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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Biblical Canon

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Introduction

A biblical canon is the collection of books that comprise the sacred scriptures or Bibles of Jews and Christians. The study of canon formation, that is, the study of the origin, transmission, and recognition of the books that comprise the Bibles of Judaism and Christianity, has expanded considerably in recent years. Many books, articles, and essays have emerged that also raise new questions about the origin and canonization of the books that comprise the Jewish and Christian Bibles. These new studies are giving rise to questions that were once thought settled in most religious communities, especially those regarding the criteria employed to select the biblical books and the consistency with which those criteria were applied in the canonization processes. Likewise, these recent studies are focusing more on the social contexts that led both Jews and Christians to establish their biblical canons as well as on the literature that was excluded from those collections. These matters are complex and solutions are dependent upon the expertise of several fields of related inquiry, namely historical criticism and interpretation of both the Old and New Testaments, as well as knowledge of the so-called Intertestamental literature or the late Second Temple writings (apocryphal and pseudepigraphal books) and early Christian apocryphal texts, including the now famous Dead Sea Scrolls and other recent discoveries of the Judaean Desert. Scholars of canon formation also depend heavily on those with expertise in the fields of textual criticism, early church history, rabbinic Judaism, and linguistics. The following lists of books reflect the breadth of the fields of inquiry necessary to make informed judgments on the emergence of the canons of the Old and New Testaments and they also are an important place for students and scholars of canon formation to begin their investigations of this important field of inquiry.

General Overviews

The following sources focus on the origin and development of both testaments and tend to be more of an overview than some of the more specific books that examine the canonization of one of the testaments. Generally speaking, the volumes fall into one of two categories, namely, those that espouse an early formation of the biblical canons (before the time of Jesus for the Old Testament and mostly accomplished by the end of the 2nd century for the New Testament). Scholarship has been moving away from this traditional perspective toward a view that says there was no fixed Old Testament canon in the time of Jesus or before and the New Testament did not reach its final shape until the 4th and 5th centuries. Auwer and de Jonge 2003 provides an excellent collection of diverse positions on ancient biblical canons. Barton 1997a and Barton 1997b give a brief but valuable discussion of the most important issues related to canon formation that are often overlooked. Bruce 1988 presents the traditional perspective on both the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT) (the OT before the time of Jesus and the NT by the end of the 2nd century CE). Campenhausen 1972 presents the most informed arguments for ending the OT before the time of Jesus and the NT canon by the end of the 2nd century. McDonald 2009, McDonald 2017a, and McDonald 2017b argue the case against the traditional arguments for both testaments, arguing that the OT was not complete or finished until the 2nd to the 5th centuries CE. McDonald and Sanders 2002 gathers thirty-one articles on the formation of both testaments, highlighting the debates among scholars on these matters. McDonald 2009 focuses on the significant role that the ancient manuscripts tell about the formation of the Bible and concludes with a statement about canon formation and inspiration.

Auwer, J.-M., and H. J. de Jonge, eds. The Biblical Canons. BETL CLXIII. Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2003.
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This is an important collection of essays on the origin and formation of biblical canons. There are thirty-eight contributors to the volume; some of the most significant chapters for canon studies are those by Thomas Söding, Arie van der Kooij, Johan Lust, Eugene Ulrich, Johann Cook, John Barton, H. J. de Jonge, M. de Jonge, and J. Verheyden.
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Bartholomew, Craig G., Scott Hahn, Robin Parry, Christopher Seitz, and Al Wolters, eds. Canon and Biblical Interpretation. Scripture and Hermeneutics Series 7. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006.
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This collection of essays focuses mostly on canon issues and the theological implications derived from them for both Old and New Testaments. The scholars come from a conservative tradition, and generally they define canon as an early function of the biblical literature and draw earlier conclusions on the dating of the biblical canon. Most notable contributions for canonical formation are from Brevard S. Childs, Denis Farkasfalvy, Christopher Seitz, and Stephen B. Chapman.
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Barton, John. Holy Writings, Sacred Text: The Canon in Early Christianity. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1997a.
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Introduces the complex subject of canon formation. Especially helpful in its exploration of the meaning of canon, the most significant issue that divides scholars and regularly leads to different conclusions. Barton also distinguishes between the notion of scripture and canon and deals carefully with the origins of both Old and New Testament canon formation as well as how the early church interpreted this literature after its sacredness was determined.
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Barton, John. How the Bible Came to Be. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1997b.
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This short digest of the canonical processes is useful and offers valuable information for the beginning student and nonspecialist. Although Barton’s view that all of the books of the Old and New Testaments were recognized as scripture by the end of the 2nd century CE is not defensible, the volume offers an excellent summary of the issues involved in canon formation.
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Bruce, F. F. The Canon of Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1988.
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Argues for an early completion of both processes and also for considerable unity on the matter among all Jews of the 1st century CE. Claims a 2nd-century date for the essential completion of most of the New Testament canon. Contains many useful references to ancient literature, and gives a careful assessment of most of those sources, but assumes that the early church answered 2nd-century heresy by constructing a biblical canon. This is similar to Campenhausen and Metzger.
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Campenhausen, Hans von. The Formation of the Christian Bible. Translated by J. A. Baker. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972.
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The classic text on canon formation of both testaments and while now dated in some areas, it describes and interprets valuable ancient sources related to the formation of the Bible. The author dates the NT canon largely to the end of the 2nd century CE and as a result of church responses to 2nd-century heresies (Marcionites, Gnostics, and Montanists).
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Chapman, Stephen B. The Law and the Prophets: A Study in Old Testament Canon Formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020.
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This new volume is a revised second edition of the author’s earlier Yale University dissertation (1998), published in 2000, and includes an update and assessment of much that has been published since then. It is carefully written and argues that the Hebrew Bible was finished before the time of Jesus and that the church’s Old Testament and its shape were determined earlier as well. Scholars will debate some of his more conservative conclusions, but they are articulated well and demonstrate careful research.
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Coogan, Michael D., ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
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Contains numerous essays on the origin and canonization of the Bible, writings not included in the Bible, and discussions of related literature, including historical introductions to the books that comprise the Old and New Testaments. Internationally known scholars who have previously made significant contributions to their topics write many of these articles. These two volumes are an appropriate starting place for canon research and the origin of the Bible. Many of the articles included are foundational and provide pivotal information for all current canon inquiry.
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Gallagher, Edmon L. “The Old Testament ‘Apocrypha’ in Jerome’s Canonical Theory.” Journal of Early Christian Studies 20 (2012): 213–233.
DOI: 10.1353/earl.2012.0016 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An important contribution to the understanding of “apocrypha” in Jerome’s thinking in the 5th century.
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Gallagher, Edmon L. “The Blood from Abel to Zechariah in the History of Interpretation.” NTS 60 (2014): 121–138.
DOI: 10.1017/S0028688513000246 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This article goes against traditional understanding that when Jesus spoke these words, he was speaking about a complete collection of Hebrew scriptures. His arguments are compelling and future discussions of those New Testament passages used to argue for an earlier fixed Old Testament for the church are no longer convincing.
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Hovhanessian, Vahan S., ed. The Canon of the Bible and the Apocrypha in the Churches of the East. Bible in the Christian Orthodox Tradition 2. New York: Peter Lang, 2012.
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A small but important collection of essays on the status of the formation of the Bible in Eastern churches, especially in regard to the use of the so-called apocryphal books in the Eastern Bible, both Old and New Testaments. In most canon studies, scholars regularly omit discussions of significant effects that the Eastern churches had on the shape of the Bible in their region.
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Marsden, Richard, and E. Ann Matter, eds. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 2, From 600 to 1450. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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Besides the forty-four contributors, Marsden writes the introduction to this 1,045 page volume that contains invaluable information on the formation of the Bible in the Medieval Period. It contains essays that focus Part 1: Texts and Versions; Part 2: Format and Transmission; Part 3: The Bible Interpreted; Part 4: The Bible in Use; Part 5: The Bible Transformed. The contributors present a lot of foundational material central to and necessary information on the development of the Bible in the medieval period.
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Martens, Peter W. Origen and Scripture: The Contours of the Exegetical Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199639557.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The importance of Origen’s 3rd-century contributions to the move toward a biblical canon for the church is highlighted in this volume. Canon scholars are aware of Origen’s influence in the thinking of the later Eusebius and other Church Fathers who formed the biblical canons for the subsequent churches. Martens presents a compelling case for Origen’s exegetical efforts to present the church’s one compelling message in the scriptures and the fluid state of the not-yet-fixed biblical canon of the later church, though Origen was clearly aware of the diversity of opinion circulating in the churches in the 3rd century and openly welcomed several of the Deuterocanonical books in the Septuagint that were not in the Hebrew Scriptures.
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McDonald, Lee Martin. Forgotten Scriptures: The Selection and Rejection of Early Religious Writings. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2009.
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Few textual critical works on Old or New Testament address the significant text critical issues related to canon formation. This volume addresses those issues asking what precisely is in the ancient biblical manuscripts and what those variants suggest.
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McDonald, Lee Martin. The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011.
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Deals both with the Old and the New Testament canon formation. Rejects the notion that the OT was completed by the time of Jesus, and also rejects notion that the NT canon was largely completed by the end of the 2nd century CE. Rather, the Old Testament canon emerges for the rabbinic Jews in the 2nd century CE and Christians by the 4th century, and the New Testament canon is largely completed by the middle to end of the 4th century CE.
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McDonald, Lee Martin. The Formation of the Biblical Canon: The Old Testament, Its Authority and Canonicity. Vol. 1. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2017a.
DOI: 10.5040/9780567668790 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This volume is an expanded version of the third edition of the Old Testament portion of the earlier The Formation of the Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011). It responds to earlier criticisms of the third edition, reinforces many of its earlier arguments for a later formation of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament canon, but also adds considerably on the earlier formation of the Hebrew Scriptures, the oral and memory transmissions of those texts, the relevance of the text critical analysis of those texts, and has a more detailed analysis of the third part of the Hebrew Bible, the Writings (Ketuvim), and adds considerably to the lists of ancient canon catalogues that reflect on the actual Scriptures recognized by the communities in which those canon lists were found. Finally, this volume addresses the question of the role of the Old Testament Scriptures in establishing the identity of Jesus and how those Scriptures were first interpreted in the early church.
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McDonald, Lee Martin. The Formation of the Biblical Canon: The New Testament, Its Authority and Canonicity. Vol. 2. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2017b.
DOI: 10.5040/9780567668790 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This volume is an expansion of the earlier The Formation of the Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011) focusing on the formation of the New Testament canon of scriptures. It reinforces arguments for a later formation of the New Testament canon, namely the 4th and 5th centuries, but acknowledges that the matter was not settled for all Christians until considerably later. The discussion of the Muratorian Fragment is significantly expanded and responds to and refutes recent arguments for a 2nd century dating of that catalogue and contends that the evidence favors a late-4th- or early-5th-century dating of that document. There is a greater focus on the importance of textual criticism and the canonical text of the New Testament Scriptures for the church as well as the relevance of the surviving manuscripts of New Testament writings and their translation. The volume also responds to earlier criticisms of the 3rd edition and reflects on the transmission of the New Testament well into the pandect Bibles of the late medieval period. Finally, this volume responds to the recent argument that the New Testament writers were consciously aware of writing sacred Scripture when they wrote and dismisses that notion as anachronistic.
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McDonald, Lee Martin, and James A. Sanders, eds. The Canon Debate. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.
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A collection of articles by thirty-one biblical scholars dealing with a variety of issues, including matters of text and transmission as well as the rabbinic and early church influences on canon formation. The breadth of the subjects discussed and the perspectives that generally, though not completely, favor more flexibility in understanding the notion of fixed biblical canons in Antiquity are the strength of this volume.
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Paget, James C., and Joachim Schaper, eds. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 1, From the Beginnings to 600. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139033671 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This is one of the most up-to-date collections of relevant articles on the formation of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, that employs some of the best scholars in the field of canon formation. Articles on the formation of both testaments and related issues, such as the artifacts of materials used in producing ancient manuscripts as well as early church use and recognition of religious texts as sacred scripture. Some of the articles reinforce earlier positions on canon formation and how noncanonical writings were viewed in Antiquity. This exhaustive volume of 979 pages focuses on Part 1: Languages, Writing Systems, and Book Production; Part 2: The Hebrew Bible and Old Testaments; Part 3: the New Testament; Part 4: Biblical Versions Other than the Hebrew and Greek; Part 5: The Reception of the Bible in the Post–New Testament Period. The contributors to this volume examine “Texts and Versions,” “Format and Transmission,” and the “Bible Interpreted,” the “Bible in Use,” and the “Bible Transformed.” Many of these articles discuss topics that are pivotally significant and foundational for understanding the history and development of the biblical canons of the Old and New Testaments. This volume is not to be ignored.
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Riches, John, ed. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 4, From 1750 to the Present. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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After Riches’s introduction to the volume, the essays include Part 1: Producing the Text, Part 2: New Modes of Study of the Bible; Part 3: Reception of the Bible Geographically; Part 4: Reception of the Bible Confessionally; and Part 5: Thematic Overview: Reception and Use of the Bible, 1750–2000. This volume focuses especially on modern receptions and interpretations of the Bible.
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Rothschild, Clare K. The Muratorian Fragment, WUNT I.xxx. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2021.
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This new volume (520 pp.) will doubtless become the standard text on the origin and occasion of the Muratorian Fragment. She presents important and compelling new arguments for a late-4th- or early-5th-century dating of this canon list, noting that the only parallels to it are from that period, especially the relationship between Pius and Hermas, Miltiades as a heretic, and the naming of the “Cataphrygians” instead of “Montanists,” all of which only have parallels in the late 4th and early 5th centuries. This volume significantly expands her earlier article, “The Muratorian Fragment as Roman Fake,” NovT 60 (2018): 55–82.
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Sanders, James A. Scripture in Its Historical Contexts. Vol. 1, Text, Canon, and Qumran. Forschungen zum Alten Testament 118. Edited by Craig A. Evans. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2018.
DOI: 10.1628/978-3-16-155967-9 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The essays in this collection are largely rewritten in light of new research and include many excellent chapters with new additions that aid considerably in an understanding of the formation of the Hebrew Bible in light of the discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This hefty new volume (548 pp.) is essential for understanding the formation of the Hebrew Bible and the church’s First Testament. Its volume 2 focuses on Exegesis, Hermeneutics, and Theology (2019).
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van der Kooij, A., and K. van der Toorn, eds. Canonization and Decanonization: Papers Presented to the International Conference on the Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR) Held at Leiden, 9–10 January 1997. SHR LXXXII. Leiden: Brill, 1997.
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An important collection of essays that highlights a number of aspects related to the canonization of the Bible with special attention given to the decanonization of writings that no longer garnered widespread acceptance in religious communities. Articles by J. Z. Smith on “Canons, Catalogues and Classics” as well as H. M. Vos on “The Canon as a Straitjacket,” and all of the articles in section are relevant to questions related to canon formation.
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Bibliographies

