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The Specificity of the Scripture's Canon

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The Specificity of the Scripture's Canon International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Online: 2015-10-05 ISSN: 2300-2697, Vol. 61, pp 60-69 doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.61.60 CC BY 4.0. Published by SciPress Ltd, Switzerland, 2015 The Specificity of the Scripture's Canon Iulian Faraoanu University “Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, Iasi Str. Vascauteanu 6, 700462 Iasi, Romania E-mail address: [email protected] Keywords: canon, Bible, sacred inspired books, Old and New Testament, history. ABSTRACT. This study is aimed at capturing some aspects relating to the specificities of the Biblical Canon. The two parts of the Holy Scripture are analyzed in the attempt to find an answer to the question: why is there a limited number of sacred and canonical books? The point of view used for the analysis of the themes is the historical perspective, with a focus on the evolution of the writings of the Old and of the New Testament, until their capturing in an official catalog. The study ends with a summary of the elements that can help a better understanding of the Canon of the Scripture. 1. INTRODUCTION The word “canon” comes from the Hebrew term qaneh, which means “measuring rod” (see Ezekiel 40:3). The term also means “measure”, “norm” (not necessarily from ethical perspective). In Greek, the word kanon means “measure” [1]. When used in philosophy, it acquires the meaning of “norm”, “rule” (see Galatians 6:16). In religion, at the beginning of Christianity, the word “canon” was mostly interpreted as “norm or rule on faith”. Later on, this word was also used for the canonical books, the inspired writings representing the norm for the revealed truth, useful for Christians’ faith and life. Thus, in time, the term “canon” acquired the meaning of the official and normative list of the sacred and inspired books - a list that was agreed upon in time, around the 4th century A.D. The need for a Canon was mainly motivated by the intent to collect the knowledge on God’s revelation. Once the limits of what revealed were fixed, the divine revelation could be better preserved, and could be protected and analyzed in the religious practice. The process for the creation of the Canon was a long and complex one. The starting point was represented by the verbal traditions passed on and reviewed by communities and, subsequently, put in writing; later on, the books considered sacred and inspired by the religious authority were canonized (included in the Canon). Several questions were raised in relation to the themes of the Canon: why is there a limited number of sacred books? Why is it that only these writings were included in the Canon, and others were ignored? Is God’s word to be found only in the canonical books? 2. THE HEBREW CANON The Hebrew Bible contains 39 books, structured in Torah (five books), Nebî'îm (former and later prophets), and the Ketubîm (the writings). The history of the creation of these books is rather long, stretching over a millennium. Most of the writings were re-read, re-interpreted and drafted in pre- (587-536) and post-exile. The first collection, the Law or Torah, is said to have been created between the 8th and the 5th centuries B.C. The legal texts (Exodus 24: Deuteronomy 31) necessary to govern the life within the community were the ones collected first. According to the text in Exodus 24:4, Moses is said to have written the words of the Lord, the words being then read in the assembly of the people. Thus, around the year 400, the book of Nehemiah mentions Ezra who reads the Law of Moses to the people (see Nehemiah 8). The group of books of the Torah was probably already formed at that time. This paper is an open access paper published under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences Vol. 61 61 The second group of sacred books regards the Prophets. The Deuteronomy trend, which outlined the importance of the Law and of the covenant, is said to have been responsible for the preparation of the former prophets (around 600-550 B.C.): Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. Starting with the 8th century, we witness the traditions on the later prophets, from Isaiah and Amos (the 8th century) to Jonah and Zechariah (the 4th century B.C.). Ezekiel 2:6 to 3:9 presents the image of a roll (sacred text) containing the words of the Lord, indicating that in the times of Ezekiel there was already a beginning of a collection. It is worth mentioning that many books of the prophets were revised pre- and post-exile. The two groups of sacred books, the Law and the Prophets, were relatively well defined in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C., references to such books being made in Sirach 2 and 2Maccabes 15:9. The third group of the Jewish Canon, the Writings, remains the most “problematic” one. It includes post-exilic works. The idea of a collection was more difficult to be shaped, with variations as to the name of the group, the number of writings and their form. However, around the middle of the 2nd century B.C., the prologue of the Book of Ben Sirach (Sirach 1:7-9) mentions all three collections: the Law, the Prophets and other Writings (Sirach 39:1). Reaching the times of the New Testament, Luke 24:44 mentions the three groups of books of the Hebrew Bible, calling them “the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms”. Therefore, in the 1st century A.D., the list of sacred books was rather finalized. Joseph Flavius (95 A.D.) states that there are 22 books (there were 22 consonants in the Hebrew alphabet): the Law (5 books), the Prophets (13 books), other writings (4 books). However, there still was flexibility and freedom regarding the catalogue of sacred writings. According to some exegetes, the initiative on the creation of a Hebrew Canon is said to have been taken at the Council of Jamnia (around 85-105 A.D.), an official list of the sacred books being discussed and established at this Council. Nonetheless, studies have shown that the meeting in Jamnia was not a synod (or council), but rather a rabbinical Hebrew school. Moreover, there was no official catalog of Jewish sacred writings issued in Jamnia, nor were certain books rejected. There was indeed a discussion on how one becomes impure when taking into one’s hands the book of Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs, i.e. to what extent these works were sacred. The Song of Songs was accepted, while there was still doubt with respect to the book of Ecclesiastes. In reality, considering the disappearance of the service at the Temple and of priesthood together with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., in Jamnia, rabbis, representatives of the Pharisee trend, tried to define the fundamentals of the Hebrew identity (being in controversy with other religious groups of the Judaism). One of their main concerns was related to the sacred texts, the new religious identity being now based on the Bible [2]. Nowadays, many exegetes consider that a stricter list of sacred Hebrew books was established after the middle of the 2nd century A.D. In the Babylonian Talmud, Baba Batra 146-150 (late 2nd century), there is an exhaustive list of 24 sacred books (the 12 minor prophets represented a single book; other works were unified, as well, as is the case of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles). A part of the sapiential books, although used in diaspora, were not received in the Jewish Canon. In this context, it should be stressed that the act of canonization was completed prior to the official list. When certain books acquire an undeniably and sacred value (as was the case of the Torah, already for a long time), they are already a type of “canon” [3]. At this point, it should be noted that some books were lost at an early stage (e.g., the Book of the wars of the Lord, see Numbers 21:14; the Book of Joshua, see Joshua 10:13). Other books did not survive the exile of 587 B.C. or were not copied following the transition to another type of writing, after 530 B.C. It should also be considered that, in transmitting and copying the books, priest groups and scribes played an important role, as they imposed their choices and views. In an attempt to assess this process, we raise the following question “What led to the creation of collections of sacred writings?” There were, first of all, religious reasons: the psalms were recited in the Temple; along one or three years, in the synagogue there was an uninterrupted reading from the Torah. Religious reading required preservation of the sacred books read in the gathering. Furthermore, there was the need not to lose the ancient laws and codices, as well as to preserve pre- exile books. 62 ILSHS Volume 61 The reasons accounting for the creation of the Hebrew Canon were as follows. Firstly, there was the need to better define Hebrew identity. After the year 70 A.D., Hebrew religion becomes more and more a religion of the book. There is a focus on the importance of the Law and of the ancient traditions included in the Prophets and in the Writings. Secondly, the list of sacred books could resolve disputes between the different groups in the Judaism, providing a unified catalog.
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