Creating the Canon
The process and
the product of the canonization of the Bible became the basis for a varied
tradition of interpretation.
By Lawrence H. Schiffman
The following article
is reprinted with permission from From
Text to Tradition: A History of Second Temple and Rabbinic Judaism (Ktav).
The term "canon" refers to the closed corpus of
biblical literature regarded as divinely inspired. The Hebrew biblical canon represents
a long process of selection, as testified to by the Bible itself, which lists
some twenty‑two books that have been lost to us, no doubt, among other
reasons, because they were not included in the canon. Books were only included
if they were regarded as holy, that is, divinely inspired.
The Hebrew Bible is divided into three parts, Torah (Pentateuch),
Prophets, and Writings. This division is not strictly one of content; it
derives from the canonization process in that the three parts were closed at
separate times.
Torah
"The Torah of Moses" was already the name for the
first part in the various postexilic books. We will not attempt here to deal
with the complex questions regarding the history and authorship of the Torah.
Suffice it to say that a unified, canonized Torah was available to Ezra for the
public reading which took place in approximately 444 B.C.E. Further, the
various legal interpretations (midrashim)
found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah are themselves a result of the issues
raised by a Torah in which there are apparent contradictions and repetitions.
It can therefore be stated unquestionably that the canonization of the Torah
was completed by the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The Prophets
Later rabbinic tradition asserts that prophecy ceased with
the conquest of Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. E. In effect, this meant that
books composed thereafter were not to be included in the prophetic canon, the
second of the Hebrew Bible's three parts. This view can be substantiated by the
absence of later debate about the canonicity of the prophets, the lack of Greek
words in the prophetic books, and the inclusion of Daniel and Chronicles in the
Writings rather than in the Prophets.It
must be the case, therefore, that the Prophets were canonized late in the
Persian period, probably by the start of the fourth century
The Writings
The Writings are a diverse
collection. Some of the books included in this corpus are earlier than the
canonization of the Prophets and were placed in the Writings because of their
literary form or because they were regarded as having a lesser degree of divine
inspiration. Other books appear in this collection because they were authored
after the canon of the Prophets was closed. As already mentioned, this was the
case with Daniel and Chronicles. Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes are regarded by
some scholars as of Hellenistic origin, but rabbinic tradition attributes them
to Solomon. Daniel is widely regarded by modern scholars as having been
written in the Hellenistic period. There is no evidence at all for the oft‑repeated
view that the Scriptures were formally canonized at Yavneh.
While virtually all the Writings were
regarded as canonical by the time of the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.,
arguments continued regarding the status of Proverbs, Song of Songs,
Ecclesiastes, and Esther, and these disputes are attested in rabbinic literature.
Second Temple literature indicates that a collection of Writings existed as
early as the second century B.C.E. but was not regarded as formally closed.
Canonization and Intergroup
Relations
The unfolding of the history of Judaism, and
indeed of Christianity and Islam as well, takes place against the background of
the interpretation of a revealed, authoritative body of literature. For Judaism
this corpus is the text of the Hebrew Bible. The notion of a canon provides a
fixed consensus on the contents of this body of sacred literature and,
therefore, helps to give unity to the diverse interpretations proposed by the
varieties of Judaism encountered throughout history.
It was the decision of the Christians to
reopen the canon for a moment, and to place the New Testament within it, that
created one of the basic disagreements separating Judaism from Christianity.
The Hebrew biblical canon drew the lines within which Judaism was to develop
and provided grist for the mill of a long and varied history of exegesis. The
concept of a canon, with the attendant notions of authority and sanctity,
endowed the Hebrew Scriptures with their enduring place in the history of
Judaism.
Lawrence H. Schiffman
is a Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.
c. Lawrence H.
Schiffman, 1991, Ktav Publishing House, Inc.
