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Sacred Books: the Canon of the Hebrew Bible at the End of the First Century

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Sacred Books: the Canon of the Hebrew Bible at the End of the First Century BYU Studies Quarterly Volume 36 Issue 3 Article 22 7-1-1996 Sacred Books: The Canon of the Hebrew Bible at the End of the First Century Robert L. Maxwell Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq Part of the Mormon Studies Commons, and the Religious Education Commons Recommended Citation Maxwell, Robert L. (1996) "Sacred Books: The Canon of the Hebrew Bible at the End of the First Century," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 36 : Iss. 3 , Article 22. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol36/iss3/22 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in BYU Studies Quarterly by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maxwell: Sacred Books: The Canon of the Hebrew Bible at the End of the Fir sacred books the canon of the hebrew bible at the end of the first century robert L maxwell introduction A number of fragmentary manuscripts in hebrew and ara- maic have been found at masada including seven from the hebrew bible these are masla lev 45434394599 maslamaslbmas1b lev 831 1140 masic beutdeut 3317 21 342 6 masid ezek 3111 3715 masle Ps 816 856 maslfmaslemas1f Ps 1501 6 and maslamaslg Ps 1826 29 aside from minor orthographic differences these are in all cases the same as the masoretic text MT of the hebrew bible we have today there are in addition a number of extraextrabiblicalbiblical fragments including a fragment of ben sira ecclesiasticus masihmasohmaslhmas1h and a fragment apparently of the book ofJubiljubileesees Mamasbaslimaslimasilslisiisil1 i I11 the presence of biblical and apocryphal texts at masada demonstrates that these texts were valued by the various groups that occupied the site before the roman conquest but it also brings up the question of canon which if any of these texts had been canonized or considered sacred and binding scripture by their readers their presence at the site alone says nothing of their canonicity for many writings of a clearly noncanonical nature were also found at masada while it is impossible to know the exact opinion of the inhabitants of masada on these writings there is some evidence for the development of a hebrew bible canon in the larger jewish community and interestingly enough certain defining events for the hebrew canon were probably occurring almost at the same time as the fall of masada in 73 CE 302 Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1996 1 sacred books BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, Iss. 3 [1996], Art. 22 303 definition of the hebrew canon jerome while we lack evidence for most of the details of this defining process we can set some terminating dates after which the canon was clearly fixed because of conflicting latin versions of the bible in the late fourth century jerome was com- missioned by pope Darnardamasusnasus in AD 382 or 383 to produce a new authoritative latin translation jerome departed from the former tradition of translating the hebrew bible from the greek septu- agint version and instead embarked on an intensive study of hebrew in the holy land 2 Jejeromesgeromesromes study apparently also included research into the canon as it existed among the jews of his time for in the preface to the first biblical book he translated from hebrew samuelkingsSamuel Kings published about 3903 he outlines what he has learned just as there are twenty two letters elementaalementaelementa with which we write every- thing we say in hebrew so there are a total of twenty two books voluminavoluminalyoluminayovolumina in the hebrew scriptures having explained that as there are five double letters in hebrew so there are also five dou- ble books in the hebrew bible he goes on to list the books first come genesis exodus leviticus numbers and deute- ronomy these are the five books of moses which they call the torathborathTorath or the law second is the order of the prophets which are joshua judgesruthJudgesRuth samuel kings isaiah jeremiah ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets eight books in Jejeromesgeromesromes count the third order comprises the hagiographa the nine books ofjob psalms proverbs ecclesiastes song of songs daniel chronicles ezra in two books namely ezra and nehemiah and esther for a grand total of twenty two because of the signifi- cance of the correspondence of the number of the letters in the hebrew alphabet with this number of books in the bible jerome felt he had arrived at a sure method of determining which books were canonical and which were excluded and in this preface he names some of the more important noncanonical non in canone books 4 if we can assume that jerome includes lamentations with jeremiah as one of the double