Readers are advised first to consult the bibliographies in the volumes listed in General Overviews, but other than those, three recent and lengthy bibliographies on canon formation are listed below. There are no separately published bibliographies on canon formation, but the following works emphasize the various aspects of this discipline. McDonald 2017a and McDonald 2017b (both cited under General Overviews) are currently the most complete bibliographies that cover all related aspects of canon formation including ancient Jewish and Christian citations, canon lists, the surviving Jewish and Christian manuscripts, and surviving translations of biblical writings. The Canon Debate (McDonald and Sanders 2002) includes another lengthy bibliography on the variety of issues related to the origin and development of the biblical canon. The bibliography in the final volume, Forgotten Scriptures (McDonald 2009), is more focused on the importance of the ancient manuscripts for a better understanding of the canonization of the Bible and also the significance of textual criticism that is often ignored in canon research. Other recent helpful bibliographies include Lim 2013, Kruger 2012, Kruger 2013, Bokedal 2014 and the bibliographies in both volumes of The New Cambridge History of the Bible (Marsden and Matter 2013 and Paget and Schaper 2013). Several newer and important resources that are not in the earlier ones by McDonald are also included here.

Bokedal, Tomas. The Formation and Significance of the Christian Biblical Canon: A Study in Text, Ritual and Interpretation. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2014.
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An excellent bibliography especially on, but not limited to, New Testament canon formation. See pages 367–402.
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Collins, John J., Craig A. Evans, and Lee Martin McDonald. Ancient Jewish and Christian Scriptures: New Developments in Canon Controversy. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2020.
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This book examines the Jewish and Christian writings both later included in the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old and New Testaments and also excluded from them. The authors also recognize the value of the excluded writings for understanding the historical and social environments of the Jewish and Christian communities that initially welcomed them, but also the emergence and recognition of those books that finally were included in Jewish and Christian biblical canons. The aim of the volume is to introduce and advance new developments in early-21st-century canon debate issues. See the bibliography (pp. 201–223).
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Kruger, M. J. Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012.
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Includes the usual sources along with more recent sources and more conservative sources than most other bibliographies. See pages 296–344.
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Kruger, M. J. The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2013.
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Includes the usual sources along with more conservative sources than most other bibliographies. A shorter bibliography than Kruger 2012, but adds additional sources that appeared after the publication of the next volume. See pages 211–248.
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Lim, Timothy H. The Formation of the Jewish Canon. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.12987/yale/9780300164343.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This bibliography is focused primarily on the canonization of the Hebrew Bible and has many important sources in English, French, and German. See pp. 243–275.
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Marsden, Richard, and E. Ann Matter, eds. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 2, From 600 to 1450. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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For an extensive and updated bibliography focusing on the texts and translations of the Bible as well as its use in Antiquity and the modern era, see pp. 874–983.
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McDonald, Lee Martin. The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006.
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Expanded third edition of The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon. See especially pp. 475–521.
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McDonald, Lee Martin. Forgotten Scriptures: The Selection and Rejection of Early Religious Writings. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2009.
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Focuses on the influence of sacred texts that did not appear in the Bible. See especially pp. 267–288.
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McDonald, Lee Martin, and James A. Sanders. The Canon Debate. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.
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A collection of scholars discusses the definition, origin, and influence of the biblical canon. See especially pp. 599–623.
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Paget, James Carleton, and Joachim Schaper, eds. The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 1, From the Beginnings to 600. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139033671 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
For an extensive and updated bibliography on the history of the Bible, including its canonization, see pages 871–912.
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Journals

No theological journals are specifically devoted to the canonization of the Bible. Generally speaking, however, most journals that focus on Old or New Testament interpretation also welcome articles on issues related to canon formation. For instance, New Testament Studies (NTS), Harvard Theological Review (HTR), Scottish Journal of Theology (SJT), Zeitschrift für Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft (ZNW), and other journals periodically publish articles on canon formation. There is growing interest in canon formation in the 2nd century, and the early church history journals as well as the more recent Henoch journal and others that generally focus on a study of the Apocrypha or Pseudepigrapha also publish related canon articles. In the Bibliographies section are a number of excellent journal articles on canon formation.

Harvard Theological Review. 1908–.
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Discusses both the Old and the New Testaments, as well as archaeology, comparative religious studies, and theology.
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Henoch. 1979–.
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Studies Judaism and Christianity from the Second Temple into Late Antiquity.
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New Testament Studies. 1955–.
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International journal addressing historical, theological, literary, and sociological approaches to the New Testament and early Christianity.
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Scottish Journal of Theology. 1948–.
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Quarterly journal dealing with historical and biblical theology.
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Zeitschrift für Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft. 1900–.
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Focuses on New Testament exegesis.
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Primary Textual Sources

The following are the most responsible and commonly cited texts of ancient literature that are available today and consequently important for all canon inquiry. Indeed, canon inquiry is not possible without careful translations of the texts in these volumes. The quality and care with which the texts are presented in English is not always uniform, but the critically important necessity of consulting this literature cannot be underestimated. The following translations of Jewish and Christian religious literature that generally did not obtain canonization (the exception is the Old Testament Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical writings) are among the most cited translations by biblical scholars. Charlesworth 1983–1985 has become the standard source on ancient Jewish pseudepigraphal texts and contains excellent introductions. Danby 1933, likewise, has become the standard English translation of the Mishnah, as Elliott 1993 has become the standard translation of the New Testament or Christian Apocrypha. Martínez and Tigchelaar 1997 has become one the most useful collections of the Dead Sea Scrolls for students and scholars alike. Neusner 2002 offers a superb translation of the Tosefta and helpful notes that explain its context and origin. Pietersma and Wright and their many contributors have produced a very fine translation of the Septuagint with many useful notes to explain its most difficult texts (Pietersma and Wright 2007). Robinson’s most recent translation of the Nag Hammadi literature (Robinson 1990) has become the standard source in English on early Gnostic texts. Schneemelcher 1991 is not only a carefully prepared translation of apocryphal Christian texts, the introductions and footnotes are also excellent and offer the reader the place to start research on these ancient texts.

Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. 2 vols. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983–1985.
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These two volumes (Vol. 1, Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments; and Vol. 2, Expansions of the “Old Testament” and Legends, Wisdom and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms, and Odes, Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic Works) are the most recent translations of the Old Testament Pseudepigraphal literature and, although now somewhat dated in places and in need of some revision and expansion, still serve as the best and most reliable resource available for a critical introduction and translation of these ancient texts.
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Danby, Herbert, trans. and ed. The Mishnah: Translated from the Hebrew with Introduction and Brief Explanatory Notes. Oxford: Clarendon, 1933.
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Danby’s work is the standard translation of the Mishnah and although dated is still a valuable and reliable translation.
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Elliott, J. K., ed. The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation Based on M. R. James. Oxford: Clarendon, 1993.
DOI: 10.1093/0198261829.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This volume includes both introductions and fresh translations of ancient apocryphal Christian writings that were initially welcomed in some Christian churches but eventually rejected by the majority of churches. Elliott’s work has become one of the standard reference works on this literature for students and scholars alike.
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Martínez, Florentino García, and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar. The Dead Sea Scrolls: Study Edition. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1997.
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This recent translation is one of the most important and commonly cited critical translations available. It offers opposite the English translation the original reconstructed Hebrew text along with a useful index of manuscript titles for the translation.
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Neusner, Jacob. The Tosefta: Translated from the Hebrew with a New Introduction. 2 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002.
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A carefully prepared recent translation of the Tosefta with a well-informed introduction to this ancient sacred literature in the rabbinic tradition. An excellent and resourceful tool for students of rabbinic Judaism.
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Penner, Kenneth, ed. The Lexham English Septuagint. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019.
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This is an excellent new translation of the Septuagint made directly from the Greek and is gender sensitive, e.g., where “sons” or “men” are inclusive and translated as “descendants” or “humans,” respectively. It includes a broader collection of the so-called Deuterocanonical texts than in found in both Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, including also Psalms of Solomon, Enoch, Odes, and 3–4 Maccabees.
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Pietersma, Albert, and Benjamin G. Wright, eds. A New English Translation of the Septuagint and Other Greek Translations Traditionally Included under That Title: A New Translation of the Greek into Contemporary English—An Essential Resource for Biblical Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
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This translation of the Septuagint into English is a significant advance on earlier translations that is well informed by recent critical scholarship. Each book also has excellent brief introductions and careful footnotes for clarification of decisions made in translation.
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Robinson, James M., ed. The Nag Hammadi Library in English. 3d ed. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.
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This collection offers translations of the ancient Gnostic literature that was welcomed as sacred literature by several early Christian Gnostic communities. It contains important brief critical introductions to each book in the collection.
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Schaff, Philip. The Creeds of Christendom. 3 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998.
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This invaluable three-volume set catalogues ancient creeds and council decisions on theological and canonical decisions from ancient Christianity to modern times. Volume 1 focuses on the history of creeds, Volume 2 on the Greek and Latin creeds, and Volume 3 on the Evangelical Protestant creeds. No other collection of ancient creeds is as exhaustive as this and it allows scholars to trace the significant development of the biblical canon through the church’s creeds. Reprint is based on the sixth edition and revisions of David S. Schaff in 1931. Originally published in 1876.
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Schneemelcher, Wilhelm, ed. New Testament Apocrypha. Rev. ed. 2 vols. Translated by R. McL. Wilson. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1991.
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This careful introduction and translation of the ancient apocryphal Christian writings is a classic in its second edition. It has need for further expansion and revision but it remains a standard reference on this literature.
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Old Testament Canonization

The following works focus only on major issues related to the canonization of the Old Testament and are generally considered the standard texts in the field. They generally, but not completely, focus on arguments for dating the canonization of the Old Testament, but also important texts that suggest their positions. Barrera 1998 provides a modern discussion of many challenging questions related to canon formation. Beckwith 1985 gives the strongest case for the traditional perspective on canon formation. Childs 1979 has produced a coherent argument for an early formation of the Old Testament but fails to deal adequately with the relevance of the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Christian formation. Cross 1998 offers a unique discussion claiming that the order and contents of the Hebrew Bible first emerged in Babylon, not the Land of Israel. Davies 1998 has cogently argued for the lack of a stabilized Hebrew Bible in and before the time of Jesus, and Jones 1995 gives the best arguments for an early stabilization of the Book of the Twelve (the Minor Prophets). Sanders 1987 has given the best argument for the development of a canon of Old Testament Scriptures among the Jews and emphasizes the importance of adaptability in the selection process. Seitz 2009, like Childs 1979, argues for the early formation of the Hebrew Bible and also has difficulty accounting for the wider collection at Qumran and the emergence of the wider canon of early Christians. Swete 1989 (originally published 1914) is a classic that offers critically important data relevant to canon formation that is found nowhere else. The following books mostly argue for the traditional dates for canon formation but also include many helpful discussions of primary literature.

