Biblical Canon of Isidore of Seville

Isidore, bishop of Seville (c. 560–636), is a canonized saint in the Catholic Church. In his work, titled The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, compiled between 615 and the early 630s AD, he lists the Scriptures which the Church accepted as canonical. I quote from the English translation of this same writing, published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. All emphasis will be mine.

i. The Old and New Testament (De Veteri et Novo Testamento) 1. The Old Testament is so called because it ceased when the New came. The apostle Paul reminds us of this, saying (II Corinthians 5:17): “Old things have passed away, and behold, new things have come about.” 2. One testament is called New (Novus) because it innovates (innovare). Indeed, the only ones who come to know it are those who are renewed (renovatus) from the old by grace and who belong now to the New Testament, which is the kingdom of heaven.

3. The Hebrews take the Old Testament, with Ezra as its redactor, as consisting of twenty-two books, corresponding to the number of letters in their alphabet. They divide these books into three classes: Law, Prophets, and Sacred Writings. 4. The first class, Law (Lex), is taken as being five books: of these the first is Bresith,1 which is Genesis; second Veelle Semoth, which is Exodus; third Vaiicra, which is Leviticus; fourth Vaiedabber, which is Numbers; fifth Elleaddebarim, which is Deuteronomy. 5. These are the five books of Moses, which the Hebrews call Torah (Thora), and Latin speakers call the Law. That which was given through Moses is properly called the Law.

6. The second class is of Prophets (Propheta), in which are contained eight books, of which the first is Josua Benun, called Iesu Nave in Latin (i.e. the book of Joshua ‘ben Nun,’ the son of Nun). The second is Sophtim, which is Judges; third Samuel, which is First Kings; fourth Malachim, which is Second Kings; fifth Isaiah; sixth Jeremiah; seventh Ezekiel; eighth Thereazar, which is called the Twelve Prophets, whose books are taken as one because they have been joined together since they are short.

7. The third class is of Sacred Writings (Hagiographa), that is, of ‘those writing about holy things’ (sacra scribens; cf. hagios “holy”; graphein, “write”), in which there are nine books: first Job; second the Psalter; third Masloth, which is the Proverbs of Solomon; fourth Coheleth, which is Ecclesiastes; fifth Sir hassirim, which is the Song of Songs; sixth Daniel; seventh Dibre haiamim, which means ‘words of the days’ (verba dierum), that is Paralipomenon (i.e. Chronicles); eighth Ezra; ninth Esther.

All together these books – five, eight, and nine – make up the twenty-two as was reckoned above. 8. Some add Ruth and Cinoth, which in Latin is the Lamentations (Lamentatio) of Jeremiah, to the Sacred Writings, and make twenty-four books of the Old Testament, corresponding to the twenty-four Elders who stand present before the face of God (Apocalypse 4:4, etc.).

9. We also have a fourth class: those books of the Old Testament that are not in the Hebrew canon. Of these the first is the Book of Wisdom, the second Ecclesiasticus; the third Tobit; the fourth Judith; the fifth and sixth, the books of Maccabees. The Jews hold these separate among the apocrypha (apocrypha), but the Church of Christ honors and proclaims them among the divine books.

10. In the New Testament there are two classes: first the Gospel (evangelicus) class, which contains Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and second the Apostolic (apostolicus) class which contains Paul in fourteen epistles, Peter in two, John in three, James and Jude in single epistles, the Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse (i.e. Revelation) of John. 11. The entire content of both Testaments is characterized in one of three ways, that is, as narrative (historia), moral instruction (mores), or allegorical meaning (allegoria). These three are further divided in many ways: that is, what is done or said by God, by angels, or by humans; what is proclaimed by the prophets about Christ and his body [that is, the Church], about the devil and his members, about the old and the new people, about the present age and the future kingdom and judgment. (Ibid., Book VI Books and ecclesiastical offices (De libris et officiis ecclesiasticis), p. 135)

ii. The writers and names of the Sacred Books (De scriptoribus et vocabulis sanctorum librorum) 1. According to Hebrew tradition the following are accepted as authors of the Old Testament. First Moses produced the cosmography (cosmographia) of the divine story in the five scrolls that are called the Pentateuch. 2. The Pentateuch is so called from its five scrolls, for pente is “five” in Greek, and teuchos is “scroll.” 3. The book of Genesis is so called because the beginning of the world and the begetting (generatio) of living creatures are contained in it. 4. Exodus recounts the exit (exitus) or egress of the people Israel from Egypt, whence it takes its name. 5. Leviticus is so named because it describes the services and the variety of sacrificial rites of the Levites, and in it the whole Levitical order is commented on.

