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HOW WE GOT THE BIBLE . . . . . . . . . . Mobile Conference 2007
Kat:
KING HEZEKIAH AND ISAIAH
[The Third To Canonize]
This is the third time we have a setting aside of the Scriptures.
Hezekiah was one of the best and most righteous kings who ever live. However his father Ahaz was wicked and replaced true worship with that of the Assyrians and totally corrupted the Temple and it‘s worship (II Chron. 28: 21-25). His son Manasseh was even worse (II Chron. 33:9) but repented before his death. Hezekiah’s grandson Amon was worst of all, verse 21-23. After Amon’s servants murdered him, his son Josiah reigned and followed the righteousness of David and Hezekiah (IIChron. 34:2).
Generally the reason Scripture were set aside, protected, approved, made public notice of, was when Israel went through bad times, wars, Calamities or whatever and had departed from God. Some king or righteous priest would try to bring the people back. Then he would reintroduce the Books. The Books, the Laws - The Prophesies. These were periods when these Books became established and re-established, over and over until we come down to the time of Ezra.
It was Ezra who wrote I and II Chronicles (originally one book) 500 years after David and Solomon. He wrote Ezra and maybe Nehemiah. Some scholars think Ezra wrote all of those - I and II Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah, but be that as it may. Ezra recorded what happened way back then and how the different books came to be recognized as the official canon of Scripture. He was the last one to put his approval on what’s Hebrew Scripture.
When Christ said it’s the Law - the Prophets - the Writings/Psalms, we know that it was complete. Christ approved of it and whatever they added at the Synagogues at that time, that was the whole Canon.
There was no book of Baruch, Bel and the Dragon, First and Second Maccabees or any of these other books that you find in the Catholic Bible today. Make no mistake about it though, the Apocrypha books are not Catholic, if anything they are Protestant. Long before they ever printed an English Bible, the Apocrypha books are in there. Every translation of the Bible that existed, almost until 1900’s or 1885, all had the Apocrypha, all Bibles had 80 books. Finally somebody printed a English Bible and took out the Apocrypha.
When Hezekiah came to power he immediately re-instituted right religion and worship in Jerusalem (II Chron. 39:3-4; 31:2). How great was Hezekiah?
2 Kings 18:5 He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among them that were before him.
v. 6 For he clave to the Lord; he departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which Jehovah commanded Moses.
You see little bits and pieces scattered here and there. It’s not a lot, but it’s enough to see what they were doing and how they were putting things together.
Proverbs 25, Hezekiah canonized a whole section of Scripture (chapters 20 - 30), having his stamp of approval.
Pro 25:1 These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.
So we only had 25 that were attributed to Solomon, back when David and Solomon were putting together the Scripture. But Hezekiah saw it and said, well there is some more good stuff here and he copied out more Scripture and put his approval on it. Now we see we’ve got more Scripture being added.
And then apparently we have some more psalms that were added. Hezekiah wrote psalms of his own that were used (canonized - officially accepted) and sung in the House of God (Isa. 38: 9; 20). Let me just say we don’t know which Psalms Hezekiah wrote, but possibly some of the un-named “degree Psalms” or other un-named Psalms. It just happens to be 15 Psalms of degree, and we all know about Hezekiah’s life, what is the significance of 15 years?
II Kings 20:6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria;
Maybe they were 15 Psalms of appreciation. So that could be an indicator that not only did he canonize what books they had at the time, but may have added some as well. And Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, and Micah all prophesied at the time of Hezekiah.
ISAIAH…. undoubtedly wrote a lot of things that are Scripture. He was really one of the most remarkable men in all the Bible. Scholars that study what historians and Jewish folklore had to say about him, and apparently he’s a genius of a man. He was extremely well educated, very humanitarian type person, loved humanity and all of those things.
We know that Isaiah wrote the book of Isaiah, but no one knows of anybody better to contribute I and II Kings I and II Samuel to have written, but Isaiah. In the proper sequence of the Old Testament order, I and II Kings and I and II Samuel comes just before Isaiah. That is the chronological order.
You understand the order in the King James is all screwed up, both the Old and the New Testament. We have the last book as being Malachi, right? What really is the last book of the Old Testament? II Chronicles is the last book. II Chronicles was written by Ezra. He is also the last one to canonize the Old Testament Scripture.