Albertz, Rainer, J. D. Nogalski, and Jakob Wöhrle, eds. Perspectives on the Formation of the Book of the Twelve: Methodological Foundations—Redactional Processes—Historical Insights. BZAW 433. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2012.
DOI: 10.1515/9783110283761 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This is one of many recent volumes that address, among other things, the relationship of the formation of the Twelve (Minor Prophets) and the dating of canon formation itself. Especially helpful for canon formation are the opening chapters on Methodological Foundations as well as the articles by R. E. Garton, J. Dines, R. Fuller, and H. von Weissenberg.
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Anderson, Robert T., and Terry Giles. The Samaritan Pentateuch: An Introduction to Its Origin, History, and Significance for Biblical Studies. RBS 72. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2012.
DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt32bzhn Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Scholars have known for years the parallels between the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) and against the Masoretic Text (MT). Some have come to conclude that often both may rely on earlier antecedents. This volume both introduces the SP to general readers and elaborates on the importance of the SP for textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible.
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Barrera, Julio Trebolle. The Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible: An Introduction to the History of the Bible. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998.
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A useful and comprehensive study of the origin, canonization, textual stability, and translation of the books of the Hebrew Bible. The scope is helpful in understanding the various factors that led to the recognition and acceptance of the Jewish religious literature that eventually became the Hebrew Bible of the Jews and the Old Testament of the Christians. Includes many relevant ancient references from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Barton, John. Oracles of God: Perceptions of Ancient Prophecy in Israel after Exile. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
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Barton makes the strongest case against the notion of a fixed biblical canon of scriptures in Judaism of Late Antiquity or in the early years of the Christian Church. His well-informed and significantly documented volume continues to be one of the most cited texts on Hebrew Bible and Old Testament canon formation, especially the first two chapters and his summary in the last chapter.
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Beckwith, Roger. The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church and Its Background in Early Judaism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1985.
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Argues for the early completion of the Old Testament canon (before Jesus). The work is weakest in explaining the early use of noncanonical writings in religiously authoritative contexts at the time when he claims that the biblical canon was closed. His presentation of the views of rabbinic Judaism is impressive, but often anachronistically imposed on New Testament times. Draws similar conclusions as Ellis and Childs.
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Carr, David M. Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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This is a sustained examination of oral and written transmissions of ancient texts that focuses on the contexts that shaped Israel’s sacred stories and legal codes. His work has implications for the origins and transmission of the Pentateuch, and for other of Israel’s scriptures as well.
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Carr, David M. The Formation of the Hebrew Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199742608.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Carr initiates a new approach for understanding the forming of the Hebrew Bible literature that begins with an examination of the oral and written transmissions of the literature that became the Hebrew Bible. This volume also continues and completes the work begun Writing on the Tablet of the Heart (Carr 2005). He begins with what he believes is the conclusion of the process, which he dates largely during the Maccabean period, and concludes with the earliest strands of the literature in the Hebrew Bible, which he dates to around the 10th century BCE, but which likely has earlier oral tradents.
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Childs, Brevard S. Introduction to the Old Testament as Scripture. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1979.
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Offers a carefully worded defense of an early traditional dating of the origin of the Old Testament canon before the time of Jesus and an argument for a canonical approach to biblical theology. He includes many important references to biblical and nonbiblical texts to support his position.
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Cross, Frank Moore. From Epic to Canon: History and Literature in Ancient Israel. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
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Begins the story of Jewish scriptures from its epic traditions and proceeds to the fixation of the text of the Hebrew Bible and finally to its canonization. He claims that the emergence of threefold categories of the Jewish scriptures (Law, Prophets, and Writings) and the understanding of the books that constitute them came from Babylon. He adds that the order of the books in this collection varied long after the books were selected.
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Davies, Philip R. Scribes and Schools: The Canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 1998.
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Unlike most studies on this subject, Davies focuses on the social context of book writing and the preparation of sacred books, as well as how they impact the emergence of an Old Testament canon. Clearly written and well informed by the ancient Jewish traditions and sacred texts.
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Davies, Philip R., and Thomas Römer, eds. Writing the Bible: Scribes, Scribalism and Script. Durham, NC: Acumen, 2013.
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Scholars have long known any understanding of the formation of the biblical texts and their canonization depended on the skills and perspectives of those who wrote the biblical books. This collection of fourteen essays focuses on the role of the prophet and scribe, who produced and transmitted writings in Antiquity. The importance of authorship and its relation to the status of ancient writings are also explored.
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Gallagher, Edmon L. Hebrew Scripture in Patristic Biblical Theory: Canon, Language, Text. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 114. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
DOI: 10.1163/9789004228023 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This is one of the best discussions of how the early Church Fathers recognized and formed their Old Testament canon. His work is especially helpful in focusing on the highly significant contributions of Origen to this process. This will likely become a standard text on this subject.
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Jones, Barry Alan. The Formation of the Book of the Twelve: A Study in Text and Canon. Atlanta: Scholars, 1995.
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This is the most complete discussion of the origins of one of the oldest collections of Jewish sacred scriptures following the origin and circulation of the Torah books. The formation of the Minor Prophets (the Twelve) and stabilization of its order is well argued and carefully presented. This is the place to start when examining the formation of the twelve Minor Prophets into a single collection.
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Lange, Armin, Frank Feder, and Matthias Henze, eds. Textual History of the Bible: The Deuterocanonical Scriptures. Vol. 2A. Leiden: Brill, 2020..
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This large and unique volume contains multiple recent contributions to an understanding of both the formation of the Jewish Bible and Christian Old Testament with special attention to the acceptance and function of the Deuterocanonical writings in the Greek, Syriac, Latin, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, Arabic, Protestant biblical canons. These overview articles are followed by a careful analysis of the textual histories of each of those same biblical canons. Each contribution has helpful bibliographies along with a composite bibliography at the beginning of the volume. The arguments carefully presented will be a primary source for all future investigations of the same literature.
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Lim, Timothy H. The Formation of the Jewish Canon. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.12987/yale/9780300164343.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Lim has produced one of the best volumes that outlines the history of the formation of the Hebrew Bible with careful assessments of the related primary texts and interactions with contemporary interpretations of those texts. He places the formation of the Hebrew Bible in the last part of the 1st century and, unlike most canon scholars, also appeals to the Gospels and writings of Paul to argue his case, as well as Josephus and 4 Ezra, to make his case.
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Lim, Timothy H., ed. When Texts Are Canonized. Brown Judaic Studies 359. Providence, RI: Brown Judaic Studies, 2017.
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This is an excellent collection of seven essays by well-known scholars presented at the Divinity College of the University of Edinburgh. The contributors include Timothy Lim, Manfred Oeming, John J. Collins, Michael Satlow, John Barton, Craig A. Evans, and R. W. L. Moberly. The collection is introduced by Timothy Lim, who then focuses on the meaning of canon and challenges some of the traditional criteria for establishing a biblical canon. C. A. Evan’s discussion of the emergence of the Christian Old Testament canon is also very helpful in showing how so-called noncanonical literature also influenced the formative stages of the Christian Old Testament. The essay by Moberly offers a helpful description and critique of H. Taussig’s case for a “New New Testament.”
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Morgan, Donn E., ed. The Oxford Handbook of the Writings of the Hebrew Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
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A specialized focus on the third part of the Hebrew biblical canon, namely the Ketuvim or Writings. The place of the writings in the Hebrew canon is helpfully described especially in the sections dealing with the history and later interpretations of that literature, e.g., D. E. Morgan’s opening chapter on “Studying the Writings as Post-Exilic Literature and Canon” (1–18) and his “The Writings and Canon: Enduring Issues and Legacy (463–472), L. F. Schiffman’s “Writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls” (325–342), L. M. McDonald’s “The Reception of the Writings and their Place in the Biblical Canon” (397–413), and M. K. Elliott’s “The Writings in the Christian Bible” (448–462).
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Najman, Hindy. “The Vitality of Scripture within and beyond the Canon.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 43 (2012): 497–518.
DOI: 10.1163/15700631-12341237 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A most helpful article that focuses not only on the texts that were eventually included in the Hebrew Bible-Tanak, but on those that were not included.
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Ryle, H. E. The Canon of the Old Testament. London: Macmillan, 1892.
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One of the earliest responsible arguments for the three-stage formation of the Old Testament scripture canon. His work was the major work that subsequent scholars appealed to support this widely accepted view, which dominated canon studies for almost one hundred years. The work is rich in appeals to the primary ancient literature, and current canon scholars still find it necessary to deal with his positions and interpretations of ancient texts.
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Sanders, James A. From Sacred Story to Sacred Text. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987.
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Focuses on the origins of the Hebrew Bible and critical issues related to canon formation. Argues that the origin of canon formation was centered in a story that gave the Jews their identity and hope. That hope was centered in the Exodus from Egypt but expanded to include the rest of the Torah (Pentateuch), Prophets, and Writings. He notes that the notion of canon emerges because a question of identity or authority has arisen. This volume augments his earlier Torah and Canon (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972) that initiated many of the subsequent canonical criticism volumes.
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Satlow, Michael L. How the Bible Became Holy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
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This new and often unique volume examines the pre-exilic, exilic, and post-exilic periods of Israel’s history to understand why the literature that comprised the Hebrew Bible was written and why some books were not included in it. He distinguishes how the early Christians and their Jewish siblings viewed their scriptures, namely, as message or text, and how that affected the books they canonized. Most of this book focuses on the origin and significance of the Old Testament Scriptures, but chapters 12–14 are largely on the New Testament writings and how Christians viewed texts differently from the Jews.
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Seitz, Christopher R. The Goodly Fellowship of the Prophets: The Achievement of Association in Canon Formation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.
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Seitz argues for an early formation of the Old Testament canon and employs many carefully crafted arguments. The weakness here is that he does not account for the emergence of the many noncanonical writings that emerged after the time that he proposes for the closing of the Old Testament canon that were recognized as sacred literature by both Jews and Christians.
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Swete, Henry Barclay. An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek. Revised by R. R. Ottley with Appendix by H. St. J. Thackeray. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1989.
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Originally published in 1914. Contains a wealth of valuable information and useful collection of ancient resources. Swete includes a perceptive comparison between the canons of the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint and an expanded list of early catalogues of the books of the Old Testament as well as an informed discussion of the books that were excluded from the Hebrew Bible but found in the Septuagint.
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Talmon, Shemaryahu. Text and Canon of the Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2010.
DOI: 10.5325/j.ctv1bxh41q Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This collection of previously published essays focuses on the formation of the Hebrew Bible in light of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and text critical formation. His last chapter (pp. 419–442) especially focuses on the forming of the Hebrew Bible and he concludes that the scrolls discovered in the Judean Desert show that no notions of a fixed collection of Jewish Scriptures existed in late Second Temple Judaism.
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Wildeboer, G. The Origin of the Canon of the Old Testament: An Historico-Critical Enquiry. London: Luzac, 1895.
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This is one of the earliest responsible treatments of canon formation in the modern era. Like Ryle and Sweet, Wildeboer makes use of many ancient and relevant texts for understanding the history of canon formation. While many of his arguments are now dated, he has gathered together in a compact volume (165 pages) many of the most important texts and arguments that current scholars still employ in their examinations of canon formation.
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Old Testament Text Criticism

For years canon inquiry largely ignored the importance of advances of a text-critical analysis of the Old Testament Scriptures. Text-critical scholars have long acknowledged the considerable variants in the ancient biblical manuscripts and that these variants are often significantly different. This discipline seeks to answer the question of which text of the Bible is canon for the communities of faith. The manuscripts that have survived Antiquity most likely were all viewed as sacred scripture in the communities that possessed and transmitted them. Since the variants in those manuscripts regularly affect the meaning of the biblical text, the results of this discipline on the church’s canon of scripture cannot be insignificant despite the fact that canon studies generally focus only on the books and not the text of scripture. The following books have a significant impact on current discussions of the relevance of textual studies for canon formation. Levy 2001 focuses more on the rabbinic attempts to establish the text of the Hebrew Bible, while Schenker 2003 focuses attention on the earliest text of the Hebrew Bible Scriptures. Tov 2012 offers the best discussion overall of the emergence of the text of the Hebrew Bible and Würthwein 1995 approaches the study from the Old Testament of the Christian church perspective. It is more introductory than Tov’s work but a valuable contribution from a Christian perspective.

Levy, B. Barry. Fixing God’s Torah: The Accuracy of the Hebrew Bible Text in Jewish Law. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
DOI: 10.1093/019514113X.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This well-written and well-documented work describes the rabbinic attempts to fix the biblical text. Levy cites the most important rabbinic texts that identify the problems of textual stabilization as well as the many attempts to produce a recognized and widely accepted text of the Hebrew Bible. Levy includes a wealth of primary literature that allows the reader to trace the important steps of stabilization with greater clarity than earlier possible.
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Müller Reinhard, Juha Pakkala, and Bas ter Haar Romeny. Evidence of Editing: Growth and Change of the Texts in the Hebrew Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014.
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The scribes who transmitted the books in the Hebrew Bible regularly made editorial changes in the text in order to bring the text into the ever-new and ever-changing historical and social conditions facing the Jewish nation. Some of these changes were quite substantial, including both changes to the text (Josh 20) and omissions from it (1 Sam 10:27–11:1). The authors show that biblical scholars can no longer ignore these often substantial editorial changes to the text.
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Pakkala, Juha. God’s Word Omitted: Omissions in the Transmission of the Hebrew Bible. FRLANT 251. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013.
DOI: 10.13109/9783666536113 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An examination of the changes that took place in the transmission of the text of the Hebrew Bible, but unlike most text critical studies, Pakkala focuses mostly on the omissions or deletions in the texts that various scribes left out of their transmissions of Hebrew Scriptures. This author has many excellent examples not only from the books in the Hebrew Bible, but also from other texts from Qumran and in the differences in Esther 9:29–32 in the LXX and Hebrew texts. Of special interest is the discussion of the changes between 2 Kings and the Chronicles that reflects the growing importance of the priestly functions following the establishment of the Second Temple.
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Schenker, Adrian, ed. The Earliest Text of the Hebrew Bible: The Relationship between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew Base of the Septuagint Reconsidered. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
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This collection of essays reflects current research on the emergence of the Hebrew Bible and its textual history. Of special interest in this volume is Emanuel Tov’s discussion of the differences between the various textual traditions of the Hebrew Bible.
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Tov, Emanuel. Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible. 3d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012.
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This is the revised and expanded third edition of the most authoritative reference work on text criticism of the Hebrew Scriptures. Readers will find significant discussion of the major witnesses to the text of the Hebrew Scriptures and a useful understanding of the stabilization and transmission of the text of those scriptures in Second Temple times. For knowledge of these subjects, no one can ignore this volume. It is widely recognized as the authoritative discussion of biblical texts in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Würthwein, Ernst. The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. 2d ed. Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995.
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Considered a classic in the field of Old Testament textual criticism. This volume is quite useful for those interested in the text of the Christian Old Testament more than the text of the Hebrew Bible, although there is obviously considerable overlap in the discussion of these topics. This is a widely respected volume and generally considered trustworthy text by scholars of Old Testament textual criticism.
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The Septuagint

The Septuagint is the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible Scriptures, and its influence in both Jewish and Christian communities of faith has been highly significant. It was the Bible of Jews of the Diaspora in the time of Jesus and for Jews living to the west of the Land of Israel in Antiquity until the 8th or 9th centuries CE. It was also the first collection of scriptures for the Christians. It is cited in more than 94 percent of the New Testament’s citations of the Old Testament. It served as the most important text of scripture for all Christian communities until the 5th century. Most translations of the Old Testament for Christians until the time of Jerome were produced from the Greek translation of those scriptures. Its importance for understanding canon formation has been the object of considerable study in recent years, especially among those trying to establish the antecedent (or Vorlage) Hebrew text used by the earliest translators. In several cases, the Septuagint is based on an earlier form of the Hebrew text than the more widely used Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible. Studies in this area are beginning to produce significant results that have considerable bearing on the text as well as the larger collection of books in the Christian Old Testament biblical canon. Hengel 2002 offers the best overview of the contents and role of the Septuagint in early Christianity, and Marcos 2001 and De Troyer 2003 deal carefully with the actual text and antecedents of the text of the Septuagint. Tov 1999 is by far the best on examining the earliest text of the Septuagint and its relation to the Hebrew Bible. Wasserstein and Wasserstein 2006 focuses more on the origin of the mythical legends about the Septuagint and its recognition by both Jews and Christians.

