The canon of Scripture…The word Scripture conveys the idea of sacredness.

The Bible tells us that the Law was written by Moses and that it was periodically read to the people …Deuteronomy 31:9-11…So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. Then Moses commanded them: "At the end of every seven years, in the year for cancelling debts, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place He will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing."

Deuteronomy 31: 24-26…After Moses finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord: "Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness againstyou."

Other prophets also recorded the Word of God …1 Samuel 10:25…Samuel explained to the people the regulations of the kingship. He wrote them down on a scroll and deposited it before the Lord …

Isaiah 30:8…"Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness."

Jeremiah 36:2…"Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now."

Zechariah 7:12…"They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets …"

Daniel 9:2…"… in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years."

The New Testament records that Jesus quoted from the Law, the Prophets and the Holy Writings. He mentioned events like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Noah and the flood, Jonah and the whale. He referred to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel. He showed His belief in the whole canon of Old Testament Scripture and His literal interpretation of it.

The Bible gives the unmistakable impression that by the time the New Testament was written (ca 40-90 AD) there was a fixed canon of Old Testament Scripture to which authoritative appeal could be made. Certain verses assume the existence of a complete and sacred collection of Jewish writings that were already marked off from other literature as separate and fixed. Jesus is recorded in John 10:35 as saying that "Scripture cannot be broken."

From the time of Samuel, the Torah ÔÇô the first five books of the Law of Moses ÔÇô was considered authoritative. By the time of Jesus the Old Testament canon had been settled in the minds of Jews. Josephus, the Jewish historian, writing around 100 AD, also assumed that the Old Testament canon, as we know it, was fixed and settled.

New Testament…As in the case of the Tanachwe cannot set a date upon which men decided the canon. What we can say is that by around 370 AD there was official recognition of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament

Tanach…The Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament. Although the order of the books is different from that of Christian publications of the Old Testament, the content is the same.

The word Tanach is formed from an acronym of the Hebrew words: Torah, Neviim,and Ketuvim, meaning the Law,the Prophets, and the Holy Writings.

The Torah is the first five books of the Bible ÔÇô Genesis to Deuteronomy ÔÇô the Law of Moses.

The Neviim ÔÇô the Prophets ÔÇô is the second division. It includes Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets.

The Ketuvim ÔÇô the Holy Writings ÔÇô is the third division. It includes Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

The following principles were at work:

2 Peter 1:16…"We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

2 Peter 3:15-16…"Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."

For more answers to Bible related questions : …John Nel tel.- 0824527155 or e mail – jmnelarch@gmail.com