Canon of the Old Testament, II
The Old Testament's Witness to Its Own Preservation
The Old Testament itself provides important clues about how its writings were preserved and treated as authoritative. The earliest references involve the safekeeping of the Law. Moses placed the tablets of the Ten Commandments inside the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 40:20), and the book of Deuteronomy was deposited beside the Ark "as a witness" (Deuteronomy 31:24-26). When Solomon brought the Ark to the Temple, the two tablets were still its only contents (1 Kings 8:9).
These acts of preservation reflect a recognition that certain writings carried divine authority. When King Josiah discovered "the Book of the Law" in the Temple around 622 BC, the immediate response was reform and national repentance based on its contents (2 Kings 22:8-13). The text was instantly recognized as ancient and authoritative, the words of the Lord that demanded obedience. Similarly, when Ezra read "the Book of the Law of God" publicly after the return from exile, the people responded with worship and commitment to its commands (Nehemiah 8:1-8).
The Three Divisions of the Hebrew Canon
The Hebrew Bible is traditionally divided into three sections: the Torah (Law), the Nevi'im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (Writings), together known by the acronym Tanakh. This threefold division likely reflects the stages by which different groups of writings came to be recognized as canonical.
The Torah, comprising Genesis through Deuteronomy, was the first section to achieve canonical status. By the time of Ezra and Nehemiah in the fifth century BC, the Law of Moses was firmly established as the foundational document of Israel's faith and national identity (Nehemiah 8:1; Ezra 7:6).
The Prophets, both the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve), were recognized as a distinct collection by the second century BC. The prologue to the Greek translation of Sirach (circa 132 BC) refers three times to "the Law and the Prophets and the other books," indicating that a tripartite collection was already well established.
The Writings, including Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the Five Scrolls, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles, were the last group to be formally recognized. Jesus Himself appears to reference this threefold division when He speaks of "the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms" (Luke 24:44).
Key Historical Witnesses
Several important historical sources illuminate the process of canonization. The earliest external witness to a defined collection comes from the prologue to Sirach, as noted above. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing around AD 95, stated that the Jews recognized 22 books (equivalent to our 39 when certain books are combined) as divinely inspired, and that these had been written between Moses and the reign of Artaxerxes (Against Apion 1.37-43).
The council or academy at Jamnia (Yavneh), around AD 90, was long thought to be the occasion when the Jewish canon was formally closed. However, modern scholarship has largely moved away from this view. The discussions at Jamnia appear to have been debates about books already recognized as canonical, particularly Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, rather than decisions about what to include or exclude.
The New Testament itself provides crucial testimony. Jesus and the apostles consistently treated the Old Testament Scriptures as authoritative and inspired. Jesus referred to them as writings that "cannot be broken" (John 10:35) and declared that "Scripture must be fulfilled" (Luke 22:37; John 13:18). Paul affirmed that "all Scripture is breathed out by God" (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Question of the Apocrypha
The relationship between the Hebrew canon and the larger Greek Septuagint collection has been debated since the early centuries of the church. The Septuagint, widely used by Greek-speaking Jews and early Christians, included additional books (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, 1-2 Maccabees, and additions to Esther and Daniel) not found in the Hebrew canon.
The early church was divided on these books. Jerome, who translated the Latin Vulgate in the late fourth century, distinguished between the books of the Hebrew canon and these additional writings, which he called "apocrypha." Augustine, by contrast, accepted a broader canon. The Protestant Reformation returned to the Hebrew canon for the Old Testament, while the Roman Catholic Church affirmed the deuterocanonical books at the Council of Trent in 1546.
Principles of Canonicity
What made a book canonical? Several factors appear to have been operative. First, the writing needed to be associated with a recognized prophet or authoritative figure. Second, it needed to be consistent with previously accepted revelation, particularly the Torah. Third, it needed to have been received and used by the believing community over time.
Importantly, the process of canonization was not the church or synagogue conferring authority on certain books. Rather, the community recognized the authority that was already inherent in these writings as the Word of God. As the Westminster Confession later articulated, the books of Scripture derive their authority not from any human institution but from God, their author.
Biblical Context
The concept of authoritative written revelation appears throughout the Old Testament, from the stone tablets given to Moses on Sinai (Exodus 24:12; 31:18) to the scroll dictated to Baruch by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 36:1-4). Joshua was commanded to meditate on the "Book of the Law" (Joshua 1:8). Later kings were to keep a copy of the Law and read it daily (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). The prophets frequently appealed to earlier Scripture as authoritative. In the New Testament, Jesus and the apostles treated the Old Testament as the inspired and authoritative Word of God (Matthew 5:17-18; Luke 24:44; 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21).
Theological Significance
The formation of the Old Testament canon addresses a fundamental question: how do we know which books are the Word of God? The canonical process demonstrates that Scripture's authority is not a human invention but something recognized by the faith community under divine guidance. The fact that Jesus Himself endorsed the Old Testament Scriptures as inspired and authoritative (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35) provides the ultimate theological warrant for the canon. Understanding the canon also helps explain the relationship between Judaism and Christianity, since both share these foundational texts.
Historical Background
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered between 1947 and 1956, have provided manuscripts of every Old Testament book except Esther, demonstrating that these texts were carefully preserved and studied in the centuries before Christ. The Septuagint translation, begun in the third century BC in Alexandria, shows that the Hebrew Scriptures were being disseminated beyond Palestine. Josephus's testimony (Against Apion, circa AD 95) provides the earliest explicit statement of a closed Jewish canon. The Muratorian Fragment (circa AD 170) and the writings of church fathers like Melito of Sardis (circa AD 170), who traveled to Palestine to determine the exact contents of the Old Testament, show that Christians were actively concerned with defining the canonical boundaries.