De Troyer, Kristin. Text-Critical Studies: Rewriting the Sacred Text; What the Old Greek Texts Tell Us about the Literary Growth of the Bible. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2003.
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This brief study goes to the heart of the basic issues related to the text of the Hebrew Bible, including the so-called pre-Masoretic text and the Vorlage text that was used by the Greek translators of the Septuagint. These are informed and helpful discussions.
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Edrei, Arye, and Doran Mendels. “A Split Jewish Diaspora: Its Dramatic Consequences.” Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 16.2 (2007): 91–137.
DOI: 10.1177/0951820706074303 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
These authors raise questions about the differences between Jews of the Diaspora and those in the Jewish homeland. They claim that the later rabbinic Hebrew Bible (Miqra) had a shorter collection of sacred books than those used by Jews in the Diaspora, the Jews, who made use of the Septuagint’s larger collection. They observe that conformity to the rabbinic tradition did not take place until the 8th or 9th century CE.
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Hengel, Martin. The Septuagint as Christian Scripture: Its Prehistory and the Problem of Its Canon. Old Testament Studies. Translated by Mark Biddle. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 2002.
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Discusses the origin and recognition of the scriptural status of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Hengel addresses questions about the Aristeas legend about its origin and its reception by Jews and Christians. Hengel also discusses the problem of which books were included in this collection and their inclusion in the canon of the early church. This volume is the place to start research on the impact and significance of the Septuagint for Christians.
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Honigman, Sylvie. The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas. London: Routledge, 2003.
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This is a complete revision of popular views of the legendary Letter of Aristeas that instead is a charter myth for the Greek Bible as a sacred text. She also argues that this text reflects the same ideology that can be seen in the librarians of the Alexandrian library. She compares the Homeric legends with the forming of the Septuagint that is highlighted with the Letter of Aristeas.
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Law, Timothy M. When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199781713.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A helpful and coherent discussion of the origin of the Septuagint and its influence on New Testament writers as well as on Diaspora Judaism that welcomed this translation as their divine scripture. This was especially so for the vast majority of Christians up through the 4th century, before Jerome adopted the Hebrew Scriptures and their organization of the Jews. A valuable resource for understanding the scriptures of the Diaspora Jews and those of the early Christians.
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Marcos, Natalio Fernandez. The Septuagint in Context: Introduction to the Greek Versions of the Bible. Translated by Wilfred G. E. Watson. Boston: Brill, 2001.
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Provides an essential work on the origin, use, and transmission of the Greek Old Testament in early Judaism and early Christianity. Marcos’s discussions of the critical problems facing scholars today are balanced and well informed. He rightly points to the variety of translations throughout the Septuagint and their subsequent role in Diaspora Judaism and early Christianity.
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Niehoff, Maren R., ed. Homer and the Bible in the Eyes of Ancient Interpreters. JSRC 16. Leiden: Boston, 2012.
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These essays seek to interpret Homeric writings and biblical writings in light of each other. They show the familiarity of the biblical writers with Homeric writings and parallels between them, as in the case of the Hebrew Bible having twenty-four books instead of twenty-two, the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each Homeric book is divided into twenty-four sections, each beginning with a letter of the Greek alphabet. Many parallels in these essays show that ancient Jewish writers, such as Philo and the rabbinic writers as well as several New Testament writers, were all familiar with Homer’s writings and that familiarity had an impact of the formation of the Jewish and Christian Bibles.
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Tov, Emanuel. The Greek and Hebrew Bible: Collected Essays on the Septuagint. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
DOI: 10.1163/9789004275973 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A collection of Tov’s essays addressing the early rabbinic tradition related to the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures as well as important matters related to translation difficulties, such as the competence of the translators of the Septuagint and the textual similarities with several Dead Sea Scroll documents. Shows the similarities and differences in the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Jewish Scriptures.
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Wasserstein, Abraham, and David J. Wasserstein. The Legend of the Septuagint: From Classical Antiquity to Today. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511499142 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This description of the origin, development, and use of the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures both in the Jewish and in the Christian communities provides an important contribution to our knowledge of the Septuagint. Especially important for canon purposes is the authors’ conclusion that the Septuagint continued in use among the Jews as well as the Christians well past the time of the rabbinic traditions.
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Hellenization and the Formation of the Bible

In recent years a number of scholars have recognized what appears to have been a Hellenistic influence on the formation of the Hebrew Bible, whether in the number of books included in it or in the notion of an authoritative collection of sacred books. Several recent scholars have recognized this influence and the significant parallels between the ancient classics and the formation of a collection of widely recognized sacred religious literature.

Finkelberg, Margalit, and Guy G. Strouma, eds. Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Collection Religious Canons in the Ancient World. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
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This is an important collection of essays by established scholars on how the Hellenistic world and especially Homer and the classical writings influenced the origin and formation of the Bible, both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Significant parallels between the canons of sacred scripture and the canons of classical literary texts are noted with special attention given to the Homeric writings as a foundation for the various parallels.
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Sandnes, Karl Olav. The Challenge of Homer: School, Pagan Poets and Early Christianity. JSNTS 400. London: T & T Clark, 2009.
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This is an important contribution to the idea that Homeric writings had a significant impact not only on all Hellenistic education, but also on the writers of early Christian literature. Sandnes shows how some Christians rejected this influence, but other Christians embraced it and made use of the scholarship that accompanied Homer’s writings in their own.
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Wyrick, Jed. The Ascension of Authorship: Attribution and Canon Formation in Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian Traditions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
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Wyrick contrasts Greek and Jewish notions of the importance of authorship and the establishment of classic and sacred writings. While authorship was vitally important for establishing classic and canonic texts in the Hellenistic world, Jewish tradition de-emphasized human authorship and focused instead on divine authorship of their sacred documents. While acknowledging human authorship of sacred written traditions, the Jews emphasized the prophetic (divine) activity in the composition of that literature and only subsequently used names to establish historical connections. He discusses the relationship between authorship and canonization for both Jewish and Christian canons.
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The Dead Sea Scrolls and Canon Formation

The recent publications of the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient books or texts discovered in the Judaean Desert at Qumran, Nahal Hever, Murabba‘at, and Masada, including their interpretation, push a number of important issues to the front of canon discussions. The discovery of not only biblical books (all except Esther) at Qumran but also the large number of books that we now call “noncanonical” or “apocryphal” and “pseudepigraphal” texts at Qumran raise many questions about how settled the canon of the Hebrew Bible was in the 1st centuries BCE and CE. Those who argue that the shape of the Hebrew Bible was already settled well before the time of Jesus have difficulty accounting for the emergence and influence of this literature. As a result of these Judaean Desert finds, scholars are rethinking many of the traditional views on canonization of the Hebrew Scriptures and Christian Old Testament. In recent years, considerable attention has also been given to the so-called rewritten scriptures at Qumran and the “parabiblical” texts discovered there. As a result, it is difficult to write a history of the canon of the Jewish scriptures without also examining the presence, citation, and interpretation of sacred books in the ancient texts discovered in the Judaean Desert. The following are some of the standard texts on this subject and a useful place to begin research. Abegg, et al. 1999 brings not only a fresh translation of some of the most important texts found at Qumran but also valuable introductions to that literature. Crawford 2008 shows the breadth of the views of inspiration at Qumran by the Essenes’ acceptance of other texts as sacred writings. Falk 2007 demonstrates this breadth of inspired writings at Qumran, and Flint and VanderKam 1998 collects important and pivotal essays on the importance of the discovery of the scrolls and how they have impacted biblical studies. The essays in Herbert and Tov 2002 focus especially on the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for establishing the earliest text of the Hebrew Bible. Ulrich 1999 offers Ulrich’s well-known clarification of the meaning of canon and how the scrolls have influenced and changed earlier views on the canonization of the Jewish Scriptures. Finally, VanderKam and Flint 2002 shows the significance of the scrolls for understanding the canonization process and argues for a later time for its completion.

Abegg, Martin Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich. The Dead Sea Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time in English. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999.
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The authors have produced a careful translation of most of the best-known Dead Sea Scrolls (though not all of them, for example, Temple Scroll and others), along with helpful introductions. The title is unfortunate and anachronistic (there was no “Bible” at Qumran as they acknowledge), but the volume is carefully prepared and useful in most Dead Sea Scroll inquiry.
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Brooke, George J. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005.
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A helpful volume that focuses on the parallels between the New Testament writings and the Qumran scrolls and how to account for them. Brooke concludes that they share several common historical, social, and theological interests. He argues that both traditions enlighten one another in all of these aspects, including messianic expectations and writings (canonical and noncanonical) that reflect these perspectives.
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Collins, John J., and Ananda Geyser-Fouche, eds. Scribal Practice, Text and Canon in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essays in Memory of Peter W. Flint. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
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The volume contains seventeen essays by known biblical scholars focusing on the text, canon, and scribal practices mostly of the Dead Sea Scrolls that are interrelated subjects that also have considerable relevance for understanding Late Second Temple Judaism and the texts that it recognized as sacred.
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Crawford, Sidnie White. Rewriting Scripture in Second Temple Times. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008.
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Crawford explains how the “rewritten” sacred texts such as those that we find at Qumran suggest not only an acceptance of the initial scriptures but also a belief that the Spirit was still active in the rewritten or revised texts. Crawford shows how the Jews not only told their story but also retold it in authoritative ways again and again. She likewise explains how these texts were rewritten.
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David, Nora, Armin Lange, Kristin De Troyer, and Shani Tzoref, eds. The Hebrew Bible in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Vol. 239. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012.
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This volume includes the work of internationally known Dead Sea Scroll scholars who reflect on different aspects of the scrolls that reflect Jewish life when collections of so-called biblical and nonbiblical books informed the religious life of a sectarian community. These writings, especially those of E. Ulrich, J. J. Collins, A. van der Kooij, E. Tov, L. Schiffman, and H. Weissenberg, deserve careful consideration and are helpful in showing the state of canon formation, or lack thereof, in late Second Temple Judaism.
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Falk, Daniel K. The Parabiblical Texts: Strategies for Extending the Scriptures among the Dead Sea Scrolls. London: T & T Clark, 2007.
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Falk examines the retelling of the biblical narratives in new ways and in new contexts. He discusses the scriptural status of these writings (at Qumran) and the problematic differences between scripture and interpretation.
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Flint, Peter W., ed. The Bible at Qumran: Text, Shape, and Interpretation. Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001.
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This collection of essays begins with a focus on the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for understanding the canonization of the books that comprise the Hebrew Bible. The contributing scholars—James A. Sanders, Bruce Waltke, Eugene Ulrich, Craig Evans, and Peter Flint—all make significant contributions to the status of the Hebrew Bible canon in the 1st centuries BCE and CE.
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Flint, Peter W., and James C. VanderKam, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
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This comprehensive collection of essays on the meaning and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls by leading scholars in that field has a number of useful essays that reflect the development of the biblical canon in Antiquity. Generally speaking, they do not show at Qumran a stabilized biblical canon in the 1st centuries BCE and CE.
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Herbert, Edward D., and Emanuel Tov, eds. The Bible as Book: The Hebrew Bible and the Judaean Desert Discoveries. London: British Library, 2002.
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These essays focus on how the recent discoveries of sacred texts in the Judaean Desert shed considerable light on the notion of scripture and the canonical processes present in those communities in the 1st centuries BCE and CE. Of special importance for canon studies are the chapters by Armin Lange, George J. Brooke, and Emanuel Tov.
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Mroczek, Eva. The Literary Imagination in Jewish Antiquity. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190279837.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The author argues cogently for an important challenge to traditional canon formation research, namely that a fixed collection and fixed text were necessary for a meaningful understanding of canon formation in Antiquity. She offers useful points of engagement with the ancient texts and rightly rejects many of the traditional notions about an early or even necessary formation of biblical canons in ancient Judaism. She invites readers to rethink how ancient Judaism understood ancient books whether in or out of the biblical canons.
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Ulrich, Eugene. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999.
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Among the careful contributions that Ulrich makes here, he also discusses the difficult problem of defining a biblical canon and concludes that it is a fixed collection of sacred scriptures. He chides those who are inconsistent in applying this standard in their discussions but is not clear on what to call formerly authoritative religious that ceased that function in Judaism and early Christianity.
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Ulrich, Eugene. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Developmental Composition of the Bible. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 169. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
DOI: 10.1163/9789004296039 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This is an important contribution by an internationally recognized scripture scholar to our understanding of the formation of the Hebrew Bible in light of discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He focuses on the scriptures found at Qumran both in Hebrew and Greek as well as what can be learned from the scrolls that is relevant to the text of the Hebrew Bible and the formation of the eventual Hebrew Bible. He also provides a well thought out understanding of the notion of scripture and canon and their distinction. This volume cannot be ignored in all subsequent Hebrew Bible or Old Testament canon studies.
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VanderKam, James, and Peter Flint. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002.
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Among several important discussions in this volume, these scholars present arguments that relate to the status of canonical and noncanonical writings in the 1st centuries BCE and CE, and both agree that there was no settled canon of scriptures at Qumran among the Essenes at that time.
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New Testament Canonization

