Here are the notes:
I. The Canon of Scripture
“The word ‘canon’ (Greek for ‘a rule’) is applied to the Bible in two ways: first, in regard to the Bible as the church’s standard of faith and practice, and second, in regard to its contents as the correct collection and list of inspired books. The word was first applied to the identity of the biblical books in the latter part of the fourth century A.D., reflecting the fact that there had recently been a need to settle some Christians’ doubts on the matter. Before this, Christians had referred to the ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’ as the ‘Holy Scriptures’ and had assumed, rather than made explicit, that they were the correct collections and lists.” Thus, when we refer to “canonization” we mean the process of recognizing those written texts which are uniquely inspired by God or are the written revelation of God. It is important to note that there was a progressive recognition of books included in Holy Scripture by the first readers and hearers from the time of the original authorship. It was not the case that at one point it was decided by some random council in the 4th century that 66 books were Holy Scripture and previous to that no one ever recognized them. Rather, over a 1500 year period, as each book or portion of writing was written it was recognized by the earliest readers/hearers that it was inspired or divinely authorized. That does not mean that that “collection” was always bound together in one “book” that just got added to each time something new was written. The dynamics are more complex or complicated than that (we can explore this in detail as we have future classes on Old and New Testament surveys).
KEEP IN MIND: What was revealed by God to people in history was not always written down right away or written down at all. Remember John 21:24-25:
24 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
In many cases, God used the recall or memory of eyewitnesses, of written records, or oral history/tradition, and of the authors themselves. In some cases, God told the author what to write and it was written immediately, or what to say and it was written down later.
II. How the Old Testament Was Recognized
The first “Scripture,” or written revelation of God, was written by God himself on tablets of stone in the Ten Commandments:
Exodus 31:18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
God also told Moses to write down a record of the covenant he gave to Israel (“Book of the Law/Covenant”) and the events leading to the conquest of the “promised land”.
Exodus 17:13-14 And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 14 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”
Exodus 24:3-4 Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.” 4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exodus 34:27-29 And the LORD said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. 29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
Numbers 33:1-2 These are the stages of the people of Israel, when they went out of the land of Egypt by their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron. 2 Moses wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the LORD, and these are their stages according to their starting places.
Deuteronomy 31:9-11 Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. 10 And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, 11 when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Deut 31:24-26 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end, 25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, 26 “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.”
This record written by Moses is what we know now as the first 5 books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. We call it the Pentateuch, the Torah, the Law of Moses. Upon being written, the books were immediately viewed authentically as the Word of God by all of Israel, the people of God. Joshua viewed it and obeyed it as such. After the battle of Ai, it is written:
Joshua 8:30-35 At that time Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.
God said that he would raise up prophets like Moses that would follow him (Deuteronomy 13 outlines the prophetic markers).
Deuteronomy 18:15-17 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.
Thus, there was a verbal and written prophetic tradition that continued after Moses died, beginning with Joshua. Their job was to hold Israel to the Law of Moses, offering council to Israel’s leaders and pronouncing judgment according to the curses in the Law if they were disobedient.
Joshua continued the written record of the history of the campaigns of Israel in the “promised land” and it was gathered with the book of Moses:
Joshua 24:25-27 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. 26 And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the LORD. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.”
After Joshua, the next writing prophets were Samuel, who most likely wrote Judges, Ruth, and most of 1 Samuel, and also Nathan, Ahijah, Gad, and Iddo as they probably wrote parts of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel.
1 Samuel 10:25 Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the Lord. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home.
1 Chronicles 29:29 Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the Chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the Chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the Chronicles of Gad the seer, 30 with accounts of all his rule and his might and of the circumstances that came upon him and upon Israel and upon all the kingdoms of the countries.
2 Chronicles 9:29 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, are they not written in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
Jeremiah was most likely behind the writing of 1 & 2 Kings, along with his own collections of prophecies. He and others were able to put together “Kings” because there were detailed records (“Annuls of the Kings”) kept by both northern Israel and Judah:
2 Kings 8:23 Now the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
2 Kings 10:34 Now the rest of the acts of Jehu and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
2 Chronicles 33:18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, behold, they are in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 19 And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers.
He seemed also to have used Isaiah’s narrative accounts to weave things together (compare Isaiah 38-39 with 2 Kings 18:13-20:19) accepting Isaiah’s account. The prophets (Isaiah Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Twelve) looked to each other’s accounts as authoritative for instance:
Daniel 9:1-2 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
Also compare Micah’s use of Isaiah 2:1-4 in Micah 4:1-5.
Isaiah 2:1-4 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that m the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
Micah 4:1-5 It shall come to pass o in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, 2 and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; 4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. 5 For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
Jeremiah also referred to Micah’s prophecy (3:2), 125 years after it was given, as he records that people shared it in Jeremiah’s defense:
Jeremiah 26:18 Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and said to all the people of Judah: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.’”
Other groups of writers of Scripture were kings, priests, and scribes. It is well documented that both Kings David and Solomon were prolific writers of Psalms and Proverbs and Solomon (see 1 Kings 9:29-34) wrote a philosophical contemplation (Ecclesiastes) and a love song (Song of Solomon). Ezra was a scribe and priest and was probably the author of Ezra and 1 & 2 Chronicles. Nehemiah was “scribal” and probably wrote the book bearing his name, Nehemiah.
