sotto voce

'"Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."' Luke 24:44 NIV

This was the tripartite division of the whole Hebrew Scripture, as then designated. 'The Law' (Torah) was the Pentateuch; 'the Prophets' (Nevi'im) referred to Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and all the prophets, except Daniel; 'the Psalms' (Ketuvim) referred to the rest of the canonical books.

Of course, but not before there were Christians.

I'm sure most readers know what is referred to. But the lists of canonical works of Constantinian puppet bishops are easy enough to find.

judge

cathlolics decided to use some other jewish books (about 5 or so) not sure why.

Josephus tells us that the jews had a 22 book canon. I think it is assumed they must be the same ones the massorettes used.


There isn't just one NT canon. There is at least three. The Church of the East canon, the ethiopic canon and the one used by Roman catholics and protestants.
The letter of Jude (which is not in all of the canons) quotes the book of Enoch it seems. Hebrews IIRC makes a reference to an event in one of the books used by the RCC. Though it doesn't quote it.

The COE would say it doesn't have a "canon" in the sense used by Catholics and protestants. there is no evidence of them having the kind of arguments and disputes that happened among christisn within the Roman Empire.

DCHindley

No. Jews held different books in different levels of reverence.

The books considered sacred to all Jews and Samaritans would be the five books of the Law of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).

The books called Prophets included works we would classify as history (Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings) as well as prophets proper (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 12 Minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachai).

It should be noted that the Sadduccees never accepted this class of books as sacred literature. Of these, the Samaritans accepted a book of Judges that largely parallels the Jewish book of Judges, but did not accept the rest of the Prophets.

The least sacred class of books would be those called Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ecclesiates aka The Preacher, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah (one book in antiquity) & 1-2 Chronicles (a retelling of 1-2 Kings). Some of these, especially Daniel & Ezra-Nehemiah, were still in development, evidence suggests, even as late as the 1st centuries BCE and CE (AD).

The Law was translated into Greek, apparently by a committee, in the 3rd century BCE in Alexandria. Jewish tradition claims it was translated to allow the rest of the world to appreciate the sacred books of the Jews, but most suspect that it was really done because many Jews in Egyptian Alexandria no longer read or spoke Hebrew and needed the Law in translation for use in worship.

The various books of the Prophets and Writings were translated into Greek piecemeal by different parties, some of them more than once, after the Law was translated. Ezra-Nehemiah came out in several versions (Ezra-Nehemiah ended up called 2 Esdras in the Greek bible, with a paraphrase of 2 Chron 35-36, all of Ezra, Nehemiah 7:38-8:12, and a tale of Darius' bodyguards going under the name of 1 Esdras).

Then there were books that were popular among Greek speaking Jews that are sometimes of Hebrew asd sometimes Greek origin (Tobit, Judith, additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus/Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, Baruch, The letter of Jeremiah, additions to Daniel, Prayer of Manasseh, and four books under the name Maccabees). Hebrew fragments have been discovered for some of these, but apparently these did not reach sacred status among Jews of the Rabbinic period.

It was by the popular estimation of differing groups of Jews. Josephus provides a list of 22 sacred books that he felt were representative of most Jews of his time, which pretty much coincides with those 24 held sacred by Rabbinic era Jews (2 on Josephus' list were double books so the actual total was 24). The Septuagint had its own list