books 5 the canon of Jejeromesgeromesromes hebrew bible is the same as that of the masoretic text in other https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol36/iss3/22 2 304 Maxwell: Sacred Books:masada The Canon of the Hebrewand Bible atthe the End ofworld the Fir of the new testament words it had reached its final state at least in palestine at the latest by the end of the fourth century CE origen the content of the hebrew canon was discussed in the third century by the greek christian origen circa 185 255 CE according to the historian eusebius who was born dur- ing the generation following origensbrigensOrigens death origen cataloged the books of the hebrew bible as follows it ought to be known that the conventional vaaev5ia9rkouv&a t1ta kol in other words canonical books which the hebrews have handed down number twenty two the same number as letters in their alphabet 6 origen working from the greek tradition did not divide the hebrew bible into three parts as jerome did but instead simply listed the books genesis exodus leviticus numbers deuteron- omy joshua judges ruth kingdoms 1 2 in other words samuel kingdoms 3 4 kings chronicles ezra probably ezranehe miah psalms proverbs ecclesiastes song of songs isaiah jere miahlamentationsletter of jeremiah daniel ezekiel job and 7 esther outside of these enobeoo6eoo0 af8fe rotTODTCOVdovcov falls maccabees ori gens twenty two include several double books and one triple book JeremiahjeremiahlamentationsLamentations together with the letter ofjeremiah which is now included in the apocrypha strangely his list omits the twelve minor prophets melito eusebius also quoted melito bishop of sardis on the question of the canon melito lived during the reign of marcus aurelius 161 80 CE and was active just before the birth of ori- gen in the section of melitos writings quoted by eusebius the bishop listed the recognized writings 06ioxoyouievcovgoxoyougfbovvov ypwpcovypacpcov of the old testament the list was made on behalf of a church member onesimus who had inquired of melito which books were authoritative in order to make a compilation of passages about the lord from the law and the prophets EKEktekreT zodzoutobTODrob v6iouv6guu KOCI TCOVrdvravr&v 7ipoprtcovnpotqtcov it appears that melito did not know the answer to this question when asked for he made a special trip to the holy land eiadqr1veiq TTV &varoxvavaroxnv where he could learn the facts more accurately melito does not inform us from whom he learned which writ- ings were recognized but it seems likely at that period and in that place that it might have been an official of the jewish christian Published by BYU ScholarsArchive, 1996 3 sacred books BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, Iss. 3 [1996], Art. 22 305 church or possibly even one of the authoritative teachers of the palestinian rabbinic schools his list is as follows genesis exodus numbers leviticus deuteronomy jesus the son of nun joshua judges ruth 1 4 kings 1 2 chronicles the psalms of david f 1 solomons proverbs and wisdom 2oioicovolokogcovoq napotgtilapoiaiaiat ilT kawottKCCI1 copia2opialopi f u ecclesiastes song of songs job isaiah jeremiah the twelve prophets daniel ezekiel and ezra 8 missing from this list assuming the same doubling of certain books as jerome and origen assumed is esther which as we shall see below was in fact one of the last books to be recognized as authoritative 9 it is clear that at the end of the second century the canon of the hebrew bible was not fixed in the same form it would later assume indeed it was so nebulous that average church mem- bers and even ecclesiastical officials did not know which books were authoritative without doing quite a bit of research josephus A final post masada witness to the state of the canon is the jewish witness josephus born circa 37 5838 CE in one of his last works against aaionapion 1110 josephus used the consis- tency of the scriptures as a proof of the truth of the israelite faith he claims that because only prophets were allowed to write the records there is no disagreement 5iapcovia8taycoviaq within them these prophets were able to write accurate history because they learned the facts through inspiration from god TTVrtlv bravotavrtivejiutvoiav TTVorv anoroijaabanh touTOD OFGEOTJob thus in a not so subtle criticism of the state of the greek religious writings the jews do not have thousands g1jptap upia5eaf8f of conflicting books but instead have only twenty two consistent texts josephus does not list the books but does note the tripartitetripartatetripartate division of the scriptures informing us that there are five books of moses then thirteen books written by prophets subsequent to moses and finally four books of hymns and counsel 511 josephus also claimed that nothing authoritative was written after the thirteen prophetic books because prophecy and
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