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These lists, or ''canons'', have been developed through debate and agreement by the religious authorities of those faiths. Believers consider these ''canonical'' books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people. Although the canons are in agreement regarding most of the books of the Bible, there is variation regarding some books. Texts excluded from a particular canon are considered Apocryphal ; however, many disputed works considered "apocryphal" by some Churches are considered 'deuterocanonical' , or fully canonical, by others. There are differences between the Jewish and Christian canons, and between the canons of different Christian Denominations . The differing criteria and processes of canonization dictate what the communities regard as the inspired books. The canons listed below are usually considered ''closed'' (i.e. additional books cannot be added). By contrast, an ''open'' canon would allow additional books, should they meet the criteria. The closure of the canon reflects a belief that public Revelation has ended and thus the inspired texts may be gathered into a complete and authoritative canon. CANONIC TEXTS A canonic text is a single authoritative edition for a given work. The establishing of a canon text may involve an editorial selection from Biblical Manuscript traditions with varying interdependence. Significant separate manuscript traditions in the canonic Hebrew Bible are represented in the Septuagint , the Masoretic Text , and the Dead Sea Scrolls . New Testament Greek and Latin texts presented enough significant differences that a manuscript tradition arose of presenting ''diglot'' texts, with Greek and Latin on facing pages. New Testament manuscript traditions include the Codex Vaticanus , Codex Sinaiticus , Codex Bezae , Textus Receptus , Vulgate , and others. JEWISH CANON See Also: Jewish canon Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the twenty-four books of the Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic Text ) as the Tanakh. Evidence suggests that the process of canonization of the Tanakh occurred between 200 BCE and 200 CE. The first suggestion of a Jewish canon comes in the 2nd century BCE. 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" (). The Book Of Nehemiah suggests that Ezra brought the Torah back from Babylon to Jerusalem and the Second Temple (). Both I and II Maccabees suggest that Judas Maccabeus likewise collected sacred books (such as , ). They do not, however, suggest that the canon was at that time closed; moreover, it is not clear that these sacred books were identical to those that later became part of the canon. Today, there is no scholarly consensus as to when the Jewish canon was set. SAMARITAN CANON See Also: Samaritan Pentateuch A ''Samaritan Pentateuch'' exists which is another version of the Torah, in this case in the Samaritan Alphabet . The relationship to the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint is still disputed. This text is associated with the Samaritans , a people of whom the Jewish Encyclopedia Jewish Encyclopedia: Samaritans states: "Their history as a distinct community begins with the taking of Samaria by the Assyrians in 722 B.C." The Samaritans accepted the Pentateuch from the Jews. They do not accept any other parts of the Bible. Moreover, they did not expand their Pentateuchal canon even by adding any Samaritan compositions. Both texts from the Church Fathers and old Samaritan texts provide us with reasons for the limited extent of the Samaritan "Canon". According to some of the information the Samaritans parted with the Jews at such an early date that only the books of Moses were considered holy; according to other sources the group intentionally rejected the Prophets and (possibly) the other Scriptures and entrenched themselves in the Law of Moses. The small community of the remnants of the Samaritan s in Palestine includes their version of the Torah in their canon. The Samaritan community possesses a copy of the Torah that they believe to have been penned by Abisha, a grandson of Aaron . CHRISTIAN CANONS See Also: Development of the Christian Biblical canon , early 3rd c. New Testament manuscript]] The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian Bible . Though the Early Church used the Old Testament according to the canon of the Septuagint (LXX), the apostles did not otherwise leave a defined set of new Scriptures ; instead the New Testament developed over time. The writings attributed to the apostles circulated amongst the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline Epistles were circulating in collected form by the end of the first century AD. Justin Martyr, in the early second century, mentions the "memoirs of the apostles," which Christians called "gospels" and which were regarded as on par with the Old Testament. Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in ''The Canon Debate''. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 302–303; cf. Justin Martyr, '' First Apology '' 67.3 A four gospel canon (the ''Tetramorph'') was in place by the time of Irenaeus, ''c''. 