II Chron. 32:32 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book [Heb. ’on or upon the history’] of the kings of Judah and Israel.
“The book,” what book was that? Notice it is the book of “the kings of Judah and Israel.” Well it’s kind of a trick question, we don’t know it as “the book,” we know it as four books, I and II Kings, I and II Samuel, four books. But that was always known as “ the book of the kingdoms,” that was one book. That was always one book in God’s order, the books of the Kingdoms and that’s why I put that in here from II Chron. 32:32. First of all it says, “…the vision of Isaiah the prophet” is written in “the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.” So first of all we know that “the book” is I and II Kings and I and II Samuel, and it’s a vision according to Isaiah. So Isaiah wrote it, the 4 books were one book, The Book Of The Kingdoms. It also seems probable that Samuel wrote Joshua and Judges as one book.
JOSIAH AND JEREMIAH
[The Fourth To Canonize Scripture]
Apparently Josiah excelled Hezekiah and David in devotion to God and the Law (II Kings 23:25) and was an even grander king. So you have the same problem, you had king Ahaz, this evil king, then you’ve got a good king Josiah, then you got Manasseh, this evil king. They break down the Godly establishment of religious worship and they set up these high places in the woods. Some of the stuff I talked about in the Lake of Fire paper I wrote ‘Tophet and Melech in Hinnom.’
Josiah once more began to purge Judah of all her paganism (II Chron. 34:3-5). He had to “rediscover” the Law (34: 14, 19). He is the one that found the Law. It had become so corrupt, Josiah was running around and in the Temple he was looking around and says, what’s this? It was, the Law of Moses, and he said we’ve got to keep this thing, we got to do this. Josiah was prophesied to come by Isaiah in The Book of the Kingdoms:
I Kings 13:2 And he cried against the altar by the word of Jehovah, and said, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall they burn upon thee.
God promised peace to Judah as long as Josiah lived (II chron. 34: 27-28). Now Judah knew that war would come it would be horrible (II Chron. 35: 24-25). But first Josiah put his kingly approval on all the books of the Law and prophets found in the Temple: (II Chron. 35: 1-4).
II Chron. 35:4 And prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.
King Josiah officially recognized and teaches that all should follow ALL THE BOOKS and practices of Temple worship codified and canonized before him.
So when King Josiah died it was one of the biggest loses in all of Israel. They loved that man. God promised for as long as Josiah was alive there would be peace in the land. So they knew two things was going to happen. Not only did they lose a great man and leader of God, but they knew all hell was going to break lose, because God’s promise was off.
Jeremiah like all Judah lamented after the death of Josiah, both for the loss of this great king and also knowing that now God would bring the promised judgment upon them. The Book of Lamentations was being written at this time, kind of a memorial.
II Chron. 35:25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day [this was a hundred years later that Ezra is writing this]; and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
Jeremiah’s prophecies and some of the minor prophets were also recognized at this time.
DANIEL…. is not considered someone who actually was involved in canonizing the Scripture. It is interesting that Daniel was a Jew, as were Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, all were in Babylon captivity.
After their captivity, the extremely wise, knowledgeable and talented Daniel appears to have been in a high position (Daniel 1:4). Since he was so smart and so righteous and was a really good man. So the king took a shining to him, especially after he interpreted his dreams. It says he was in the king’s palace. Now in the king’s palace is also the king’s library. There in the king’s palace, Daniel was in fact a teacher, possibly like a head librarian.
Dan 1:3 And the king spoke unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring in certain of the children of Israel, even of the seed royal and of the nobles;
v. 4 youths in whom was no blemish, but well-favored, and skilful in all wisdom, and endued with knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability TO STAND IN THE KING’S PALACE; and that he should teach them the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. (Also Dan. 9:2)
So Daniel, who is a prisoner in Babylon, has got all the books, the Law of Moses. He talks about the prophesies of Jeremiah, I mean he mentions them, because he’s got them all. These are precious books and since he was in the king’s palace, they would allow him to have access to these books. You see, he was in the perfect position to preserve these books, as was Joseph with the ancient annals of Jacob while in Egypt.
EZRA
[Finalized The Canonization Of The Old Testament]
Ezra and Nehemiah lived in the time of the captivity. Israel was the northern tribe and were conquered by Assyria in 722 BC. In 695 (some say 685) the southern nation Judah, headquartered in Jerusalem go into captivity under the Babylonians. They of course had some favor with the king, because the whole book of Daniel deals with Babylon and a lot with King Nebuchadnezzar and the nations.
