| ca 621 BCE | Deuteronomy | Major portions of what is now known as the book of Deuteronomy, "a book of law found in the house of God" during restaurations of the Temple. (Cf. 2 Kgs 22:3ff) |
| ca 428 BCE | Torah (Pentateuch) | Ezra returns from babylonian captivity with a book
of law that is accepted as normative in the Jewish
community. (Cf. Ezra 7:10, 25; Nehemiah 8)
Further evidence lies in the Samaritan understanding of scripture: the Jewish and Samaritan communities split between 400 - 200 BCE; the Samaritan canon is limited to the Pentateuch. |
| 2nd century, or earlier | Nevi'im
Prophets |
The "Wisdom of Ben Sirach" alludes to Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Prophets. A translation into Greek dating to 132 BCE explicitly mentions the "Law, Prophets, and what follows," an indication of the recognized status of the Prophets. |
| 1st century CE | Ketuvim
Writings |
The Gospels make reference to the Writings:
Lk 24:44 mentions the "Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms" (tri-partite scheme) Mt 23:35 refers to the TaNaKh in the phrase: "from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah," i.e. from Genesis to Chronicles, the entire range of the Hebrew Bible. |
| Apocrypha | In addition to these three parts of the Hebrew Bible of the Jews of Palestine, the Greek translation of the Bible of Jews of Alexandria (Egypt) contained additional books. Early Christianity adopted this particular version of the Hebrew scriptures, including its canon. The Protestant reformation declared the Hebrew canon the standard. | |
| Pseudepigrapha | Jewish writings from about the second century BCE to the second century CE not included in the Western Christian canons; some writings were or are however included in some Eastern Christian canons. |