The Canonicity Of The Old Testament

THE CANONICITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Old Testament was not written all at once or by a single author. In fact, there were at least 30 human authors involved in its writing and they worked over a period of more than a thousand years. After all of the books which make up our Old Testament had been written, a second collection of books began to emerge. It became known as the “Apocrypha,” meaning “hidden from.”

There is a considerable amount of historical testimony to show that the books which make up our Old Testament (and not the Apocrypha) are indeed to be regarded as Scripture. The Testimony of the Massoretic Text: The Old Testament which we have is made up of 39 books. These were divided in the Hebrew Bible into three groups:

DIVISION|BOOKS|
TORAH

(LAW)|Genesis

Exodus Leviticus|Numbers Deuteronomy|
NEBI'IM The

Prophets|Joshua Judges|1 & 2 Samuel 1 & 2 Kings|
|Isaiah

Jeremiah

Ezekiel

Hosea

Joel

Amos

Obadiah

Jonah|Micah

Nahum

Habakkuk

Zephaniah

Haggai

Zechariah Malachi|
SEPHER KAHUVIM

Book of the Writings|Poetry|Psalms

Job Proverbs|
|Megilloth|Ruth

Song of Solomon

Ecclesiastes

Lamentations Esther|
|Histories|Daniel

Ezra/Nehemiah 1 & 2 Chronicles| According to Jewish tradition, these divisions were brought about by Ezra. The Testimony of Jesus: Jesus made allusion to this same division of the three groups when He spoke to His disciples after His resurrection.

Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44).

All of the Scriptures told of Christ. They all bore witness of Him. And now, we see Him bearing witness of them. Don't miss this! Jesus bears testimony of this same three-fold division of the Old Testament Scriptures (the Psalms was the largest of the third group and often used as its title). Notice that Jesus also carefully avoided speaking of the Apocrypha. In doing so, He is showing that He substantiated the books which were commonly known to make up those Scriptures. At the same time, He never suggests that any other extant books ought to be added to the Scriptures. The Testimony of the Septuagint: The Septuagint was the translation of the Old Testament into Greek. During the reign of Ptolemy 2 Philadelphus (284-247 B.C.), the Library of Alexandria sponsored a translation of the Old Testament Scriptures into the Greek language of that day.

Tradition has it that seventy two Jewish elders were commissioned for the task. For this reason, the translation came to be called the Septuaginta, meaning “seventy.” They translated the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Later on, the Apocrypha was added to the translation. Not one of the books that we presently have in our Old Testament was left out. The Testimony of the New Testament: The New Testament is full of quotations from the Old Testament Scriptures. These quotations are regularly treated as God's Word. At the same time, there is not a single reference in the New Testament when the Apocrypha is quoted and referred to in the context of being God's Word. The Testimony of Josephus: Josephus was a Jewish general who fought unsuccessfully against Rome in the days of the Jewish Revolt. He had heard of the Christians, but was not a Christian himself. He was an extensive writer, both of the history of the Jews as well as of the things he had seen at the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.

Writing a rebuttal to anti-Jewish propaganda in the latter part of the first century, Josephus describes the Hebrew canon of scripture which was recognized by the Jews. For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another [as the Greeks have], but only twenty-two books, which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine...(Contra Apion 1:8). The same 39 books that we have in our Bible were condensed into the 22 books of the Hebrew Bible. For example, they had a single book of Samuel and of Kings and of Chronicles. The Minor Prophets were grouped together into a single book called the Twelve.

Notice that even in that day Josephus recognized that the various books of the Bible did not contradict each other. He goes on to group the books of the Scriptures into the three common divisions which we have described.

...and of them, five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death... The prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and precepts for the conduct of human life. (Contra Apion 1:8).

Josephus puts the number of books in the Hebrew Bible at 22 and divides them into the following categories:

Moses (Torah). The Prophets (Nevi'im).

Hymns & Precepts (Ketuvim). The words of Josephus are important because they give us a point of view that is unbiased by Christianity. Specifically, he says that the Apocrypha did not have the same recognized authority because “there has not been an exact succession of prophets” since the time that the writing of the Scriptures ended.
through all of the major portions of the Old Testament.

According to Josephus, the test of authority for the Scriptures was that they were written by one who was recognized as a prophet. Who did the recognizing? The previous prophets! When you compare the end of Deuteronomy with the beginning of Joshua, you see an example of this progression. You can trace it But then, a day came when the last of the prophets had spoken. It was the prophet Malachi. He foretold that the Lord would come and that just prior to His coming He would be announced by Elijah. But that is not all. Notice what he has to say about the Apocrypha.
It is true, our history has been written since Artaxerxes, very peculiarly, but has not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there has not been an exact succession of prophets since that time. (Contra Apion 1:8).

Josephus rejects the Apocrypha because it had not been penned by a prophet and because there had been no line of prophets who spoke and who wrote the words of God. The Testimony of the Apocrypha: Several books of the Apocrypha make mention of the Law and the Prophets as a separate and distinct group of extant writings.

Many great teachings have been given to us through the Law and the Prophets and the others that followed them, and for these we should praise Israel for instruction and wisdom. Now, those who read the scriptures must not only themselves understand them, but must also as lovers of learning be able through the spoken and written word to help the outsiders. (Sir_1:1).

Encouraging them from the Law and the Prophets, and reminding them also of the struggles they had won, he made them the more eager (2Ma_15:9).

While he was still with you, he taught you the Law and the Prophets (4Ma_18:10). The books of the Old Testament never make reference to “the Law and the Prophets” in the manner that is found in either the New Testament or as in these books of the Apocrypha. The Council of Jamnia: After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D., the Jews were scattered. The remnants of the Jewish Sanhedrin, the supreme court of the Jews, moved to the ancient city of Jamnia. In 90 A.D. a Council was held at Jamnia under the direction of Rabbi Akiba. One of the items of discussion was the recognition of the Jewish writings which were to be reckoned as authoritative. The result of this council was that the books which make up our present Old Testament were recognized to be the Word of God. Those additional writings, such as the Apocrypha, were rejected. We must point out that this council did not establish the canonicity of these books, but rather recognized the books as being God's Word. The Dead Sea Scrolls: Along with many portions of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Dead Sea Scrolls also contained considerable writings of the Essene Community at Qumran. From an examination of these non-Biblical writings, it is a simple matter to determine that the Qumran Community held to essentially the same Old Testament Canon that we recognize today. The threefold division that we saw in the Jewish tradition and in the writings of Josephus are absent in most of the Qumran literature. In its place is a twofold division of the Law and the Prophets. The Manual of Discipline and the Zadokite Document refer to the Scriptures as “Moses and the Prophets.” Does that mean they did not hold that the books making up the third portion of the Old Testament to be inspired? Not at all. They included these books in the general category of the “Prophets.” Jesus did the same thing when He spoke of “the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 5:17; Matthew 7:12; Matthew 11:13; Matthew 22:40; Luke 16:16; Luke 16:29; Luke 16:31; Luke 24:27), even when He was clearly referring to a passage from the Writings.

Quotations from the Old Testament are introduced by the formula, “It is written.” This formula is not used for a single quote outside of the Old Testament.