THE HEBREW AND GREEK CANONS OF THE OLD

TESTAMENT

THE CANON OF THE OLD

TESTAMENT
Hebrew Scripture, the Old
Testament of our Bible, relates
God's Creation of the world and
his Word to Israel. God reveals
his undying love for his creation
mankind, in spite of man's sin
and disobedience, through the
promise of a Redeemer. The Old
Testament is Hebrew
Scripture or Tanakh, and is
composed of the Law, the Torah
or Pentateuch, the Prophets or
Neviim, and the Writings, the
Hagiographa or Kethuvim.
The threefold division - and
original order - of Hebrew
Scripture was evident at the time
of Jesus, who referred to "the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the
Psalms" (Luke 24:44). The Old Testament was composed in Hebrew,
except for the following written in Aramaic - Genesis 31:47, Jeremiah
10:11, Ezra 4:8-6:18 and 7:12-26, and nearly half of the Book of Daniel
2:4-7:28. The following is Genesis 1:1, the first line of Hebrew Scripture:
The writings of the Old Testament of the Bible were preserved in
three languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and have been passed
on to us mainly through the following manuscripts: the Greek
Septuagint from Alexandria; the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls
of the Essenes; the Masoretic Hebrew text of Tiberias, Galilee; and
the Targumim, Old Testament Books translated into Aramaic, as well
as the Aramaic Peshitta Bible. The differing traditions have led to the
disparity found in the Old Testament canons among Christian
religions. 

The diversity of language and manuscripts may be traced to

the Diaspora, the dispersion of the Jewish people to the nations
outside of Palestine. The major dispersion occurred during the period
known as the Babylonian Exile, when the Jews were deported
following the invasion by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The
first deportation occurred in 597 BC following his first invasion, and
the second major deportation to Babylon occurred following the
destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 587/586 BC. Many Israelites
also fled to Egypt and flourished there. Following the arrival and
Hellenistic influence of Alexander the Great in 332 BC and the
founding of the city of Alexandria, they readily adopted the Greek
language. 

The oldest surviving translation of Hebrew Scripture was the Greek

Septuagint, which was undertaken by Jewish scholars in Alexandria
in the third century before Christ (BC). The Greek codices arranged
 the books in a fourfold division, in a different way than Hebrew
Scripture, by placing the Law of Moses first, then the Historical
Books, then the Wisdom books, and then the Prophets. The Greek
Septuagint was in circulation at the time of Christ and was widely
read. In fact, the majority of Old Testament quotations in the Greek
New Testament were from the Greek Septuagint Old Testament,
primarily from Psalms, Isaiah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Deuteronomy, and the Book of the Twelve. For example, when Jesus
read Isaiah (61:1-2) in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4:16-19), he
followed the language of the Greek Septuagint. The early Christian
Churches referred to the Septuagint as their source of Scripture. In his
famous work The City of God (Book 18, Chapter 43), St. Augustine
of Hippo considered the Greek Septuagint the authoritative
translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and appeared to follow the
wording of Exodus 20:17 in the Greek Septuagint and Deuteronomy
5:21 for his enumeration of the Ten Commandments of God. The
Orthodox Churches have retained the Septuagint for their canon of
the Old Testament to the present day! The following is Genesis 1:1
from the Greek Septuagint:

The Hebrew canon for Judaism developed in stages. The divine

inspiration of the Law was recognized as early as II Kings 22:8f, and
reaffirmed as Scripture during the Restoration (Ezra 7:6, Nehemiah 8:1,
Zechariah 7:12). The Prophets were accepted as inspired Scripture by the
end of the second century BC (II Maccabees 2:13, 15:9; Sirach Foreword,
49:10). While the Psalms were uniformly regarded as Scripture, the final
books of the Writings took time to be clearly defined. It is now known
with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls that the Writings or
Hagiographa often varied with each religious sect. 

Following the Roman destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD,

the rabbinical school of the Pharisees in Jamnia became a center of
religious thought. Faced with the affinity of the early Christians for the
Greek Septuagint, it is believed that they refined the books traditional to
Judaism, particularly the Writings. Jamnia considered 4 criteria to
determine which of the Writings - such as Ecclesiastes, Esther, and Song
of Songs - should be retained for the Hebrew canon for Judaism: the book
should conform to the Torah; it was written before the time of Ezra (circa
450 BC); it was written in Hebrew; and it was composed in Judah or
Israel. 