New Testament canon studies traditionally argue that the New Testament canon was largely formed by the end of the 2nd century CE and only a few finishing touches were made after this. The more recent position on the matter claims that the stabilization of the New Testament canon was much later, namely, the middle to end of the 4th century at the earliest with continuing challenges for centuries after that. Childs 1984 argues for the earlier date, but also raises important questions about the stabilizing of the text of the New Testament. Farkasfalvy and Farmer 1983, as well as Grant 1965, supports the earlier view, but offers useful early church resources that are important in canon formation. Gregory 1907 is a classic text on New Testament canon formation that offers still highly valuable discussions of important ancient resources for canon formation. Hahneman 1992 is unique in that it is the most complete discussion of the well-known Muratorian Fragment, challenging convincingly traditional interpretations of its late-2nd-century dating and Western provenance (Rome). Metzger 1987 offers the best defense of the traditional dating of the New Testament and brings to light many important but earlier ignored ancient texts with fresh translations. Patzia 1995 shows a model of how to argue the case for a traditional dating of the New Testament canonization. Zahn’s classic discussion of the origins of the New Testament canon (Zahn 1881–1929) is without question the most complete treatment of canon inquiry ever published and, though considerably dated, it still has one of the most complete collections of relevant ancient references.

Bokedal, Tomas. The Formation and Significance of the Christian Biblical Canon: A Study in Text, Ritual and Interpretation. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
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Recent and remarkable text that examines carefully the empirical evidence regarding the origins and formation of the biblical canon. It is full of new information and analyses of primary texts. Bokedal raises important questions about definition of canon and scripture as well as the physical artifacts of the manuscripts, including the importance of the nomina sacra. A new and valuable contribution to the overall discussion of canon formation.
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Childs, Brevard S. The New Testament as Canon: An Introduction. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984.
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Childs concludes that the canon of the New Testament was largely settled before the end of the 2nd century CE. He introduces an enormous collection of ancient texts to support his position and acknowledges the problem that textual critical analysis of the New Testament poses for all decisions about canonization. While his arguments for the early dating of a New Testament canon cannot be sustained, he supplies a careful study that should be a part of all New Testament canon discussions.
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Farkasfalvy, Denis M., and William R. Farmer. The Formation of the New Testament Canon: An Ecumenical Approach. New York: Paulist, 1983.
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Brings together useful information on the biblical and early Church Fathers related to the emergence of the New Testament canon. The authors contend that the canon received its primary and initial stabilization by the end of the 2nd century and utilize many valuable ancient resources but do not show adequately how canon formation continued beyond the 2nd century as demonstrated in the surviving manuscripts of the New Testament.
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Grant, R. M. The Formation of the New Testament. New York: Harper & Row, 1965.
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Provides a discussion of New Testament canon formation that deserves a careful read. While following generally the traditional positions on New Testament canonization, Grant also rightly asks how a New Testament canon could emerge before there was widespread agreement on the identity of Jesus and the basic outlines of the church’s beliefs. He also discusses the role of the early Church Fathers and the influence of the New Testament Apocrypha. He includes a discussion of the pivotal early church leaders who influenced the shape of the church’s New Testament.
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Gregory, Caspar René. Canon and Text of the New Testament. New York: Charles Scribner’s, 1907.
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The author was not aware of the many later important discoveries of New Testament manuscripts, but his discussion of the sources that were available to him, including ancient translations, is both careful and valuable. Gregory shows awareness that the processes of canon formation are inextricably bound to a textual investigation of the ancient manuscripts and to the developments in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Students should not ignore this hefty volume. Reprinted in Northville, MI: Biblical Viewpoints Publications, 1997.
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Hahneman, Geoffrey Mark. The Muratorian Fragment and the Development of the Canon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263418.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Here is the most detailed discussion of the origin and provenance of the Muratorian Fragment (MF) available today. The MF has become the Achilles’ heel for New Testament canon formation and Hahneman’s work supports a late-4th-century date for the emergence of a New Testament canon, where he also locates the MF and its Eastern empire provenance. Currently all discussions of the MF must of necessity begin with this work.
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Houghton, H. A. G. The Latin New Testament: A Guide to its Early History, Texts, and Manuscripts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744733.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An excellent and well-researched comprehensive introduction and investigation of the history and transmission of the Latin text of the New Testament beginning with the valuable finds in the Old Latin as well as the later Vulgate produced by Jerome. The volume also contains a carefully constructed catalogue of the Latin New Testament manuscripts. Any investigation of Latin transmission of the New Testament text cannot ignore this volume.
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Kruger, M. J. The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2013.
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Both this book and its predecessor Kruger 2012 (cited under Bibliographies) argue essentially the same point, namely, the scriptural status of the New Testament books that was established early, perhaps as early as the 1st century (as in the case of T. Zahn). Kruger defines canon largely as function rather than shape and claims that the writers of the New Testament were consciously writing scripture. This conservative approach to canon does not focus so much on process as on the function of the New Testament writings in early Christianity.
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McDonald, Lee Martin. The Formation of the Biblical Canon. Vol. 2. The New Testament: Its Authority and Canonicity. London: Bloomsbury and T & T Clark, 2017.
DOI: 10.5040/9780567668790 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This volume reflects many of the current disputes among canon scholars of the New Testament and responds to earlier reviews of the third edition (Baker Academic, 2007). It builds on the introduction chapters of Vol. 1 and adds more focus on the books that were rejected eventually by the early Christian churches as well as the form of the manuscripts and influences of local church councils. It also deals in great length with the date of the Muratorian Fragment and the more recent question of whether the authors of the New Testament writings were consciously aware of writing sacred scripture. McDonald places the Muratorian Fragment in the late 4th or early 5th century and rejects the notion that the New Testament writers were aware of writing sacred scripture.
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Metzger, B. M. The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance. Oxford: Clarendon, 1987.
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One of the best treatments on the origins of the New Testament canon formation that considers carefully all of the related ancient literature and text critical issues. Metzger argues with Campenhausen that the New Testament canon was largely settled by the end of the 2nd century CE as a result of churches’ reaction against the heresies of Marcionites, Gnostics, and Montanists. Contains numerous references to ancient sources and careful translations of primary texts (the Muratorian Fragment).
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Patzia, Arthur G. The Making of the New Testament: Origin, Collection, Text, and Canon. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1995.
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Patzia offers a brief but responsible piece of scholarship on the origin and canonization of the New Testament that is written for students and informed laypersons. He also includes helpful diagrams and a glossary.
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Porter, Stanley E., ed. The Pauline Canon. Pauline Studies 1. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-41228-2 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A substantial collection of essays that focus on the collection, authority, and function of Paul’s letters in early Christianity. Porter’s two chapters are the most helpful for canon formation issues. Overall, the volume reflects awareness of the pertinent ancient texts and recent critical scholarship.
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Schröter, Jens. From Jesus to the New Testament: Early Christian Theology and the Origin of the New Testament Canon. Translated by Wayne Coppins. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2013.
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This volume engages many critical issues related to the historical Jesus, but in Part 3, the author also focuses on the issue of the canonization of the New Testament, asking relevant questions about what ties the New Testament writings together and what they have in common. He is clear that the humanity of Jesus was central to this collection, but also his special relationship to God and the salvation of God for humanity.
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Verheyden, Joseph. “The Canon Muratori: A Matter of Dispute.” In The Biblical Canons. BETL 163. Edited by J. -M. Auwers and H. J. De Jonge, 487–556. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters-Leuven University Press, 2003.
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This is one of the more substantial articles in support of a late-2nd-century CE dating for the origin and Roman provenance of the Muratorian Fragment. He also writes on the same subject in the recent Cambridge University Press two-volume New Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 1 (Verheyden 2013). His arguments are substantial and he interacts with the leading positions with which he disagrees.
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Verheyden, Joseph. “The New Testament Canon.” In The New Cambridge History of the Bible. Vol. 1, From the Beginnings to 600. Edited by James C. Paget and Joachim Schaper, 389–411. Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
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A carefully written summary of the canonization of the New Testament that identifies the major issues related to canon formation and suggestions on how the matter was resolved differently in the West and in the East.
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Westcott, Brooke Foss. A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament. New York: Macmillan, 1889.
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This old and in some ways dated volume continues to be of considerable value for understanding the formation of the New Testament. His discussion includes the contributions of the church from the time of the Apostolic Fathers to the later fathers from the patristic period to the various church councils beginning with Laodicea, Carthage, and Rome to various surviving lists from contemporary and later Church Fathers. His scope of inquiry includes the influence of heresies and persecutions but also translations and multiple helpful appendices and summaries of the contributions of multiple teachers of the church well into the Reformation era. There was much that was unknown when this volume was written, but it still has a remarkable amount of reliable information in it.
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Zahn, Theodore. Forschungen zur Geschichte des neutestamentlichen Kanons und der alltkirchlichen Literature. 10 vols. Leipzig: S. Deichert, 1881–1929.
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Dated but still valuable discussion of canon formation. Zahn assumes that an authoritative influence of early Christian writings is essentially the same as accepting them as scripture and the establishment of the NT canon. He believes that the basic contours of the New Testament canon were well established by the end of the 1st century CE. While this can no longer be argued, students of canon will be well served in examining this rich mine of ancient resources.
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New Testament Textual Criticism

While the discipline of textual criticism has not usually been a part of discussions on canon formation, more recently it has become an important part of current discussions of New Testament canon formation. Textual critics acknowledge that the surviving biblical manuscripts tell us both what literature informed early Christianity and what text of that literature was canon to the various communities that received these sacred texts as scripture. Knowledge of New Testament text-critical issues sheds considerable light on the development of the Christian biblical canon and clarifies the numerous textual variants in the New Testament manuscripts (some two hundred thousand to four hundred thousand noted by scholars). These variants tell us much about the stability or fluidity of the biblical text in the time the manuscripts were produced and which texts of the New Testament books functioned as canon for the churches that received and transmitted these texts. The resources below offer considerable light on these and other important questions. Aland and Aland 1989 along with Metzger and Ehrman 2005 offer the two best introductions to textual criticism of the New Testament with many examples of where the text of the New Testament is unclear, and both offer significant lists of critical information for understanding the text of the New Testament. Parker’s more recent work (Parker 2008) cites several more examples in the areas he treats, especially in evaluating the primary and secondary biblical manuscripts. Ehrman 1993 demonstrates the variability of text of the New Testament in critical places and argues that the social and theological context impacted significantly the text of the New Testament toward orthodoxy. Epp 2005 questions the ability of text critics to establish the original text of the New Testament and shows how the ancient manuscripts clarify the social context of early Christianity. Gamble 1995 has produced the classic work on ancient book production and shows how relevant this is for canon formation, namely, how only the technology of the 4th century allowed Christians for the first time to bring together all of their inspired literature. Van Haelst 1976 is the most important resource for identifying the ancient biblical manuscripts as well as their contents and contexts. It is the place to start! Hurtado 2006 is unique in that it describes the most relevant New Testament manuscripts along with their physical features. Souter 1954 is a classic work that continues to have considerable value for canon formation and is one of the first to combine perceptively both textual and canon inquiry.

