The protocanonical books are those books of the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

that are also included in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' canonical during the formational period of orthodox

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. The Old Testament is entirely rejected by some forms of

Gnosticism Gnosticism (from Ancient Greek language, Ancient Greek: , Romanization of Ancient Greek, romanized: ''gnōstikós'', Koine Greek: Help:IPA/Greek, �nostiˈkos 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems that coalesced ...

, but the Hebrew Bible was adhered to even more tightly by Jewish Christians than Gentile Christians. The term ''protocanonical'' is often used to contrast these books to the

deuterocanonical books The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be canonical books of the Old Testament by the Catholic Chur ...

apocrypha Apocrypha () are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity, the word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to ...

, which "were sometimes doubted" by some in the early church, and are considered non-canonical by most

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

. There are typically 39 protocanonical books in most Christian bibles, which correspond to the 24 books in the Jewish Tanakh.

List

The list of protocanonical books is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,

Numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...

Joshua Joshua ( ), also known as Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' Literal translation, lit. 'Yahweh is salvation'), Jehoshua, or Josue, functioned as Moses' assistant in the books of Book of Exodus, Exodus and ...

, Judges, Ruth, 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, 1–2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job,

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

, Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes ( ) is one of the Ketuvim ('Writings') of the Hebrew Bible and part of the Wisdom literature of the Christian Old Testament. The title commonly used in English is a Latin transliteration of the Greek translation of the Hebrew word ...

, Song of Solomon, Isaiah,

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah,

Jonah Jonah the son of Amittai or Jonas ( , ) is a Jewish prophet from Gath-hepher in the Northern Kingdom of Israel around the 8th century BCE according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the central figure of the Book of Jonah, one of the minor proph ...

, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

Enumeration

These books are typically 39 in number in most English-language bibles. Based on the Jewish tradition of the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

minor prophet The Twelve Minor Prophets (, ''Shneim Asar''; , ''Trei Asar'', "Twelve"; , "the Twelve Prophets"; , "the Twelve Prophets"), or the Book of the Twelve, is a collection of twelve prophetic works traditionally attributed to individual prophets, like ...

s together as one book, one book each for 1 and 2

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, as well as a single book for Ezra and Nehemiah. In his prologues,

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

counted the same content as 22 books, combining

with Lamentations and Judges with Ruth. The list given in Codex Hierosolymitanus numbers the same books at 27. These enumerations were sometimes given a numerological significance. The 22-book enumeration was said to represent the number of letters in the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...

; the 5 double books ( Judges/ Ruth, 1/2 Samuel, 1/2 Kings, 1/2 Chronicles, Ezra/ Nehemiah, and

/ Lamentations) representing the five Hebrew letters that have double forms, chaph, mem, nun, phe, and sade. The 24-book enumeration was said to be represented by the 24 elders who cast down their crowns before the Lamb in the Book of Revelation. The 27-book enumeration balances one-for-one the 27 canonical books of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

Early variants

Most of the protocanonical books were broadly accepted among early Christians. However, some were omitted by a few of the earliest canons, The Marcionites, an early Christian sect that was dominant in some parts of the Roman Empire, recognised a reduced canon excluding the entire Hebrew Bible in favor of a modified version of Luke and ten of the Pauline epistles. Apart from the extreme example of the Marcionites, isolated disagreements over certain books' canonicity continued for centuries. Athanasius, a fourth-century bishop of Alexandria, omitted Esther from his list, potentially having been influenced by an early 22-book Jewish canon, possibly the one mentioned but not specified by Josephus. Theodore of Mopsuestia omitted

Song of Songs The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a Biblical poetry, biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, i ...

, Job, and Ezra–Nehemiah to obtain a listing of 22 books.

New Testament

By analogy with the early and broad acceptance of many of the Hebrew and Greek scriptural texts, the term ''protocanonical'' is also sometimes used to describe those works of the 27 book

which were the most widely accepted by the early Church (the Homologoumena, a Greek term meaning "confessed and undisputed"), as distinguished from the remaining books (the

Antilegomena ''Antilegomena'' (from Ancient Greek, Greek ) are written texts whose authenticity or value is disputed. Eusebius in his ''Church History (Eusebius), Church History'' (c. 325) used the term for those Christian scriptures that were "disputed", lite ...

, "spoken against"). Some of the Antilegomena, such as the Book of Revelation, later joined the protocanonical books in the canon. It may also be used to refer to all 27 books in their entirety, since they all have been recognized for 1500 years by almost all

Christians A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words '' Christ'' and ''C ...

, especially when making a distinction between them and uncanonical writings of the early Church.

References

Sources

* {{Books of the Bible Old Testament books