The Hebrew canon for Judaism recognized 10 books less than the Canon
of the Greek Septuagint. The Law contained the Pentateuch of Moses. The
Prophets included the Former Prophets that are part of the Historical
Books, the Major Prophets, and the Prophets of the Book of the Twelve.
The Writings comprised a body of wisdom literature, history, poetry, and
songs. The Masoretic Hebrew Text of Galilee developed from the eighth
through tenth century AD confirmed the Hebrew canon for Judaism.

JUDAISM

LAW PROPHETS WRITINGS

Genesis Joshua Psalms

Exodus Judges Proverbs

Leviticus Samuel Job

Numbers Kings Song of Songs

  Deuteronomy     The Twelve   Ruth

Isaiah Lamentations
 Jeremiah Ecclesiastes

Ezekiel Esther

Daniel Chronicles

  Ezra-Nehemiah  

The 24 Books of Judaism are equivalent to the 39 Books common to all

Christian Old Testaments, for Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra-
Nehemiah were each divided into two parts in the Christian canons, and
the one Book of the Twelve Prophets was split into twelve books, one for
each prophet. The above table lists the Book of Daniel with the Prophets,
as found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, instead of the Writings as found in the
Masoretic texts. 

St. Jerome was born in Dalmatia and had a great affinity for languages.
He first settled in the Syrian desert and finally in Bethlehem.
Commissioned by Pope Damasus in 382, he translated both Old and New
Testaments into Latin; he completed the translation of the New
Testament into Latin in 384, and the Old Testament by 405. St. Jerome
translated from both Greek and Hebrew manuscripts of the Old
Testament and noted the difference between the larger canon of the
Greek Septuagint and the shorter Hebrew canon, and called those books
comprising the difference the "hidden or secret books," or
the Apocrypha. To support the traditional use of the Greek Septuagint as
the source of the Christian Old Testament, St. Augustine and the Council
of Hippo in 393 AD preserved seven books of the Apocrypha, known as
the deuterocanonicalbooks: the Historical Books of Tobias (Tobit), First
and Second Maccabees, and Judith, the Wisdom Books
of Sirach and Wisdom, the Prophet Baruch, as well as the Greek portions
of Esther (which includes the name of God), and Daniel which includes
the Prayer of the Three Young Men, the story of Susanna, and Bel and the
Dragon. St. Jerome included these as well for a total of 46 Books in his
Latin Old Testament. The Latin Vulgate Bible served as the standard Bible
for Western civilization for over 1000 years. 

The Eastern Orthodox Churches preserved the entire Greek Septuagint,

which also included I Esdras (A), Three Maccabees, and the Letter of
Jeremiah, as well as Psalm 151. 

Tobias (or Tobit) emphasizes the importance of the sanctity of marriage,

parental respect, angelic intercession, as well as prayer, fasting, and
almsgiving for the expiation of sins, as noted in the Archangel Raphael's
speech in Tobias 12:9. Sirach offers both moral instruction and a history
of the patriarchs and leaders of Israel. First and Second Maccabees are
historical works which describe the end of persecution by the Seleucid
King Antiochus IV Epiphanes through Mattathias and his sons the
Maccabees. And so began the independent Hasmonean Dynasty of Israel
from 165 to 63 BC. The Rededication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus
(1 Maccabees 4:36-59, 2 Maccabees 10:1-8) is commemorated yearly
during the Holiday of Hannukah. First Maccabees was first written in
Hebrew, but only the Greek version has been preserved. In addition to its
historical value, Second Maccabees affirms the theology of martyrdom
and resurrection of the just (7:1-42), intercessory prayer of the living for
the dead (12:44-45), as well as intercessory prayer of the saints for those
still on earth (15:12-16). Judith describes the deliverance of the Jews
from the hands of Holofernes, general to Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
The Book of Wisdom is witness to the trend in late post-exilic Jewish
thought that looked forward to life after death: immortality is a reward of
the just (3:1-4, 19). The book also notes that all living creatures reflect
the perfection of the Creator (Wisdom 13:5). The Book of Baruch, the
scribe to Jeremiah, describes the prayers of the Babylonian Exiles and
includes the Letter of Jeremiah. 

Martin Luther in his 1534 translation differed from St. Augustine and
considered the Apocryphal books "good for reading" but not part of
inspired Scripture. The King James Bible of 1611 included the Apocrypha
but in a separate section. While there are no direct quotations in the New
Testament from the Apocrypha, there are also no direct quotations from
Judges, Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Ezra, Nehemiah,
Obadiah, Nahum, or Zephaniah. 

