Old Testament Canon

Old Testament Canon

The word canon comes from a Greek word (kanon) meaning a "rod, a measuring stick, or a ruler." When we talk about canonization, we are referring to the acceptance of the Scriptures as inspired and authoritative.

For those of us in the almost 21^st century, we look in our Bible and see a list of 66 books. To you and me, this is the list of books that are "canonical." However, it is best not to think of the canon of Scripture as a list of books. There was not a prescribed number of books that had to be in the canon.

Rather than look at them as a books that had to measure up to a certain standard in order to be included in the canon, they were books that were included because they represented a certain standard. Just as biblical authority rests on the inspiration of the Scripture, so also, Biblical canonicity rests on inspiration. Only those books which were inspired were included in the canon.

"The word canon was applied to the Bible in both an active and passive sense. In the active sense, the Bible is the canon by which all else is to be judged. In the passive sense, canon meant the rule or standard by which a writing was judged to be inspired or authoritative."
(from Norman L. Geisler, From God to Us: How we got our Bible. Chicago: Moody, 1974, pp. 62-63.)

Sometimes we think that because there were some books that were questioned, this makes our canon uncertain and troublesome. However, you can look at the glass as half-full or half-empty. You can also look positively at the questioning of some of the books of the canon as an evidence that the canon was arrived us under some very careful scrutiny.

In order to understand whether a book was truly inspired and fit to be included in the canon, five criteria were used to understand how the books were canonical (from Geisler, 67-71).

Authority – Does the book claim to be of God?
Prophetic – Is the book written by a servant of God? (ie. prophet, apostle)
Authentic – Does the book tell the truth? About God, people, etc. It would be impossible for God to contradict Himself or make errors. Thus, any writings that contradicted what God said in other canonical books were not likely to be truly inspired and authentic.
Dynamic – Does the book have the life-transforming power of God? Many of the apocryphal books which we will discuss later have very interesting stories in them. However, they do not give evidence of the power of God and testify to the Gospel message. Thus, while they are informative, they are not inspired, and thus, not canonical.
Reception – Is the book received or accepted by the people of God for whom it was originally written as being from God?

"God determined the authority of the books of the canon, but the people of God were called upon to discover which books were authoritative and which were not." (Geisler, 71)

Four Classifications

Homologoumena – those books which were accepted by all
Antilegomena – those books which were questioned
Pseudopigrapha – those non-biblical works rejected by all
Apocrypha – those non-biblical works accepted by some

34 out of the 39 OT books fall under the category of homologoumena.

There are three steps in the process of canonization:
1. Inspiration by God
2. Recognition by men – using criteria
3. Collection and preservation by people of God
In relation to the Old Testament canon, there is good evidence of both the recognition and collection of the OT within the Bible itself.

Recognition – The writings of the Old Testament were received by those to whom they were addressed.
- Moses - Exodus 24:3
- Joshua - Joshua 24:26
- Samuel - 1 Samuel 10:25
- Jeremiah - Daniel 9:2

You will recall that the authority and prophetic-ness of a book was an important criteria in the recognition of the canonical books. In looking at the books of the OT, there is a significant prophetic continuity. For example, Deuteronomy 34 written by Joshua, and then Joshua 1 links it to the Books of Moses beginning, "After the death of Moses." The book of Judges then continues the prophetic link of Joshua by beginning, "After the death of Joshua."

Collection & Preservation

"It would seem there were at least four key periods during the Old Testament history when the sorting of documents and the fixing of canon would have been crucial for the Hebrew religious community:
(a) during the Sina experience after the Exodus,
(b) during the shift from theocracy to monarchy in Israel,
(c) at the time of the fall of Jerusalem and subsequent exile to Babylon, and
(d) as part of the reforms of Ezra the scribe and Nehemiah the governer in postexilic Jerusalem."
from Andrew E. Hill & John H. Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991): 18.

Law of Moses
- preserved in the ark (Deuteronomy 31:24-26) - then in the temple (2 Kings 22:8)
- preserved in the temple in Josiah's day (2 Kings 23:35; 1 Samuel 10:25)
Law of Moses and the prophets - Daniel 9:2, 6, 13; Nehemiah 9:14, 26-30; Matthew 5:17
Ezekiel 13:9 - official register of prophets and writings in the temple

An important point to note in discussing the collection and preservation of the OT books is that later prophets often make mention of earlier books that they knew of and presumed to be God’s authoritative words.

For example:

The Books of Moses are made reference to in Joshua 1:7; 1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 14:6, 21:8; 2 Chronicles 14:4; Jeremiah 8:8; Daniel 9:11; Ezra 6:18; 7:6; Nehemiah 13:1; Psalms 103:7; Malachi 4:4
Joshua is made reference to in: Judges 1:1, 20-21; 2:8
The life of David as described in Samuel: 1 Kings 3:14; 5:7; 8:16; 9:5
Chronicles (1 Chronicles 2:12-13) reviews Israel’s history from Genesis to Kings including geneaological link mentioned in Ruth
Nehemiah 9 reviews Genesis through Ezra
2 Samuel 22 records Psalm 18
1 Kings 4:32 makes reference to Proverbs and Songs of Solomon
Daniel 9:2 cites Jeremiah 25
Jonah 2 recites portions of Psalms
Ezekiel 14:14, 20 mentions both Job and Daniel

Josephus (Against Apion. 1.8): "After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel." (around 400 BC)

Thirty-four (34) out of the 39 OT books fall under the category of homologoumena. Only five (5) fell under the category of antilegomena:

Song of Solomon – not really a big surprise as to why this book was debated. It was considered too "sensual." The Jewish Rabbi Akiba said,

"God forbid! – No man in Israel ever disputed about the Song of Songs. That it does not render the hands unclean [i.e., is not canonical], for all the ages are not worthy the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for all the Writings are holy, but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies."

(Geisler & Nix, 90 taken from Herbert Danby, The Mishnah [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933], p. 782.)

Ecclesiastes – the argument against Ecclesiastes is that it was too skeptical. However, when one reads the conclusion of the book in chapter 12, verse 13-14, the book is not skeptical. Rather, it comes to a conclusion very much in line with the rest of Scripture: the fear of the Lord is the key to meaning in life.

Esther – The main reason Esther was debated is that the name of God is never mentioned in the book. However, although the name of God is never mentioned, it is very clear that one of the main points of the book of Esther is that God preserved His people, the nation of Israel.

Ezekiel – One school of Jewish thought (Shammai) interpreted Ezekiel to be against the teaching of the Mosaic Law. If Ezekiel did indeed contradict the Mosaic Law, it would not have been recognized in the canon. However, there are no specific examples of it contradicting the Torah.

Proverbs – Again the concern was that Proverbs contained some internal contradictions, but this is and was not true.

(For a thorough summary of the arguments for and against the canonicity of the antilegomena books, see Chapter 7 (pp. 274-337) "The Identify of the Canonical Books: The Books Included as Canonical" in Roger Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985.)

The witnesses to the OT canon are constant throughout the 1^st century and early Christian history. The understanding of the 39 books of the OT as canonical is seen in Josephus, Philo, Ben Sira, Qumran (150 BC), Melito (170 AD), Baba Batra (before AD 200), Origen (before AD 231), etc. (See The Old Testament in Early Christianity by E. Earle Ellis. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991, pp. 6-33).

The Council of Jamnia (AD 90)