contribution · C0002
Canonization of the Tanakh חתימת המקרא
The fixing of the written canon — which books are Scripture, in what arrangement — traditionally the work of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (Anshei Knesset HaGedolah) at the opening of the Second Temple period. It froze the written side of the mesorah (Torah, Nevi'im uKhetuvim): after this, everything new the tradition produced would belong to the Oral Torah (Torah SheBaal Peh) instead.
I. Who
- Hebrew
- חתימת המקרא
- Also known as
- Closing of the biblical canon
- Era
- second-temple
II. When
- Traditional
- arranged and closed in the era of the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, c. 3400–3450 AM
- Academic
- gradual: Torah by the Persian period, Prophets by c. 2nd c. BCE, some Writings debated into the tannaitic era
- Duration
- ≈50 years
- Precision
- disputed
IV. What
- Enacted by
- Anshei Knesset HaGedolah
- Still practiced
- Yes
V. How do we know
| Claim | Evidence | Confidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The baraita of Bava Batra assigns the writing and arrangement of the biblical books to named figures and circles, culminating in the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, who "wrote Yechezkel, the Twelve, Daniel, and Megillat Esther" — writing here understood as editorial committing-to-final-form of prophetic books whose authors could not complete them.
The editorial (rather than authorial) sense of "wrote" is the classic reading of the baraita's own examples, e.g. Chizkiyah's circle writing Yeshayahu.
|
rabbinic | ★★★★☆ | |
| The canon's boundary was still under discussion among the tannaim: Mishnah Yadayim records the dispute over Kohelet and Shir HaShirim "rendering the hands impure," with R' Akiva's famous defense of Shir HaShirim as holy of holies — evidence the closing was a process with a long tail, on any account. | rabbinic reconstruction | ★★★★☆ | |
| Academic scholarship rejects a single canonizing act, describing instead staged closure — Torah first, then Prophets, then Writings — completed for practical purposes by the tannaitic period; the once-popular notion of a formal "Council of Yavneh" that voted the canon is now widely doubted. | reconstruction | ★★★★☆ |