CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

In the possession of their disciples. The fate of the ten tribes had vindicated the prophetic warnings. The beginnings of Israel's history were made familiar by the beautiful narratives of the Jahwist historian. Many songs were linown by heart, and contributed to the growth of a feeUng that the nation had a Divine mission to fulfil. Laws, that had been kept for rare reference in the sanctuary, were studied by disciples of the prophets, and were expounded with a new sense of their Divine obligation. The annals of the monarchy had been duly recorded by the official scribes, but their religious significance was as yet unthouglit of. Other hooks, which afterwards disappeared, were also in circulation. Such were 'the Book of the Wars of the Lord' (Nu 21"), and 'the Book of Jashar' (Jos 1013, 2 S 1"). In such conditions at Jerusalem there came about Josiah's reformation, described in 2 K 22. 23.

6. Inspiration recognized in theBk. of Deuteronomy. — A book identified on satisfactory grounds with our Deuteronomy (excluding possibly the preface and the appendix) was discovered In the Temple and read to the king. In consequence, Josiah convened a general assembly at Jerusalem, and read the words of the book to all the people. All parties agreed that this Law-book should constitute a solemn league and covenant between themselves and Jehovah. The grounds of its acceptance are its inherent spiritual power, the conviction it produced that it truly expressed the will of Jehovah, and also its connexion with the great name of Moses. The book was not imposed merely by royal authority; the people also 'stood to the covenant.' These conditions combine to give Deuteronomy canonical authority of an incipient kind from that date onwards (B.C. 622).

6. Pentateuch made canonical. The next stage in the growth of the Canon is found in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (B.C. 457-444). Much had happened In the intervening 170 years. The captivity in Babylon (B.C. 586-536) intensified national feeling and made their books more precious to the exiles. Temple cere-monial had now no place in religious practice; and spiritual aspiration turned to prayer and reading, both public and private. Fresh expositions of the Mosaic Law were prepared by the prophet Ezekiel (B.C. 592-670), and by the anonymous priest who put the Law of Holiness (Lv 17-26) into written form. Just as the Fall of Jerusalem in a.d. 70 supplied the incentive for recording in the Mishna the oral tradition of the Pharisees, so in Babylon expatriation impelled the priestly families to write out their hereditary usages, thus forming the document known as the Priestly Code. The problem of suffering, national and individual, was considered in the work of the Second Isaiah and in the book of Job. The past history of Israel was edited so as to show the method of Divine Providence. The Restoration of the Temple (b.c. 516) and the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah began a new chapter in the story of Judaism. Many of the Jews remained in Babylon, and continued their activity in the study of the national literature. From Babylon they sent Ezra the scribe (b.c. 457) and Nehemiah (b.c. 444) with help for the Jerusalem community. Under the influence of these leaders the Pentateuch was made canonical (Neh 8-10). This work had been formed by constructing a ' Harmony ' of the various expositions of Mosaic Law (Ex 20-23, Deut., Lv 17-26, and the Priestly Code) and combining these with the histories of the Jahwist and the Elohist. The initial cosmology shows the high plane of religious thought that had now been attained. Some opposition appears to have come from the priests, who favoured mixed marriages and a Samaritan alliance; but the people as a whole ' make a sure covenant and write it. And our princes, our Levites, and our priests seal unto it' (Neh 9"). That this Canon included only the Torah is proved

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by the fact that the Samaritans, who were severed from Judaism shortly after Nehemiah's time, never had any Canon beyond the Pentateuch. Their apocry-phal Joshua does not prove that Ezra's Canon was the Hexateuch. Had Joshua been attached to the Law, the LXX version of it would have been less in-accurate. Nor is it easy to see how a book so solemnly adopted could ever after have been relegated to a secondary place.

7. Canon of the Prophets.— The next addition to the Canon consists of the Prophets, reckoned as 8 books — Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve (Minor Prophets) forming one book. No account of their canonization is avail-able, and the process has to be inferred from what is known of the period. The books themselves give some guidance. Under the influence of Deut., history was studied so as to reveal the progress of a Divine purpose. The books of Kings record events doyen to about B.C. 560, hence their preparation for the Canon must have been some time later. Isaiah includes the works of the first and second of that name, besides chapters from later sources. The redaction of the whole must have been made at a time when the separate authorship was forgotten. Jeremiah (b.c. 627-586) is supplemented by extracts from the book of Kings written after 560. The Twelve include Malachi, who wrote between b.c. 458 and 432. Jonah and Zechariah are also late, and the latter book has a supplement of uncertain date. Internal evidence thus impUes that when the Law was made canonical, the prophets had not been carefully edited or collected into one group. The Chronicler, writing about b.c 300, recog-nizes that the Law has become Holy Scripture, but he makes the freest use of the history in Samuel and Kings. After Malachi the people became well aware that the voice of true prophecy had ceased (Zee 13*, Neh 6'- ", Ps 749, 1 Mac 9" etc.). The predictions of the prophets had been ominously vindicated by the course of history. Such observations would tend continually to increase the veneration for the prophetic literature. The rivalry of Hellenic culture after the conquests of Alexander the Great (c. b.c. 300) may possibly have suggested to the Jews an increase of their own sacred Canon. At all events, the canonization of the prophetic literature had become matter of past history by b.c. 200. This limit is fixed by the testimony of Jesus ben-Sira, who writes the book in the Apoc-rypha called Ecclesiasticus. His praise of the famous men in Israel (chs. 44-50) shows that the Law and the Prophets were invested with canonical authority in his day. The Lectionary of the Synagogue would quickly estabUsh the unique position of the Law and the Prophets as Holy Scripture (cf. Ac ISi'- ").

8. The Hagiographa made canonical.— The third division of the OT is called in Hebrew Kethubhim, i.e. 'Writings.' In Greek the name is Hagiographa, i.e. 'Sacred Writings.' In a Hebrew Bible these books are arranged in the following order: —

1. The Poetical Books: Psalms, Proverbs, Job.

2. The Five Megilloth ('Rolls'): Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther.

3. Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles.

This group is much more varied in form and substance than the first two parts of the Canon. Several of these books may have been prized as highly as the Prophets, though their inclusion in the Second Canon would have been incongruous. The Psalter, for instance, had been for long familiar through its use in Temple services; and its influence on religious life was great, apart from any declaration of canonicity. But as some Psalms (e.g. 74, 79) appear to have been composed about B.C. 170-160, the final collection of the smaller hymnaries into the Psalter of five books cannot have been made before b.c. 150. The priestly summary of history in Chron., Ezr.-Neh. would be widely accept-