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Apologetics
23. Questions about Origins of the Old
Testament
(Why
you can be happy with it)
A
series that helps consider the foundations for faith
Contents:
Introductory
Comments
•
Clarifying
the direction
1.
What does the 'Canon of Scripture' mean?
•
Understanding
the starting point.
2.
How has the Old Testament Canon been Agreed?
•
Uncertainties
and certainties
3.
What Books were Excluded from the Canon?
•
What is accepted
is strengthened by what was excluded
4.
What NT confirmation is given of the OT?
•
How the NT
supports the Old
5.
How many OT documents do we have today & how reliable are they?
•
The wealth
of the past
6.
How can we Summarise all this?
•
Putting it
all together
A
Final Word
•
Some compelling
questions in the light of this.
On this page
we start moving into more detail about just how we got what
we now call our Old Testament.
Contrary to
often perceived opinion we will see that there are really good
grounds to accept what we find in that part of the Bible.
We will start
by considering how the collection of books came to be in general
terms, what books were not included, and then some of the detail
of how the documents came down to us.
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| 1.
What does the 'Canon of Scripture' mean? |
Answer:
The
Greek word kanon means a rule or measuring rod.
Canon
first means the collection of books for which prescribed tests
have been applied to determine whether they are considered authoritative
and worthy of being part of the sacred Scriptures.
Canon
also means all the books collectively. The Canon is thus all
the Scriptures that constitute the rule of faith' by which
all doctrine is tested.
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2.
How has the Old Testament Canon been Agreed?
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Answer:
a)
Uncertainty
The
origin of the Old Testament canon is unknown and there is little
or no evidence outside the books themselves.
The
fully developed canon clearly existed by the 2nd century
BC.
b)
Excluded writings
Not
all books of Hebrew antiquity were included
A
number of writings between what we now have as Old & New
Testaments were excluded.
Similarly
other previous books, referred to in the Old Testament itself,
were excluded, e.g.:
So
the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation
avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the
Book of Jashar. (Josh 10:13 )
David
took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan,
18 and ordered that the men of Judah
be taught this lament of the bow (it is written in the
Book of Jashar): "Your glory, O Israel, lies slain
on your heights. How the mighty have fallen!
(2 Sam 1:17-19).
and
That
is why the Book of the Wars of the LORD says....
(Num 21:14 )
As
for the other events of Solomon's reign--all he did and the
wisdom he displayed--are they not written in the book of
the annals of Solomon? (1
Kings 11:41 )
The
other events of Jeroboam's reign, his wars and how he ruled,
are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel.
(1 Kings 14:19 )
[Not Chronicles]
c)
How was the canon created?
Some
suggest it was venerated documents that were considered inspired.
But
how were they thus tested?
It
probably started with the writings of Moses which would have
been considered authoritative, simply because of his position
and having encountered the Lord face to face at Sinai. 
We
have noted on the previous page about Inspiration, how Moses
received God's word and wrote it down:
-
see
Ex 17:14, 24:4-7, 34:27,28 referring to the wars, the Ten
Commandments, the treatment of the Israelites and various
festivals,
-
Num
33:2 referring to a daily recording of their journeys,
-
Deut
31:9,22,24 referring to the law and the song.
Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers
& Deuteronomy have Moses' 'finger prints'
all over them.
Tradition
had it that Moses wrote down a combination of direct revelation
from the Lord and tradition passed down to form Genesis
and thus the first five books together came to be
called the Law of Moses, or the Torah.
In
respect of Joshua , the Talmud, the earliest
Jewish traditions claim that Joshua wrote his own book except
for the final section in respect of his funeral (Attributed
to Eleazar son of Aaron with the last verse being added by a
later editor.)
Joshua
gives credence to the earlier books being the work of Moses:
Be
careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do
not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may
be successful wherever you go. Do not let this Book of the
Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night,
so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
(Josh 1:7,8)
He
built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law
of Moses
There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua
copied on stones the law of Moses, which he had written.
(Josh 8:31,32)
Be
very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the
Book of the Law of Moses. (Josh 23;6)
Similarly,
later books make reference to Moses' Law, e.g.
Walk
in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and
requirements, as written in the Law of Moses.
(1 Kings 2:3) etc.
Many
of the Old Testament books refer back to the Law of Moses.
The
principle of including the Pentateuch in the canon was not simply
antiquity but Moses' authority as God's spokesman.
Now
Moses was considered a prophet of significance for Israel
because he spoke from
God.
Now
the O.T. is littered with prophets and their prophecies all
of which take their authority from their encounter and experience
of God. Most books after the Pentateuch have some prophetic
dimension to them foretelling or forth-telling the word of
God.
Indeed,
with this in mind, we can observe that most if not all of the
books of the Old Testament get their credence in the eyes of
Israel, from their recording
of encounters with God. Even the so-called historical books
have considerable references to God in them.
Thus
the canon or credibility of the Old Testament books is based
upon the fact that they provide a record of the divine encounters
with Israel.
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3.
What Books were Excluded from the Canon?
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Answer:
We
have already noted above the many references in the O.T. to
other books' or annals' that refer to records that were not
considered on a par with those included in the canon.
Looking
at the books that were rejected from the Old Testament canon
helps us see more clearly how the ones that were included were
so different.
Some
of the well known rejected books are:
a)
Ecclesiasticus 
- supposedly
Jeremiah's secretary,
-
supposedly
in Babylon though Jer 43:6 says he went with Jeremiah to
Egypt,
-
in
generally inaccurate and contradicts other known details
and dates.
c)
The Books of Maccabees
d)
The Books of Tobit & Judith
It
should be noted that these and other rejected books were not
quoted by, or accepted by, Jesus or the apostles.
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4.
