During Jesus' time, the Jews, as a whole, did not officially have a list of inspired books or canon. For example, the Sadducees accepted only the Pentateuch as Scriptures while the Pharisees accepted prophetic writings as well as other wisdom books, like Job and Proverbs as inspired.
Which canon of Scriptures was known to Jesus, His followers and the first Christians? The answer is that they knew both Palestinian Canon and the Greek Septuagint translation. Greek-speaking Jews also lived in Palestine and were known as Hellenists (Acts 6:1).
However all New Testament writers mostly used Septuagint whenever they quoted from Old Testament. It is not a matter of convenience (even though both used Greek), because at few places in the New Testament, the inspired authors still quoted from the Hebrew text. The Septuagint has textual differences compared to Palestinian canon. A good example is the famous prophecy about Jesus' virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14 quoted in Matthew 1:23. The Palestinian canon does not say "virgin" but "young woman" while the Septuagint does say "virgin" (note that both Hebrew and Greek have different words for virgin and young woman). Countless other examples abound throughout the New Testament. Given that the entire New Testament was written in Greek, it is perhaps certain that the Alexandrian canon as reflected in the Greek Septuagint was also used by the Catholic Church right from the beginning as was the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament.
The Septuagint version used by the early Christians (presumably inspired by the Holy Spirit on this matter) was the acknowledged translation for all the "Jews of the Dispersion" in Asia, as well as in Egypt, and it was used not only by Christ, His Apostles and Evangelists but by Jews and Gentiles and Christians in the early days of Christianity. It is from this list of 46 books that Christ and the New Testament writers and speakers quote when referring to the Old Testament. Of the 350 quotations of the Old Testament found in the New Testament, 300 are taken directly from the Greek Septuagint Bible.
The Palestinian canon of the Old Testament (followed by modern Protestants) which was fixed and decided by the Pharisees at the end of the first century in the Council of Janveh, was in part to suppress the growing heresy called Christianity. With the virtual disappearance of the priestly class with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70, the Pharisees became champions of Judaism. In order to combat the spreading Christian cult, the Pharisee rabbis met at the city of Jamnia or Javneh in A.D. 90 to determine which books were truly the Word of God. They pronounced many books, including the Gospels and the New Testament Letters, to be heretical. Thus, the Palestinian Jews have 39 books in the Old Testament, while the Alexandrian Jews and the Jews of Dispersion hold that 46 books are inspired, following the canon stated in the Greek Septuagint.
This canon (which Protestants have adopted) also excluded seven books (Baruch, Sirach, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, and the Wisdom of Solomon, plus portions of Esther and Daniel) that (Greek-speaking Christians accepted) were found in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by Jews of the Dispersion, especially in Egypt). The reason was the widespread use of the Septuagint by the Christians. So should we follow the Pharisees' definition of inspired books (Old Testament), as the Protestants do today? We should know better than to listen to the Pharisees because in Matt 15.13-15.14, Jesus called the Pharisees "blind men leading blind men". It is indeed sad that the group of Pharisaic Jews which met at Javneh became the dominant group for later Jewish history, and that is why today most Jews accept the canon of Javneh. But like what Jesus said (Matt 15.14), "If a blind man leads another, both will fall into a pit".
Before 393 A. D. there were 3 classes of sacred writings being read in the Churches. First, there were the genuine writings accepted universally by the Christian Church which hailed this first group of writings as actually written by the Apostles or on the same Apostolic authority. The second class of sacred writings, which were being used by the Churches, was the disputed class. In some places they were accepted as genuine Scripture and in other places they were not so accepted. In this second class, or disputed list, were James, Jude, the second Epistle of St Peter, the second and third Epistle of St John, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse). Then there was a third class of writings spread about, which was never accepted by any of the Churches as genuine Scripture, books which contained all sorts of fanciful stories or fables of the early life of Our Lord. The usage of certain Pauline letters was also prevalent in certain early Christian churches, but a universal and standard list of inspired books was never promulgated before the Council of Hippo in 393. It is ironic that Protestants reject the inclusion of the Old Testament deuterocanonicals at councils such as Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), because these are the very same early Church councils that defined the current canon of the New Testament. Prior to the councils, there was a wide range of disagreement over exactly what books belonged in the New Testament. Certain books, such as the gospels, acts, and most of the epistles of Paul had long been agreed upon. However a number of the books of the New Testament, most notably Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 & 3 John, and Revelation remained hotly disputed until the canon was settled. They are, in effect, "New Testament "deuterocanonicals."
Council of Laodicea (c. 360)
- A local council of the church in union with Rome produced a list of books of the Bible similar to the Council of Trent's canon. This was one of the Church's earliest decisions on a canon.
Council of Rome (382)
- Local church council under the authority of Pope Damasus, (366-384) gave a complete list of canonical books of the OT and NT which is identical with the list later approved by the Council of Trent.
Council of Hippo (393)
- Local North African Church council in union with and under the authority of the Bishop of Rome approved a list of OT and NT canon (same list as that later approved by the Council of Trent)
Council of Carthage (397)
- Local North African Church council in union with and under the authority of the Bishop of Rome approved a list of OT and NT canon (same list as that later approved by the Council of Trent)
Council of Carthage (419)
- Local North African Church council in union with and under the authority of the Bishop of Rome approved a list of OT and NT canon (same as later approved by the Council of Trent)
Council of Florence, an ecumenical council (1441)
- Complete list of OT and NT canon was drawn up; this list later adopted by the Fathers of the Council of Trent
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