Development of the Hebrew Bible canon

This article is about the selection of the books which make up the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh. For the fixing of the text itself, see Masoretic Text.
This article is about the Jewish canon. For the Christian canon, see Development of the Old Testament canon.
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There is no scholarly consensus as to when the canon of the Hebrew Bible (or Tanakh) was fixed. Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Masoretic Text (five books of the Torah, eight books of the Nevi'im, and eleven books of the Ketuvim) as the authoritative version of the Tanakh.[1] Of these books, the Book of Daniel of Ketuvim has the most recent final date of composition (chapters 10–12 were written sometime between 168 and 164 BCE).[2][3][4] The canon was therefore fixed at some time after this date. Some scholars argue that it was fixed during the Hasmonean dynasty (140–40 BCE),[5] while others argue it was not fixed until the second century CE or even later.[6]

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" (2:13–15). The Book of Nehemiah suggests that the priest-scribe Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to the Second Temple of Jerusalem (8–9) around the same time period. Both 1 and 2 Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus (around 167 BCE) also collected sacred books (3:42–50, 2:13–15, 15:6–9).

  1. ^ Darshan, Guy (2012). "The Twenty-Four Books of the Hebrew Bible and Alexandrian Scribal Methods". In Niehoff, Maren R. (ed.). Homer and the Bible in the Eyes of Ancient Interpreters: Between Literary and Religious Concerns (JSRC 16). Leiden, Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill. pp. 221–244. ISBN 978-9004221345.
  2. ^ Collins, John J. (1984). Daniel: With an Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature. The Forms of the Old Testament Literature. Vol. XX. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8028-0020-6.
  3. ^ Grabbe, Lester L. (2001). "A Dan(iel) For All Seasons: For Whom Was Daniel Important?". In Collins, John J.; Flint, Peter W. (eds.). The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum. Vol. 1. Leiden, Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill. p. 229. ISBN 90-04-11675-3.
  4. ^ Grabbe, Lester L. (1991). "Maccabean Chronology: 167-164 or 168-165 BCE?". Journal of Biblical Literature. 110 (1): 59–74. doi:10.2307/3267150. JSTOR 3267150.
  5. ^ Philip R. Davies in McDonald & Sanders 2002, p. 50: "With many other scholars, I conclude that the fixing of a canonical list was almost certainly the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty."
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Neusner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).