6. The book of Numbers is so called because in it the tribes of the exodus from Egypt are enumerated (dinumerare), and the description of the forty-two journey stages in the wilderness is contained in it (Numbers 33:1– 49). 7. Deuteronomy is named with a Greek term (cf. deuteros “second”; nomos, “law”) which in Latin means “second law” (secunda lex), that is, a repetition and a prefiguration of the Gospel law; the Gospel contains the earlier matters in such a way that all things that are replicated in it are nevertheless new. 8. The book of Joshua takes its name from Jesus son of Nave, whose story it contains – in fact the Hebrews claim that its writer was this same Joshua. In this text, after the crossing of the Jordan the kingdoms of the enemy are destroyed, the land is divided for the people, and the spiritual kingdoms of the Church and the Heavenly Jerusalem are prefigured through the individual cities, hamlets, mountains, and borders.

9. Judges is named from those leaders of the people who presided over Israel after Moses and Joshua and before David and the other kings were alive. Samuel is believed to have produced this book. The book of Samuel describes the birth, priesthood, and deeds of this same Samuel, and therefore takes its name from him. 10. Although this book contains the story of Saul and David, both are still connected to Samuel, because he anointed Saul into his kingship, and he anointed David as the future king. Samuel wrote the first part of this book, and David wrote the sequel, up to its conclusion. 11. Likewise the book of Malachim is so called because it recounts in chronological order the kings of Judah and the nation of Israel along with their deeds, for Malachim is a Hebrew word that means ‘Kings’ (Reges) in Latin. Jeremiah first gathered this book into one volume, for earlier it was dispersed as the narratives of the individual kings. 12. Paralipomenon (i.e. Chronicles) is named with a Greek word; we can call it the book ‘of omissions’ or ‘of leftovers’ (cf. paraleipein, ppl. paralipomenos, “pass over”), because what was omitted or not fully told in the Law or the books of Kings is recounted there in brief summary.

13. Some say Moses wrote the book of Job, others say one of the prophets, and some even consider that Job himself, after the calamity he suffered, was the writer, thinking that the man who underwent the struggles of spiritual combat might himself narrate the victories he procured. 14. The beginning and end of the book of Job in Hebrew is composed in prose, but the middle of it, from the place where he says (3:3), “Let the day perish wherein I was born” up to (42:6), “Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance” all runs in heroic meter.

15. The book of Psalms is called in Greek the Psalter (Psalterium), in Hebrew Nabla, and in Latin Organum. It is called the book of Psalms because one prophet would sing to a psaltery-lute and the chorus would respond in the same tone. Moreover the Hebrew title heading the psalms is this: Sepher Thehilim, which means “scroll of hymns.” 16. The authors of the psalms are those whose names are given in the titles, namely Moses, David, Solomon, Asaph, Ethan, Idithun, the sons of Core, Eman, Ezraitha and the rest, whom Ezra gathered into the one scroll. 17. Furthermore, all the psalms of the Hebrews are known to have been composed in lyric meter; in the manner of the Roman Horace and the Greek Pindar they run now on iambic foot, now they resound in Alcaic, now they glitter in Sapphic measure, proceeding on trimeter or tetrameter feet.

18. David’s son Solomon, king of Israel, produced three scrolls in accordance with the number of his names (see VII.vi.65). The first of these is Masloth, which the Greeks call Parabolae, and the Latins call Proverbs (Proverbia), because in it he displayed figures of words (verbum) and images of the truth (veritas) by way of analogy. 19. Moreover he reserved the truth for his readers to interpret. He called the second book Coheleth, which in Greek means Ecclesiastes, in Latin ‘The Preacher’ (Contionator), because his speech is not directed specifically to one person, as in Proverbs, but generally to everyone, teaching that all the things that we see in the world are fleeting and brief, and for this reason are very little to be desired. 20. He designated the third book Sir hassirim, which is translated in Latin as the song of songs; there he sings mystically, in the form of a wedding song, of the union of Christ and the Church. It is called the song of songs because it is preferred before all other songs contained in the Sacred Scriptures, just as certain things in the Law are called ‘holy,’ whose superiors are called the ‘holy of holies.’2 21. The poems in these three books are said to be composed, in their own language, in hexameters and pentameters, as Josephus and Jerome write.

