“Literary history was not a major concern of the rabbis. One searches in vain through the talmudic and midrashic literatures for a systematic account of the formation and closing of the biblical canon. There are, however, scattered throughout tal- mudic literature numerous bits of evidence which, when com- bined and evaluated, may serve the historian in reconstructing the history of the formation and closing of the biblical canon.”(Leiman, Sid Z. "Inspiration and Canonicity: Reflections on the Formation of the Biblical Canon.”)

“biblical canon, collection of sacred texts of Judaism which, after being determined… by official religious bodies, are alone viewed as fully authoritative and truly beyond all further change or alteration. The works not admitted to the canons (apocryphal literature of semisacred or semicanonical character) may still be quite valuable as supplementary texts.”"Biblical Canon." Encyclopædia Britannica