The History of the Canon of the Bible
Most Bible scholars feel that the actual beginning of the canon was during the ministry of Ezra even though it was not settled until the Council of Jamnia in 90 A.D.. Jewish tradition tells us that Ezra gathered together what was to become the canon of the Old Testament. Even then, discussions continued until around 200 A.D.
The canon of the Old Testament was in a state of dynamic flux during the time of Christ and the apostolic era. The Sadducees accepted only the first five books of the Old Testament or the Torah as canonical scripture. Some scholars feel that the Pharisees held to a canon resembling the modern Protestant Old Testament. The Greek-speaking Diaspora Jews used the Septuagint, a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. This is an even bigger collection of Scripture which includes the Apocrypha which conforms to the Catholic Old Testament.
The Jewish Scriptures are arranged into three divisions: the Torah or the five books of Moses, the Nevi’im or prophets and the Kethuvim or writings. The Council of Jamnia put its stamp of approval on 39 books. This is what is accepted as the Jewish Bible and the Latter-day Saint & the Protestant Old Testament.
It should be noted that the Council of Jamnia never claimed to be authoritative determiners of the Old Testament canon. In addition to rejecting all Christian writings, the Council of Jamnia (sometimes called Javneh) had theological discussions concerning the status of Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Ezekiel, Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus (the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira), Ruth and Esther. The longest running battle was over the Song of Solomon, which many doubted its spiritual value. It was finally accepted as an allegory of God’s love for Israel. Ultimately, the council did not change the status of any book. The books which it decided to acknowledge as canonical were already generally accepted, even though questions had been raised about some them.
Jewish author Josephus had the actual Temple scrolls in his possession as a gift from the Roman general Titus. Josephus in his book “Against Apion” (chapter 1 paragraph 8) mentions twenty-two books, which he “justly believed to be divine.” Five books of Moses, thirteen Prophets, and four Writings.
- “Moreover, when the city Jerusalem was taken by force, Titus Caesar persuaded me frequently to take whatsoever I would of the ruins of my country, and say that he gave me leave so to do; but when my country was destroyed, I thought nothing else to be of value which I could take and keep as a comfort under my calamities; so I made this request to Titus, that my family might have their liberty; I had also the holy books by Titus’s concession: nor was it long after, that I asked of him the life of my brother, and fifty friends with him; and was not denied.” (Whinston, William, “The Works of Josephus”, Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, [1998] Life §:§:75, pg. 25)
Ours may be divided somewhat differently but this corresponds to our thirty-nine books. He recognized Jeremiah and Lamentations as one book, as he also did Judges and Ruth, 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles, and Ezra and Esther. The 12 Minor Prophets were also recognized as one book, called “The Book of the Twelve.” It should be pointed out that the Jewish apocalyptic book from the end of the 1st century A.D., 4 Ezra (14:18), refers to 24 books. Josephus rejected the canonicity of the apocryphal books, apparently reflecting current Jewish thought.
- “It is true, our history hath been written since Artexerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time;” (Whinston, William, “The Works of Josephus”, Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, [1998] Against Apion 1:8:75, pg. 776)
Long before the Council of Jamnia, the Dead Sea Scrolls quoted from all three divisions as scripture and bundle all three divisions into “Moses and the Prophets” or “the Law and the Prophets.” That they referred to all the books other than those ascribed to Moses as “the prophets” is evidence that they attributed prophetic authorship to these books. As an interesting side note, when the authors of the Manual of Discipline and Zadokite Fragments quote from Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Numbers, Leviticus, and Proverbs, they use the literary formula “It is written.” Zadokite uses the formula “God said” for Isaiah, Malachi, Amos, Zechariah, Hosea, Deuteronomy, Numbers and Micah. The Commentary on Habakkuk indicates that Habakkuk was considered to be inspired. The apocryphal books are quoted also, but never with one of the above formula.
The history of the New Testament canon is even more colorful. During the first few hundred years of the early Christian era, there was no official canon that the entire Christian world recognized. The Eastern and Western church traditions each used a differing list of books as scripture. Before 200 a.d., the Church fathers did not even mention Philemon, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. The status of these books was murky at best until after 400 a.d..
- “Even though Athenaseius had a definitive list of twenty-five canonical books by the mid-fourth century, there was still a significant amount of variation in the number and makeup of New Testament canonical books well into the fifth century. Even the major Greek codices dated to the fourth and fifth centuries contained books outside the New Testament canon.
It appears that interaction between the Eastern and Western churches helped to clarify which books were to be included in the canon. The Western church was more restrictive as to which books were included in their canon and the Eastern church more broad, but together they came to a satisfactory agreement. In the West the Book of Hebrews was recognized as canonical, and in the East the Revelation of John had a secure place; thus both were included. Some of the later books t be added to the canon were the General Epistles, but toward the end of the fourth century all seven had been accepted. By the fifth century, therefore, the church was in agreement as to what constituted Scripture.” (Paul D. Wegner, “The Journey from Texts to Translations”, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, [1999], pg. 144)
On the other hand, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, the Acts of Paul and the First Letter of Clement were considered by many Church fathers to be part of the early Christian scriptures.