160, who refers to it directly.Everett Ferguson, "Factors leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon," in ''The Canon Debate''. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 301; cf. Irenaeus, '' Adversus Haereses '' 3.11.8 By the early 200's, Origen may have been using the same 27 books as in the modern New Testament, though there were still disputes over the canonicity of Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and Revelation (see also Antilegomena ).Both points taken from Mark A. Noll's ''Turning Points'', (Baker Academic, 1997) pp 36–37 Likewise by 200 the Muratorian Fragment shows that there existed a set of Christian writings somewhat similar to what is now the New Testament, which included the four gospels and argued against objections to them.H. J. De Jonge, "The New Testament Canon," in ''The Biblical Canons''. eds. de Jonge & J. M. Auwers (Leuven University Press, 2003) p. 315 Thus, while there was a good measure of debate in the Early Church over the New Testament canon, the major writings were accepted by almost all Christians by the middle of the second century.''The Cambridge History of the Bible'' (volume 1) eds. P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (Cambridge University Press, 1970) p. 308 In his Easter letter of 367, of 1563 for the Church Of England , the Westminster Confession Of Faith of 1647 for Calvinism , and the Synod Of Jerusalem of 1672 for the Greek Orthodox . The canonical or biblical exclusion 5 The term “canon of scripture” refers to the collection of books accepted by any group as the authoritative word of God. For most Christians the canon of scripture is limited to the Bible. But Latter-day Saints have a larger canon of scripture that includes the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. The canonical exclusion, in its simplest form, says that since Latter-day Saints have books of scripture in addition to the “traditional” Christian Bible, they cannot be Christians. Modern interpretation Many Evangelical Christian groups do not accept the theory that the Christian Bible was not known until various local and Ecumenical Councils , which they deem to be "Roman-dominated", made their official declarations. These groups believe that the New Testament supports that Paul (2 Timothy 4:11–13), Peter (2 Peter 3:15–16), and ultimately John (Revelation 22:18–19) finalized the canon of the New Testament. Some note that Peter, John, and Paul wrote 20 (or 21) of the 27 books of the NT and personally knew all the other NT writers. (Books not attributed to these three are: Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, James, and Jude. The authorship of Hebrews has long been disputed.) Evangelicals tend not to accept the Septuagint as the inspired Hebrew Bible, though many of them recognize its wide use by Greek-speaking Jews in the first century. They note that early Christians knew the Hebrew Bible since around 170 Melito Of Sardis listed all the books of the Old Testament that those in the Evangelical faiths now use (except, according to the ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', the Book of Esther, and with the addition of the Book of Wisdom). Melito's canon is found in Eusebius EH4.26.13–14[http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250104.htm Fathers], New Advent.: However, Melito's account still does not determine that the ''specific'' documentary tradition used by the Jews necessarily was that which was eventually assembled into the Masoretic text, several centuries later. Many modern Protestants point to four "Criteria for Canonicity" to justify the books that have been included in the Old and New Testament, which are judged to have satisfied the following: #Apostolic Origin — attributed to and based on the preaching/teaching of the first-generation apostles (or their close companions). #Universal Acceptance — acknowledged by all major Christian communities in the ancient world (by the end of the fourth century). #Liturgical Use — read publicly when early Christian communities gathered for the Lord's Supper (their weekly worship services). #Consistent Message — containing a theological outlook similar or complementary to other accepted Christian writings. The basic factor for recognizing a book's canonicity for the New Testament was divine inspiration, and the chief test for this was apostolicity. The term ''apostolic'' as used for the test of canonicity does not necessarily mean apostolic authorship or derivation, but rather ''apostolic authority''. ''Apostolic authority'' is never detached from the authority of the Lord. See Apostolic Succession . It is sometimes difficult to apply these criteria to all books in the accepted canon, however, and some point to books that Protestants hold as apocryphal which would fulfill these requirements. In practice, Protestants hold to the Jewish canon for the Old Testament and the Catholic canon for the New Testament. SEE ALSO
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