What are the Holy Scriptures? Part 2: The Canon of the Old Testament
The Old Testament did not come down out of the sky on some golden plates as a complete and immediate document, but was written by various authors over the span of almost a thousand years, ranging from Moses to Malachi. Also, to speak outright, I do not believe in the 4 different types of authors of the Pentateuch (JLPD), the multiple authors of Isaiah, or any of the other absurd liberal criticisms of the Old Testament, that are founded more upon heretical presuppositions that the Bible couldn't possibly be the Word of God, nor that the Word has been preserved down through the ages for us. People see what they want to see, and their presuppositions drive their interpretation of the evidence. That goes for me as well as the liberal. And my view adheres strongly to the conviction of the Holy Bible being the infallible Word of God, preserved and kept pure in all ages. But I've digressed...
Before we progress forward, I need to define what a canon is. Canon simply defined is a rule or standard by which something else is to be judged. There is a visual image provided in the Old Testament of what a canon does: it is the image of the plumb line (cf. Amos 7:7-8). A plumb line measures if walls are perpendicular and straight. A straight wall is a sound wall and can bear up under the weight of a building. The canon of Scripture serves the same purpose, except it doesn't measure to see if the wall is straight, but if one's life is straight or crooked. So the purpose of a text that one would consider as a canon of Scripture will be for the shaping and molding of one's life and practice.
Where there was a council of Jews who came together after the time of Christ to discuss whether a couple books of the Tanakh should be considered as a part of the canon, they ultimately concluded that the canon, as they had it was legitimate. That canon of Scripture they possessed had actually been around since around the third or fourth century BC, shortly after the life of Malachi. But how exactly did one's works come to be a part of that canon?
It is actually quite easy to see how most of the OT canon came together when observing the internal evidences. God spoke to Moses, and confirmed it with signs and wonders. The Torah then became the foundation. God then gave the people, through Moses, a means by which they could judge if a prophet was sent by the LORD. "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him" (Deut 18:22). Earlier in the chapter, Moses also speaks to the fact that the prophet will be like himself. Where this is ultimately a prophecy of Jesus' coming, it also serves as a good understanding of who a true prophet ought to be: their words should agree with those of Moses. As you read through the Prophets, you can begin to see that the words spoken by them are nothing more than commentary and application of the Torah, and carry with them the same authority because "Thus saith the LORD..." Besides the commentary though, many of the prophets prophesied that various catastrophes were going to occur, should the people not repent. And in the cases of Israel & Judah, they turned away from the commands of the LORD and were destroyed. In cases like Nineveh (cf the book of Jonah), they repented and were not destroyed at that time. But in all cases, their prophecies came true.
The historical books don't exactly have the same litmus test, but as one reads each book, the overall theme becomes clear: the progression of redemptive history. Joshua is the account of Israel entering the Promise Land. Judges prepares the need for a king. Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel provide the historical background to the rise of King David, a prefiguring type of Christ. The book of Kings provides the tension of redemptive story as one awaits the arrival of the True King and the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. Chronicles approaches the history of Israel from a different perspective, with an emphasis on the Temple and true worship. While Nehemiah, Ezra, & Esther essentially leave us with a cliffhanger, seeing a partial fulfillment of prophecy in the Jews returning to their land, but still awaiting the Messiah. When read juxtaposed to the Prophets, the full story is told, and the stage is set for the coming Messiah and the New Covenant.
At this point, we are still left with a few books unaccounted for in the OT, namely the Wisdom books. The book of Psalms, primarily written by King David, is the collected and inspired hymn book of the Jewish nation. With David's status as the divinely appointed king and prefigured Christ, it's understandable that his songs would find place in the inspired canon, especially when he was tasked with the preparation and worship of the temple. A few of the Psalms are attributed to Moses and Solomon. Psalm 92 is considered a Song for the Sabbath, and an ancient Targum attributes it to Adam (though I will confess that I doubt it was written by him due to its content, but it is an interesting suggestion). Psalm 119 is suggested to have been written by either Joshua or David as they reflected upon the Torah. And lastly, there were a group of priests who were appointed to lead in song at the Temple (Asaph and the Sons of Korah). Solomon, given divine wisdom as an answer to prayer, makes sense then that his Proverbs, Songs, and Ecclesiastes would likewise be included.
This leaves me with one book completely unaccounted for: Job. Job is possibly the oldest book of the Bible. Some think that Job occurred around the time of Abraham. I won't debate it's age, but I think an interesting internal aspect of Job is that it refers to God by His covenantal name. In most translations, this is where the word "LORD" shows up in all capital letters, a few translations may use Yahweh or Jehovah. It is by this name that God reveals Himself to Moses in the fiery bush. This provides internal testimony then to Job's connection to Israelite history. Moreover, there are a few themes that provide Job similar links. The book of Job has a Messianic expectation. Throughout it Job expects to be redeemed, and that he has a Redeemer (19:25). And in Job 31:33, he refers back historically to the sins and shame of Adam. Job then provides in short story form, the overall theme found in the OT: the fall from glory with the expectation of ultimate redemption, aligning Job perfectly into the meta-narrative of the Old Testament.
