Open AccessTHE CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Author(s) -
Walter C. Kaiser
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
unio cum christo
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2473-8476
pISSN - 2380-5412
DOI - 10.35285/ucc5.1.2019.art1
Subject(s) - canon , apocrypha , new testament , old testament , philosophy , literature , judaism , classics , theology , history , art
After defining the concept of canon, the article provides a survey of early witnesses to the Old Testament canon (Jesus and early Jewish and Christian texts) that shows a broad consensus about the numbers of books to be included in the Old Testament. The rabbinic discussions at Jamnia are not so much the establishment of the canon as they are the acknowledgment of its reality. The principle to establish the canon is more internal (the structure of its authority and the notion of prophecy). Protestants together with Jews, in contrast to Catholics, do not accept the Old Testament Apocrypha as canonical. (These, written between the Old and New Testaments, are briefly reviewed.)