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes, a conservative

religious sect that emerged circa 200 BC, has shed new light on Hebrew
Scripture. Every book of the Old Testament was found in the Dead Sea
Scrolls except for the Book of Esther! It is important to note that the Dead
Sea Scrolls included 3 books written in Hebrew which had been
considered part of the Apocrypha - Tobias (or Tobit), Sirach, and
the Letter of Jeremiah, as well as Psalm 151 of David. Among the diverse
scrolls, several copies of the Books of Enoch and Jubilees were discovered
as well, both of which are also found in the Old Testament of the Oriental
Orthodox Church of Ethiopia. While the Dead Sea Scrolls raise questions
about the traditional canon, they confirm much of our knowledge about
Hebrew Scripture. An intact scroll of Isaiah was found, completely
identical to our present Book in the Bible, and is roughly 1000 years older
than any previous manuscript! 

In summary, modern Christianity reflects the lack of uniformity found in

the canon of the Old Testament, for Catholics and Eastern Orthodox
continue to refer to the Greek Septuagint as Old Testament while
Protestants chose the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew canon:
 THE CHRISTIAN OLD TESTAMENT
ORTHODOX CATHOLIC   PROTESTANT  
The Law
Genesis Genesis Genesis
Exodus Exodus Exodus
Leviticus Leviticus Leviticus
Numbers Numbers Numbers
Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deuteronomy
Historical Books
Joshua Joshua Joshua
Judges Judges Judges
Ruth Ruth Ruth
I Samuel I Samuel I Samuel
II Samuel II Samuel II Samuel
I Kings I Kings I Kings
II Kings II Kings II Kings
I Chronicles I Chronicles I Chronicles
II Chronicles II Chronicles II Chronicles
I Esdras (A)
Ezra Ezra Ezra
Nehemiah Nehemiah Nehemiah
Tobit Tobit
Judith Judith
Esther Esther Esther
Maccabees I Maccabees I
Maccabees II Maccabees II
Maccabees III
Wisdom Books
 http://biblescripture.net/Canon.html
Development of the Hebrew Bible Canon
Rabbinic Judaism recognizes the 24 books of the Masoretic Text,
commonly called the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, as authoritative. Modern
scholarship suggests that the most recently written are the books
of Jonah, Lamentations, and Daniel, all of which may have been
composed as late as the second century BCE.
The Book of Deuteronomy includes a prohibition against adding or
subtracting, which might apply to the book itself (i.e. a "closed book", a
prohibition against future scribal editing) or to the instruction received
by Moses on Mt. Sinai.[4]
The book of 2 Maccabees, itself not a part of the Jewish canon,
describes Nehemiah (around 400 BCE) as having "founded a library and
collected books about the kings and prophets, and the writings of David,
and letters of kings about votive offerings" (2:13–15). The Book of
Nehemiah suggests that the priest-scribe Ezra brought the Torah back
from Babylon to Jerusalem and the Second Temple (8–9) around the same
time period. Both 1 and 2 Maccabees suggest that Judas
Maccabeus (around 167 BCE) also collected sacred books (3:42–50, 2:13–
15, 15:6–9).
There is no scholarly consensus as to when the Hebrew Bible canon was
fixed: some scholars argue that it was fixed by the Hasmonean
dynasty (140–40 BCE), while others argue it was not fixed until the
second century CE or even later. The Catholic Pontifical Biblical
Commission says that "the more restricted Hebrew canon is later than the
formation of the New Testament".
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_Hebrew_Bible_canon
Development of the Old Testament Canon
The Old Testament is the first section of the two-
part Christian Biblical canon; the second section is the New Testament.
The Old Testament includes the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh)
or protocanon, and in various Christian denominations also
includes deuterocanonical books. Orthodox
Christians, Catholics and Protestants use different canons, which differ
with respect to the texts that are included in the Old Testament.
Martin Luther, holding to Jewish and other ancient
precedent, excluded the deuterocanonical books from the Old Testament
of his translation of the Bible, placing them in a section he labeled
"Apocrypha" ("hidden"). To counter Luther's "heresy", the fourth session
of the Catholic Council of Trent in 1546 confirmed that the
deuterocanonical books were equally authoritative as the protocanonical in
the Canon of Trent in the year Luther died. Following Jerome's Veritas
Hebraica (truth of the Hebrew) principle, the Protestant Old Testament
consists of the same books as the Hebrew Bible, but the order and division
of the books are different. Protestants number the Old Testament books at
39, while the Hebrew Bible numbers the same books as 24. The Hebrew
Bible counts Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles as one book each, and the
12 minor prophets are one book, and also Ezra and Nehemiahform a single
book.
The differences between the Hebrew Bible and other versions of the
Old Testament such as the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, the
Latin Vulgate, the Greek Septuagint, the Ethiopian Bible and other
canons, are more substantial. Many of these canons include books and
sections of books that the others do not. For a more comprehensive
discussion of these differences, see Books of the Bible.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Development_of_the_Old_Testament_canon
THE PALESTINIAN CANON
The Palestinian canon was written in Hebrew. Protestants say
they use the Palestinian canon because it matches the present day
Jewish canon. They will often quote Romans 3:2, which says, "The
Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God." They reason that since
God entrusted the Old Testament to the Jews, they should be the ones
who determine which books belong in it.
There are a couple of things wrong with this line of reasoning.
First of all, both Old Testament canons were received from the Jews.
Thus neither one is eliminated by this verse. Secondly, the Jews didn't
settle on the Palestinian canon until 90 AD at the Council of Jamnia.