On the chart of the proper order of Old Testament books, you will wonder why Daniel is down at the very end with the post exile books. Why isn’t he in with the prophets? Wasn’t Daniel a prophet? Yes he was. But he was unlike most of the other prophets in that he was writing from captivity, in a Gentile nation and mostly about the Gentile nations.
He talked about the coming kingdom of God and the Gentiles. For that reason and other things, he was not put in with the prophets, but in with the post exile books, which is kind of an honor you know. He’s right up there with the greatest, Ezra and Nehemiah - who wrote Ezra, Nehemiah and I and II Chronicles.
Ezra edited some books to make them more understandable. Example, Deut. 34: 5-12 was added by Ezra. Moses did not record his own death. All other periods of canonization are of little importance compared to that of Ezra, who made the final decision on all books.
So again these canonizing periods of establishment of what is the Scripture, always seems to happen when there was bad times. They would be, ‘well we’ve got to bring this together again, we can’t lose this stuff.’ That’s how it was always done, you’ll see that. That’s what happened with the New Testament too. They didn’t canonize any books the first 50 years or so after Christ was crucified. Why? They didn’t need to. Then there became a need, when there was a need, they would say , ‘we got to put this together and let everybody know what is the Scriptures, because there is bad times coming.’
So Ezra writes all about setting up worship again, rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and all of that. He’s gathering the books and re-establishing proper worship in the house of God. I and II Chronicles really have a lot to do with the authority and so on and the setting of God’s house in order and to canonize what is the Scripture, what are the books to be used in relation to that and so on.
Here is something interesting, we read in Nehemiah 8:9, this is about 444 BC or so. Ezra publicly read the Law to all in Jerusalem, publicly. This is canonizing. This is saying these are the books, these are the important Scriptures and so on.
Some books all through this period were never really officially canonized, namely what we call the Megalott - the 5 festivals scrolls - Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther. But they were so continuously used all the time and read in certain festivals of the year. There was no doubt in anybody’s mind about those books, they were always known, and they were included in the end. There is no period where anybody actually put there stamp of approval on those, what we call the Festival Books or the Megalott. But certainly one of the ways we found that something is canonized was by the sheer fact of repetitive using it in religious services.
Now you might wonder why it is that these kings let people go back? Well it said directly in the Scripture that God just put it on the heart of Cyrus to let the people go back (Ezra 1). I think 40,000 people had gone back at first. Then they sent back priests and Levites, the more official people, and then Ezra and Nehemiah.
Now Nehemiah was the cup bearer of the king of Persia. Why would Nehemiah, a cup bearer for the king, be coming to Jerusalem to become a Governor? What is the connection there? Ezra was a Jew or maybe a Levite. But why is Nehemiah coming from Persia, where he is cup bearer to the king, now he is going to be the Governor of Judea? What interest do the Persians have with the Jews in Judea.
Here is where you got to start learning the Chronology of the Bible and all of this fits together.
Did you know Isaiah lived back in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah? I mean it doesn’t seem like it, because look how we read the books. The arrangement of the books screws up our minds.
So what interest could there be with the Jews in Jerusalem, in Persia? Excuse me, remember Queen Esther! Queen Esther isn’t she the one that saved the Jewish nation, pretty much. Yea I think she could bend the kings ear a little bit. But it was about that time that she was in power and she would certainly be wondering what was happening to my people down there in Jerusalem.
But Ezra edited numerous books to bring them up to date. He wrote the Book of Ezra, the Book of Nehemiah was previously known as II Ezra and he wrote I and II Chronicles. He wrote THE LAST BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!