22. Isaiah, an evangelist more than a prophet, produced his own book, whose whole text advances in an elegant style. Its poetry runs along in hexameter and pentameter verse. 23. Jeremiah likewise published his own book together with its dirges (threnus), which we call Lamentations (Lamenta), because they are employed in times of sadness and funerals. Among them he composed four ‘acrostic poems’ (alphabetum) in varied meter. The first two of these were written in a quasiSapphic meter, because the three short verses that are joined to each other and begin with only one letter conclude with a heroic period. 24. The third alphabet-poem was written in trimeters, and each tercet’s verses begin with a repeated triad of initial letters. The fourth alphabet-poem is said to be like the first and second. 25. Ezekiel and Daniel are held to have been written by certain wise men. Of these, Ezekiel has its opening and close wrapped up in much obscurity, whereas with clear speech Daniel proclaims the kingdoms of the world and designates the time of Christ’s advent in a thoroughly open pronouncement. 26. These are the four prophets who are called Major Prophets, because they produced long scrolls.

Each book of the twelve prophets is entitled with the name of its own author. They are called the Minor Prophets because their discourses are short. 27. Hence they are joined together and contained in one scroll. Their names are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

28. The book of Ezra is entitled after its own author; in its text are contained the words of Ezra himself and of Nehemiah as well. Let it not disturb anyone that we speak about a single book of Ezra, because the second, third, and fourth are not accepted among the Hebrews, but are counted among the apocrypha. 29. Ezra is thought to have written the book of Esther, in which that queen is described as having snatched her people, as a figure of the Church of God, from slavery and death. Because Aman, who signifies wickedness, was killed, the celebration of that day (i.e. Purim) has been passed down to posterity.

30. The book of Wisdom (Sapientia) never existed in Hebrew, whence even its title is more redolent of Greek eloquence. The Jews say this book is by Philo,³ and it is appropriately named Wisdom because in it the advent of Christ, who is the Wisdom of the Father, and his passion are clearly expressed. 31. Jesus the son of Sirach, of Jerusalem, grandson of the high priest Jesus, of whom Zechariah makes mention (Zechariah 3:1, etc.), most surely composed the book Ecclesiasticus. Among Latin speakers this book is designated with the superscription of Solomon, because of the similarity of its style. 32. It is called Ecclesiasticus because, with great care and orderliness, it has been published about the teaching of the religious way of life of the whole Church (Ecclesia). This book is found among Hebrew speakers, but is regarded as belonging to the apocrypha. 33. By what authors the books of Judith, Tobit, or Maccabees were written has not been established at all. They take their titles from the names of those whose deeds they inscribe.

34. The four Evangelists (Evangelista) wrote severally the four Gospels (Evangelium). 35. First Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew characters and words in Judea, taking as his starting point for spreading the gospel (evangelizare) the human birth of Christ, saying (1:1): “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” – meaning that Christ descended bodily from the seed of the patriarchs, as was foretold in the prophets through the Holy Spirit. 36. Second, Mark, in Italy, filled with the Holy Spirit, wrote in Greek the Gospel of Christ, having followed Peter as a disciple. He began his Gospel with a prophetic spirit, saying (1:3, quoting the prophet Isaiah 40:3): “A voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord” – so that he might show that after his assumption of flesh Christ preached the Gospel in the world. Now Christ also has been called a prophet, as is written (Jer.1:5): “I made thee a prophet unto the nations.”

37. Third, Luke, most polished in his Greek of all the evangelists, in fact wrote his Gospel in Greece, where he was a physician. He wrote it to Bishop Theophilus, beginning with a priestly spirit, saying (1:5): “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a priest, Zechariah” – so that he might show that Christ after his birth in the flesh and his preaching of the Gospel was made a sacrificial victim for the salvation of the world. 38. For Christ himself is the priest of whom it is said in Psalms (109:4): “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedech.” When Christ came, the priesthood of the Jews grew silent, and their law and prophecy ceased. 39. Fourth, John wrote the last Gospel in Asia, beginning with the Word, so that he might show that the same Savior who deigned to be born and to suffer for our sake was himself the Word of God before the world was, the same who came down from heaven, and after his death went back again to heaven.