This was well after Jesus established His Church. At this point the
Jews were no longer in charge. Ironically it was at the Council of
Jamnia that the Jews also rejected the New Testament. Logically
speaking, anyone who would consider Jamnia as being authoritative
would also have to reject the New Testament. And I am not aware of
any Protestants who have done that.
Some raise objections to what we might call, "apparent
contradictions" in the seven deuterocanonical books. An apparent
contradiction is something that appears to be a contradiction.
However, upon closer examination we find that there is no real issue.
Passages can be misunderstood for a variety of reasons. All of the
books of the Bible were written centuries ago in different cultural
settings and in languages that were structured differently than our
own. Aside from the problems associated with translation they had
many customs that were alien to our way of thinking, customs that
were sometimes used in communicating with the original audience. In
addition to that we need to realize that the Bible is comprised of
different types of literature. We have history, poetry, apocalyptic
writing, prophecy etc… When reading any one of them we need to
consider the genre in order to get an accurate understanding of what is
being said. That is why we have biblical commentaries and the various
books that address the various biblical difficulties.
At the birth of Christianity, the Old Testament was the sum total
of Scripture. As time went on an authorized list of Christian writings
was needed. Rather than take their cues from those no longer in
authority, the early Christians looked to their own Church for
guidance. When the Councils of Hippo (393 AD) and Carthage (397
AD) set the canon of the New Testament they also confirmed the
Septuagint as the Old Testament. Both the Septuagint and the New
Testament were written in Koine Greek. Koine Greek was the
language of commerce and every day communication during the time
of Jesus.
Some critics attempt to dismiss the Church’s role in putting
together the New Testament. They would have you think that the final
list was just something that everyone agreed on. The idea is that the
Holy Spirit caused the books of the New Testament to fall into place
without any human interaction. And of course God could have done
things in that manner. But He didn’t. He chose to use the Church
Which He Himself had established. He knew that men could be easily
misled and so he provided a way for us to know and not guess what
He wanted us to know.
 The fourth chapter of Ephesians is just one of many places in
Scripture that illustrates the role of God’s Church:
And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the
saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge
of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of
the fullness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to
and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning
of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles (4:11-14).
The process wasn’t as easy as some would have you believe. The
book of 1 Clement was considered inspired by most in the early
Church (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3:16, 325 AD). We also
know that the book of Revelation was disputed by many at the time.
And yet Revelation made it into the canon and 1 Clement didn't. That's
because the Church set the canon of Scripture, and she did so under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Just as God worked infallibly through
men in writing the Bible, He worked infallibly through men in
communicating exactly which books it should contain.
And so the canon stood unchanged for centuries. That is until the
Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther had decided that Purgatory did
not exist. During a debate on the subject a Catholic Scholar quoted 2
Maccabees 12:40-45 which reads:
Then under the tunic of every one of the dead they found sacred
tokens of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear.
And it became clear to all that this was why these men had fallen. So
they all blessed the ways of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who reveals
the things that are hidden; and they turned to prayer, beseeching that
the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out. And
the noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves free from sin,
for they had seen with their own eyes what had happened because of
the sin of those who had fallen.
He also took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two
thousand drachmas of silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a
sin offering. In doing this he acted very well and honorably, taking
account of the resurrection. For if he were not expecting that those
who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and
foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid
reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a
holy and pious thought. Therefore, he made atonement for the dead
that they might be delivered from their sin.
Martin Luther had a problem. He was the man who had
championed the idea of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone). Now he was
facing a verse of Scripture that refuted one of his new doctrines. His
solution; throw out the book of 2 Maccabees. And as previously
mentioned, he threw out six others for the same reason. He also
wanted to throw out Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and
Revelation. He famously referred to the book of James as an "epistle
of straw." Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and the New Testament
was left untouched.
In Revelation 22:19 the apostle John proclaims, "If any one takes
away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away
his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in
this book." It's true that this verse refers to the book of Revelation.
However, common sense tells us that the same principal would apply
to all of Scripture. I think it’s a pretty safe bet that God would never
be pleased with us throwing out any part of His word.

