Biblical Canon
The definitive enumeration of the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as decreed by the Council of Trent, including the deuterocanonical books, with anathema pronounced against those who reject any book or its parts. The Clementine Vulgate excludes non-canonical books from the series of canonical Scripture.
Preliminaries
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DECREES OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (SESSION IV).
— Trent receives and venerates all books of both Testaments with equal piety, since one God is the author of both.
"receives and venerates with equal affection of piety and reverence all the books both of the Old and of the New Testament — since one God is the author of both"
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DECREES OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (SESSION IV).
— The Council inserts a list of sacred books to remove any doubt about which books are canonical.
"It has thought it meet that a list of the sacred books be inserted in this decree, lest any doubt should arise in anyone's mind as to which are the books that are received by this Synod."
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DECREES OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (SESSION IV).
— Full enumeration of the Old Testament canon including deuterocanonical books (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Maccabees).
"Of the Old Testament: the five books of Moses, to wit, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Josue, Judges, Ruth; four books of Kings..."
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DECREES OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (SESSION IV).
— Full enumeration of the New Testament canon.
"Of the New Testament: the four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles written by Luke the Evangelist; fourteen Epistles of Paul the Apostle..."
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DECREES OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT (SESSION IV).
— Anathema pronounced against anyone who does not receive the books entire with all their parts.
"But if anyone does not receive the said books entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic Church and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition, and knowingly and deliberately contemns the traditions aforesaid, let him be anathema."
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PREFACE TO THE READER (1)
— The Clementine Vulgate excludes non-canonical books (III and IV Esdras, Prayer of Manasseh) from the series of canonical Scripture.
"the books inscribed as III and IV Esdras (which the sacred Tridentine Synod did not number among the canonical books), and also the Prayer of King Manasseh... have been placed outside the series of canonical Scripture."
Pope Clement VIII, Jerome's Prefaces, On Worship
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I. THE HELMETED PROLOGUE.
— Jerome establishes that there are twenty-two letters among the Hebrews, attested by the Syriac and Chaldean cognate languages, and that twenty-two books of the Old Testament correspond to these letters as the alphabet of divine instruction.
"so twenty-two books are reckoned, by which, as by letters and beginnings, the still tender and nursing infancy of the righteous man is instructed in the teaching of God."
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I. THE HELMETED PROLOGUE.
— The five books of Moses constitute the Torah, the first division of the Hebrew canon.
"These are the five books of Moses, which they properly call Torah, that is, the Law."
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I. THE HELMETED PROLOGUE.
— The second order of the Prophets begins with Joshua son of Nave.
"The second order they make of the Prophets, and they begin with Joshua the son of Nave, who among them is called Josue ben Nun."
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I. THE HELMETED PROLOGUE.
— The third order possesses the Hagiographa.
"The third order possesses the Hagiographa."
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I. THE HELMETED PROLOGUE.
— Summary of twenty-two books yielding an alternative count of twenty-four, linked to the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse.
"And so the books of the old law come equally to twenty-two: that is, five of Moses, eight of the Prophets, and nine of the Hagiographa. Although some write Ruth and Cinoth among the Hagiographa and think these books should be counted in their own number, and that thereby there are twenty-four books of the ancient law"
Commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses
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Argumentum
— The threefold Hebrew division of the Old Testament: Torah, Nebiim, Ketubim, with twenty-two books
"The Hebrews, as St. Jerome attests in his Helmeted Prologue, count as many books of Sacred Scripture — that is, of the Old Testament — as they have letters, namely twenty-two, and divide them into three classes: namely, Torah, that is, the Law; Nebiim, that is, the Prophets; and Ketubim, that is, the Hagiographa."
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Argumentum
— The Pentateuch as a chronicle of the world, tracing creation through the patriarchs
"The Pentateuch, that is, this fivefold volume of Moses, is a chronicle of the world."