Whenever a discussion about the Canon of Sacred Scripture and Sola Scriptura comes up I think of this:
Once upon a time there were the early Christians. Although Sacred Scripture had been written, it had not been sorted out from the other writings and collected into the bible. Some tried to sort them and collect them together, but it was no use.
SINCE the inspired Scriptures are commonly referred to as the Bible, it is of interest to inquire into the origin and meaning of the word “Bible.” It is derived from the Greek word bi·bli′a, which means “little books.” This, in turn, is derived from bi′blos, a word describing the inner part of the papyrus plant from which, in ancient times, a “paper” for writing was produced. (The Phoenician port of Gebal, through which papyrus was imported from Egypt, came to be called Byblos by the Greeks. Various written communications upon this type of material became known by the word bi·bli′a. Thus, bi·bli′a came to describe any writings, scrolls, books, documents, or scriptures or even a library collection of little books.
Surprisingly, the word “Bible” itself generally is not found in the text of English or other-language translations of the Holy Scriptures. However, by the second century B.C.E., the collection of the inspired books of the Hebrew Scriptures was referred to as ta bi·bli′a in the Greek language. At Daniel 9:2 the prophet wrote: “I myself, Daniel, discerned by the books… Here the Septuagint has bi′blois, the dative plural form of bi′blos. At 2Timothy 4:13, Paul wrote: “When you come, bring … the scrolls [Greek, bi·bli′a].” In their several grammatical forms, the Greek words bi·bli′on and bi′blos occur more than 40 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures and are usually translated “scroll(s)” or “book(s).” Bi·bli′a was later used in Latin as a singular word, and from the Latin, the word “Bible” came into the English language.
What are some of the divine indications that have determined the canonicity of the 66 books of the Bible? First of all, the documents must deal with Jehovah’s affairs in the earth, turning men to his worship and stimulating deep respect** for his name **and for his work and purposes in the earth. They must give evidence of inspiration, that is, that they are products of holy spirit. (2 Pet. 1:21) There must be no appeal to superstition or creature worship but, rather, an appeal to love and service of God.
There would have to be nothing in any of the individual writings that would conflict with the internal harmony of the whole, but, rather, each book must, by its unity with the others, support the one authorship, that of Jehovah God. We would also expect the writings to give evidence of accuracy down to the smallest details.
The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, of the first century C.E., in his work Against Apion (I, 38-41 [8]), refers to all the books that were recognized by the Hebrews as sacred. He wrote: “
We do not possess myriads of inconsistent books, conflicting with each other. Our books, those which are justly accredited, are but two and twenty [the equivalent of our 39 today
We today list 39 books of the Hebrew Scriptures; the traditional Jewish canon, while including these same books, counts them as*24. Some authorities, by putting Ruth with Judges and Lamentations with Jeremiah, counted the number of books as 22, though still holding to exactly the same canonical writings. This made the number of inspired books equal the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. The following is the list of the 24 books according to the traditional Jewish canon:
The Law (The Pentateuch)
- Genesis
- Exodus
- Leviticus
- Numbers
- Deuteronomy
The Prophets
- Joshua
- Judges
- Samuel (First and Second together as one book)
- Kings (First and Second together as one book)
- Isaiah
- Jeremiah
- Ezekiel
- The Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, as one book)
The Writings (Hagiographa)
- Psalms
- Proverbs
- Job
- The Song of Solomon
- Ruth
- Lamentations
- Ecclesiastes
- Esther
- Daniel
- Ezra (Nehemiah was included with Ezra)
- Chronicles (First and Second together as one book)
This was the catalog, or canon, that was accepted as inspired Scripture by Christ Jesus and the early Christian congregation.
It was only from these writings that the inspired writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures quoted, and by introducing such quotations with expressions like “as it is written,” they confirmed these as being the Word of God. (Rom. 15:9)
Jesus, in speaking of the complete inspired Scriptures written up till the time of his ministry, referred to the things recorded in “the law of Moses and in the Prophets and Psalms.” (Luke 24:44) Here “Psalms,” as the first book of the Hagiographa, is used to refer to this whole section. The last historical book to be included in the Hebrew canon was that of Nehemiah. That this was under the direction of God’s spirit is seen in that this book alone provides the starting point for reckoning Daniel’s outstanding prophecy that “from the going forth of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem” until the coming of the Messiah there would be a period of 69 prophetic weeks. (Dan. 9:25; Neh. 2:1-8; 6:15)
The book of Nehemiah also provides the historical background for the last of the prophetic books, Malachi. That Malachi belongs in the canon of the inspired Scriptures cannot be doubted, since even Jesus, the Son of God, quoted it a number of times. (Matt. 11:10,14)
While similar quotations are made from the majority of the books of the Hebrew canon, all of which were written prior to Nehemiah and Malachi, the writers of the Christian Greek Scriptures make no quotations from any so-called inspired writings written after the time of Nehemiah and Malachi down to the time of Christ. This confirms the traditional view of the Jews, and also the belief of the Christian congregation of the first century*C.E., that the Hebrew Scripture canon ended with the writings of Nehemiah and Malachi.
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