40. These are the four Evangelists, whom the Holy Spirit symbolized through Ezechiel (1:10) as four animals. The animals are four because, by their preaching, the faith of the Christian religion has been disseminated through the four corners of the earth. 41. They are moreover called animals (animalia) because the Gospel of Christ is preached for the sake of the soul (anima) of a person. And they are full of eyes inside and outside, because they foresee the Gospels which have been spoken by the prophets, and which he promised in former times. 42. Further, their legs are straight, because there is nothing crooked in the Gospels. Their wings are sixfold, covering their legs and faces, because things that were hidden until the coming of Christ have been revealed. 43. Moreover, ‘Gospel’ (evangelium) means “good news” (bona adnuntiatio), for en in Greek means ‘good,’ angelia means ‘news.’ Hence ‘angel’ (angelus) means “messenger.”

44. Paul the Apostle wrote fourteen epistles of his own. He wrote nine of them to seven churches, and the rest to his disciples Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. 45. Most Latin speakers are doubtful whether the Epistle to the Hebrews is by Paul, because of the dissonance of its style, and some suspect that Barnabas collaborated in its writing, and others that it was written by Clement. 46. Peter wrote the two epistles under his name, which are called the Catholic (i.e. ‘universal’) Epistles because they were written not to one people or city only, but generally to every nation. 47. James and John and Jude wrote their own epistles.

48. The Acts of the Apostles sets down the beginnings of the Christian faith among the gentiles and the story of the nascent Church. Luke the Evangelist is the writer of the Acts of the Apostles; in this work the infancy of the young Church is woven, and the history of the apostles is contained – whence it is called the Acts of the Apostles. 49. John the Evangelist wrote the Apocalypse during the period when, exiled for his preaching of the Gospel, he was sent to the isle of Patmos. Apocalypsis is translated from Greek into Latin as ‘revelation’ (revelatio), and a revelation means a manifestation of things that were hidden, as John himself says (Apoc.1:1): “The Revelation (Apocalypsis) of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to make known to his servants.”

50. These are the writers of the sacred books who, speaking through the Holy Spirit, for our education drew up in writing both precepts for living and the pattern for belief. 51. The other volumes aside from these are called apocrypha. They are called the apocrypha, that is, the secret things (cf. apokryphos, “hidden”), because they have come into doubt; their origin is hidden and is not evident to the Church Fathers, from whom the authority of the true scriptures has come down to us by a very sure and well-known succession. 52. Although some truth is found in the apocrypha, nevertheless because of their many falsities there is no canonical authority in them. These are rightly judged by the wise as not to be regarded as the works of those to whom they are ascribed. 53. Indeed, many works are produced by heretics under the names of prophets, and more recently under the names of apostles, all of which have, as a result of diligent examination, been set apart by canonical authority under the name of apocrypha. (Ibid., pp. 136-138)

The following is taken from another one of his works, which is titled De Ecclesiasticis Officiis (Ancient Christian Writers), published by The Newman Press in 2008, pp. 35-38. All emphasis will be mine

XII. THE WRITERS OF THE SACRED BOOKS

(1) These are the writers of the Old Testament according to the tradition of the Hebrews.⁷ First, Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Joshua, son of Nun, edited his book. Samuel wrote Judges and Ruth and the first part of Samuel. David wrote the continuation of Samuel all the way up to the end. Jeremiah edited all of Malachi; for previously he was scattered through the histories of the individual kings. The Hebrews think that Moses wrote the book of Job; others think one of the prophets did. (2) Truly ten prophets wrote the Psalter, that is, Moses, David, Solomon, Asaph, Ethan, Idithun, Heman [1 Chr 15:19; 25:1] and the sons of Core, that is Aser, Elcana, Abiasaph [Exod 6:24]; there are those who say they also wrote Esdras and Haggai and Zacharias. Solomon wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticle of Canticles. Isaiah wrote his book; Jeremiah wrote his book with his Lamentations. Wise men of the synagogue wrote Ezekiel, the twelve [prophets], Daniel, as well as Paralipomenon and Esther. Esdras wrote his book.

(3) When the Jews had returned to Jerusalem, this same Esdras the scribe, filled with the divine spirit, repaired all these books after the burning of the Law by the Chaldeans. He corrected all the volumes of the prophets that had been corrupted by the gentiles, and he constituted the whole Testament into twenty-two books, so that there were as many books in the Law as there were letters.

