The Origin of the Western Five

[yaaqub]

I accept the W5 as inspired yet I believe that Esther should take it's rightful place in the Talmud. Even though Esther is accepted in every OT cannon, I don't believe it's inspired, and I don't believe it belongs in the Bible.

What? No more Purim parties and those tasty hamantashen? Just kidding. You make some good points, but we also know that in some versions of Peshitta we have:

Wisdom
Epistle of Jeremiah
Epistle of Baruch
Baruch
Bel
The Dragon
Susanna
Judith
Ben Sirach
Apocalypse of Baruch
4 Ezra
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
Wars of the Jews by Josephus

All of these books are considered as "apocryphal" by Protestants, with the exception of the last one which I believe they would say it's simply a historical account.

While the topic of the development of "canon" is quite fascinating, to say the least, we do have to take into consideration the body and culture that accepts these particular books and those that do not. Each one has its own tradition and standards of how a book is considered "worthy" enough to be put into the particular canon.