The Canon

The canon of Scripture refers to the list of books recognized as divinely inspired and authoritative for faith and practice. Our word canon is derived from the Hebrew qaneh and the Greek kanon, meaning a “reed” or a “measuring stick.” The term came to mean the standard by which a written work was measured for inclusion in a certain body of literature. The books of the Bible are not inspired because humans gave them canonical status. Rather, the books were recognized as canonical by humans because they were inspired by God. As Wegner explains, the books of the Old Testament “did not receive their authority because they were placed in the canon; rather they were recognized by the nation of Israel as having divine authority and were therefore included in the canon.”1 The community of faith did not create the Scriptures; rather, the Scriptures helped to create the community of faith by giving form and substance to its identity and system of beliefs. The order and arrangement of the Hebrew canon is different from that of our English Bibles. The Hebrew canon consists of three major sections, the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi’im), and the Writings (Kethuvim). Collectively they are referred to as the Tanak (an acrostic built on the first letters of these three divisions—TNK).

  The Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Old Testament, first employed the fourfold division of the Old Testament into Pentateuch, Historical Books, Poetical Books, and Prophetic Books that is used in the English Bible. The inclusion of historical books within the prophetic section of the Hebrew canon reflects their authorship by the prophets. Daniel appears in the Writings rather than the Prophets because Daniel was not called to the office of prophet even though he functioned as a prophet from time to time. Chronicles at the end of the canon provides a summary of the entire Old Testament story from Adam to Israel’s return from exile though it was written from a priestly perspective. The Roman Catholic canon of the Old Testament includes seven apocryphal books (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, Baruch, Letter of Jeremiah, and 1 and 2 Maccabees) written during the Intertestamental period, as well as additional materials for the books of Esther and Daniel.2 The Eastern Orthodox Church also recognized these works as canonical, as well as four additional compositions (1 Esdras, Psalm 151, 3 and 4 Maccabees, and the Prayer of Manasseh). When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the commandments God gave him, the people of Israel immediately recognized their divine authority and promised to raise up a succession of prophets “like Moses” to speak His word for subsequent generations, and the pronouncements of these messengers of God would also be recognized as possessing divine authority. The prophet Samuel wrote down laws of kingship that were deposited before the Lord when the monarchy was established in Israel (1 Sam 10:25). David’s extensive writings came to be recognized as inspired Scripture because the Spirit of God spoke through him (2 Sam 23:1–2), and the words of the prophets came to be placed alongside the Torah in the Hebrew Scriptures because of the self-authenticating message. Histories, psalms, and wisdom writings recognized as coming from others speaking with a prophetic voice were also similarly respected and preserved. WHEN WAS THE PROCESS COMPLETED? Jewish tradition affirmed that prophecy ceased in Israel c. 400 BC after the ministry of Malachi. First Maccabees 9:27 states, “So there was great distress in Israel, such as had not been since the time that the prophets ceased to appear among them.” Baruch 85:3 makes a similar claim, and the Jewish Talmud states that the Holy Spirit departed from Israel after the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi in the early postexilic period. While some questions remained regarding some of the “writings” that were already included in Scripture (e.g., Esther) even until the Council of Jamnia in AD 90, the evidence suggests that the Hebrew canon was essentially completed and fixed by 300 BC. All of the canonical books of the Old Testament, except for Esther, appear among the copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls (250 BC–AD 70) We are therefore duty-bound to understand through His Spirit the importance of that selection. Every bible student has to go to the bottom of what is handed us, and learn those things, so that we are not swayed in anyway by those who distorted the word, or cast aspersions at the inspired work of God.