Development of the Hebrew Bible canon
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 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]
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.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).
Sirach[edit]
The Book of Sirach provides evidence of a collection of sacred scriptures similar to portions of the Hebrew Bible. The book, which is dated to between 196 and 175 BCE[7][8] (and is not included in the Jewish canon), includes a list of names of biblical figures (44–50) in the same order as is found in the Torah (Law) and the Nevi'im (Prophets), and which includes the names of some men mentioned in the Ketuvim (Writings). Based on this list of names, some scholars have conjectured that the author, Yeshua ben Sira, had access to, and considered authoritative, the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets.[9]
His list excludes names from Ruth, Song of Songs, Esther and Daniel, suggesting that people mentioned in these works did not fit the criteria of his current listing of great men,[10] or that he did not have access to these books, or did not consider them authoritative. In the prologue to the Greek translation of Ben Sira's work, his grandson, dated at 132 BCE, mentions both the Torah and the Nevi'im, as well as a third group of books which is not yet named as Ketuvim (the prologue simply identifies "the rest of the books").[11]
Septuagint[edit]
The Septuagint (LXX) is a Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, translated in stages between the 3rd to 2nd century BCE in Alexandria, Egypt.
According to Michael Barber, in the Septuagint the Torah and Nevi'im are established as canonical, but the Ketuvim appear not to have been definitively canonized yet. The translation (and editing) work might have been done by seventy (or seventy-two) elders who translated the Hebrew Bible into Koine Greek but the historical evidence for this story is rather sketchy. Beyond that, according to him, it is virtually impossible to determine when each of the other various books was incorporated into the Septuagint.[12]
Philo and Josephus (both associated with first-century Hellenistic Judaism) ascribed divine inspiration to its translators, and the primary ancient account of the process is the circa 2nd-century BCE Letter of Aristeas. Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls attest to Hebrew texts other than those on which the Masoretic Text was based; in some cases, these newly found texts accord with the Septuagint version.[13]
Philo[edit]
In the 1st century CE, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria discussed sacred books, but made no mention of a three-part division of the Bible; although his De vita contemplativa[14] (sometimes suggested in the 19th century to be of later, Christian, authorship)[15] does state at III(25) that "studying… the laws and the sacred oracles of God enunciated by the holy prophets, and hymns, and psalms, and all kinds of other things by reason of which knowledge and piety are increased and brought to perfection." Philo quotes almost exclusively from the Torah, but occasionally from Ben Sira and Wisdom of Solomon.[16][17]
Pharisees[edit]
The Pharisees also debated the status of canonical books. In the 2nd century CE, Rabbi Akiva declared that those who read non-canonical books would not share in the afterlife.[25] But, according to Bacher and Grätz, Akiva was not opposed to a private reading of the Apocrypha, as is evident from the fact that he himself makes frequent use of Sirach.[26]
They also debated the status of Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs concluding like the tradition of Rabbi Simeon ben Azzai that they are holy.[27] Akiva stoutly defended, however, the canonicity of the Song of Songs, and Esther.[28] But Heinrich Graetz's statements[29] respecting Akiva's attitude toward the canonicity of the Song of Songs are misconceptions, as I.H. Weiss has to some extent shown.[30] He was antagonistic toward the Septuagint text family and the apocryphal books contained therein, since Christians drew so heavily from them.