How Did the Old Testament Become the Old Testament?

The Development of the Old Testament Canon

How did the books of the Old Testament develop? How were they recognized as Scripture? In outline form below, we discuss how the Old Testament became the Old Testament.

I. The Canon of the Hebrew Bible

A. The twenty four books recognized as canonical There are twenty-four books in the Hebrew canon. These twenty-four books correspond exactly to the books in the English Protestant Bibles that numbers thirty-nine. The difference is in the enumeration of the books. (For example, the Hebrew Bible does not divide Samuel into 1 and 2 Samuel. The same goes for the Kings.)

B. The Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections—the Law, Prophets, and Writings.

1. The Law (5) Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

2. The Prophets (8) Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve.

3. The Writings (11) Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles.


C. Origin of three-section division The division of the Hebrew Bible into three sections (not four or five, as in Greek, Latin, and English translations), known as the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, can be traced back to the second century B.C., when it is three times referred to in the prologue of Sirach, added by the Greek translator of the book in about 130 B.C. (see Roger T. Beckwith, “Canon of the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament,” in The Oxford Companion To The Bible, 100-101). Jesus referred to this division in Luke 24:44 when He said, “The Law of Moses and the Prophets and Psalms must be fulfilled.”

II. The Growth and Formation of the OT Canon How were the books of the Hebrew Bible collected and recognized?


A. Progressive collection of OT prophetic books (as recorded in the OT) From the beginning, the inspired writings of the Old Testament were collected by the Jews and revered as sacred and divinely authoritative.

1. Moses put the Book of the Covenant, including the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:1—23:33), into writing and the people agreed to obey it (Exod. 24:3-8). The Book of the Covenant became part of the Book of Exodus and immediately was accepted as the Word of God.

2. The Book of Deuteronomy was immediately stored by the Ark in the Tabernacle after Moses wrote it (Deut. 31:24-26). Later, with the rest of the Law of Moses, it was moved to the Temple (2 Kings 22:8).

3. Joshua added his words and set them up in the sanctuary of the Lord (Josh. 24:26).

4. Daniel refers to “the books” which contained the “law of Moses” and the prophets (Dan. 9:2, 6, 11).

B. Later OT books quote earlier OT books as authoritative

1. The books of Moses, which were immediately recognized as canonical, are cited throughout the Old Testament from Joshua (1:7) to Malachi (4:4).

2. The events of Joshua are referred to in Judges (1:1, 20-21; 2:8).

3. The books of Kings cites the life of David as told in the books of Samuel (1 Kings 3:14; 5:7; 8:16; 9:5).

4. Chronicles reviews Israel’s history from Genesis through Kings including material from Ruth (1 Chronicles 2:12-13).

5. The ninth chapter of Nehemiah reviews Israel’s history as recorded from Genesis through Ezra.

6. 1 Kings 4:32 refers to Solomon’s proverbs and songs.

7. Daniel cites Jeremiah 25 (Daniel 9:2).

8. Jonah recites parts from the Psalms (Jonah 2).

9. Ezekiel mentions both Job and Daniel (Ezekiel 14:14, 20).


NOTE: “Not every book is cited by a later one, however; but enough are cited to demonstrate that there was a growing collection of divinely authoritative books available to and quoted by subsequent prophets.” (Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, From God to Us, Chicago: Moody, 1974, 81).


C. Prophetic continuity A prophetic chain links the books of the Old Testament together.

1. Moses wrote the Pentateuch

2. Joshua, the author of Joshua and perhaps the very end of Deuteronomy (which records Moses’ death) took over for Moses in writing inspired Scripture.

3. Samuel wrote of the history of David (1 Chron. 29:29).

4. Nathan, Ahijah and Iddo wrote of the history of Solomon (2 Chron. 9:29).

5. Shemaiah and Iddo wrote of the history of Rehoboam (2 Chron. 12:15).

6. Iddo wrote of the history of Abijah (2 Chron. 13:22).

7. Jehu wrote about Jehoshaphat’s reign (2 Chron. 20:34).

8. Isaiah wrote of Hezekiah’s reign (2 Chron. 32:32).

9. Unnamed prophets wrote about Manasseh’s reign (2 Chron. 33:19).

10. Jeremiah wrote just prior to and during the Babylonian exile.

11. Daniel and Ezekiel continued the prophetic ministry during the exile.

12. Ezra, after the exile, returned from Babylon with the books of Moses and the prophets. (Ezra 6:18; Neh. 9:14, 26-30).

13. Nehemiah completed the chronology of OT prophetic continuity.



NOTE: “Each prophet from Moses through Nehemiah contributed to the growing collection which was preserved by the official prophetic community stemming from Samuel.” (Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, Chicago: Moody, 1986, 83).



III. Factors for Determining Canonicity How did the books of the Old Testament become recognized as Scripture? The following factors all played a role:


A. Tradition There was a well-established tradition that many of the books came from Moses or one of the other acknowledged prophets.


B. Spiritual authority of the books themselves The inherent spiritual authority of the Old Testament books played a role in their acceptance into the canon.


C. Recognition in the Temple as sacred


D. Conviction of leaders and people The opinions of religious leaders and common convictions of the people about the books were considered.


