compilation of the bible- old testament

genres of the bible

-Law - documents defining God’s relationship with israel

- Narrative - the history of Israel, Jesus, and the Church

- Poetry - Wisdom, worship, and contemplation

- Prophecy - God reaching out through His prophets

- Letters - epistles sent to people and churches

old testament canon

• The Old Testament contains 39 books, beginning with Genesis and ending with Malachi

• written almost entirely in Hebrew, the language of Israel, however some shorter sections are written in Aramaic The most important writings are The Law, the historical books, and the prophets

• official and standardised list of scriptures established by the Early Church to be the ‘correct’ and ‘reliable’ ones in matters of faith as being revealed by God. The canon is therefore the official list of books that make the Bible.

• A canonical book is one that the church acknowledges as belonging to its list of sacred books, as inspired by God, and having a regulating (rule) value for faith and morals

apocryphal books

• There are some books, called ‘apocryphal’, which some versions of the Bible either omit or put in a separate section. These are books whose reliability as divinely inspired revelation is disputed. This raises the question of how the core canon of the Bible was selected, and the basis on which it is considered reliable

• The Church would say that early Christians recognised the authority already contained in the chosen books. For example, they were written by Apostles of Jesus or because the message was consistent with that of other texts

• Some critics of Christianity have argued that the books that were chosen reflected the beliefs of the early Christian church.

catholic canon

• 46 books
  Includes seven deuterocanonical books that are not in the protestant canon
  Affirmed before the Protestant canon. Affirmed by the Council of Rome (AD 382), the Synod of Hippo (AD 393), two of the Councils of Carthage (AD 397 and 419), the Council of Florence (AD 1431-1449) and the Council of Trent (AD 1545-1563)

jewish/ protestant canon

• 39 books

• The Protestant Bible contains the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) but divided into 39 books and ordered differently Decided by the Thirty-Nine articles (1563)
  Martin Luther moved seven Old Testament books into a section he called the Apocrypha, that are books which are not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are still useful to read

• As with Lutheran Churches, the Anglican communion accepts the Apocrypha for instruction in life and manners, but not for the establishment of doctrine

deuterocanonical books

• Tobit, Judith, 1 maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch

• Books recognised by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Churches as being part of scripture, but Protestants do not recognise them as divinely inspire