(4) Seventy translators edited the first edition after Esdras from Hebrew into Greek under Ptolemy the Egyptian king, the successor of Alexander, who was very studious in reading and gathered together the books of all the nations. For he, sending many gifts to the Temple, petitioned from Eleazar, who was the high priest, so that six men from the twelve-tribes of Israel might be sent over who would translate all the books. And so that he might ascertain the faithfulness of the translation, he gave to each of them who were chosen their own chambers, and assigning the task to all, he ordered that all the writings be translated. (5) Then, engaged in the business of this task for seventy days, the translations of all the writings were completed at the same time. They had made the translations, segregated in different places, none of them close to any other. He gathered them together, and thus all the books were discovered to have been translated through the Holy Spirit, because they were discovered to be consonant not only in meaning but truly also in words. This first translation was true and divine. (6) The churches of all the peoples first began to meditate on these books, and translating them from Greek into Latin, the first providers of the churches handed them down. After this, Aquila edited a second edition; Theodotion and Symmachus, both Jewish proselytes, edited a third and fourth. There was a fifth edition, and then a sixth edition of Origen was found and compared with the other above mentioned editions.

These are thus only the ones who translated the Sacred Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek. These indeed are numbered. (7) Of the Latins who have translated from Greek into our language, as St. Augustine remembers, the number is infinite. “For if to anyone,” he says, “during the first times of the faith a Greek codex came to hand and he sensed a little knowledge of his own and the other language, he immediately dared to translate,”⁸ and thence it happened that so innumerable were the translators that have existed among the Latins.

(8) Only Jerome the priest, however, translated the Sacred Scriptures from the Hebrew into the Latin language. His edition is generally used by all the churches on every occasion, for the reason that it is more truthful in meaning and clearer in words.

Solomon is proven to have written the Book of Wisdom by these testimonies in which it is thus stated: “You have chosen me,” he said, “to be king over your people...and you have ordered me to build a temple to your holy name and [an altar] in the city of your dwelling place” [Wis 9:7-8].⁹ (9) The Hebrews, as one of the wise men recalls,¹⁰ accepted this work into the canonical Scriptures. But, after they killed Christ, they comprehended and called to mind the most evident testimonies about Christ in this very book, where it is said: “The wicked said among themselves [Wis 2:1]: Let us seize the just one because he is not useful to us and he is opposed to our works” [Wis 2:12]. And: “He professes to have knowledge of God and calls himself son of God” [Wis 2:13]. And then: “For if he truly is son of God let us seize him and the Lord will free him from the hand of those opposed to him” [Wis 2:18]. And further: “That we might know his reverence and prove his patience let us condemn him to a most shameful death” [Wis 2:19-20]. And thus, lest those of our number diminish them through such an evident sacrilege, they had a meeting, and they removed the book from the prophetic volumes and prohibited their own people from reading it.

(10) Next, Joshua, son of Sirach of Jerusalem, descendant of Joshua the priest of whom Zacharias is mindful [see Zech 3:1], composed the Book of Ecclesiasticus. This book is designated by the title of Solomon among the Latins on account of similarity of language. In addition, it is in no way certain who the authors might be who wrote the books of Judith and Tobit and Maccabees.

(11) Now, in the New Testament, the four evangelists wrote each of the four books of the Gospels. Of these, only Matthew is reported to have been written in the Hebrew language; the rest in Greek. The apostle Paul wrote his epistles. He wrote nine of them to seven churches, the rest to his disciples Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. It is uncertain to most of the Latins if the epistle to the Hebrews is Paul’s on account of the dissonance of language. Some attribute its authorship to Barnabas, while others suspect it was written by Clement. (12) Peter wrote the two epistles with his name, which are called catholic. Of these his second is not believed by some to be his because of the difference of its style and vocabulary. James wrote his epistle, which is also denied by some to be his. Rather it is thought to have been written by another under his name. John himself edited the epistles under his name. Only the first of these is asserted by some to be his, the remaining two of John are ascribed to a certain presbyter, who, according to the opinion of Jerome, is proved by a second tomb in Ephesus. Jude edited his epistle. Luke composed the Acts of the Apostles as he heard or saw. The evangelist wrote the Apocalypse of John at the same time as he was handed over, bound, on the island of Patmos for preaching the gospel.

(13) These are the writers of the sacred books, speaking “as inspired by God” and dispensing heavenly precepts “for teaching” [2 Tim 3:16]. However, the author of these Scriptures is believed to be the Holy Spirit. For he himself wrote, who dictated through his prophets what was to be written.

And now, following the origin of the psalms and hymns, and also after the number of sacred books, I will indicate for you the following items you have requested.

Further Reading

MURATORIAN CANON

Eusebius on the New Testament Canon