THE GREEK/ALEXANDRIAN CANON

The Alexandrian canon

The Old Testament as it has come down in Greek translation from the

Jews of Alexandria via the Christian church differs in many respects from
the Hebrew Scriptures. The books of the second and third divisions have
been redistributed and arranged according to categories of literature—
history, poetry, wisdom, and prophecy. Esther and Daniel contain
supplementary materials, and many noncanonical books, whether of
Hebrew or Greek origin, have been interspersed with the canonical works.
These extracanonical writings are I Esdras, the Wisdom of
Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira), additions to
Esther, Judith, Tobit, Baruch, the Epistle of Jeremiah, and additions to
Daniel, as listed in the manuscript known as Codex Vaticanus (c. 350 CE).
The sequence of the books varies, however, in the manuscripts and in the
patristic and synodic lists of the Eastern and Western churches, some of
which include other books as well, such as I and II Maccabees.
It should be noted that the contents and form of the inferred original
Alexandrian Jewish canon cannot be ascertained with certainty, because
all extant Greek Bibles are of Christian origin. The Jews of Alexandria
may themselves have extended the canon they received from Palestine, or
they may have inherited their traditions from Palestinian circles in which
the additional books had already been regarded as canonical. It is equally
possible that the additions to the Hebrew Scriptures in the Greek Bible are
of Christian origin.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/biblical-literature/Old-Testament-
canon-texts-and-versions#ref597311

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BIBLE

Development
See also: Authorship of the Bible

The Isaiah scroll, which is a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls, contains

almost the whole Book of Isaiah. It dates from the 2nd century BCE.

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles,

16th-century painting.
Professor John K.
Riches, Professor of Divinity and
Biblical Criticism at the
University of Glasgow, says that
"the biblical texts themselves are
the result of a creative dialogue
between ancient traditions and
different communities through the ages", [17] and "the biblical texts were
produced over a period in which the living conditions of the writers –
political, cultural, economic, and ecological – varied enormously".
[18]
 Timothy H. Lim, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple
Judaism at the University of Edinburgh, says that the Old Testament is "a
collection of authoritative texts of apparently divine origin that went
through a human process of writing and editing." [19] He states that it is not
a magical book, nor was it literally written by God and passed to mankind.
Parallel to the solidification of the Hebrew canon (c. 3rd century BCE),
only the Torah first and then the Tanakh began to be translated into Greek
and expanded, now referred to as the Septuagint or the Greek Old
Testament.[20]
In Christian Bibles, the New Testament Gospels were derived from oral
traditions in the second half of the first century CE. Riches says that:
Scholars have attempted to reconstruct something of the history of the oral
traditions behind the Gospels, but the results have not been too
encouraging. The period of transmission is short: less than 40 years passed
between the death of Jesus and the writing of Mark's Gospel. This means
that there was little time for oral traditions to assume fixed form. [21]
The Bible was later translated into Latin and other languages. John Riches
states that:
The translation of the Bible into Latin marks the beginning of a parting of
the ways between Western Latin-speaking Christianity and Eastern
Christianity, which spoke Greek, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and other
languages. The Bibles of the Eastern Churches vary considerably: the
Ethiopic Orthodox canon includes 81 books and contains many
apocalyptic texts, such as were found at Qumran and subsequently
excluded from the Jewish canon. As a general rule, one can say that the
Orthodox Churches generally follow the Septuagint in including more
books in their Old Testaments than are in the Jewish canon.[21]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible#Development