ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the process of canonization, the implications of canon, and distinctions between religious and academic contexts for the study of the Bible. It compares between the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament and the New Testament. The traditional view of the canonization of the Hebrew Bible or the Tanakh holds that the three-fold division of the text was itself the result of the canonization process. The canonization process was different for the New Testament, in part because the New Testament documents were written over a much shorter span of time, and in part because they were not a national literature. Marcion argued for the church to sever its theological connection with Judaism and its scriptures, an argument that led him to dismiss not only the Old Testament but also many New Testament texts. In the end, Marcion's canon included only the Gospel of Luke and the Epistles of Paul, purged of all references to the Old Testament.
