Opinion Essay: When was the Old

Testament Canonised?
Kurt Glenie
mrkglenie@gmail.com

The Old Testament was canonized:

Select one:
(A.) As soon as Jesus told the disciples which books to include and which to reject
(B.) By the church after all the disciples had long since passed away
(C.) When the disciples made the decision based on revelation by the spirit
(D.) Before the incarnation of Jesus.
This was a final quiz question for my Old Testament course. At the time it seemed
simple enough, the answer had to be (D.) Before the incarnation of Jesus, because this
was the closest answer I could find in the class textbook by Professor Grey,

‘What we do know for sure is around the time of the exile (after 587
BCE) the Pentateuch was established as a unique section known as
Torah (law) the rest of what was in this Old Testament was not
established until around 100 years before the coming of Christ.’[1]
However, according to the person who wrote the question, I was wrong. The Answer
was in fact, (B.) By the church after all the disciples had long since passed away.

Arguments in favour of D. Before the

incarnation of Jesus.
The Jews progressively canonized their scriptures.
According to Grey, the Jews progressively canonized their books, as each section was
completed. Miller and Huber, in their book, The Bible: A History, also argue for a
progressive recognition of the canon too, they write ‘the [biblical] books seem to have
been approved one section at a time. In the order described by Jesus, the law of Moses,
the prophets, and the [writings]’.
Miller and Huber date the canonization of the Pentateuch around the time of the
Babylonian exile, the Prophets some time post-exile. As for the writings, the third
category, they are not certain on that point and suggest that the first century AD may be
a candidate for its acceptance by the Jews.[2]

The Jews re-affirmed the canon at Jamnia

Reeves and Hill in their book ‘Know how we got out Bible’, do not choose to speculate
about such dates, but argue that the so-called rabbinical councils centered at Jamnia
which took place after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE, is the key event post canonization
of scripture. They write,

The point of any discussion [at Jamnia], was not to determine the canon,
but to affirm what was already authoritative for the [Jewish]
community.[3]
To the opinion of Reeves and Hill, I shall add the opinion of Rabbi Brasch, (late of
Sydney,) who argues that the apocryphal books were taken away from circulation at the
Jamnia to make it clear that they were not a part of the canon or ever had been.[4]

The Early Church recognised the Jewish authority to

determine Canon
The Early church fathers, recognized the Jewish authority to determine the Canon of the
Old Testament. The early church used the LXX, which was a Greek translation of the
Hebrew texts, made by Jewish scholars. It included both the Old Testament and the
Apocrypha. Many people in the early church believed that because the Apocrypha was
included in the translation project, that the Apocrypha was considered by Jews to be
canonical. They were wrong to presume so. Just as today, it would be wrong for modern
scholars to presume that the early church held that The Shepperd of Hermes was
considered by the early church to be a part of the New Testament, just because it is
printed in the Codex Vaticanus. The point, in case you missed it, is that the Church
received its translation from the Jews.
There was at least one man we know off, who questioned the scope of the Old
Testament, his name was Onesimus, who lived in the second century AD. In response to
Onesimus inquires, Bishop Melito of Sardis visited a Jewish community (I presume a
Synagogue) and he asks the Jews what books made up the Old Testament. The list he
made is the same as what protestants have in our Old Testament today except for
Esther! By going to the Jews, Bishop Melito, I would argue, recognized their authority to
determine the scope of their sacred scripture.[5]
The Canonisation of the Old Testament was not something that was done in a day or
even a year. I was done as each epoch of Jewish History closed. The Jews recognized
what had been written during that epoch as canon. The Council of Jamnia (whatever its
nature) did not canonize the Old Testament but reaffirmed what the Jews had already
canonized while removing the Apocrypha. The early church recognized the Jewish
authority to determine their own canon, by asking the Jews what was in it. Therefore, I
conclude, that the consensus of the scholars mentioned, is that the Old Testament was
canonized before the first incarnation of Christ (or in the case of Miller and Huberby, by
the end of the first century).

By the church after all the disciples had

long since passed away?
The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (usually just called the Nicaean creed) was
recognized by the whole church as being an official authoritative statement of faith. The
whole church recognized its authority because it was the result of the Nicaean and
Constantinople councils, which were big meetings where every congregation or area
was invited to send delegates to. No area was excluded. As time progressed, a word
sneaked into the creed which changed the meaning of it (In English, the original read
‘the Holy Spirit proceeds from the father’ to which was added ‘and from the Son’). For
many years, nobody much noticed or cared, as it was not official. But in about 1054 ad
the church in the West decided that they wanted to make this change official, and so
they did. But they did so, without consulting the churches in the East. The churches in
the east argued that as the creed belongs to the whole church, therefore that a whole
church council should have been called. The Churches of the west were not interested in
such a council, and soon both sides were ex-communicating each other. If Monty Python
ever wanted to film a sequel to the Life of Brian, this would be the farce to choose.
Here my sympathies agree with the church in the East, a church council should have
been called to resolve such an issue. The church has never produced a list of canonical
books with the authority of a whole church council behind it like the church had done to
make the Nicaean creed. I wish the church did make such a list at Nicaea; it would be
lovely to be able to refer to a “Nicaean Canon”. Rather, what did happen, is that regional
Synods such as the one in Hippo in AD 393, made a list of recognized books. But at no
point during the church age has the church made a canonical list of books that are
binding on all Christians everywhere, which had the authority of a whole church council
behind it, such as was and is the status of the Nicaean Creed.
It is my contention therefore that the church of today needs to see the binding authority
of the Old Testament as coming from God’s people of the Old Testament period, who
recognized the canonicity of their scriptures during the very time they were being
written. So then, was the Old Testament canonized by the church after all the disciples
had long since passed away? Not so far.
Brasch, R. The Unknown Sanctuary; the Story of Judaism, Its Teachings, Philosophy and
Symbols. Sydney Angus and Robertson, 1969.
Eusebius. The History of the Church, n.d.
Grey, Jacqueline. Them, Us, and Me: How the Old Testament Speaks to People Today.
Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010.
La Sor, William Sanford, David Allan Hubbard, Frederic W. Bush, and Frederic William
Bush. Old Testament Survey: The Message, Form, and Background of the Old Testament.
Eerdmans, 1983.
Miller, Stephen M, and Robert V Huber. The Bible: A History. Lion Hudson Publishing,
2015.
Reeves, Ryan M., and Charles E Hill. Know How We Got Our Bible. Zondervan, 2018.
The books by Eusebius, Grey, and Reeves are available from Koorong.

[1] Grey, Them, Us, and Me, 29 Professor Grey does go on to say that the order of the
books was fluid for some time. Brasch dates the canonisation of the Prophets before 200
BCE, see Brasch, The Unknown Sanctuary; the Story of Judaism, Its Teachings, Philosophy
and Symbols, 67.
[2] Miller and Huber, The Bible: A History, 85–90; La Sor et al. agree with the three-fold
division, and date the acceptance of the OT canon to 150 BCE, except for Esther, see La
Sor et al., Old Testament Survey, 20.
[3] Reeves and Hill, Know How We Got Our Bible, 37–38 We need to bear in mind that
academics debate the nature of these councils, and how binding they were, and indeed if
they ever existed. ; Brasch, The Unknown Sanctuary; the Story of Judaism, Its Teachings,
Philosophy and Symbols, 54.
[4] Brasch, The Unknown Sanctuary; the Story of Judaism, Its Teachings, Philosophy and
Symbols, 95.
[5] Eusebius, The History of the Church, bk. 4:26.