What New Testament Confirmation is given of the Old Testament?
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Answer:
a)
The N.T. about history
The
following is just a starter illustration of the many instances
where New Testament references are made to the historical factualness
of the Old Testament.
You
are invited to note, as you read the N.T. the incredible numbers
of supporting Scriptures:
Mt
12:-4 |
David
eating the bread |
Mt
12:40 |
Jonah
in the fish |
Mt
12:42 |
The
Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon |
Lk
4:25,26 |
Elijah
going to the widow |
Lk
4:27 |
Naaman
cleansed of leprosy |
Lk
12:29- |
Sodom
and Gomorrah
|
Jn
3:14 |
Moses
and the serpent |
Jn
4:6 |
Jacob
giving a field |
Acts
7:2-50 |
Detailed
history of Israel
|
Acts
13:17-23 |
Overall
history of Israel
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Rom
4:10 |
Abraham
believing |
Rom
4:19 |
Abraham
100 years old |
Rom
9:10-12 |
Rebekah
and children |
b)
The New Testament about prophecy
It
is suggested by scholars that there are over 300 prophecies
that Jesus Christ fulfilled.
The
N.T. is full of references to the O.T. prophecies. The following
is, again, merely a starter selection taken from Matthew's Gospel,
and the student is invited to go through the N.T. and note the
many similar references:
1:22,23
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Jesus
to be born of a virgin |
2:5,6
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Born
in Bethlehem |
2:15
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He
would come out of Egypt
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2:17,18
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There
would be weeping over children |
2:23
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He
would live in Nazareth
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3:3
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The
coming of John the Baptist |
4:13-16
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He
would minister in Galilee
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5.
How many Old Testament documents do we have today and how
reliable are they?
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Answer:
Josh
McDowell in New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, categorises
in detail the thousands of manuscripts we have available today
around the world, that attest to the validity of the O.T. 
In
comparison to what we might expect, there are a limited number
of such manuscripts.
The
reason suggested for this limitation is that of age 2 or 3
thousand years is a long time to expect a document to last
and destructibility of materials.
However,
beyond those two reasons, a primary reason was to do with the
destruction of documents when they became damaged.
To understand this more fully it is useful to understand how
documents came down us:
1.
An original author wrote on clay, rock (early materials),
papyrus (most common material, made from reeds), or parchments
(later usage, made from animal skins) or vellum (calf skin,
often dyed purple).
2.
Copies would be made and here the detail should
be noted:
-
So
concerned were the ancient scribes over the copying accuracy
of sacred documents that they wouldn't write even one letter
from memory, only from what they had immediately in front
of them.
-
To
achieve accuracy they even counted every letter on a line
and checked it with the original.
-
They
numbered lines and words and letters to ensure accuracy.
- If
they made a single mistake they destroyed the copy and
started again!
-
When
a new copy was guaranteed perfect, they would destroy
the old one because physical damage gradually occurring
might mean mistakes in reading it.
Our
earliest complete O.T. manuscript comes from the 10th
century AD. although we have plenty of older fragments.
Unlike the New Testament documents, it is really impossible
to trace back to the originals. The finding of the Dead Sea
Scrolls in 1947 changed things considerably however.
The
Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of scrolls dating
from between 3rd Century BC through to the 1st century AD.
To
quote McDowell, They include one complete
Old Testament book (Isaiah) and thousands of fragments, which
together represent every Old Testament book except Esther,
and these have been used to confirm the evidence of thousands
of other documentary fragments that reveal the O.T.
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6.
How can we Summarise all this?
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Answer:
Old
Testament ancient manuscript absence is because of the incredible
care and accuracy used to pass copies down through the centuries
and their unwillingness to let damaged old copies remain.
Although
there are many fragments which go to make up our present O.T.
the earliest complete one is only a thousand years old.
However,
the Dead Sea Scrolls find has so many fragments that go back
to the time of Christ and before, that they ratify the previous
existence of all except one of our O.T. documents that make
up books.
We
may add that there is so much material available on this subject,
that that which is covered on this page is possibly the most
limited summary of all the pages in this section of the site.
This
is an area of great research and scholarship and there is little
doubt that what we call our Old Testament is what it was when
it was written.
Where there are doubtful words you will normally find a note
to this effect at the bottom of the page in your Bible. The
amount of such doubtful words are minimal and in no way affect
the overall information.
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It
has to be accepted that the Old Testament canon rests really
on the veneration down through the centuries of these documents
by the Jews.
However, even
their criteria for feeling that about these documents is quite
clear:
-
the
writer had to have authority,
-
the
writing had to have life and credibility in respect of the
Lord,
-
there
had to be an absence of obvious mistakes.
These things
are made especially clear when you compare the books that have
been excluded from the canon, documents which have a completely
different feel, lack authority and often are full of obvious
errors.
In addition
to these things which have convinced scholars in recent centuries,
one might ask the following:
-
why
should at least 30 different people, down through at least
a millennium, take the trouble to write such vast amounts
unless they were not utterly convinced about the central
thesis - they were writing about The Living God?
-
how
could at least 30 different writer, down through at least
a millennium, write with such amazing uniformity that can
only been seen when you read all the books?
To brush off these questions with casual, trite dismissals says
more about the critic than it does about the writings.
To dismiss these writings as superstitious nonsense requires
the following:
- a total disregard for
truth, in the light of the above two questions,
- a total disregard for
the amazing beliefs and experiences of an entire nation for
over a millennium,
- a total disregard for
the remarkable scholarship over the last two centuries that
have provided such a vast wealth of knowledge supporting this
book.
Dare
you do it! The alternative is that you read the Book!
Study it, question it, search it and talk to God about it.
It says some wonderful things and reveals an even more wonderful
God.
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