Aland, Kurt, and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament: An Introduction to the Critical Editions and to the Theory and Practice of Modern Textual Criticism. 2d ed. Translated by Erroll F. Rhodes. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1989.
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This volume, along with Metzger and Ehrman 2005, is among the best for introducing students and scholars to the discipline of New Testament textual criticism. It has a valuable discussion of the transmission and translation of the New Testament along with a number of collections of data that are useful to students of canon criticism and the origins of the New Testament.
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Comfort, Philip Wesley, and David P. Barrett. The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Vol. 1, Papyri 1–72. 3d ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2019.
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This is a much-improved third edition of Comfort’s earlier work and it offers valuable information about the dating and history of the biblical Greek manuscripts, though not always in the order found in the Greek manuscripts, as in P⁷², where he puts 1 and 2 Peter before Jude, unlike in the manuscript itself, and omits the additional noncanonical material in that manuscript, but does importantly acknowledge the additional noncanonical texts in the introduction of that papyrus fragment. The edition continues in Philip Wesley Comfort, The Text of the Earliest New Testament Greek Manuscripts. Vol. 2, Papyri 75–139 and Uncials (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2019).
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Ehrman, Bart D. The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
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Although the title is perhaps pejorative, Ehrman rightly shows how the early Christians regularly made changes to the text of the New Testament literature and how the theology as well as the text of those writings were in a state of flux for several centuries. He presents careful evidence of how the variety of theological perspectives in early Christianity affected the transmission of the text of the scriptures in the ancient churches.
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Ehrman, Bart D., and Michael W. Holmes, eds. The Text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research: Essays on the Status Quaestionis. 2d ed. New Testament Tools, Studies and Documents 42. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014.
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This collection of twenty-eight articles is both a revision and a considerable expansion of the first edition in 1995. Significant for canon formation are several discussions of how the ancient manuscripts and the variants in them reflect the social life of early Christianity, including the theological issues that were facing churches at different periods of early church development. The debate over the traditional aim of text-critical scholars to recover the “original” text of scripture continues in these essays, and this volume adds considerable light on contemporary debates on families or “clusters” of often fragmented manuscripts and what they tell us about the context of early Christianity and the emerging text of the New Testament. See pp. 884.
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Epp, Eldon Jay. Perspectives on New Testament Textual Criticism: Collected Essays, 1962–2004. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
DOI: 10.1163/9789047406952 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
For purposes of canon formation, several chapters in this collection of Epp’s essays are highly significant in showing where text critical scholars are today on the establishment of an “original” text of scripture. He also observes what books and texts are in the ancient surviving manuscripts and notes that they are often overlooked or ignored. Of special note are chapters 6, 7, 11, 12, 18, 20, and 22.
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Gamble, Harry Y. Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995.
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Without question, this is one of the most significant books written on the origin of books in the ancient world and how the early Christians made use of them. Gamble’s description of the size of the codex and its capacity at various stages of early Christianity’s development is very important for understanding the formation of the Christian biblical canon. This is the standard text on these matters.
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Grafton, Anthony, and Megan Williams. Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea. Cambridge, MA, and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.
DOI: 10.4159/9780674037861 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Like Gamble 1995, this is most helpful in observing how the book was transformed by ancient Christianity that also has implications on the possible shape of the biblical canon.
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Hull, Robert F., Jr. The Story of the New Testament Text: Movers, Materials, Motives, Methods, and Models. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010.
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In this succinct volume, Hull describes the history and practice of New Testament textual criticism. He observes that in six major papyrus manuscripts (P⁴⁵, P⁴⁶, P⁴⁷, P⁶⁶, P⁷², and P⁷⁵) there are some 1,386 variants and that, of them, only three are theologically motivated. He rejects several of Bart Ehrman’s (Ehrman 1993) claims of significant corruption in the surviving manuscripts, and that most textual variants resulted from the use of amateur copiers.
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Hurtado, Larry W. The Earliest Christian Artifacts: Manuscripts and Christian Origins. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006.
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This carefully written work addresses issues related to the actual contents of the early Christian scriptures and their significance for understanding the New Testament text. Appendix 1 is a descriptive summary of the surviving Christian manuscripts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Also provides a description of the physical features of the early Christian manuscripts and the relevance of that knowledge for understanding the context and development of early Christianity and its sacred scriptures.
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Hurtado, Larry W. Texts and Artefacts: Selected Essays on Textual Criticism and Early Christian Manuscripts. LNTS 584. London: T & T Clark, 2019.
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A most helpful volume that highlights some of the earliest New Testament manuscripts and their historical and sociological contexts that aid in understanding both the emergence of Christian scripture and the emergence of early Christianity in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
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Kraus, Thomas J. Ad Fontes: Original Manuscripts and Their Significance for Studying Early Christianity. TENT 3. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007.
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004161825.i-272 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Kraus highlights the difficulty of establishing an eclectic edition of the text of the New Testament writings, one of the often ignored aspects of canon studies, namely, which text of the New Testament writings is canonical for the church today? He also focuses on whether the future critical apparatus of an edition of the New Testament is forthcoming or even possible and is aware of the partially random selection of manuscript witnesses for establishing an eclectic text of the New Testament and its critical apparatus. His assessment of textual criticism that is essential for finding an acceptable text of the New Testament is important if not essential reading.
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Kraus, Thomas J., Michael J. Kruger, and Tobias Nicklas, eds. Gospel Fragments. Oxford Early Christian Gospel Texts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
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A focus here is on noncanonical gospel manuscripts and what they can tell us about the historical context of early Christianity and what gospel texts that did not make it into the Bible can aid in our understanding of early Christianity.
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Kraus, Thomas J., and Tobias Nicklas, eds. New Testament Manuscripts: Their Texts and Their World. TENT 2. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006.
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This is an important collection of chapters by twelve noted textual critic scholars who focus on different aspects of the origin, history, contents, and significance of the early texts and the story that they have to tell. Each contribution is excellent and helpful in gaining a broader understanding of the context in which the New Testament was formed.
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Metzger, Bruce M., and Bart D. Ehrman. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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The standard work on New Testament textual criticism. This fourth edition has been sharpened by the contributions of Ehrman and the references to the use of computer technology and recent contributions to the discipline. While this volume is not specifically focused on canon formation, the information supplied here is essential for any informed discussion of the canonization of the New Testament Scriptures.
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Parker, D. C. An Introduction to the New Testament Manuscripts and Their Texts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511619922 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A critically important introduction for students and scholars that deals with the manuscript evidence for the books of the New Testament. Parker carefully evaluates the major manuscripts for all books of the New Testament and offers invaluable textual information on some of the most important New Testament manuscripts. This volume compares well with Metzger and Ehrman 2005 and also Aland and Aland 1989.
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Souter, Alexander. The Text and Canon of the New Testament. Studies in Theology. 2d ed. Revised by C. S. C. Williams. London: Duckworth, 1954.
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This small and dated volume has many important ancient canonical lists or catalogues that are not found elsewhere. While the data available to both Souter and Williams were considerably more limited than what is available today, both scholars make critical observations about temporary and local canon formation that is not as obvious in subsequent works. It is also one of the few earlier works on canon formation that points the reader to the significance of textual criticism for canon formation.
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van Haelst, Joseph. Catalogue des papyrus littéraires juifs et chrétiens. Université de Paris IV, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1976.
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The primary source for examining the contents of the surviving ancient papyrus manuscripts. Provides both brief introductory matters for the papyrus manuscripts and their contents. The manuscripts are carefully listed and briefly discussed in their canonical order (book by book). Discusses the noncanonical or apocryphal books in the papyrus manuscripts. Cornelia Römer provides the update of this work available online.
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Wallace, Daniel B., ed. Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2011.
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This collection of articles interacts with and challenges Ehrman 1993. They have important responses to Ehrman’s claims and generally reflect a more positive history of the transmission of the New Testament texts.
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Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

Many of the books now anachronistically classified as “apocrypha” or “pseudepigrapha” were once welcomed in various Jewish and/or Christian communities of faith as sacred literature. There is generally nothing “heretical” in the Jewish apocryphal or pseudepigraphal books, and they often informed the faith of the late Second Temple Jews as well as the early Christians. At times many of them were even called “Scripture” by Christians or introduced by the usual scriptural designations (“as it is written” or “as the scripture says” and such). As many church leaders know, the books that are called Old Testament Apocrypha by Protestant Christians are regularly called “Deutero-canonical Scriptures” by the Roman Catholics and appear in both Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. Christian apocrypha are sometimes considered a bit strange in terms of what was finally accepted as orthodox Christian teaching, but many of these books, if not all of them, were welcomed as sacred scripture in some of the early churches. It is also important to examine those books that at one time had what is now called a “temporary” or “local” canonization in the churches and were later “decanonized” by the majority of churches. Canon studies must be familiar with this literature and ask why it was excluded by the majority of churches. Often these books supply important historical and social data that are useful in interpreting the canonical literature and clarifying issues in canon formation. The author of Bovon 2009 and Bovon 2015 is a master of this inquiry and shows how the Christian noncanonical texts informed the faith of many early Christian churches. Chazon, et al. 2005 does the same by focusing the function of Jewish noncanonical writings in early Judaism and the implications of that for understanding the Jewish biblical canon. Evans 2005 offers an important contribution that lists and briefly introduces the most commonly known noncanonical writings of Antiquity as well as writings that were never considered for canonization, but were influential in canon decisions, especially the rabbinic traditions. Meuer 1991, a collection of essays, throws light on the use of the Jewish apocryphal writings in early Christianity.

