Jack P. Lewis's What Do We Mean by Jabneh, published in the Journal of Bible and Religion, volume 32, in 1964, and now archived under that journal's later name, the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, is the article that reexamined and substantially deflated the popular claim that a rabbinic council at Jamnia, Jabneh, formally closed the Hebrew biblical canon around the year 90 CE. Lewis was a specialist in biblical studies presenting close reading of the actual rabbinic sources the closed canon story rests on. Its strength is that source critical rigor, showing the ancient evidence supports much less than the tidy council narrative later scholarship and popular writing built on top of it. Its limit is that the article is itself now over sixty years old, and subsequent scholarship on canon formation has continued to develop the picture further, so a claim about the current state of canon formation scholarship should be checked against more recent work alongside Lewis's foundational corrective.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Jack P. Lewis's article, published in the Journal of Bible and Religion in 1964, is a peer reviewed source critical study that substantially deflated the popular Jamnia canon closure narrative, treated at the top tier. NotesJack Lewis's scholarly article on the Council of Jamnia (Jabneh) and the closing of the Hebrew biblical canon.
Citation
AuthorJack P. Lewis
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication Year1964
Source Typepeer-reviewed article
Claims Backed By This Source (26 claims)
This source backs 26 claims across the atlas. As facts: 19 well-attested, 1 popular myth - corrected. As cited relationships: 1 holds. Plus 5 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Articles, 9 claims: 7 well-attested, 1 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Scripture Portions, 6 claims: 3 well-attested, 3 general references.
- Councils and Synods, 4 claims: 2 well-attested, 1 popular myth - corrected, 1 general references.
Popular myth - corrected
1Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.