Formation of the Old Testament

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Formation of the Old Testament

The Old Testament canon varies in Jewish, Greek, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Bibles. Over and above the contents of the Jewish Bible, there are some fifteen books or portions of books that were accepted as in some sense authoritative by Greek-reading Jews of around the time of Jesus. Protestants have sometimes included these as an appendix to the Old Testament, under the label "Apocrypha," or excluded them altogether. Roman Catholics accept twelve of these as "deuterocanonical" and include them in various places in the test of the Old Testament. It is important to remember that the Hebrew Bible consists of three sections: the Law or the Torah (the Pentateuch), the Prophets, and the Writings.

Recent studies of the formation of the biblical canon (by J.A. Sanders, B.S. Childs, and others) have resulted in the conclusion that the canon was not formed primarily by official decisions of authoritative persons or councils at particular moments of history. Rather the canon resulted mainly from a long process in the Hebrew and Christian communities in which people of later generations read, heard, accepted, and applied to themselves and their situation written records of God's words to and dealings with chosen people and communities of the past.

The canon, therefore, was not something imposed on others by arbitrary authority but something freely accepted by people who opened their eyes and ears to the story of the past and who sought to apply that story to the needs and circumstances of the moment. Because this story spoke with a word of clarity and power about who they were (identity) and what they should do in the world (lifestyle), it was treasured and passed on to subsequent generations as authoritative tradition.

And only those books were passed on that had continuing meaning for the life of the community. The rest (like the Book of Jashar [Josh. 10:13], the Books of the Wars of Yahweh [Num. 21:14], the Pseudepigrapha, apocryphal gospels, etc.) simply dropped by the wayside.

While canonization was primarily a process, there were moments in which the process was caught up and fixed by official declarations and policies. These moments were marked by special circumstances and needs: personal and national guidance in times of political-religious crisis (the break-up of the Assyrian empire and Josiah's decision to go it alone in the late 7th century B.C.); the return from the Babylonian exile and the need for guidance in the reconstitution of national and religious life in hostile surroundings; the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and the threat to Judaism of extinction, in part by the rise of Christianity and its literature; the spread of Gnosticism in the church before and during the time of Marcion in the second century. These were times when the community officially reaffirmed its effective traditions (those that were adaptable to the continuing needs of its life) and waived aside those that were meaningless and even a threat to its existence.

The stages of fixation are relatively well marked, but the more or less fluid process behind them is not so easily recoverable.

Stages in the Fixing of the Old Testament Canon

1. The Recognition of the Authority of Deuteronomy

Upon discovery of this book (or part of it) in the temple in 622 B.C., King Josiah recognized its authority as the word of Moses and of God and based a sweeping reform on its law (II Kings 22:3-23:25).

2. The Exaltation of "the Law" (the Torah, the Pentateuch)

The Pentateuch in its present form seems to have been completed in the fifth century B.C. and accepted officially as God's word for the nation by Ezra and his contemporaries in the fifth or early fourth century (Neh. 8:1-10:39). Some bodies of material (sources) of the Pentateuch certainly were drawn together much earlier than this and undoubtedly possessed authoritative status in the community that used them, altered and added to them, and passed them along.

Conservative scholars today believe that the Pentateuch was essentially complete by about 1000 B.C. but was revised in minor ways until the time of Ezra (La Sor-Hubbard-Bush). Liberals do not grant so early an essential completion; but most of them admit the relative antiquity of traditions and sources contained in it. Most scholars today agree that Ezra fixed the completed Pentateuch as the basis of the life of the nation around 400 B.C.

3. The Fixing of the Canon of the Prophets

We have no knowledge here. It cannot have occurred before the time of Malachi (about 450 B.C.), since Malachi is included, and may have occurred as late as about 200 B.C. The apocryphal book Ecclesiasticus (the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach) of the second century B.C. refers in a clear-cut way to "the law and the prophets" as well as to "the other books of our fathers."

What the historical circumstances of the fixing of the prophetic collection were is unknown. Was it the threat of Hellenism following upon the conquests of Alexander the Great and his successors, with its own emphasis on oracles, sibyls ("inspired" prophetesses), and Sibylline books, that made necessary a demarcation of approved literature?

Many of the books of both Former and the Latter (Later) Prophets undoubtedly had been recognized as authoritative for a long time before the closing of the collection. Disciples of the prophets gathered together their masters' teachings, added to them, and promulgated them in their respective communities, where they were heard and applied to ongoing life.

4. The Selection of "the Writings"

In Jewish circles of the time of Jesus much literature not in the Law and the Prophets also was read, including the eleven books now in "the Writings," those books and portions now in the Apocrypha of Protestant Bibles, and many sectarian books like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Pseudepigrapha. Apparently no attempt was made to draw up a list of approved books from this miscellaneous literature until late in the first and in the early second century A.D.

The crisis that led the fixing of the last division of the canon undoubtedly was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70, the threatened extinction of Judaism, whose revolutionary wing (the Zealots) had been inflamed against the Romans by questionable (apocalyptic) books, and the rise of Christianity with a literature that was regarded by Jewish leaders as heretical. Even the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) had fallen into disfavor with Jews because of its popularity in the Christian Church.

About A.D. 90 rabbis held discussions at a town in southwestern Judah called Jamnia (Jabneel or Jabneh) about some of "the Writings," especially whether such books as Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon should be included. These discussions embraced no review of all the books in this category, as almost all of them had been in existence for several centuries and had gained status as authoritative writings. Debate about Esther and parts of Ezekiel went on after Jamnia and were resolved affirmatively by about the middle of the second century A.D. Thereafter, the canon was fixed for all time.

Standards by Which Jews Judged Their Books

Josephus (A.D. 37-100) gives us the best insight about how the Jews of his time looked at their sacred literature. He held that books, to be "justly accredited," had to be written by inspired prophets during the prophetic age, which he says ended with Artaxerxes (in the Persian period). Books written after that time have "not been deemed worthy of equal credit with the earlier records, because of the failure of the exact succession of the prophets" (Contra Apionem I). And the books were not discrepant and inconsistent with one another, he says.

Thus prophetic (inspired) authorship and consistency with one another were criteria for accredited books, according to Josephus. Contemporary scholars have suggested other criteria: consistency with official Jewish faith and practice; and general acceptance in the community of faith.

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