Who decided what went into the Hebrew Bible and when?

CANONICAL QUESTIONS: Who Decided What Books the Hebrew Bible Would Contain? The canonization of the Hebrew Bible into its final 24 books was a process that lasted centuries, and was only completed well after the time of Josephus (Elon Gilad, Haaretz Premium). This is basically a good article that covers the topic in detail.

One could debate this or that point in it. For example, the final break between Judaism and Samaritanism may have come considerably later than the fourth century. And Josephus and 4 Ezra may have had the same canon of literature in mind, but divided into books slightly differently, giving the respective number of 22 and 24 books for the same collection.

Also, it's worth mentioning again that arguably the written Torah of Nehemiah and Ezra contained material not found in our Pentateuch.

But overall the article is good.

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