Bauckham, Richard, James R. Davila, and Alexander Panayotov, eds. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013.
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This is the first of two volumes that include a recent and up-to-date collection and translation of additional ancient pseudepigraphal texts with introductions and helpful parallels. It does not take the place of James H. Charlesworth’s two-volume work (Charlesworth 1983–1985). He has penned a helpful foreword to this first volume. This collection adds additional ancient pseudepigraphal texts.
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Bovon, François. New Testament and Christian Apocrypha. Collected Studies. Edited by Glenn E. Snyder. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2009.
DOI: 10.1628/978-3-16-151526-2 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Bovon describes the early noncanonical texts attributed to apostles and shows how several of the latter books functioned in early Christianity. The implications of this study for an understanding of canon formation are important and clearly show that many other religious texts informed the faith of ancient Christian communities.
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Bovon, François. “‘Useful for the Soul’: Christian Apocrypha and Christian Spirituality.” In Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha. Edited by Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, 185–195. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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Here, again, Bovon emphasizes the value for ancient churches of texts later excluded from the biblical canon but that continued to be read and cited in churches or privately for inspiration and encouragement. This is an important contribution that focuses on later excluded texts that were commonly read before there was a biblical canon such as churches have now.
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Brakke, David. “A New Fragment of Athanasius’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter: Heresy, Apocrypha, and the Canon.” HTR 103.1 (2010): 47–66.
DOI: 10.1017/S0017816009990307 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This is a helpful introduction to an important document for dating canonical inquiry in the 4th century, but also a careful interpretation of the categories that Athanasius introduces in this Festal Letter. All inquiry into this canon list must start with Brakke’s text and translation of it and its focus.
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Burke, Tony, ed. Forbidden Texts on the Western Frontier: The Christian Apocrypha from North American Perspectives. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2015.
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This volume originates from the 2013 York University Christian Apocrypha Symposium and many of the sixteen essays focus on the relevance of Christian Apocrypha for understanding the historical Jesus as well as Peter and Paul. Most of the essays have considerable relevance in understanding the formation of the New Testament canon and often reflect the influence that much of the Christian Apocrypha had in early Christianity that is seldom considered in most current canon discussions. The contributors include Tony Burke, Jean-Michel Roessli, Brent Landau, Charles W. Hedrick, Pierluigi Piovanelli, Cornelia Horn, Nicola Denzey, Lee Martin McDonald, Stephen J. Patterson, John S. Kloppenborg, Mark Goodacre, F. Stanley Jones, Stephen Shoemaker, David I. Eastman, Kristian S. Heal, and Glenn E. Snyder.
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Burke, Tony, and Brent Landau, eds. New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures. Vol. 1. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2016.
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The editors not only list and offer translations of the ancient Christian texts that were not included in the church’s Bible, but they also offer helpful introductions to that literature as well as an introductory section on the formation of the New Testament canon as to what to call those excluded texts. This volume is indeed a treasure trove, as several scholars have identified it, and it is important for understanding the formation of the New Testament and why these additional books were excluded. Highly recommended. Vol. 2 was recently published that includes considerably more ancient religious texts not included in the New Testament.
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Charlesworth, James H., ed. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1983–1985.
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This set (Volume 1, 1983; Volume 2, 1985) has become the standard translation of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha with careful introductions to each of the books listed. Although it is dated in parts, it is still the most cited collection of pseudepigraphal texts for biblical scholars.
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Charlesworth, James H. and Lee Martin McDonald, eds., with Blake A. Jurgens. Sacra Scriptura: How “Non-canonical” Texts Functioned in Early Judaism and Early Christianity. Jewish and Christian Texts in Contexts and Related Studies 20. London: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 2014.
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This is a collection of essays that focus on the function of Jewish and Christian apocryphal and pseudepigraphal texts in Antiquity that identifies what writings are labeled by those titles or genres, but especially how they functioned in Antiquity. Each presentation was initially given in a section of the Society of Biblical Literature that focused primarily on how those texts functioned in Antiquity. Several of the essays show the fluidity of the notion and identity of sacred scripture in Antiquity. The contributors include James H. Charlesworth, Edmon L. Gallagher, Ken M. Penner, Teresa Ann Ellis, Francis Borchardt, Gerbern S. Oegema, Lee Martin McDonald, Stephen C. Carlson, Jonathan K. Henry, and Daniel Lynwood Smith.
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Chazon, Esther G., Devorah Dimant, and Ruth A. Clements, eds. Reworking the Bible: Apocryphal and Related Texts at Qumran. Leiden: Brill, 2005.
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In recent years discussions of “reworking the Bible” have become common and focus on the use, interpretation, and modification of biblical texts in Antiquity. This includes a discussion of the use and interpretation of the so-called noncanonical texts and their function at Qumran and in Judaism. Of particular interest for our purposes are the chapters by Shani Berrin and especially George J. Brooke.
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deSilva, David A. Introducing the Apocrypha: Message, Context, and Significance. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002.
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This is quite likely the best introduction to the Apocrypha available. It begins with an introductory chapter that states the value of these writings and the difficulty of deciding what comprises the Apocrypha and follows with a chapter on the historical context in which these writings emerged. The majority of the book is an introduction, discussion of the background, and assessment of each of the books that comprise the books now identified as Apocrypha. The second edition (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2018) updates and expands material from the first edition and challenges the restrictive notion of an early biblical canon among Jews or Christians and also adds the considerable value of this literature for understanding the context of late Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity that not infrequently welcomed many of these texts as scripture.
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deSilva, David A. The Apocrypha. Core Biblical Studies. Louisville: Abingdon, 2012a.
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This is an excellent introduction to the literature that is now called the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical literature. It not only introduces this literature, but also it is something of an abbreviation of the earlier 2002 volume in showing the difficulty in identifying what literature comprises this collection for all churches and how it was welcomed in many churches even in the Protestant tradition. The author concludes with a relevant discussion of the place of this literature in the Christian biblical canon and familiarity with some of it in the rabbinic tradition.
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deSilva, David A. The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012b.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329001.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A most helpful volume that focuses on what can be learned from the literature that was largely rejected by Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians and what can be learned from them today. Very helpful.
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Dobroruka, Vicente. Second Temple Pseudepigraphy: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Apocalyptic Texts and Related Jewish Literature. Ekstasis 4. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2014.
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This is an attempt to understand the emergence of pseudepigraphal literature, especially the mystical (“automatic”) context that has parallels in the modern world. Issues of pseudonymous names and apocalyptic literature are also examined in this short but helpful summary of the issues at stake in interpreting this literature.
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Ehrman, Bart D., and Zlatko Plese, eds. and trans. The Other Gospels: Accounts of Jesus Outside the New Testament. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
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The authors and editors present a collection of some forty ancient gospel texts and fragments that were not included in the New Testament. There are useful introductions to each of these texts and updated translations.
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Evans, Craig A. Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to the Background Literature. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2005.
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Evans supplies a significant listing and description of ancient noncanonical religious writings with a large collection of appendixes that add to our knowledge of the use of those ancient texts by Jews and/or Christians. Students of this literature will find much here that will add to their understanding of ancient noncanonical literature.
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Flint, Peter W. “‘Apocrypha,’ Other Previously Known Writings, and ‘Pseudepigrapha’ in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” In The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years. Vol. 2. Edited by Peter W. Flint and James C. VanderKam, 24–66. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
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Flint offers a well-written and carefully researched investigation of the presence and function of noncanonical writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The article reflects the value of writings not later included in Jewish or Christian Bibles and the significance of these scrolls for understanding notions of authoritative scripture in late Second Temple Judaism.
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Henze, Matthias, and Liv Ingeborg Lied, eds. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Fifty Years of the Pseudepigrapha Section at the SBL. Early Judaism and Its Literature. Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019.
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Besides a helpful history of the SBL section on pseudepigrapha in the first 200 pages, there are several important contributions that focus on specific pseudepigraphal texts and how they originated and functioned in late Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. Of special importance of canon studies are the contributions by Lied and Stuckenbruck, Himmelfarb, Adler, J. J. Collins, Najman and Garrison, and Levison.
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Metzger, Bruce M. “Literary Forgeries and Canonical Pseudepigrapha.” JBL 91 (1972): 3–24.
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A foundational paper on the origins of pseudepigrapha and its use not only in classical writings, but also in Jewish and Christian writings. He offers multiple possible reasons for its use in early Christianity and acknowledges the problem of welcoming some of it into the church’s Bible if it was intended to deceive readers.
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Meuer, Siegfried, ed. The Apocrypha in Ecumenical Perspective. Translated by Paul Ellingsworth. New York: United Bible Societies, 1991.
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The focus is on the use and function of apocryphal literature in early Christianity and in the formation of the Christian Bible. Of special importance for canon formation are the contributions of Peter Stuhlmacher, Franz Josef Stendebach, Wilhelm H. Neuser, and Hans Peter Rüger.
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Miller, James. “The Prophetologion: The Old Testament of Byzantine Christianity?” In The Old Testament in Byzantium. Edited by Paul Magdalino and Robert S. Nelson, 55–76. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2010.
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This author brings to the front that the obvious operative biblical canons within the Orthodox churches were the lectionary texts read in churches. The arguments presented are cogent and convincing.
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Reed, Annette Yoshiko. “Pseudepigraphy, Authorship, and the Reception of ‘The Bible’ in Late Antiquity.” In The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity. Edited by Lorenzo DiTommaso and Lucian Turcescu, 467–490. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008.
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004167155.i-608.116 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
An excellent historical survey dating from Athanasius’ Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter (367 CE), which she argues was the foundation of welcoming canonical texts, inspirational texts not as scripture or canon but for inspirational reading, and “apocryphal” texts that were either written pseudonymously or were believed to be heretical. This is a carefully written text and helpful in understanding how churches from the 4th century, especially in the East, identified the texts they would read in their liturgies, those that were inspirational, and those that were rejected as heretical.
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Reed, Annette Yoshiko. “The Modern Invention of ‘Old Testament Pseudepigrapha’.” JTS 60 (2009): 403–436.
DOI: 10.1093/jts/flp033 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This a carefully written and well-informed history of the use of this designation and helpful for understanding how some moderns have used it to prejudice the reading of some ancient texts in order to prioritize the canonical texts. It should be seen as a companion to Reed 2008, written closely together and focusing on important aspects of canon formation. When the noncanonical texts began circulating in churches there was no biblical canon. Reed emphasizes these points in her paper.
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Rist, Martin. “Pseudepigraphy and the Early Christians.” In Studies in New Testament and Early Christian Literature: Essays in Honor of Allen Wikgren. SNT 33. Edited by David A. Aune, 75–91. Leiden: Brill, 1972.
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This often-cited article on pseudepigraphy in early Christianity not only affirms its presence in early churches and late Second Temple Judaism, but also offers multiple examples of it circulating widely in the Greco-Roman works. This is a valuable contribution to this topic.
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Roessli, Jean-Michel, and Tobias Nicklas, eds. Christian Apocrypha: Receptions of the New Testament in Ancient Christian Apocrypha. Novum Testamentum Patristicum. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014.
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These essays seek to answer not only how the Christian apocryphal texts related to the New Testament writings, but also how the ancient authors of those texts rewrote or read them differently. The various chapters reflect both the reception and the influence—or nonreception—of the New Testament writings in segments of early Christianity. This is a useful collection of German and English essays by recognized scholars in the field of Christian Apocrypha. Contributions include those by several scholars who focus on the function of the Christian Apocrypha in Antiquity as well as the presence or absence of references to the New Testament literature in this literature and its early popularity. The chapters by Peter Dunn, Tobias Nicklas, François Bovon, and Tony Burke are helpful in illustrating this diversity in early Christianity.
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Schroder, Jens, ed. The Apocryphal Gospels within the Context of Early Christian Theology. BETL 260. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2013.
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How did the noncanonical gospels function in early Christianity? Were they welcomed as sacred scripture? This hefty collection of papers by capable scholars is in German, French, and English and they focus on these questions, showing that and how several of the “Other Gospels” were welcomed and functioned in early Christianity.
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Shanks, Monte A. Papias and the New Testament. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2013.
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Shanks provides a background for Bishop Papias of Hierapolis and cites some twenty-seven fragments that refer to the leading Church Father. He then provides a summary of the New Testament books that were familiar to Papias. This is followed by a discussion of Eusebius’s marginalization of Papias and finally a treatment of the question of which Philip was buried at Hierapolis and was known to Papias.
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Stuckenbruck, Loren. “Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha.” In The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism. Edited by John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow, 143–162. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010.
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This is one of the best discussions of the difficulty to define both apocrypha and pseudepigraphy in Antiquity. The author offers multiple examples of it in this well-researched chapter and his work is frequently cited in most current discussions of pseudonymous texts in early Christianity and in the Bible itself.
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Tigchelaar, Eibert, ed. Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the Scriptures. BETL. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2014.
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This volume includes a collection of internationally known scholars who focus on the origins and function of much of the literature that is now known as pseudepigrapha. The papers were first presented at the 61st Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense in 2012. The papers deal with the language, date, history, and influence of multiple pseudonymous texts beginning with Qumran texts. The volume is carefully prepared and advances our understanding of how such texts functioned in Antiquity.
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Tuckett, Christopher. “Introduction: What Is Christian Apocrypha.” In Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Apocrypha. Edited by Andrew Gregory and Christopher Tuckett, 3–12. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
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This is the opening chapter of an important volume on the origin, function, and value of noncanonical Christian religious writings that generally, though not always, imitate the NT genres of gospels, acts, letters, and apocalypses and were likely intended to serve as Christian scripture. Tuckett also reflects the difficulty of how to identify this collection of Christian writings. This is a very helpful and current introduction to this collection of ancient religious texts.
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Yee, Gale A., Hugh R. Page Jr., Matthew J. M. Coomber, eds. The Old Testament and Apocrypha: Fortress Press Commentary on the Bible. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014.
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Besides an introduction and brief commentary on the Old Testament books also in the Hebrew Bible, this substantial volume also offers a clear introduction to the books that comprise the Apocrypha and their place in some biblical canons as well as a brief commentary on each of these books, mostly by seasoned scholars. A useful and important contribution to the role and importance of these books in Christian tradition.
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Other Resources for Understanding Canon Formation

Besides the above so-called noncanonical sources, that is the Dead Sea Scrolls and the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings, students and scholars of canon formation also soon discover that any understanding of canon formation will eventually involve a study of Philo, the writings of Josephus, and rabbinic literature, the early Church Fathers, and the lists of writings that were rejected for reading in both Jewish and Christian communities of faith. Familiarity with this literature will add significantly to the understanding of context of canon formation as well as the processes that are involved in a fixed collection of sacred scriptures.

Boynton, Susan, and Diane J. Reilly, eds. The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production, Reception, and Performance in Western Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
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An important collection of fifteen essays focusing on the recognition and function of sacred texts in the Middle Ages as well as their transmission and how that impacted what eventually was welcomed into the Bibles that now circulate in churches. The contributors include Susan Boynton, Diane J. Reilly, Richard Gyug, Isabelle Cochelin, Jennifer Harris, Lila Yawn, Frans van Liere, Bert Poleg, Laura Light, Stella Panayotova, Richard Marsden, Clive R. Sneddon, and Emily C. Francomano.
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Collins, John J., Craig A. Evans, and Lee Martin McDonald. Ancient Jewish and Christian Scriptures: New Developments in Canon Controversy. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2020.
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This newly released book examines the Jewish and Christian writings that were both included in and excluded from the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old and New Testaments. These authors recognize the value of the excluded writings for understanding the historical and social contexts of late Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity, but they also emphasize the formation and recognition of those books that were finally included in the Jewish and Christian biblical canons. The primary aim of the small volume is to introduce and advance new developments in early-21st-century canon debate issues.
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Feldman, Louis H., James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, eds. Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture. 3 vols. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013.
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This collection of introductions to ancient Jewish literature and the literature itself is remarkable in terms of its breadth and detail. While it is not fully inclusive of all of the related material, it justifiably offers some of the most important and most cited ancient noncanonical texts as well as the Septuagint version of most of the books of the Greek Bible, including selected texts from sectarian and nonsectarian texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as texts from Philo and Josephus. There are helpful introductions to the various genres included in these volumes and the authors of each section provide helpful introductions to the literature as well as fresh translations of the texts and commentary on them that advance understanding of these important texts. The editors and contributors are veteran scholars in their fields who add important interpretations of this literature. 3,361 pp.
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Pentiuc, Eugen J. The Old Testament in Eastern Orthodox Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331226.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This volume examines an important overlooked aspect of canon formation, namely, the origin of the Bible in the Eastern church traditions. Since the Orthodox churches never had a Council of Trent, there is considerably more diversity in the selections and texts that the Orthodox churches eventually recognized as scripture. Pentiuc focuses on the relations between reception and biblical interpretation, noting that Eastern churches—as a whole—never finalized a fixed number of books at an ecumenical council. He claims that for the Eastern Orthodox, there was an interpretive liturgical use scripture that overrode notions of fixity.
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Issues Related to Canon Formation

A number of studies emphasize one or more aspects of canon formation or matters closely related to it. The following studies are significantly relevant to such issues. Allert 2002 asks traditional evangelical scholarship to reconsider the importance of canon formation for the understanding of the inspiration of scripture and stresses the importance of a new inquiry of canon formation. Bartholomew, et al. 2006 offers an evangelical response to recent challenges in canon formation inquiry and argues for the traditional dating of both Old and New Testaments. Not much is new here, but it is an important defense of older views. Collins 2000 describes the ancient library at Alexandria and makes cogent arguments about some of the Aristeas legend of the Septuagint and also the placing of the Greek translation of the Jewish Law into the library. The articles in Finkelberg and Stroumsa 2003 show the influence and relevance of the recognition of Homer’s work for canon formation. DiTommaso and Turcescu 2008 introduces several studies that show how ancient religious literature was welcomed in the Jewish and Christian communities. Helmer and Landmesser 2004 has several essays that focus on the bottom line philosophical and rational issues related to canon formation. Meade 1987 is an older treatment on pseudonymous writings that raises many questions about the formation of the canon, namely, did the church canonize such writings? Wyrick 2004 focuses on the importance of authorship in establishing the canonical authority of ancient manuscripts. The parallels between the reception of Homer in Antiquity and the canonization of the biblical literature are significant and compelling.