Kat:
PROPER ORDER & DATES FOR OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS
Name of books: Date written By Location
The Law [5 Books]
GENESIS 1274 BC Moses Wilderness
EXODUS 1274 Moses Wilderness
LEVITICUS 1274 Moses Wilderness
NUMBERS 1274-1234 Moses Wilderness
DEUTERONOMY 1234 Moses Wilderness
The Former Prophets [2 Books] [Acts 3:34]
JOSHUA/JUDGES 1047-1007 Samuel Canaan
BOOK OF KINGDOMS 739-681 Isaiah Judah
(I & II SAMUEL
and I & II KINGS)
The Latter Prophets (Major) [3 Books]
ISAIAH 739-- Isaiah Judah
JEREMIAH 626-586 Jeremiah Judah
EZEKIAL 591-571 Ezekiel Babylon
The Latter Prophets (Minor) [All 1 Book]
HOSEA 790 Hosea Israel (North)
JOEL 790 Joel Judah
AMOS 790 Amos Israel
OBADIAH 785 Obadiah Judah
JONAH 785 Jonah-3rd person Nineveh (?)
MICAH 750 Micah Jerusalem
NAHUM 650 Nahum Nineveh (?)
HABAKKUK 630 Habakkuk Judah
ZEPHANIAH 630 Zephaniah Judah
HAGGAI 520 Haggai Judah
ZECHARIAH 520 Zechariah Judah
MALACHI 430 Malachi Judah
The Psalms (the Poetic books/the Writings/Statesmen) [3 Books]
PSALMS 1004-964 David Jerusalem
PROVERBS 964-926 Solomon Jerusalem
JOB 2000-500 (?) Job Egypt/Judah
The Megilloth/The Festival Scroll [5 Books]
SONGS OF SONGS 964-926 Solomon Jerusalem
RUTH 1375-1050 Samuel (?) Bethlehem
LAMENTATIONS 586 Jeremiah Jerusalem
ECCLEIASTES 964-926 Solomon Jerusalem
ESTHER 486-465 Ezra (?) Jerusalem
Post Exile Books [3 Books]
DANIEL 605-535 Daniel Babylon
EZRA-NEHEMIAH 444 Ezra Jerusalem
CHRONICLES 444 Ezra Jerusalem
Kat:
Audio 4
Proper Order Of Old Testament Books
The headings were good. Because these headings are how the Jews have always understood the design of their Holy Scriptures.
The Law:
There are 5 Books in the Law. This is very important that we get this part. There are 5 books, Genesis - Exodus - Leviticus - Numbers - Deuteronomy. They were all written somewhere around 1300 BC apparently. They were all written by Moses, in the wilderness.
The Former Prophets (Major):
These are 2 books. Joshua/Judges and The Book of the Kingdoms. In the King James that is 6 books. But it’s only 2 books. Joshua and Judges is one book, written by Samuel, in Canaan.
The book of the Kingdoms, we believe was written by Isaiah in Judea. That is the Former Prophets, then we have the Latter Prophets.
The Latter Prophets (Major):
You have 3 major; Isaiah - written about 739 in Judea, Jeremiah - written about 626-586 by Jeremiah in Judea, and Ezekiel - written about 591-571 by Ezekiel in Babylon. Those are the three latter prophets called major prophets, but we also have….
The Latter Prophets (Minor):
They are only called minor because the books are usually somewhat shorter. But you do have Zechariah and a couple that are fairly lengthy too. You can see the dates of those on the chart. You have Hosea - Joel - Amos - Obadiah - Jonah - Micah - Nahum - Habakkuk - Zephaniah - Haggai - Zechariah - Malachi, written from 790-430 BC. Jonah possibly written in Nineveh, also Nahum. Hosea written in northern Israel and most of the rest in Judah.
The Psalms:
They are also called the Writings, sometimes called the Statesmen books, because they are written by statesmen. Either high priests, governors, kings and so on. They follow the prophets because they are lesser in authority. A prophet of God had more authority then say a king. But understand that in it’s broadest sense a king who wrote Scripture or preached or whatever, was also considered a prophet. So these books are also called Poetic books. The reason for that is they are written as a poem. The Psalms, most of them were to be accompanied by music. Just like most songs have some kind of a poetic rhyme to the verses, these apparently did too. Of course you lose a lot when you come over to English or some other language.
Sometimes I’m a little critical about the King James, where there is really a poor translation. But I have never insinuated that over all the King James is a poor translation. It is not! Well you say, ‘Ray you say it’s not even a translation, it’s a revision of the Bishop’s Bible.’ Well that’s not so bad. The Bishop Bible was a good translation. One reason the king wanted a new translation, he didn’t like all the many marginal commentary that was in there. He said no commentary at all, except what little bit is absolutely necessary to explain a word or something like that. But no doctrinal type things. He wanted the king to be exalted.
