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Evidence ID: BIB-EV05

Evidence: 39 Old Testament Books Pass Tests of Canonicity

Summary: The canonization of the Old Testament is referred to as a growing collection of books written by prophets of God. These books were handed down to the nation of Israel by a succession of prophets from Moses to Malachi spanning some 1,600 years from BC 1500-400. Various criteria are used to confirm the inspiration and authority of the 39 books of the Old Testament canon.

Description: The Old Testament is comprised largely of the books of the Law and the Prophets. The books of the Law, the Pentateuch, were written by the prophet Moses. The remaining books were written by a succession of nineteen prophets after Moses. Books of Moses were cited from the time of the prophet Joshua (BC 1500) to the prophet Malachi (BC 400).

Confirmation of Canonicity

• Dead Sea Scrolls: The Dead Sea Scrolls contain at least a fragment of all the books of the Old Testament except Esther (38 of 39 books). Because virtually all the Old Testament books were represented there, it supports the idea of their special status. Some biblical books also have scribal "commentaries," further indicating how much they were valued. Several non-biblical books were discovered among the biblical fragments in the Dead Sea Scrolls; but the special status of the biblical texts is not lost by that fact, any more than a bookstore selling books other than the Bible means we don’t believe in the uniqueness of the Bible.
• Prologue to Ecclesiasticus: A prologue was inserted into the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus about BC 130 (this is not the same as the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes). The phrase occurs several times: "The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings." Ecclesiasticus was not Scripture, but the prologue recognizes there is a body of writings that is Scripture, with a three-fold division. This same division of sacred text was used by Jesus in Luke 24:44. The point here is that there was a body of material recognized by Jews and Jesus as having special divinely inspired status; it consisted of these main divisions, and these divisions describe the equivalent of our Old Testament today (no more, no less). "He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." (Luke 24:44)
• Philo and Josephus Early Jewish writers like Philo (40 AD) and Josephus (90 AD) also witness to the three-fold division of the Law, Prophets, and Writings. Josephus accords these writings special divinely inspired status in his book Against Apion, 1:8.

  We have not myriads of books, disagreeing and conflicting with one another (like the pagan Greeks have), but only twenty-two (Josephus merged some books to get 22, but we know from elsewhere that these are the 39 we are familiar with) containing the record of all time and justly accredited. Of these, five are the books of Moses, containing the laws and the history handed down from the creation of the human race right to his own death; From the death of Moses to the time of Artaxerxes, who was king of Persia after Xerxes, the prophets who followed Moses have written down in thirteen books the things that were done in their days. The remaining four books contain hymns to God and principles of life for human beings. From Artaxerxes to our own time a detailed record has been made (the Apocrypha), but this has not been thought worthy of equal credit with the earlier records because there has not been since then the exact succession of prophets. How firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during all the ages, no one has been so bold as either to add anything to them, to take anything from them, or to make any change in them. It is natural for all Jews immediately from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion arises, to be willing to die for them.
  Josephus, Against Apion, 1:8 (written about 97 AD)

Establishment for Canonicity

The Old Testament canon consisting of the 39 books of the Law and the Prophets was settled and acknowledged over time. As the books were handed down from the prophets, they were accepted by the prophets, and the Jewish rabbis and community at large. According to Geisler and Nix [REF-GEI03]:

"The canonicity of some (34 of 39 books) was never seriously challenged by any of the great rabbis within the Jewish community. Once these books were accepted by God's people as being from the hand of the prophet of God, they continued to be recognized as divinely authoritative by subsequent generations."

The Jewish nation accepted the Old Testament canon as closed after the prophet Malachi (BC 400). God was not speaking through any prophet from BC 400 until the time of Christ.

The 5 books that were not originally accepted by the Jewish rabbis were the wisdom books consisting of the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, and the books of Esther and Ezekiel. These books were later accepted into the Old Testament canon as their divine authority was vindicated [REF-GEI03].

Resources:

• From God to Us (REF-GEI03)