Early Christian Works Sometimes Considered Canonical
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Book
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Used as Canonical
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Didache
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Clement
of
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Epistle
of Barnabas
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Clement
of
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The First
Letter of Clement
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Irenaeus;
Clement of
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The
Shepard of Hermas
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Irenaeus;
Tertullian; Clement of
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The
Apocalypse of Peter
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Clement
of
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The
Acts of Paul
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Origen;
Clement of Alexandria (probably)
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(Paul D. Wegner, “The Journey from Texts to Translations”,
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At about 140 a.d., the heretic Marcion assembled the first New Testament. It consisted of the gospel of Luke (without the infancy narrative) and ten letters of Paul. He rejected the Old Testament, which he believed contained “immature ideas about God and [Jewish] nationalistic Messiahnism.” Marcion’s collection of Paul’s letters has been corroborated by non-Marcionite Syrian catalogs. It did not include the Pastoral letters (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus). The earliest surviving manuscript of the Pauline letters (at about 200 CE) does not include them either. This suggests that the Pastoral letters either did not exist or were not yet acknowledged as authentic by the churches of Marcion’s time.
Marcion was a zealous follower of Paul and consequently an ardent collector of Paul’s letters. However, Marcion’s New Testament did not include Hebrews. Note: Hebrews does not appear in the Muratorian fragment, either. (see note below) For several centuries the early Christian churches considered Hebrews dubious. It was at the end of the 4th century that both the East and West Churches accepted it. Some scholars still maintain that Paul may not be the author of Hebrews and that it was written between 80-90 a.d..
Marcion’s audacious action to establish the New Testament started a chain reaction. His rejection of the other gospels and his rejection of the book of Acts started the struggle for the canonization process, which lasted until 1563 a.d..: At about 240 a.d. the following books were part of the New Testament: the four gospels, Acts, ten letters of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation (Revelation was rejected by the Eastern churches for several centuries.) At that time, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Hebrews, which are part of today’s New Testament were considered questionable. The following books were included in the New Testament of that time but are not part of today’s New Testament: 1 Clement, the epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Revelation of Peter.
At about 185 a.d. Irenaeus, reacting to Marcion, tried to establish his own canon. Since there were a number of gospels at that time, he decided that there should only be four "because there are only four winds and four corners of the earth." Other Church fathers who followed Irenaeus accepted his decision. Eusebius of Caesarea (260-339 a.d.) listed four categories of books.
- The recognized books (the four gospels, Acts, fourteen letters of Paul, 1 Peter, 1 John, Revelation [?]).
- The disputed books (James, 2 Peter, 2, 3 John, and Jude). Paul’s authorship of Hebrews is questioned by many modern Biblical scholars, in spite the fact that Clement of Rome (quoted by Eusebius) said that “the epistle to the Hebrews is Paul’s.” Hebrews is theologically and conceptually connected with Paul while the same time, the grammar and vocabulary are quite different from Paul’s other books.
- The spurious books (Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Apocalypse of Peter, Epistle of Barnabas, Didache, Gospel of Hebrews, Revelation [?]).
- The heretical forgeries.
Eusebius accepted 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and the letter to Hebrews. In fact, he was the first to declare Hebrews legitimate. There are two possible options that explain this historic decision:
- Hebrews was originally written in the Hebrew dialect but later translated by Luke into Greek for use among Greek Christians.This would account for the obvious difference in vocabulary and style between Hebrews and Paul’s letters.
- One of Paul’s missionary companions acting as his amanuensis may have written it under his supervision. One possibility is Timothy (see Hebrews 13:23). This would explain the difference in style and vocabulary, as well as the author’s third-person reference to the apostles in Hebrews 2:3-4.
The Roman Catholic canon was formulated by the Council of Hippo in 393 A.D., which recorded 46 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books as having their canonicity previously established. The 46 Old Testament books are those that were included in the Septuagint or a version of the Hebrew Scriptures which between 285-247 b.c. was translated into Greek for inclusion in the Great Library at Alexandria Egypt. Because the majority of the Old Testament quotations cited by the New Testament are taken directly from the Septuagint, the early church adopted it as their Old Testament canon.
The Roman Catholic canon also adds 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Esther 10:4 to 16:24, The Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, The Letter of Jeremiah, The Prayer of Manasseh, I Maccabees, II Maccabees. In 397 A.D., the Council of Carthage again approved these same 73 books. In 405 A.D., Pope St. Innocent closed this canon as the Inspired Word of God.
This 5th century canon of the Bible, went virtually uncontested until the 16th century, when the reformers, including John Calvin and Luther, dropped 7 books from the Old Testament so it would conform with the canon approved by the Jewish Council of Jamnia. This collection of books became the Biblical canon for the Protestants and in the 19th century is became the Latter-day Saints canon, as well. Like the Protestants, the Latter-day Saints do not accept the Apocrypha as Scripture. Joseph Smith asked the Lord if the Apocrypha was the word of God. The answer was that “many things contained therein that are not true.”
- “Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you concerning the Apocrypha – There are many things contained therein that are true, and it is mostly translated correctly; There are many things contained therein that are not true, which are interpolations by the hands of men.” (Doctrine & Covenants 91:1-2)
The Eastern Orthodox Bible differs from the Latter-day Saint, Catholic and Protestant versions as well. Psalms 151, 3 and 4 Maccabees are Eastern Orthodox books not found in the Jewish, Protestant, Latter-day Saint or Catholic Canon.
In addition, the King Selasi or Ethiopian Bible adds fourteen books (to those approved by the Council of Jamnia) to the Old Testament, namely Enoch, Jubilees, Wisdom, 1 Esdras, Ezra Apocalypse, Judith, Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, ‘the rest of Jeremiah’, book of Susanna, ‘the rest of Daniel’, 1 and 2 Maccabees for a total of 81 Books.
So when one says the word "Bible", it must be remembered that it differs from religious tradition to religious tradition and from denomination to denomination.