But it is an amazing thing what Tyndale was able to accomplish in his translation, because he uses all the words. I mean it’s seldom they have to leave a word out or put too many extra words in. But sometimes they do, because like I’ve said so many times, it’s impossible to translate one language into another word for word. It’s just not possible. People think that it is possible…. people that don’t know anything about languages. It is no such thing as you take a language like Russian or German and then each Germany word you give it a English word and then you can read it. It would be gobbledy gook.
So some of the modern versions, like the New King James, they took out all the ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ and all of that sort of thing. They tried to modernize it. Some of the versions they put more emphases on translating phrases, rather than specific word for word. But it’s not just the science to translating, it’s an art.
I’m going to show you something and you are going to see it very quickly I think. With the exception of one word, these two translations are virtually synonymous - word for word. But wait till you hear the differences. We need to be thankful we have the King James. Although when I want to be critical, I’ll consult other Books, many times the King James is right though. It’s right okay, but it’s not as precise as Rotherham Emphatic Diaglott or the Concordant Literal Bible.
But let me do this just for fun, so you can see what I’m saying. So you will maybe have a greater appreciation of the King James, even though it may not be the most technically accurate translation. I going to read the 23 Psalms from the Concordant Literal version and it is a very accurate translation.
Psalms 23
Concordant Literal
A Davidic Psalm
Yahweh is my Shepherd;
Nothing shall I lack.
In verdant oases, He is making me recline;
Beside restful waters, He is conducting me."
He is restoring my soul;
He is guiding me in the routes of righteousness, on account of His Name."
Even though I should walk in the ravine of blackest shadow,
I shall not fear evil, For You are with me;
Your club and Your staff, they are comforting me."
You are arranging a table before me in front of my foes;
You have sleeked my head with oil;
My cup is satiated.
Yea, goodness and benignity, they shall pursue me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the House of Yahweh
for the length of my days."
That is fairly accurate word for word.
But now listen to the King James, same accuracy except for one word, the last word.
Psalms 23
A Psalm of David.
The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadth me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You art with me;
Thou rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thy anointest my head with oil;
My cup runeth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD
Forever.
That is so poetic. He uses all the words, just listen to Tyndale; “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” It’s King James but it’s Tyndale. But listen in verse 4, Concordant says, “Even though I should walk in the ravine of blackest shadow…” And verse 5, “My cup is satiated.” Now that is a little bit more accurate, the satiated is just a little closer, but listen how it sounds, you know….. And then Tyndale “My cup runneth over.” The “ever” there means, to the end of my days. It’s not the word ‘alam’ that is usually translated forever, ever, evermore, eternity. It’s two words there used for the word ‘ever,’ it means to the end of my days.
But look at the difference in the way they reads. This is the way that the whole King James is, it reads this way. You can just pick out Scriptures almost any place and they have this beautiful poetic ring. How Tyndale did that is almost amazing. Because he didn’t add or take away words. But he used some different words and he changed the order slightly, which is permissible. The end result is like, wow! What a difference!
So we have - the Psalms, which is Psalms, Proverbs and Job... Job is a poem, I don’t know if you know that. The 42 chapters of Job is a poem.
Now Job does not appear to be a Jew or a Israelite. It seems that he was a Pharaoh in Egypt. But to pin down when he lived, I got 2000 BC all the way to 500.
I personally think that he lived at about the time of Abraham, which would have been 1800 or 1900 BC. I based that pretty much on the fact that 500 or 600 years later people were living to be 120 - 110 - 80 - 75 years old. 200 or 300 years earlier they were living to be 250 - 300 - 400 years old. Job lived to be about 200, so he lived to about the age that people were living to at the time of Abraham. I would probably put him about 1800 - 1900 BC. He apparently was one of the Pharaoh of Egypt, don’t know which one.
The Megilloth:
Also known as the Festival Scrolls. There are 5 of these. Theologians have drawn all kinds of analogies and correlations and parallels and all of that, with all of these books. You can draw parallels between Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and then the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th books of Psalms, and Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther. They each have 5 and they all have similar themes.
The Festival Scroll were read at specific Festivals and Holy Days in Israel. They correlate in many ways with the book of Psalms and the 5 books of Moses - The Law and so on. For example in the Song of Songs this was read at Passover. Traditionally this was always read at Passover and it pictures God preparing a bride. In Genesis we have God preparing a bride for Adam…. He’s preparing mankind.