E. Jesus and the Apostles Jesus and the apostles quoted and appealed to many of the books of the Old Testament showing that they believed in the canonicity of these Old Testament books.



IV. End of OT Canonical Era Malachi, the last Old Testament book, was written around 430 B.C. The Old Testament canon era, then, as determined by God, lasted from 1445 B.C. to 430 B.C. Evidences that the OT canon ceased at the time of Malachi include:


A. Josephus According to the Jewish historian, Josephus (A.D. 37-95), the Hebrew OT was complete and no more canonical writings were composed after the reign of Artaxerxes (464-424 B.C.):

“From Artaxerxes (the successor of Xerxes) until our time everything has been recorded, but has not been deemed worthy of like credit with what preceded, because the exact succession of the prophets ceased. . . . For though so long a time has now passed, no one has dared to add anything to them, or to take anything from them, or to alter anything in them” (Josephus, Against Apion I. 8.).

NOTE: Rationalist higher critics claim that portions of Scripture such as Daniel, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon and many of the Psalms were compiled many years after Malachi. According to Josephus, though, no additional material was ever included in the canonical twenty-two books during the centuries between 425 B.C. and A.D. 90. This presents a problem to those who challenge the traditional authorship of these books (Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction. Chicago: Moody, 1974, 73).


B. The Talmud The Jewish Talmud states, “After the latter prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the Holy Spirit departed from Israel.”

C. New Testament The New Testament never quotes any OT book as authoritative after the time of Malachi.


V. Recognition of the Old Testament as Completed Canon When were all the books of our Old Testament canon recognized as canonical?


A. New Testament “Good evidence exists in the New Testament which shows that by the time of Jesus the canon of the Old Covenant had been fixed” (Neil Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988, 106).

1. Luke 24:44 The canonical writings, according to Jesus, are composed of the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. This threefold division is equivalent to the three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures—the Law, the Prophets and the Writings.

2. Martyrs of the Old Testament Jesus spoke of the time “from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah” (Luke 11:51; cf. Matt. 23:35) when referring to the martyrs of the Old Testament. The first martyr of the Old Testament was Abel and the last martyr was Zachariah (cf. 2 Chron. 24:20-21). Since Chronicles is the last book in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus was making a comprehensive statement covering the known Old Testament (Genesis—Chronicles).

B. Josephus (A.D. 37-95) Josephus, in his Against Apion stated, “We have not tens of thousands of books, discordant and conflicting, but only twenty-two containing the record of all time, which have been justly believed to be divine.” (I. 8). (NOTE: “It is the opinion of most scholars that Josephus in deriving his number of twenty-two books joined Ruth to Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah; and remembering that the Jews enumerated their books differently. . . the twenty-two books mentioned by Josephus equal our present thirty-nine books” (Lightfoot, How We Got the Bible, 8)).



ALSO: “It is unlikely that Josephus’s classification of the books was his own; he probably reproduces a tradition with which he had been familiar for a long time, having learned it either in the priestly circle into which he was born or among the Pharisees with whose party he associated himself as a young man” (Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, Dowers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988, 33-34).


C. Council of Jamnia (A. D. 90) This council met to discuss the canonicity of Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, and Esther. Some have said that this council determined the limits of the Old Testament canon, and thus, the Old Testament canon was not finalized until A.D. 90. But as Bruce says, “The upshot of the Jamnia debates was the firm acknowledgment of all these books as Holy Scripture.” And after warning us not to “exaggerate the importance of the Jamnia debate” he said, “The books which they decided to acknowledge as canonical were already generally accepted, although questions had been raised about them” (Bruce, The Books and the Parchments, Westwood: Revell, 1963, 97-98). Thus, the Council of Jamnia did not include any new books as canonical; it simply reaffirmed those books already considered canonical.



D. Bishop Melito of Sardis (A.D. 170) “Bishop Melito of Sardis (in modern Turkey) was pressed by a friend to obtain ‘an accurate statement of the ancient books as regards their number and their order.’ Melito did, and as a result, gave a now famous list of the Old Testament books. Except for its lack of Esther, this list matches today’s Jewish and Protestant Old Testament” (Bruce Waltke in “How We Got Our Old Testament,” in Christian History, 43:XIII, no. 3, 32).

E. Early church fathers

1. Third century A.D. In the third century A.D., Origen confirmed the testimony of Josephus on the number of books in the Hebrew canon. The books Origen listed correspond to the thirty-nine books of the Protestant Old Testament.

2. Fourth century A.D. “In the fourth century eight prominent Church fathers, Athanasius of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius of Cyprus, Amphilocius of Asia Minor, and Gregory Nazianzus of Cappadocia, Hilary of France, Rufinus of Italy, and Jerome have left us lists all of which agree with the Hebrew canon except for very minor variations. . .” (R. Laird Harris, Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1957, 189).


F. Conclusion The “evidence implies that by the beginning of the Christian era the identity of all the canonical books was well known and generally accepted” (Roger T. Beckwith, “The Canon of the Old Testament,” in The Origin of the Bible, ed. Philip W. Comfort, Wheaton: Tyndale, 1992, 61).