Allert, Craig D. Revelation, Truth, Canon and Interpretation: Studies in Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho. Leiden: Brill, 2002.
DOI: 10.1163/9789004313293 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
In this volume based on his PhD thesis, Allert shows the important aspects of the famous Dialogue with Trypho and their implications for understanding the canonical processes leading to the birth of the New Testament. He raises critical questions also about the role of the Rule of Faith in the 2nd century and its relevance for understanding canon formation.
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Bartholomew, Craig G., Scott Hahn, Robin Parry, Christopher Seitz, and Al Wolters, eds. Canon and Biblical Interpretation. Vol. 7, Scripture and Hermeneutics Series. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006.
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A collection of evangelical scholars who argue for conservative positions on the origins and dating of the Old and New Testament canons. Generally, this is a well-articulated case for those positions by careful critical scholars. Those advocating other positions would do well to examine carefully the arguments presented here.
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BeDuhn, Jason D. The First New Testament: Marcion’s Scriptural Canon. Salem, OR: Polebridge, 2013.
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BeDuhn represents many scholars who continue to think that Marcion constructed the first New Testament, as if it were a closed collection of Christian Scriptures. There are many problems with this view since Marcion never called his collection a New Testament, but because of his rejection of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures and writings influenced by it, many conclude that he constructed the first New Testament. BeDuhn tells the story of Marcion and lists the books in his “Apostolikon,” but fails to show that the rest of the Church Fathers responded to him with a larger New Testament. Nevertheless, this is a good read that lists the major arguments for a Marcionite canon with more than half of the book in footnotes.
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Collins, Nina L. The Library in Alexandria and the Bible in Greek. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
DOI: 10.1163/9789047400554 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
A careful study of the origins of the library at Alexandria and the translation of the Pentateuch around 282–281 BCE. Argues that Ptolemy II (Lagus) began the library and wanted to place a translation of the Jewish sacred scriptures in it. This study is informed by many ancient sources, including the legendary Letter of Aristeas, which receives a critical evaluation of its traditions and contributions to our knowledge of the early stages of the Septuagint, and also Philo.
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Cook, L. Stephen. On the Question of the “Cessation of Prophecy” in Ancient Judaism. Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 145. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2011.
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A long-held view among the Jews is that prophecy ceased in their nation sometime during the Persian period, though the specific timing varies in the surviving traditions. Cook examines the relevant sources that affirm this view as well as those exceptions to it. He observes that there is no unanimity on what is meant by “prophecy” and acknowledges that some elements in late Second Temple Judaism and early rabbinic Judaism acknowledged that the presence of spiritual activity had not ceased in Israel.
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De Troyer, Kristin, and Amin Lange, eds. Prophecy after the Prophets? The Contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Understanding of Biblical and Extra-Biblical Prophecy. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2009.
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When did prophecy cease in ancient Israel and what led to this? These scholars engage these and other questions, including whether prophecy actually ceased in Israel, given that Daniel was included as prophetic activity long after many Jews believed that prophetic activity had ceased. These essays discuss various aspects of when prophecy supposedly ceased and the arguments that prophetic activity continued in various forms (apocalyptic) well into the Qumran, Christian, and even rabbinic periods. Written with the assistance of Lucas L. Schulte.
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DiTommaso, Lorenzo, and Lucian Turcescu, eds. The Reception and Interpretation of the Bible in Late Antiquity: Proceedings of the Montreal Colloquium in Honor of Charles Kannengiesser, 11–13 October 2006. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004167155.i-608 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
Addresses how sacred literature was welcomed and functioned mostly in early Christianity but also to a lesser extent in early Judaism. Of special interest here are the chapters by Robert L. Wilken, Jack N. Lightstone, Pierluigi Piovanelli, and Annette Yoshiko Reed. This collection includes significant and well-informed discussions of canon-related issues.
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Evans, Craig A., and H. D. Zacharias, eds. Jewish and Christian Scripture as Artifact and Canon. Library of Second Temple Studies. London and New York: T & T Clark, 2009.
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This is a collection of articles directly related to canon formation that focuses on the material aspects of the ancient texts and scribal conventions employed in the transmission of scripture. Especially helpful are the articles by Armin Lange, Larry Hurtado, Peter Head, and Dorina Parmenter.
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Finkelberg, Margalit, and Guy G. Stroumsa, eds. Homer, the Bible, and Beyond: Literary and Religious Canons in the Ancient World. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
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The contributors to this volume focus on several recent critical questions related to canon formation. The most relevant for canon purposes are the articles by S. Chapman, M. Finkelberg, A. Vardi, Ch. Markschies, and D. Stern.
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Finsterbusch, Karin, and Armin Lange, eds. What Is Bible? BET 67. Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 2012.
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This collection of essays focus on various aspect of a continuing problem of definition in regard to the Bible, namely, what is meant by “Bible” or “biblical”? Since both terms are theological and not historical or linguistic contexts, those coming from Jewish and various Christian backgrounds often differ on the use of these terms. The essays are all useful and informative, dealing with different interpretations of these pivotal terms in scholarship and in religious communities.
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Gallagher, Edmon L., and John D. Meade. The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity: Texts and Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
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This recent volume addresses an often overlooked topic related to the formation of the Christian Bible, namely the history of the construction of lists of books believed by various churches to identify the scope of the Christian Bible. The authors recognize that the formation of the Bible took shape over many centuries. They especially focus on the canon lists of the Old Testament, where there is greater diversity in the Christian churches. These scholars recognize the importance of these ancient lists that are tagged in only a few of the books available for canon research, but they add details that are not present elsewhere. Their collection of these ancient lists and the detailed research about them advances considerably an understanding of the formation of the biblical canon.
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Gregory, Andrew, and Christopher Tuckett, eds. The Reception of the New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers. The New Testament and the Apostolic Fathers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
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This pivotally important volume examines the use by the early Church Fathers of the writings that later were included in the New Testament. After a special introduction to the text of the NT writings used by the Apostolic Fathers, the focus shifts to how each of the Apostolic Fathers made use of writings from the New Testament. As expected, there are more parallels to the Gospel of Matthew than other New Testament writings, but there many other parallels as well. The essays reflect considerable familiarity with many of the writings that later were included in the New Testament.
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Helmer, Christine, and Christof Landmesser, eds. One Scripture or Many? Canon from Biblical, Theological and Philosophical Perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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While this collection of essays focuses primarily on issues related to the unity of biblical literature, several of the contributors make significant contributions to an understanding of canon formation. The most significant essays for canon formation purposes are those by Armin Lange, James Barr, and Christof Landmesser.
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Jenson, Robert W. Canon and Creed. Interpretation. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2010.
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A useful and often overlooked discussion of the relationship between canon and creed in early Christianity with a discussion also of the role of the episcopate in forming the Christian Bible. Jenson’s view that the canon emerged after the development of a creed is logical and has been made earlier, but the notion that the canon must be interpreted through the church’s dogma and its episcopate has been widely challenged. Advances have been made in biblical interpretation by bypassing the episcopate, creeds, and dogma of the church. Most scholars today prefer to critique creeds by scripture and not vice versa.
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Meade, David G. Pseudonymity and Canon: An Investigation into the Relationship of Authorship in Jewish and Earliest Christian Tradition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987.
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Deals with whether there is pseudonymous literature in the New Testament and how this relates to the acceptance of such literature in the New Testament, both of which are significant canonical issues. Also asks whether a book could be rightly included in the biblical canon but for the wrong reason. For example, the inclusion of a writing attributed to an apostle, for example, the book of Hebrews or the Pastoral Epistles attributed wrongly to Paul, but subsequently accepted into the Christian Bible.
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van Liere, Franz. An Introduction to the Medieval Bible. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511843051 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
The author focuses on one of the most important periods of development of the Christian Bible and how both Jerome’s Latin translation and eventually the Gutenberg’s first printed Bible impacted the formation of the Bibles that have emerged from church history. This volume has considerable relevance for understanding also the later stages of the formation of the Bible, including the types of hermeneutics employed to interpret it.
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Wyrick, Jed. The Ascension of Authorship: Attribution and Canon Formation in Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian Traditions. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
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Focuses on the role of authorship in the canonization processes, raising many questions relevant for the classical interest in authorship and also the biblical writings. Wyrick’s discussion of the canonization of Homer (the Peisistratus legend especially) by the Greeks and several parallels with the origins of the Bible are both fascinating and important for understanding the canonization of the Bible in the Greco-Roman context.
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Translations and Canon Formation

The earliest translations of the biblical text tell important information about the canon process. Specifically, what books are in those translations and how faithful are the translations to the original language that they translate? Since all of the ancient translations functioned as canonical scripture to the churches that received and transmitted these translations, examining them in their historical context is important. Few ancient translations contain all of the books of the Old or New Testaments or only those books, and generally the earliest translations are of poor quality. A study of these translations, especially how they were produced, their quality, and the books that constituted their contents are important canonical issues. Louw 1991 introduces the practice of translating sacred texts and some of the important features often omitted in the process. Metzger 2001 is more relevant to canon formation and identifies not only the earliest translations of the New Testament writings, but also common features among them, namely, their contents and quality. Veltri 2006 is unusual in that the author describes with detailed analysis the temporary canonical status of books in Antiquity, a feature common in the canonization process. Wegner 1999, although supporting traditional views of the dating of the Old and New Testaments, has many useful pieces of information of the text, translation, and canonization of the Christian Bible.

Louw, Johnnes P., ed. Meaningful Translation: Its Implications for the Reader. New York: United Bible Societies, 1991.
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This volume presents a brief collection of essays focusing on the various problems encountered in translating biblical texts. Although it is a short volume in introductory material it is useful for those engaging in both Old and New Testament translation.
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Metzger, Bruce M. The Bible in Translation: Ancient and English Versions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001.
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A carefully written volume on the history of translations of the Bible, mostly for pastors and students, but also informative for biblical scholars. Lists the earliest translations of the Bible and the books that were contained in it. Metzger recognizes the importance of his study for canon formation. He shows that the earliest translations are generally of poor quality and include most of the same core books of the Bible but not all of them.
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Porter, Stanley E. How We Got the New Testament: Text, Transmission, Translation. Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.
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Besides textual and translation issues, this volume also includes a brief discussion of several important subjects related to canon formation and how these significant artifacts of history impact various notions of the origin of the New Testament from conservative perspectives. While still advocating the pursuit of an “original” text of the New Testament, his focus on the importance of these three disciplines has considerable relevance for understanding the canonization of the New Testament.
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Rajak, Tessa. Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible of the Ancient Jewish Diaspora. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199558674.001.0001 Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »
This investigation of the Diaspora Jewish community is highly significant for understanding the similarities and differences between Diaspora Jews and those in Palestine, not only in the translation they used in their places of worship, but also in the books in the Greek Septuagint and whether they were the same as those in the later Hebrew Bible. This volume should be read in conjunction with Edrei and Mendels 2007 (cited under The Septuagint).
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Thomassen, Einar, ed. Canon and Canonicity: The Formation and Use of Scripture. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2010.
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This collection of essays focus on the notion of canon, primarily of the New Testament, but also of classical notions of canonicity. Articles by Einar Thomassen, George Aichle, Tomas Hägg, and Jøstein Bortnes are among the most helpful for understanding canon formation, but all of the essays are informative and well written.
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Veltri, Giuseppe. Libraries, Translations, and “Canonic” Texts: The Septuagint, Aquila and Ben Sira in the Jewish and Christian Traditions. Leiden: Brill, 2006.
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Veltri discusses the important phenomenon of ancient religious texts that at one time functioned as sacred literature among Jews and Christians but eventually ceased functioning in that capacity. He uses the terms “decanonization” and “deconstruction” to describe this process in both communities of faith and discusses many relevant ancient resources to demonstrate his arguments.
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Wegner, Paul D. The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1999.
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This is a practical book written for students, but scholars will also gain much needed information on the origins and especially the transmission of the Bible in this volume. Wegner deals with both testaments and writes from a conservative perspective in gathering together useful information and ancient sources on the origins of the Bible.
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Biblical Canon
by
Lee Martin McDonald
LAST REVIEWED: 10 March 2023
LAST MODIFIED: 24 February 2021
DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0017

Introduction

General Overviews

Bibliographies

Journals

Primary Textual Sources

Old Testament Canonization

Old Testament Text Criticism

The Septuagint

Hellenization and the Formation of the Bible

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Canon Formation

New Testament Canonization

New Testament Textual Criticism

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

Other Resources for Understanding Canon Formation

Issues Related to Canon Formation

Translations and Canon Formation

Biblical Studies

Article

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Biblical Canon

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Biblical Canon byLee Martin McDonaldLAST REVIEWED: 10 March 2023LAST MODIFIED: 24 February 2021DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0017

Introduction

General Overviews

Bibliographies

Journals

Primary Textual Sources

Old Testament Canonization

Old Testament Text Criticism

The Septuagint

Hellenization and the Formation of the Bible

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Canon Formation

New Testament Canonization

New Testament Textual Criticism

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha in Early Judaism and Early Christianity

Other Resources for Understanding Canon Formation

Issues Related to Canon Formation

Translations and Canon Formation

Biblical Studies

Article

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

Biblical Canon
by
Lee Martin McDonald
LAST REVIEWED: 10 March 2023
LAST MODIFIED: 24 February 2021
DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195393361-0017