Biblijski kanon u židovstvu i kršćanstvu
Biblical Canon in Judaism and Christianity

Summary/Abstract: This article consists of three parts. The introductory part defines the etymology of the term “canon” and its reference to the Bible as to the collection of the books, which are normative for the beliefs and lives of the members of the religious communities. The second and the central part of this article describes in detail the factual differences between the Jewish (Tanak) and the Christian (Old Testament) collection of books. It considers historically the existence of several different “Old Testament” canons in both Judaism (Sadducee, Qumran/Essene, Samaritan) and in Christianity (Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant). The difference between the Jewish “Tanak” and the Roman Catholic canon of the Old Testament is limited mainly to the seven so-called “deuterocanonical” books (the Apocrypha). These same deuterocanonical books (Apocrypha) present therefore the main difference between the “broader” Catholic and the “narrower” Protestant canon of the Old Testament. The Orthodox canon of the Old Testament has been oscillating between the “broader” (Catholic) and the “narrower” (Protestant) canon. As to the number of the canonical books in the New Testament there is general agreement among the main Christian denominations (Catholics, Orthodox, Protestant), although there are canonical differences in some local eastern Churches such as Ethiopic, Coptic, Syriac (Nestorian). The third part of this article functions as a conclusion and sketches some important stages and factors which have contributed to the formation of the collection, first of the Old Testament books, and then of the New Testament books, with the eventual joining of the Old and the New Testament in one single collection of canonical books.

• Details
• Contents