From Moses to Malachi

Inspiration. The Bible is one book with one story to tell though it is read and studied like a library, a collection of sixty-six individual books. Comparing the first chapters of Genesis with the last chapters of Revelation demonstrates that the books of the Bible are woven together to form a seamless garment. Though written by forty authors over a span of sixteen centuries the sixty-six books have one story to tell. The unity comes from the fact that all sixty-six books have one divine author. Both Old and New Testament authors claim that they were speaking and writing God’s words. Moses wrote what God had revealed to him. When Moses went and told the people all the LORD’S words and laws, they responded with one voice, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said (Exodus 24:3-4). David claimed, The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue (2 Samuel 23:2). The prophet Amos declared, surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared— who will not fear? The Sovereign LORD has spoken—who can but prophesy? (Amos 3:7-8). New Testament confirmation. The Epistle to the Hebrews begins with the declaration, In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe (Hebrews 1:1). To the apostle Paul the Old Testament books were the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:15-17). Peter claimed inspiration for the Old Testament prophets. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20-21). The early church had only one book that they called the “Scriptures,” the same book we now call the Old Testament. The Bible of Jesus. The Old Testament was the Bible Jesus read and taught. In His first public proclamation Jesus read from the prophecy of Isaiah, The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favor (Isaiah 61:1-2) and He declared, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). During His ministry Jesus repeatedly said, “It is written” and appealed to the Old Testament as the source and authority for His teaching. He held it to be eternal and to have absolute authority. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished (Matthew 5:18). To His critics Jesus said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me” (John 5:46). After His crucifixion and resurrection Jesus admonished the disciples on the way to Emmaus, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Luke 24:25-27). First not Old. Words have a long and intriguing history. Our English word “Bible” is a transliteration of the Latin biblia, which was itself a transliteration of the Greek, biblion, or “book.” The meaning of words may suffer in the process of translation from one language to another. Our word “testament” prompts some to think of a deceased person’s “last will and testament.” Attaching the designation “Old” to the first section of the Bible may imply that it is outdated or has been replaced by the “New.” That is unfortunate. When Christianity permeated the Roman Empire the books of the Hebrew Bible and the newly written books of the apostles were translated into Latin and arranged in two sections designated, Vetus Testamentum and Novum Testamentum. Our English Bibles preserve that distinction between “Old” and “New” and the designation “Testament.” But to the Greek-speaking Christians of the first and second centuries the writings of the prophets before Christ were simply ta biblia, “the books.” The Old Testament is foundational and essential to understanding the New Testament. The Old Testament contains the promise that finds its fulfillment in the New Testament. Collection of the Old Testament. Moses is traditionally held to be the author of the first five books that we call the Pentateuch or “the Law.” The prophet Malachi appears last in our Bible. Together these authors span over one thousand years from 1446 to 430 B.C. With the book of Malachi the Old Testament was completed. The process by which the thirty-nine books were collected and placed in their current order is a mystery. Their contemporaries usually recognized the authors of these books as God’s spokesmen. Their writings were preserved, copied, and circulated as the voice of God. The books of the Old Testament are called “canonical” and the process by which the books were recognized as authoritative and collected together is called “canonization.” The term “canon” came originally from the Hebrew word qaneh for a reed that was used as a tool for measuring. It became kaneh in the Greek translation, canna when it passed into Latin, and thus our English canon, “list or rule,” of accepted books. Formation of the Old Testament. There was no formal process for canonization but the books we now have were accepted and the shape of the Old Testament essentially established before the advent of Christ. Hezekiah, king of Judah, oversaw the collection of some of the Proverbs and may have played a role in the formation of the Old Testament. Ezra is considered the first of the order of scribes whose task it was to copy, teach, and preserve the documents. Ezra is also one of the last authors of an Old Testament book and is often credited with having a major role in the canonization process. The canon of the Old Testament was probably completed by 300 B.C. (R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, 287). The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, 250 to 100 B.C., provides a witness to the canon of the Old Testament. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in A.D. 1947 supports the conclusion that the Old Testament canon was in place before the time of Christ. However, the formal process of Old Testament canonization is often dated in A.D. 90 at the Council of Jamnia. With the devastation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple by the Romans in A.D. 70 the Jewish people had to rely solely on the Scriptures to preserve their national and religious identity. The Roman government allowed a select group of Jewish scholars to meet for the purpose of confirming the Old Testament canon. They discussed various problems, but in the end they affirmed the canon as it had been historically received.