Speaker 1 0:10

Welcome to the Theological Touchpoints podcast . I'm Julian . The focus for this episode is foundations theology for the everyday Anabaptist . We are continuing our series on the canon of Scripture . Before us today is a discussion of how the Old Testament and New Testament canons came to be . Why do we consider the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament to be Scripture ? I don't promise to give you all the answers , but we can at least explore the issues together .

Speaker 1 0:42

In the previous two episodes , we covered some of the principles of canon , and I would like to review those briefly here . Of course , if you haven't listened to those episodes , i would encourage you to go to the first episode on canon and listen your way through the series before listening to this one . In those episodes , we talked about three foundational ideas as we approach canon , three ideas to keep in mind about the canon of Scripture . The first is that the Bible sets the expectation of canon . The Bible sets the expectation of canon , and by that we mean developing a canon of Scripture that is , a list of books that it recognizes being from God . In doing that , we are not doing a disservice to the Bible , since the Bible itself sets the expectation that this will happen . We think of , for example , ephesians 2 , where it talks about the church being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets , and that foundation is laid by the apostles and prophets in Scripture . The church is that entity , that organization , that organism that is built upon the truths of Scripture , and that presupposes this idea that we need to know which writings are indeed from the apostles and prophets and which ones aren't . The Bible itself leads us in the direction of developing a canon , a second foundational idea a canon cannot be properly understood without recognizing God's providence . So we look at history , or we look at characteristics of the biblical writings , and we're not just , we don't approach them looking at mere facts of history , though what we're looking at is truly history , but we see in the development of the canon , the codification of the canon , we see God's divine involvement through the entire process . God gave Scripture . Scripture is breathed out by God , 2 Timothy 3.16 says . And since it came from God , it also makes sense that God will be involved in the organization and compilation of his word into one recognized unit of authoritative truth , authoritative writings on the truth . The third foundational idea to keep in mind is that the church recognizes canonicity , it does not assign canonicity , and modern scholars often trip up on this one and they see canonicity being contrivance of the early church to elevate certain truths that they liked while suppressing others that they didn't like . That is a modern idea of canonicity , but it is not accurate .

Speaker 1 3:38

The discussion of canonicity , especially the church recognizing the canonicity of writing . The church is looking for intrinsic attributes and that is things that are a part of what the writing is , that arise out of what Scripture is as being from God , not imposed upon Scripture . So these principles are deduced from what Scripture is not imposed upon it . For more discussion on that , you can take a listen to the previous episode where we talked about that a bit more . So three foundational ideas and then the four principles of canon which we discussed in the episode just previous to this one .

Speaker 1 4:18

The first principle is apostolicity . This is the primary test of whether or not a writing should be considered scriptural , and this is simply asking the question was this written or endorsed by someone who was called by God to speak for him ? Was it written by a prophet or an apostle , or was it endorsed by a prophet or an apostle ? If it was not , then it should not be considered a part of Scripture ? Is it apostolic ? Is it written by someone called by God ? Secondly , orthodoxy Does it agree with other scriptures ? God cannot lie , and so a new revelation must not contradict formally recognized revelation . So Orthodoxy . Third , universality was it accepted by God's people in all places ? and then , fourth power Since canonical books speak for God , they speak with God's power . So these four principles are kind of in the background as we move then , into the discussion of how , first how the Old Testament canon was developed and then how the New Testament canon was developed as well .

Speaker 1 5:32

And the main focus for this particular episode is looking at the writings that are included in the canon . In the episode following , we'll discuss some of the disputed writings , particularly the Apocrypha , and discuss why the church has not traditionally accepted the Apocrypha as being a part of the inspired word of God , and that is not a part of today's discussion , however . So , beginning with the Old Testament canon , the Old Testament canon has long been settled . Jc Wenger , in his introduction to theology , says from sometime before the Christian era down to the present , the Jews have accepted our 39 books of the Old Testament . That is the Old Testament as we know . It is the same as the Old Testament as the Jews know it Same 39 books , same content . Now , as we'll talk about here in a bit . The Jews count those differently , so by the numbers they have 22 or maybe 24 books , but the content is the same . As we know it .