But now in Song of Songs God is preparing a bride for Himself and the setting is the spring of the year, the spring harvest and so on. So this was always read at Passover.
Ruth, is again the first harvest of the fields. This was read at Pentecost. Pentecost is the first harvest - the first fruits. We are a kind of first fruits.
Lamentations is read on the Trumpets. Trumpets are a sign of war. Lamentation is about disaster and destruction. If you were to bring it to us today, it’s our destruction. In other words He calls out His first fruits, we have to be destroyed before we can come into the kingdom, at Tabernacles.
All these different ways you can see how these books were used. So it isn’t that they just had all these books, they all had a purpose. These ones were read at these times and these were read here, because this symbolizes this. There was a pattern to it.
They had the different courses of singers. There was 15 steps that lead up to the leveling off, at the Temple. There was those 15 steps, then they had the 15 Psalms of degrees. One day one and one day the next, because there was a system and a pattern to all of it. I think a lot of it has been lost. Although the Jews try to figure out a lot of the stuff that they did. Then we have the final books of the Bible.
Post Exile:
These are the books that are all written after the captivity and after they came back to rebuild Judea. These are Daniel, Ezra/Nehemiah and Chronicles.
We talked about why Daniel’s found here, rather than in the Prophets.
We have Ezra and Nehemiah which are one book and I and II Chronicles which is another book. We believe they were all four written by Ezra, who was the final one to put his approval on these books, as being the official Scriptures of the Jewish people. The Synagogues Scripture, these books later became known as…. because they were in the Temple they were known as the Temple Scrolls. Everybody knew what those books were and what order they were suppose to be in and when they were to be read and why they were read.
You know they had all that and now we are losing a lot of that. So we got Bibles now and these books are all mixed up and we don’t know….. you know we end the Old Testament with Malachi. Malachi is not the last book. II Chronicles should be the last book of the Old Testament in the Bible.
Kat:
Proper Numbering Of Old Testament Equals 22 Books
So the original proper numbering of the books of the Old Testament should be 22. The Jews always had 22 books in all their synagogues, so where did the King James and most others get 39?
But you can see where we get that, you combine Joshua and Judges into one book. I and II Kings and I and II Samuel is the Book of the Kingdoms. Ezra and Nehemiah is one book. The 12 minor prophets always one book. They didn’t add any new books, they merely numbered them differently.
The book of Jubilees written 150 BC, says God made 22 things in 6 days. There are 22 generations from Adam to Jacob/Israel, etc. Famous Jewish historian Flavius Josephus claims there were 22 books in the Old Testament Canon. The early Greeks, Syrians, Armenians and Catholics all agreed that there should be 22 original books in the Canon.
This is from an outline from Dr. Martin. There are 22 authorities, theologians, Rabbis, etc., stating that there were 22 books in the Old Testament Canon.
1. Melito - 170 AD
2. Origen - 210
3. Hilary of Poitiers - 360
4. Athanasius - 365
5. Cyril of Jerusalem - 386
6. Gregory of Naziansus - 390
7. Ephphanius - 400
8. The Laodicean Council - 400
9. Ruffinus - 240
10. Jerome - 410
11. Synopsis of Sacred Scripture - 500
12. Isidore of Seville - 600
13. Leontius - 610
14. John Damascenus - 730
15. Nicephorus - 800’s
16. Jwesudad, Bishop of Hadad - 852
17. Hrabanus - 800’s
18. Moses of Chorene - 1000
19. Peter of Cluny - 1150
20. John of Salisbury - 1180
21. Victoris - 1100’s
22. Richardus de Victore - 1200’s
So when we number them properly we have 22 books. But there is no way you can stick the books The Wisdom of Solomon, Beruk, The Three Children or Bel and the Dragon, you can’t fit them in there. They do not fit.
Total: The Law 5 + The Prophets 13 + The Psalms (Poetic books) 4 = 22 books.
That makes sense to do it that way. We’ve not just doing it that way to make it come out to 22.
I showed you the Scripture, where it’s talking about this is recorded. Isaiah recorded this in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judea (II Chronicles). That was considered one book. If you say, ‘where are the recordings of the Kings?’ It’s in 1st Kings, 2nd Kings, 1st Samuel, 2nd Samuel, but he said in a book, one book.
