Hi all!
Our Sages (at Yavneh/Jamnia, after the destruction of the 2nd Temple in CE 70 :crying: & before the Bar Kochba Revolt in CE 132-135) excluded the so-called Apocryphal books from the Tanakh (what we call what you call the “Old Testament”) for several reasons. Ferinstance, I Maccabees, while considered to be very historically accurate & written by a believing Jew, was not considered to be Divinely inspired. The Prayer of Manasseh, while quite moving & a spiritual gem, was considered to be inauthentic (i.e., not by King Manasseh) as well as uninspired. Other books were considered to be full of nonsense (i.e. ideas that didn’t jibe with the Torah), as well as inauthentic and/or uninspired.
This
tinyurl.com/435wl is The Jewish Encyclopedia entry entitled “Biblical Canon”; this
tinyurl.com/2jaeu is the entry on “Apocrypha”.
We (orthodox Jews) believe that whereas the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy) has existed in its current form since God finished dictating it to Moses our Teacher, the other books of the Tanakh were codified and “canonized” by our Sages (see above). We believe that the authorship of the 39 books of the Tanakh is as follows:
Genesis to Deuteronomy: God dictated, Moses wrote it down.
Joshua wrote his own book.
Judges was written by Samuel.
I & II Samuel were written by Samuel and other prophets & chroniclers such as Gad and Nathan.
I & II Kings are compilations.
Isaiah wrote his own book.
Jeremiah wrote his own book.
Ezekiel wrote his own book.
Hosea wrote his own book.
Joel wrote his own book.
Amos wrote his own book.
Ovadiah wrote his own book.
Jonah wrote his own book.
Micah wrote his own book.
Nahum wrote his own book.
Habakkuk wrote his own book.
Zephaniah wrote his own book.
Haggai wrote his own book.
Zechariah wrote his own book.
There is disagreement about Malachi. The word “malachi” literally means “my messenger.” Some of our Sages say that such a man with such a name wrote the book. Other Sages identify Malachi with Ezra.
Psalms was written by King David, King Solomon, Asaph, Heiman, etc.
Proverbs was written by King Solomon, Agur and Lemuel.
The verdict is still out on Job. Some say it was written by Job himself. Others say that the book is a parable.
Song of Songs was written by King Solomon.
Ruth was written by Samuel.
Lamentations was written by Jeremiah.
Ecclesiastes was written by King Solomon.
Esther was written by Esther and Mordecai.
Daniel wrote his own book.
Ezra wrote his own book.
Nehemiah wrote his own book.
I & II Chronicles were written by Ezra.
The above is the order in which the books appear in a Jewish Tanakh.
The first 5 books are the Torah. The next 21 are the Prophets, or Nevi’im, in Hebrew. The next 13 are the Writings, or Ketuvim, in Hebrew. Hence the acronym Tanakh (which is what we call what you call the “OT”).
Howzat?
Be well!
ssv
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