Protestant and Evangelical
Christians, from the Reformers
onward, accept the shorter Old Testament canon, 39 books,
from the Hebrew Palestinian
Canon. Jews have the same
canon as Protestants.
Canonical books are those books
which have been
acknowledged as belonging to the
list of books the Church
considers to be inspired and to
contain a rule of faith and
morals.
Some criteria used to determine
canonicity were
• special relation to
God, i.e., inspiration;
• apostolic origin;
• used in Church
services, i.e., used by the community
of believers guided by the Holy
Spirit.