Old Testament Canon
Old Testament Canon is the collection of forty-six inspired books, including the deuterocanonical books and portions, that the Catholic Church receives as Sacred Scripture before and in preparation for the New Testament.
The Catholic collection
The Catholic count comprises forty-six books when Jeremiah and Lamentations are counted separately and Baruch is named as its own book. It includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, First and Second Maccabees, and Greek portions of Esther and Daniel that most Protestant Old Testaments omit or print in an Apocrypha section. These writings are Deuterocanonical Books in historical terminology, but they are inspired and canonical in the same sense as the other books.
Book counts vary with conventions. Jewish tradition counts twenty-four books by combining works that Christians divide and arranges them as Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Many Protestant lists count thirty-nine books while containing substantially the same material as that Jewish collection in a different order and division. Orthodox and Oriental traditions can receive additional books. Accurate comparison must name contents, additions, order, and ecclesial authority rather than treating the number alone as self-explanatory.
Books with all their parts
Trent's phrase concerning books with all their parts matters especially for Esther and Daniel. Catholic Bibles receive the Greek additions to Esther and the Prayer of Azariah, Song of the Three, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon within Daniel. Their placement and numbering differ among editions, but editorial arrangement does not alter canonical status. Notes should make textual forms transparent without presenting received portions as optional appendices to a supposedly more authentic Protestant-sized canon.[1]
Jewish and Christian reception
Israel's sacred writings developed as collections across centuries and circulated in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek textual forms. The Septuagint was not one mechanically uniform codex with a universally fixed table of contents, yet Greek Jewish Scripture profoundly shaped the New Testament and early Church. The later rabbinic Hebrew canon is a vital witness to Jewish reception; it is not by itself the rule that can retrospectively remove books from the Christian canon received in apostolic Tradition.[2][3]
Ancient Christian evidence includes broad use of deuterocanonical writings alongside real disputes and differing local lists. Regional councils at Hippo and Carthage witnessed the same collection later enumerated at Florence and Trent. Jerome expressed reservations about books absent from the Hebrew collection, yet the wider Latin Church continued their liturgical and theological reception. The history is neither universal early unanimity nor a medieval Catholic invention.
Septuagint and Hebrew witnesses
Catholic esteem for the Septuagint does not establish that its reading is automatically original in every verse, and respect for Hebrew does not reduce the Old Testament to the medieval Masoretic Text. The Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrate textual plurality and sometimes support readings known through ancient versions. Modern Catholic textual criticism compares Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, Syriac, and other evidence according to each passage while receiving the canonical books through the Church's judgment.[4]
Christian reading and permanent value
The Old Testament is true Word of God and possesses permanent value. It witnesses creation, covenant, election, law, wisdom, worship, prophecy, sin, mercy, judgment, and hope. Christ fulfils its divine plan without making Israel's Scriptures a discarded shell. The Literal Sense of Scripture and the historical reality of God's work with Israel ground Christian typology. Interpretations that erase the Jewish people or turn every detail into a secret Christian code violate the canon's own shape.
The Church reads both Testaments as a unity whose center is Christ, while preserving genuine development and difference. The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old is unveiled in the New, but this traditional formula does not deny the first covenantal sense. Liturgy, catechesis, preaching, and theology should draw from the whole canon. Neglect of the Old Testament impoverishes knowledge of Christ, sacraments, moral life, prayer, and the economy of salvation.[5]
Authority and definition
The Church recognizes rather than manufactures inspiration. Her definitive judgment settles the public canonical rule for Catholics because Christ entrusted the apostolic deposit to the Church and promised divine assistance. Historical evidence explains how reception matured; it does not authorize each generation to reopen the canon by private criteria. A book outside the canon may preserve truth, devotion, or historical information, but it does not thereby possess the inspired authority of the Old Testament.
References
- Back to citation Council of Trent, Decree Concerning the Canonical Scriptures — The council's solemn enumeration and reception of the canonical books with all their parts as read in the Catholic Church and contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition.
- Back to citation Dei Verbum, 8–13 and 21–25 — Vatican II on Tradition's transmission of the canon, inspiration and interpretation, the Old and New Testaments, ancient versions, accurate translations, and Scripture in the Church.
- Back to citation Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Jewish People and Their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible — Catholic study of Jewish Scripture, the Hebrew and Greek textual traditions, the Septuagint, the formation of collections, New Testament reception, and Christian fulfilment.
- Back to citation Divino Afflante Spiritu — Pius XII on inspired originals, original languages, textual criticism, ancient versions, the Vulgate's juridical authenticity, literary study, and Catholic exegetical work.
- Back to citation Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120–130 — The Church's discernment and complete enumeration of the Old and New Testament canon, the value and unity of both Testaments, and Christian typology.