Each Religion of the Book defines its own canon - the Scripture(s) that are considered genuinely holy for that religion and canonical or "according to the measure" set in often quite complex historical processes.
Judaism
The formation of Tanakh, Torah, Nebiim, Ktuvim (Five books of Moses, Prophets, Writings) culminated after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. After the loss of the central institution it was important to have a clear set of canonical holy books written in Hebrew and partly in Aramaic. Traditionally it has been understood that the final decision was made by leading rabbis gathering in the coastal city of Yavneh (south of modern Tel Aviv) at about 90 AD.
The rabbis established the fundamental principle for distinguishing canonical books by stating that the Holy Spirit inspired the writings until the Persian period. Books written after that period such as the Hellenistic Maccabean Books were left outside.
The Masoretic text tradition was given priority. A good example of the
canonical Tanakh is the Ben Ashera school Bible, Codex Leningradiensis,
dated to the 10th century AD.
The Hellenistic translation of the Bible into Greek by Alexandrian Jews in the 2nd century BC has received an almost canonical position within Judaism and there is a holy tradition of the Seventy or Septuagint (LXX) who were inspired in the work of translation by the Holy Ghost.
In addition to the Bible especially the Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds collected during the Byzantine period have since reached practical canonical status in post-temple Judaism and are today considered definite interpretations of Tanakh and the divine will expressed in the Torah.
Christianity
The development of Christian Biblical canon took several centuries during the Byzantine period. A number of the books today found in the New Testament had to fight for their accepted position while some early candidates were eventually left out from it.
The complicated history of the Christian Bible can be studied from various sources. The lengthy process can be examined by looking what books were included in the early manuscripts containing the entire Bible such as the famed Codex Sinaiticus. References to authoritative texts by Church fathers is another indication including the controversial
Marcion's canon that rejected Old Testament. There are also early listings of accepted books and letters such as the
Muratorian fragment from the third century AD.
Christians eventually accepted the Hebrew and Aramaic Tanakh as the Old Testament or covenant and respect it as a divinely inspired holy book. In addition to it there is a group of Greek texts written in the classical Roman period, Four Gospels, Acts of Apostles, a number of letters to early congregations and the Revelation of John.
Very soon churches began to create local translations of the entire Bible or parts of it. Some of these translations have received almost canonical status in the respective churches like, for example, the early 5th century Latin translation Vulgata in the Western church.
Biblical Canon
A
biblical canon, or canon of scripture, is a list of books considered to
be authoritative as scripture by a particular religious community. The
word "canon" comes from the Greek "κανών", meaning "rule" or "measuring
stick". The term was first coined by Christians, but the idea is found
in Jewish sources. The internal wording of the text can also be
specified, for example the Masoretic Text is the canonical text for
Judaism.
The canons listed below are usually considered
"closed" (i.e., books cannot be added or removed), reflecting a belief
that public revelation has ended and thus the inspired texts may be
gathered into a complete and authoritative canon. By contrast, an "open
canon" permits the addition of books through the process of continuous
revelation.
These canonical books have been developed
through debate and agreement by the religious authorities of their
respective faiths. Believers consider these canonical books to be
inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the
relationship between God and His people. Books, such as the
Jewish-Christian Gospels, excluded from the canon are considered
non-canonical, but many disputed books considered non-canonical or even
apocryphal by some are considered Biblical apocrypha or Deuterocanonical
or fully canonical by others. There are differences between the Jewish
and Christian Biblical canons, and between the canons of different
Christian denominations. The differing criteria and processes of
canonization dictate what the communities regard as the inspired books.
wikipedia
Because of theological reasons explaining the origins of the Quran to the believer the accepted text is considered a self-evident standard and firmly dated to the revelation that happened in the Byzantine period Arabian peninsula.
According to the religion of Islam prophet Muhammad received Quran in a miraculous way. Angel Gabriel read it to him from the original Quran that exists in heaven and is written on tables in golden letters. The divine words of the revelation are without error in the original Quran that is written in classical Arabic language.
Because of Quran the Byzantine era classical Arabic is the unifying language for all Muslims in the world. Many translations of the holy Book do exist but none of them have the canonical status of the Arabic original.
The Quran
The Quran literally meaning "the recitation"), also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God (Arabic: الله, Allah). It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language. The Quran is divided into 114 suras of unequal length which are classified either as Meccan or Medinan depending upon their place and time of revelation.
Revelation
Muslims believe the Quran to be verbally revealed through angel Jibrīl (Gabriel) from God to Muhammad gradually over a period of approximately 23 years beginning in 610 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632 CE, the year of his death.
Canonical text
Shortly after Muhammad's death the Quran was compiled into a single book by order of the first Caliph Abu Bakr and at the suggestion of his future successor Umar. Hafsa, Muhammad's widow and Umar's daughter, was entrusted with that Quranic text after the second Caliph Umar died.
When the third Caliph Uthman began noticing slight differences in Arabic dialect, he sought Hafsa's permission to use her text to be set as the standard dialect, the Quraish dialect now known as Fus'ha (Modern Standard Arabic). Before returning the text to Hafsa, Uthman made several thousand copies of Abu Bakr's redaction and, to standardize the text, invalidated all other versions of the Quran. This process of formalization is known as the "Uthmanic recension".
The present form of the Quran text is accepted by most scholars as the original version compiled by Abu Bakr.
Biblical heritage
Muslims regard the Quran as the main miracle of Muhammad, the proof of his prophethood and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam, regarded in Islam as the first prophet, and continued with the Suhuf Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham), the Tawrat (Torah or Pentateuch) of Moses, the Zabur (Tehillim or Book of Psalms) of David, and the Injil (Gospel) of Jesus.
The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in Jewish and Christian scriptures, summarizing some, dwelling at length on others and in some cases presenting alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance, sometimes offering detailed accounts of specific historical events, and often emphasizing the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence.
wikipedia
The 19th century religion of Mormons has a holy tradition somewhat resembling that of Islam: it is believed that their prophet, Joseph Smith Jr. (1805-1844), received copy of the golden original of the Book of Mormon from a place shown to him by an angel.
The Book of Mormon is a highly North American text - it continues the ancient history of Israel by following a group of Jews who left the Promised Land and sailed across the Atlantic to establish a community in the New continent.
Since the holy book of Mormons is so recent and written in a short period of time there is an undisputed canonical version of it revered as a holy Book along the holy Bible by the believers.
The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Latter Day Saint movement that adherents believe contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from approximately 2600 BC to AD 421. It was first published in March 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr. as
The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi.
According to Smith's account, and also according to the book's narrative, the Book of Mormon was originally written in otherwise unknown characters referred to as "reformed Egyptian" engraved on golden plates. Smith claimed that the last prophet to contribute to the book, a man named Moroni, buried it in a hill in present-day New York and then returned to earth in 1827 as an angel, revealing the location of the book to Smith and instructing him to translate and disseminate it as evidence of the restoration of Christ's true church in the latter days.
wikipedia