In this post, I have strived to focus upon internal evidences of the OT canon. There is a purpose to this. Paragraph 4 of the 2LBCF chapter 1 states:
Where there was a council of Jews who came together after the time of Christ to discuss whether a couple books of the Tanakh should be considered as a part of the canon, they ultimately concluded that the canon, as they had it was legitimate. That canon of Scripture they possessed had actually been around since around the third or fourth century BC, shortly after the life of Malachi. But how exactly did one's works come to be a part of that canon?
It is actually quite easy to see how most of the OT canon came together when observing the internal evidences. God spoke to Moses, and confirmed it with signs and wonders. The Torah then became the foundation. God then gave the people, through Moses, a means by which they could judge if a prophet was sent by the LORD. "When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him" (Deut 18:22). Earlier in the chapter, Moses also speaks to the fact that the prophet will be like himself. Where this is ultimately a prophecy of Jesus' coming, it also serves as a good understanding of who a true prophet ought to be: their words should agree with those of Moses. As you read through the Prophets, you can begin to see that the words spoken by them are nothing more than commentary and application of the Torah, and carry with them the same authority because "Thus saith the LORD..." Besides the commentary though, many of the prophets prophesied that various catastrophes were going to occur, should the people not repent. And in the cases of Israel & Judah, they turned away from the commands of the LORD and were destroyed. In cases like Nineveh (cf the book of Jonah), they repented and were not destroyed at that time. But in all cases, their prophecies came true.
The historical books don't exactly have the same litmus test, but as one reads each book, the overall theme becomes clear: the progression of redemptive history. Joshua is the account of Israel entering the Promise Land. Judges prepares the need for a king. Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel provide the historical background to the rise of King David, a prefiguring type of Christ. The book of Kings provides the tension of redemptive story as one awaits the arrival of the True King and the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant. Chronicles approaches the history of Israel from a different perspective, with an emphasis on the Temple and true worship. While Nehemiah, Ezra, & Esther essentially leave us with a cliffhanger, seeing a partial fulfillment of prophecy in the Jews returning to their land, but still awaiting the Messiah. When read juxtaposed to the Prophets, the full story is told, and the stage is set for the coming Messiah and the New Covenant.
At this point, we are still left with a few books unaccounted for in the OT, namely the Wisdom books. The book of Psalms, primarily written by King David, is the collected and inspired hymn book of the Jewish nation. With David's status as the divinely appointed king and prefigured Christ, it's understandable that his songs would find place in the inspired canon, especially when he was tasked with the preparation and worship of the temple. A few of the Psalms are attributed to Moses and Solomon. Psalm 92 is considered a Song for the Sabbath, and an ancient Targum attributes it to Adam (though I will confess that I doubt it was written by him due to its content, but it is an interesting suggestion). Psalm 119 is suggested to have been written by either Joshua or David as they reflected upon the Torah. And lastly, there were a group of priests who were appointed to lead in song at the Temple (Asaph and the Sons of Korah). Solomon, given divine wisdom as an answer to prayer, makes sense then that his Proverbs, Songs, and Ecclesiastes would likewise be included.
This leaves me with one book completely unaccounted for: Job. Job is possibly the oldest book of the Bible. Some think that Job occurred around the time of Abraham. I won't debate it's age, but I think an interesting internal aspect of Job is that it refers to God by His covenantal name. In most translations, this is where the word "LORD" shows up in all capital letters, a few translations may use Yahweh or Jehovah. It is by this name that God reveals Himself to Moses in the fiery bush. This provides internal testimony then to Job's connection to Israelite history. Moreover, there are a few themes that provide Job similar links. The book of Job has a Messianic expectation. Throughout it Job expects to be redeemed, and that he has a Redeemer (19:25). And in Job 31:33, he refers back historically to the sins and shame of Adam. Job then provides in short story form, the overall theme found in the OT: the fall from glory with the expectation of ultimate redemption, aligning Job perfectly into the meta-narrative of the Old Testament.
In this post, I have strived to focus upon internal evidences of the OT canon. There is a purpose to this. Paragraph 4 of the 2LBCF chapter 1 states:
The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; therefore it is to be received because it is the Word of God.To focus upon external evidences, and upon councils of men, we shift our foundation for belief away from the Scriptures themselves onto something or someone else. Scripture is self-attesting, and to place your trust in anything but that will cause cracks in your belief. There is a place to know the external evidences and history of the canon, but that should be secondary. I believe it is better to focus upon the internal reasons of how the canon came together, as opposed to external reasons, because it ultimately rests your belief in the Scriptures themselves and the God of those Scriptures who has spoken and preserved His Word for His people.
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