Judaism	Joe	Josephus (1st Century CE)	MT	Masoretic Text (4th century CE)	LXX	LXX (preserved by Christians)	RSV	KJV/RSV
Law	1	GENESIS - Genesis	1	Bereshit - Genesis	1	GENESIS - Genesis	1	Genesis
Law	2	EXODOS - Exodus	2	Shemot - Exodus	2	EXODOS - Exodus	2	Exodus
Law	3	LEUITIKON - Leviticus	3	VaYikra - Leviticus	3	LEUITIKON - Leviticus	3	Leviticus
Law	4	ARIQMOI - Numbers	4	BaMidbar - Numbers	4	ARIQMOI - Numbers	4	Numbers
Law	5	DEUTERONOMION - Deuteronomy	5	Devarim - Deuteronomy	5	DEUTERONOMION - Deuteronomy	5	Deuteronomy
Major Prophets	6	IHSOUS NAUH - Joshua, the son of Nun	6	Yehoshua - Joshua	6	IHSOUS NAUH - Joshua, the son of Nun	6	Joshua
Major Prophets	32	KRITAI - Judges	7	Shoftim - Judges	7	KRITAI - Judges	7	Judges
Major Prophets	7	BASILEIWN A/ - Kings I. (1 Samuel)	8	Shmuel A - 1 Samuel	9	BASILEIWN A/ - Kings I. (1 Samuel)	9	1 Samuel
Major Prophets	8	BASILEIWN B/ - Kings II. (2 Samuel)	9	Shmuel B - 2 Samuel	10	BASILEIWN B/ - Kings II. (2 Samuel)	10	2 Samuel
Major Prophets	9	BASILEIWN G/ - Kings III. (1 Kings)	10	Melachim A - 1 Kings	11	BASILEIWN G/ - Kings III. (1 Kings)	11	1 Kings
Major Prophets	10	BASILEIWN D/ - Kings IV. (2 Kings)	11	Melachim B - 2 Kings	12	BASILEIWN D/ - Kings IV. (2 Kings)	12	2 Kings
Major Prophets	11	HSAIAS - Isaiah	12	Yisheyah - Isaiah	41	HSAIAS - Isaiah	23	Isaiah
Major Prophets	12	IEREMIAS - Jeremiah + 13	13	Yermiyah - Jeremiah	42	IEREMIAS - Jeremiah	24	Jeremiah
Major Prophets	14	IESEKIHL - Ezekiel	14	Yechezchial - Ezekiel	46	IESEKIHL - Ezekiel	26	Exekiel
Minor Prophets	15	WSHE - Hosea	15	Hoshea - Hosea	29	WSHE - Hosea	28	Hosea
Minor Prophets	16	IWHL - Joel	16	Yoel - Joel	32	IWHL - Joel	29	Joel
Minor Prophets	17	AMWS - Amos	17	Amos - Amos	30	AMWS - Amos	30	Amos
Minor Prophets	18	OBDIOU - Obadiah	18	Ovadiyah - Obadiah	33	OBDIOU - Obadiah	31	Obadiah
Minor Prophets	19	IWNAS - Jonah	19	Yonah - Jonah	34	IWNAS - Jonah	32	Jonah
Minor Prophets	20	MIXAIAS - Micah	20	Michah - Micah	31	MIXAIAS - Micah	33	Micah
Minor Prophets	21	NAOUM - Nahum	21	Nachum - Nahum	35	NAOUM - Nahum	34	Nahum
Minor Prophets	22	AMBAKOUM - Habakkuk	22	Chabakuk - Habakkuk	36	AMBAKOUM - Habakkuk	35	Habakkuk
Minor Prophets	23	SOFONIAS - Zephaniah	23	Tzefaniyah - Zephaniah	37	SOFONIAS - Zephaniah	36	Zephaniah
Minor Prophets	24	AGGAIOS - Haggai	24	Chaggi - Haggai	38	AGGAIOS - Haggai	37	Haggai
Minor Prophets	25	ZAXARIAS - Zechariah	25	Zechariyah - Zechariah	39	ZAXARIAS - Zechariah	38	Zechariah
Minor Prophets	26	MALAXIAS - Malachi	26	Malachi - Malachi	40	MALAXIAS - Malachi	39	Malachi
Writings	27	YALMOI - Psalms	27	Tehilim - Psalms	18	YALMOI - Psalms	19	Psalms
Writings	28	PAROIMIAI - Proverbs	28	Mishlei - Proverbs	20	PAROIMIAI - Proverbs	20	Proverbs
Writings	29	IWB - Job	29	Eyov - Job	23	IWB - Job	18	Job
Writings	30	ASMA - Song of Solomon (Canticles)	30	Shir HaShirim - Song of Songs	22	ASMA - Song of Solomon (Canticles)	22	Song of Songs
Writings	31	ROUQ - Ruth	31	Ruth - Ruth	8	ROUQ - Ruth	8	Ruth
Writings	13	QRHNOI - Lamentations of Jeremiah	32	Eichah - Lamentations of Jeremiah	44	QRHNOI - Lamentations of Jeremiah	25	Lamentations of Jeremiah
Writings	33	EKKAHSIASTHS - Ecclesiastes	33	Keholet - Ecclesiastes (Preacher)	21	EKKAHSIASTHS - Ecclesiastes	21	Ecclesiastes (Preacher)
