Peering Through the Mists of Time

The canon of the Hebrew Bible---what Christians know as the Old Testament---was settled (also known as “closed”) so long ago that the exact details have been lost. We do know, however, that it consisted of 22 books, which were collected into the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.

The best commentary on the canon of the Old Testament comes from the Jewish historian Josephus (who lived from 37-100 A.D.):

We have but twenty-two books containing the history of all time, books that are justly believed in; and of these, five are the books of Moses, which comprise the law and earliest traditions from the creation of mankind down to his death. From the death of Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes, King of Persia, the successor of Xerxes, the prophets who succeeded Moses wrote the history of the events that occurred in their own time, in thirteen books. The remaining four documents comprise hymns to God and practical precepts to men. "It is true our history has been written since Artaxerxes very particularly but has not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there has not been an exact succession of the prophets since that time." (Against Apion, Book 1, Section 8) 

Although he did not provide a book-by-book list, the twenty-two books of Josephus correspond very closely to the modern twenty-four books of the Hebrew canon, assuming that he included Lamentations with Jeremiah and Ruth with Judges. His remark implies that the canon has been closed for some time: his mention of Artaxerxes suggest that it was closed in the time of the prophets Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi, who lived at the same time as Artaxerxes. The difference in number between the Hebrew canon and the Christian Old Testament (24 vs 39) reflects changes in presentation, not content, such as dividing Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles into two parts and dividing the Minor Prophets into 12 separate books instead of just one. But the canons are the same.

Next time: Romans, Greeks, and the number 72