Speaker 1 6:39

We don't really have a lot of information on how the Old Testament canon was developed . It has been 2400 years since the completion of the Old Testament and more than that since Moses wrote the Pentateuch , and so we don't really have the information we would like to have as far as exactly how the Old Testament canon was developed . But we do know that the canon as we know it was accepted by the Jews before and through the time of Christ , And the canon as we know it is the canon as Christ knew it And he referenced the Old Testament as Scripture and used it as Scripture . We'll talk about that more here in a little bit . First let's talk about the development of the Old Testament canon . This is just kind of broad strokes overview of how these things came together As we look at the development of the Old Testament canon .

Speaker 1 7:35

The Old Testament began with the law of Moses . Moses on Mount Sinai receives the law from God , writes it down and along with the Old Testament canon . And along with that comes the rest of the Pentateuch , of the first five books of the Old Testament , which are often called together , all five of them , called the Law or the Law of Moses , and this would include the book of Genesis , the book of beginnings , the beginning of the world , the beginning of sin and the need for redemption , of God's calling of the people , and on through Israel , ending up in Exodus , and then God saving his people from slavery and taking them to the land of Canaan and giving them the law And a large part of the Pentateuch is the law itself what God expects of his people . So Scripture as a concept begins with the Pentateuch being those writings of Moses , under the inspiration of God , that were given to God's people to teach them about who God was and what God wanted from them . If you want to distill a little bit more , we could point to the giving of the Ten Commandments as being the beginning of written revelation of God , and the Ten Commandments being God writing down for his people what he expects from them . And the first tablets were written by God himself , written with the finger of God . And so Scripture as we know it , or Scripture as an idea , begins with God giving the Ten Commandments and then , through Moses , giving the rest of the Pentateuch , or what's often called the Law .

Speaker 1 9:28

In many ways , then , the rest of the Old Testament hinges off of the Pentateuch , as we see the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel , promises made in the Pentateuch and that we see played out in God bringing them into the land , establishing them in the land , out of doing exactly what he said he would do to Abraham and then , of course , to the nation of Israel when he brought them out of Egypt . In the giving of the Law there is an expectation that Israel must obey . A lot of the rest of the Old Testament records Israel's obedience or disobedience , often more disobedience than obedience , but a record of what Israel did with the Law that they had . We have in Joshua , israel's conquest of Canaan and Judges . We have the establishment of the people in the land in the beginning form of government . As we trace the rest of the history of Israel , we see in many ways the playing out of the things that began in the Pentateuch .

Speaker 1 10:31

In the Old Testament , prophetic writings , the prophets are calling the people back to God and many times calling them back to the Law and back to the covenant God made with them . And so , again , the rest of the Old Testament finds its definition in the Pentateuch , in that beginning collection of writings from God through Moses that then form the foundation for the rest of the Old Testament . And as these writings came along , writings that were in some cases historical , in some cases poetic and some cases prophetic , these writings , as they were developed , were recognized and we assume , in a very similar process to how the New Testament was developed , recognizes being from God , from one of God's prophets , spoke with God's authority , spoke with God's power , was consistent with the Law of God and was accepted by God's people as being from Him . And so we have this continual expansion of Scripture in the millennia or so following Moses , and by about 400 BC , everything that we know of as the Old Testament Scripture was written and was collected and recognized by the Jews as being their Scriptures , that which God had given to them and was to be studied and preserved and passed on to following generations as being the Word of God . God did give several tests for prophets , that by which Israel could know whether or not a prophet was genuine . In the New Testament we have the prophets being described as those who were confirmed by signs and wonders . So there were miracles that associated we think of Elijah and Elisha and the miracles associated with their ministry to Israel , similar things recorded through the prophets .