22 Is A Number Of Completeness
The number 22 completes the Hebrew alphabet. All that can be said can be said using these 22 letters. You can write every book there is with 22 letters. So the idea being everything that God had to say to us in the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures could be said in those 22 letters and it’s done in 22 books. God always has a purpose for numbers and things like that.
There is one other thing that is interesting about 22. Numerous sections of Scripture are written in complete 22 letter acrostics. An acrostic is when a book, poem or a psalms or whatever is written to where the first stanza or first sentence or section of Scripture begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet - aleph. The second sentence or section begins with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet - beth. All the way down the Hebrew alphabet to the 22nd letter, then that’s the end of the piece. Now the idea behind that is whatever it’s talking about is complete. That shows complete perfection.
Now there is some examples of broken acrostics. That is where it goes so far and then it breaks off. That shows that whatever that’s talking about is not complete. There is more to be done, there is more to come.
It’s kind of like missing the amen at the end of the book of Acts and III John. How come there is no amen? There is an amen in I John, an amen at the end of II John. Why is there no amen at the end of Acts and why is there no amen at the end of III John? Well some of it probably has to do with canonization, believe it or not.
An example of a complete acrostic is the Psalms 119, showing the completeness and perfection of God Law. Now your Bibles might not show it, I like this Bible I have because it has a lot of these little goodies, it even tells you it’s an acrostic. Here in the Psalms 119:1 it starts off - Aleph, that’s the first Hebrew letter, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.” Then it goes down the first set of the stanzas. Then it came to the next set at verse 9 - Beth.
Then it goes to the next set Gimel, then to Daleth, He, Van, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Jod, Caph, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Ain, Pe, Tzaddi, Koph, Resh, Schin, Tau.
Psalms 119 is a complete acrostic.
Psalms 111 and 112 are also complete acrostics showing god’s complete and permanent redemption of His people.
Proverbs 31:10-31 is a complete acrostic describing a complete and perfect woman.
With books, God’s Hebrew Old Testament revelation is complete. For further revelation, God will choose a different language - Greek.
Ezra Had Access To Lots Of Books
So Ezra did a Lot of writing, if he wrote Ezra, Nehemiah, I Chronicles and II Chronicles, they are all about 30 chapters each. That’s a lot of writing and he did some editing. The 34th chapter of Deuteronomy is obviously an editorial of Ezra’s, because he’s explaining to people in the future…. how did Moses die? Moses wrote those books, but he certainly didn’t record his own death. So there is some editorializing going on.
Moses did some editorializing too. Back in the book of Genesis, you’ll read about some town or whatever and people will say, ‘this is crazy, this Bible is all contradictory nonsense.’ Because here it talks about Hebron or some town and they’ll say, ‘that town didn’t even exist back then.’ That’s right, it didn’t. ‘So why is it in there?’ Because Moses lived many centuries later and he’s letting everybody know where that was, it’s this town over here. Well it’s got a different name now and they would have never known what it was. So even Moses did some editorializing, because he knew that some of these things had changed now.
Here just to show that they were not totally void of history and knowledge. The “book of the Chronicles” named by Ezra 37 times in I and II Kings, Nehemiah and Esther. The “book of the Acts of Solomon” is mentioned twice ( I King, II Chronicles). Where is that book? Well we don’t know, we don’t have it. That was one that they put aside. But it existed, because it was mentioned. The “book of Jasher” is mentioned in Joshua and II Samuel.
1 Chron. 29:29 And the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,
2 Chron. 9:29 And the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer…
2 Chron. 12:15 ...the book of Shemaiah the prophet…
The “book of Jahu” is mentioned in II Kings 10:343 and II Chron. 20:34.
The “book of the records of thy Fathers” in Ezra 4:15.
The “book of the records of the chronicles” in Esther 6:1.
The “book of Enoch” there is no such reference in the Bible.
But there is that book, it talks about 300 foot men and stuff like that. So I don’t have to much confidence in the book of Enoch. There are lots of Holy books and they read kind of like The Prophets and stuff. But they are not, they are forgery.
One big reason, besides the fact that Ezra was trying to re-establish a Godly practice of religion and Tabernacle service and so on, after coming out of Babylon and captivity. There was another reason why he wanted to canonize which books were and which books were not Scripture. That is, the Samaritans had set up their religion up north and they rejected everything, but the Pentateuch. They did not subscribe to the prophets, but they did the law, the Pentateuch. They had the same Pentateuch that they had down in Jerusalem.