Writings	34	ESQHR - Esther (incl additions not in MT)	34	Esther - Esther	26	ESQHR - Esther (incl additions not in MT)	17	Esther (no additions)
Writings	35	DANIHL (incl Bel & Dragon, Prayer/Song of the 3 men & Susanna)	35	Daniyel - Daniel	47	DANIHL (incl Bel & Dragon, Prayer/Song of the 3 men & Susanna)	27	Daniel
Writings	36	ESDRAS - Ezra	36	Ezra - Ezra	16	ESDRAS B/ -(Ezra part)	15	Ezra
Writings	37	NEEMIAS - Nehemiah	37	Nechemiyah - Nehemiah	17	ESDRAS B/ -(NEEMIAS - Nehemiah part)	16	Nehemiah
Writings	38	PARALEIPOMENWN A/ - Paralipomenon I. (1 Chronicles)	38	Divrei Yamim A - 1 Chronicles	13	PARALEIPOMENWN A/ - Paralipomenon I. (1 Chronicles)	13	1 Chronicles
Writings	39	PARALEIPOMENWN B/ - Paralipomenon II. (2 Chronicles)	39	Divrei Yamim B - 2 Chronicles	14	PARALEIPOMENWN B/ - Paralipomenon II. (2 Chronicles)	14	2 Chronicles
Apocrypha				Hebrew/Aramaic original assumed	15	ESDRAS A/ - Esdras I. (2 Chron 34-35, Ezra, Neh 7:38-8:12, and a tale about Darius' bodyguard)	40	1 Esdras
Apocrypha				Hebrew original assumed		N/A	41	2 Esdras (Latin Apocalypse = 4 Ezra)
Apocrypha				Hebrew/Aramaic original assumed	28	TWBIT - Tobit	42	Tobit
Apocrypha				Hebrew original assumed	27	IOUDIQ - Judith	43	Judith
Apocrypha				Greek origin	21	see Esther	44	Additions to Esther
Apocrypha				Greek origin	24	SOFIA SALWMWN - Wisdom of Solomon	45	Wisdom of Solomon
Apocrypha				Hebrew fragments have been found	25	SOFIA SEIRAX - Wisdom of the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)	46	Ecclesiasticus
Apocrypha				Hebrew original assumed	43	BAROUX - Baruch	47	Baruch
Apocrypha				Aramaic or Greek original assumed	45	EPISTOLH IEREMIOU - Epistle of Jeremiah (after Jeremiah or Baruch)	48	Letter of Jeremiah
Apocrypha				Hebrew origin possible	48	TWN TRIWN PAIDWN AINESIS - Song of the Three Children	49	(Daniel btw 3:23 & 3:24)
Apocrypha				Hebrew origin possible	49	SWSANNA - Susanna	50	(Daniel ch 13)
Apocrypha				Hebrew origin possible	50	BHL KAI DRAKWN - Bel and the Dragon	51	(Daniel btw end of Ch 12 & start of Susanna)
Apocrypha				Original Language Uknown	19	PROSEUXH MANASSH - Prayer of Manasseh (Ode 8 in Swete's; Ode 12 in Rahlfs' LXX)	52	Prayer of Manasseh
Apocrypha				Hebrew original assumed	51	MAKKABAIWN A/ - I. Maccabees	53	1 Maccabees
Apocrypha				Greek original assumed	52	MAKKABAIWN B/ - II. Maccabees	54	2 Maccabees

See Andrew Criddle's answer.

DCH

Net2004

thanks to everyone who replied.

sotto voce

A-ha. The goalposts come to Dunsinane.

J-D

Which Christian canon are you talking about?

'Old Testaments' in modern Protestant bibles contain exactly the same books as modern Jewish bibles, although arranged in a different order.

'Old Testaments' in modern Catholic bibles and modern Orthodox bibles contain books not found in modern Jewish (or Protestant) bibles.

sotto voce

There's only one.

J-D

Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox versions of the Bible are demonstrably different.

sotto voce

Very true. Two of those groups of users are demonstrably not Christian.

judge

there are three different NT canons.
1)The COE canon 22 books. Still widely used
2)The protestant and cathlolic canon, 27 books. Still widely used.
3)The Ethipoic canon. Not sure how widely this is used.