Speaker 1 12:38

There are tests in the negative given in Deuteronomy and in Exodus . One test for the genuineness of a prophet is whether or not his prophecies come true . So if a prophet makes a prediction of something and that thing does not come to pass , god says he has not spoken for me . And that's one way of determining whether a prophet is false and whether his teaching should be excluded from the recognized word of God , from the canon . In that sense , in Deuteronomy 18 , god condemns involvement in the occult , involvement in witchcraft , communicating with the dead and some of those things . So those prophets that attempt to prophesy by those means are also to be rejected as not from God . And then also in Exodus 20 , of course , one of God's commands is to not follow idols , and those who follow idols or disobey , disregard God's law are not to be recognized as God's prophets . So the prophets who were truly from God , their ministries at times were identified by their signs of wonders and power they had and by the fact that their prophecies came true And they were proclaiming truth that was consistent with God's law .

Speaker 1 14:08

The Old Testament canon developed in parallel to Israel and Israel's own history in , again , the history of Israel , god's covenant with Abraham , god's salvation of Israel is giving the law and then the playing out of God's promises and his faithfulness to Israel and Israel's often unfaithfulness to God and the prophets speaking for God and calling Israel back to God . As I already mentioned , the canon of 1st century Judaism and of Jesus' day was the same as the canon that we are familiar with and canon accepted by the Christian church today , and there are many references in the New Testament to the Old Testament , primarily by the divisions of the Old Testament that the Jews would have used , and they divided the Old Testament into two sections the law and then the prophets . Now , later on , it was subdivided into three sections the law , the prophets and the writings . But at the time of Christ it's probable that they would be most familiar with a two-section division of the Old Testament , that being the law and what they would have called the prophets . The law is what we already talked about the Pentateuch , genesis to Deuteronomy , the early history of Israel and the giving the law and the law itself recorded in the Pentateuch and the prophets , which essentially was the rest of the Old Testament .

Speaker 1 15:49

That would have included 19 books according to the Jewish division . The Jews would have had 24 books in their Old Testament and five of those would have been in the Pentateuch and the other 19 would have been what they would have called the prophets . They subdivided those into what they called the former prophets . This would have been Joshua , judges , samuel and kings . So Samuel they would have kept as one unit , kings they kept as one unit . They're used to having those as two first and second Samuel , first and second kings , but then in the Jewish division it's just Samuel and kings . So four books .

Speaker 1 16:24

In the former prophets they had the latter prophets . This would be Isaiah , jeremiah , ezekiel and what they called the twelve , which was all of the minor prophets together in one volume and they would have counted that as one book in that sense . And then the rest of the writings , the rest of the books they would have called the writings . This would have been Psalms , job , proverbs , ruth , song of Songs , egliseastes , lamentations , esther , daniel , ezra , deemiah and Chronicles . And again these writings later on in Jewish history were put in a third category , but in the time of Christ would have likely been included in what they would have called the prophets . And so when we find references then in the New Testament to the law or the law on the prophets , that is a reference to the Old Testament canon and what Jesus would have had in mind when he was talking about the law , what's the Pentateuch ? when we was talking about the law on the prophets , he was talking about all of these writings and the prophets would have been shorthand in that day for the nineteen books that we discussed , which again , is the same content as the Old Testament as we know it . So the Jews would have counted twenty-four books instead of hour thirty-nine , due to a different way of counting the books Ezra and Deemiah , they counted as one book . Samuel , kings and Chronicles are not divided and the twelve minor prophets are combined as one . So the total number is different , but the content is the same and there is no difference between the Jewish Old Testament canon and the Christian Old Testament canon .

Speaker 1 18:07

So again , the Jews would have divided the Old Testament into the Law and the Prophets , and these two categories or these two names for the sections of the Old Testament are referenced often in the New Testament , especially in the Gospels . The Law is referenced in Matthew 5 , 18 , matthew 12 , 5 , matthew 22 , 26, . In Luke , chapter 2 , verses 23 and 24 , and also 39 in the same chapter , luke 16 , 17 , john 1 , 17 , and I believe we could add more to that list . The Law and the Prophets are referenced together in Matthew 5 , 17 , matthew 7 , 12 , matthew 11 , 13 , matthew 22 , 40 , luke 16 , 16 , and John 1 , 45 . There is a reference toward the end of Luke to the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms .

Speaker 1 19:00

Psalms might have been a reference to the writings . The Psalms would have been the first book and what they would have considered the writings . And we could look at that and see maybe that three-sectioned division of the Old Testament . But far more common was the two-section division . And when you talk about the Law and the Prophets , that's not to the exclusion of what was called the writings , because again , the Jews of the time would have seen the Prophets as being all of the writings of the Old Testament that were not the Law , including the histories and the Psalms and so forth , all of them coming from God's commissioned messengers , god's prophets , not always prophecy in the foretelling sense that we think of , or even in the judgment sense we think of , though there's a lot of that But the prophets would have been all of the Old Testament again saved for the Law itself . So when the Law and the Prophets are spoken of the New Testament , what's being referenced is all of the Old Testament and the Old Testament as known in the day of Christ , which again is the same as ours . Jc Wenger has an account of how many different times the books of the Law are quoted or called Scripture . Books of the Law themselves are quoted or called Scripture 32 times , the New Testament and the Prophets 43 times .

Speaker 1 20:25

So these references to the sections of the Old Testament canon are quite prevalent in the New Testament , and that leads us to this conclusion that they were thinking of the Old Testament as we know it in their day and were pointing to the Old Testament . When they use these references to the Law or to the Law and the Prophets , it's also important to notice that we have no record of disagreement between Jesus and the Jews as to the extent of the canon . Even the Jews who disagreed with Jesus , their disagreements were always over the interpretation of the Old Testament , but they were working with the same books . They were not multiple canons in circulation at the time , other than perhaps the Septuagint , which was the Greek translation of the Old Testament , did include the Apocrypha , but the Jewish canon of the time would not necessarily have included the Apocrypha as a part of their recognized Scriptures . So in wrapping this up , i would say the strongest argument for the Old Testament canon as we know it is the fact that Jesus used it . Jesus referenced sections of it over 100 times .

Speaker 1 21:38

Nearly every book in the Old Testament is referenced at least once in the New Testament . And so the Christian Old Testament is the Jewish Old Testament is the Old Testament of Jesus and the apostles . Very little disagreement , very little differences in consensus of what constitutes the Old Testament canon . So again , old Testament canon as we know it Genesis through Malachi . Another difference between our canon and the Jewish canon is we arrange our books differently . I went through a list earlier , i believe , and they would have ordered their books differently And the last book in the Jewish canon would have actually been Chronicles .

Speaker 1 22:19

Christ references the beginning to the end of the Jewish Old Testament when he talks about the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah . Zechariah is recorded there in Chronicles . It would have been the last prophet . As far as how the how the books were ordered , abel was the first one killed for his faithfulness to God and Zechariah is the last one recorded toward the end of Chronicles , which again was the last book in the Jewish Canon . Zechariah was the last one recorded that was killed by the Jews for testifying of God and so that referenced there Christ , looking at the scope , the sweep of the Old Testament and having all of that in mind when he speaks of the prophets who were killed by the Jews .

Speaker 1 23:16

So very strong consensus , historical consensus , on the Old Testament Canon , and we should have no question on that , that it is accurate . Perhaps less interesting to us at times because we tend to spend most of our time in the New Testament , but the Old Testament is important and the Old Testament is foundational to the New Testament . The New Testament is in many ways built upon the Old Testament and so it's important that we be confident not just of the New Testament but the Old Testament , which prepares us in many ways to understand what's going on in the New Testament . So that's the Old Testament Canon . We are out of time today to get into the New Testament . We will plan on picking that up in the next episode .

Speaker 1 24:02

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Theological Touchpoints podcast . This podcast is a production of Sword and Trumpet Ministries . For more information , visit wwwswordandtrumpetorg or theologicaltouchpointscom . If you have thoughts or questions , you can contact us at podcastatheologicaltouchpointscom . Now may the God of Peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit , soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ . He who calls you is faithful . Who also will do it .