So to make a distinction, Ezra apparently copied all of the new editions with the square block type Hebrew lettering. Which was different from what they had passed down. So that now everybody would know, anybody that knew Ezra and he was somebody.
He and Nehemiah were in charge of Judah, the religion at least, the Temple and everything. So to make that distinction, he used the square Hebrew form of the alphabet. So everybody would know, because if they see something they would say maybe it is or maybe it isn’t a book that should be in there. But now they would know one thing, if it was what Ezra gave them. So anybody that knew Ezra was a man of God and all those at that time Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel and Isaiah these were prominent people, so whatever they said was Scripture, was accepted.
Because from here on, about 450 BC, we had no Scriptural history for 4 ½ centuries. We go from II Chronicles to Matthew and there is no history. Now some of the books that are Apocryphal books may be accurate history, it‘s just that they are not necessarily to be Scripture.
By long tradition, a ritual Torah scroll shall contain only the Hebrew consonantal text - nothing may be added, nothing taking away. However, perhaps because they were intended for personal study rather than ritual use, the Masoretic codexes provide extensive additional material, called masorah, to show correct pronunciation and cantillation, protect against scribal errors and annotate possible variants. The manuscripts thus include vowel points, pronunciation marks and stress accents in the text, short annotations in the side margins and longer more extensive notes in the upper and lower marhins and collected at the end of each book.
Kat:
Masorah/Masoretic codex
This is the text used by the Jews today and this is the text that most Bible translators used for the Old Testament. You can see at the top, down the sides and at the bottom they’ve got little notations and stuff. Some criticize that, they say this is just and old scribbled up codex. Hey scribbling is good. There is nothing that people like better than to find Einstein’s scribbling you know. The truth of the matter is, some of these things are wonderful, because from those marginal notes we learn a lot of things that we wouldn’t have known, by just reading the Scripture. So rather than messing up the manuscript and making it all messy, it’s really a lot of good information there. We should be glad they found some that are messed up with all these extra writings.
These pictures were not in the notes, but everything below was added from 'Turning the Pages' website - http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/index.html
'Codex' is a grand word for a book in the form that we know it today. In Latin 'codex', or 'caudex', once meant tree trunk. Thin wooden writing tablets were used in ancient Roman times as informal notebooks. When, during the second century, religious texts began to be written down in books rather than on rolls, the name 'codex' was transferred to them. The pages that formed the earliest books were made from the reeds of the papyrus plant, others were on prepared animal skin.
The Lisbon Bible is the most accomplished dated codex (that is, a manuscript in book form rather than a scroll) of the Portuguese school of medieval Hebrew illumination, completed in 1482.
The fourth book of the Torah. The Hebrew title Be-Midbar means "In the wilderness" from its opening verse: "And the Lord spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai..." Numbers 1:1 (Lisbon Bible).
This codex is an early form of the masoretic text, compiled by Aaron Ben Asher, a 10th-century scholar from Tiberias, Palestine. The exhibited page contains the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20), an Early Codex of the Torah, Palestine or Middle East, probably ninth century. This thousand-year-old document is one of the oldest surviving examples of a Hebrew Bible codex - a manuscript written in book form rather than a scroll - and includes information from early scholars on how to pronounce and read out the sacred text.
The Codex Sinaiticus is a treasure beyond price. Produced in the middle of the fourth century, the Codex is one of the two earliest Christian Bibles. Within its beautifully handwritten Greek text are the earliest surviving copy of the complete New Testament and the earliest and best copies of some of the Jewish scriptures.
All the texts written down in the Codex are in Greek. They include the translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint. The Greek text is written using a form of capital or upper case letters known as Biblical majuscule and without word division. The pages of the Codex are of prepared animal skin called parchment. Shown here is the end of Mark, ending with verse 8 of chapter 16.
St Jerome's Latin Vulgate (from the Latin vulgata, meaning 'common' or 'popular') was commissioned by Pope Damasus in 382. Based on translations then in use, it employs the everyday written Latin style of the fourth century, in contrast to the more formal, elegant Latin of Cicero. Jerome's Vulgate became the standard version of the Bible in the West for over a thousand years.
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