers ISBN 978-0-8146-5616-7
- Metzger, Bruce. Canon of the NT ISBN 978-0-19-826180-3
- Noll, Mark A. Turning Points. Baker Academic, 1997. ISBN 978-0-8010-6211-7
- John Salza, Scripture Catholic, Septuagint references
- Sundberg. OT of the Early Church Harvard Press 1964
Further reading
- Childs, Brevard S., The New Testament as canon: an introduction ISBN 0334022126
- Gamble, Harry Y., The New Testament canon: its making and meaning ISBN 0800604709
- McDonald, Lee Martin, The formation of the Christian biblical canon ISBN 0687132932
- McDonald, Lee Martin, Early Christianity and its sacred literature ISBN 1565632664
- McDonald, Lee Martin, The Biblical canon: its origin, transmission, and authority ISBN 9781565639256
- McDonald, Lee Martin, and James A. Sanders (eds.) The canon debate ISBN 1565635175
- Metzger, Bruce Manning, The Canon of the New Testament: its origin, development, and significance ISBN 0198261802
- Souter, Alexander, The text and canon of the New Testament, 2nd. ed., Studies in theology; no. 25. London: Duckworth (1954)
- Wall, Robert W., The New Testament as canon: a reader in canonical criticism ISBN 1850753741
- Westcott, Brooke Foss, A general survey of the history of the canon of the New Testament, 4th. ed, London: Macmillan (1875)
External links
- The Development of the Canon of the New Testament - includes very detailed charts and direct links to ancient witnesses
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Canon of the Old Testament
- Catholic Encyclopedia: Canon of the New Testament
- Jewish Encyclopedia: Bible Canon
- United Bible Societies, Translation Information Clearinghouse: Canon Update (PDF) Annotated bibliography of recently published research
- "The Old Testament of the Early Church" Revisited, Albert C. Sundberg, Jr., 1997.
- Scholarly articles on the Biblical Canon from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library
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Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, based on principles and ethics embodied in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Talmud. According to Jewish tradition, the history of Judaism begins with the Covenant between God and Abraham (ca.
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The biblical apocrypha includes texts written in the Jewish and Christian religious traditions that either:
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- were accepted into the biblical canon by some, but not all, Christian faiths, or
- whose canonicity or lack thereof is not yet certain,[1] or
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Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the sixteenth century in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Bible that are not extant in Hebrew.
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List of Christian denominations (or Denominations self-identified as Christian) ordered by historical and doctrinal relationships. (See also: Christianity; Christian denominations).
Some groups are large (e.g.
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Some groups are large (e.g.
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Revelation is an uncovering or disclosure via communication from the divine of something that has been partially or wholly hidden or unknown, "which could not be known apart from the unveiling" (Goswiller 1987 p. 3).
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biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblion (book); manuscript comes from Latin manu (hand) and scriptum (written).
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Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to books of the Bible, originally written in Hebrew, of uncontroversial canonicity. More precisely, it refers to a collection of specific ancient documents viewed as an organic corpus.
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Septuagint (IPA: /ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt/), or simply "LXX", is the name commonly given in the West to the Koine Greek version of the Old Testament, translated in stages between the 3rd and 1st centuries
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The Masoretic Text (MT) is the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh). It defines not just the books of the Jewish canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their vocalization and accentuation for both public reading and private
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פשר) on the Book of Habakkuk (1947), the so-called Manual of Discipline (Community Rule) (1QS/4QSa-j), which gives much information on the structure and theology of a sect, and the earliest version of the Damascus Document.
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New Testament (Greek: Καινή Διαθήκη, Kainē Diathēkē) is the name given to the final portion of the Christian Bible, written after the Old Testament.
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Codex Vaticanus (The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209; Gregory-Aland no. B or 03) is one of the oldest extant manuscripts of the Bible. It is slightly older than Codex Sinaiticus, both of which were probably transcribed in the 4th century.
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Codex Sinaiticus (London, Brit. Libr., Add. 43725; Gregory-Aland nº א (Aleph) or 01) is a 4th century uncial manuscript of the Greek Bible, written between 330–350.
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The Codex Bezae Cantabrigensis (Gregory-Aland no. D or 05) is an important codex of the New Testament dating from the fifth- or sixth-century. It is written in an uncial hand on vellum and contains, in both Greek and Latin, most of the four Gospels and Acts, with a
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Textus Receptus (Latin: "received text") is the name subsequently given to the succession of printed Greek texts of the New Testament which constituted the translation base for the original German Luther Bible, for the translation of the New Testament into English by William
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For the Arthurian Vulgate Cycle, see .
The Vulgate is an early 5th century version of the Bible in Latin which is largely the result of the labors of Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin
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Mikra or Miqra, meaning "that which is read".
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Sirach
Additional evidence of a collection of sacred scripture similar to portions of the Hebrew Bible comes from the book of Sirach (dating from 180 BCE and also not included in the Jewish canon), which includes a list..... Click the link for more information.
Rabbinic Judaism or Rabbinism (or in Hebrew "Yahadut Rabanit" - יהדות רבנית) was the continuation of the Pharisees after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
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The Masoretic Text (MT) is the Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible (Tanakh). It defines not just the books of the Jewish canon, but also the precise letter-text of the biblical books in Judaism, as well as their vocalization and accentuation for both public reading and private
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2 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible which focuses on the Jews' revolt against Antiochus and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BCE by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work.
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Nehemiah or Nechemya (נְחֶמְיָה
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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of Ketuvim
Three Poetic Books
1. Psalms
2. Proverbs
3. Job
Five Megillot
4. Song of Songs
5. Ruth
6.
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Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of Ketuvim
Three Poetic Books
1. Psalms
2. Proverbs
3. Job
Five Megillot
4. Song of Songs
5. Ruth
6.
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Ezra is a personal name derived from Hebrew, written variously as עֶזְרָא ( Standard Hebrew: ʿEzra, Tiberian Hebrew: ʿEzrâ), Arabic: 'Uzair (عزير), Turkish: Üzeyir.
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Tanakh
Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of the Torah
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5.
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Torah | Nevi'im | Ketuvim
Books of the Torah
1. Genesis
2. Exodus
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5.
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Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk ' Ur ' Eridu
Kish ' Lagash ' Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon ' Isin ' Susa
Assyria: Assur Nineveh
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Euphrates Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk ' Ur ' Eridu
Kish ' Lagash ' Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon ' Isin ' Susa
Assyria: Assur Nineveh
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Jerusalem (Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם , Yerushaláyim; Arabic:
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Second Temple was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem which stood between 518 BC and 70 AD. During this time, it was the center of Jewish worship, which focused on the sacrifices known as the korbanot.
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