How was the Old Testament Canon put together?

from the old testament

• The Old Testament canon was received over time. With some small exceptions (the book of Esther, for example), the writings were readily received almost immediately because their authors were largely prophets who were authorized to speak for God. Jeremiah 1:1–2 exemplified this: “The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.” In this opening statement, the prophet both identified himself and explained that what he was writing came from the LORD.
• Because they were writing what God revealed to them, the Old Testament’s authority stands on God, not on the men who wrote it. That is, it has the marks of divinity on it (cf. 2 Peter 1:20–21). Thus, the Old Testament canon is self-authenticating, which is why God instructed them to test everything by Scripture (Deuteronomy 13:1–5). Anything that contradicted what God had revealed was rejected, while anything written by His authorized prophets was accepted.
• Additionally, contemporaries and later prophets also affirmed the other writings. For example, after Moses died, Joshua said, “be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you … This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it” (Joshua 1: 6, 9). As God’s replacement for Moses (Deuteronomy 31:23), Joshua confirmed that what Moses wrote was Scripture and was to be obeyed as if God Himself had said it. Other such examples include 2 Samuel 23:1, Daniel 9:2, and Nehemiah 8:1–3.
• Because their writings were considered Scripture, future generations were also careful to preserve them. This included storing Moses' writings with the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 31:24–26), ensuring they were passed along (1 Samuel 10:25), and teaching them to others (Nehemiah 8:8).
• In this way, the Old Testament canon formed naturally over time. By the end of the BC era, the Jewish canon was already being compiled into lists and categorized into three groups: Torah, Prophets, and Writings.

from the new testament

• When Jesus was on earth, the Old Testament canon in full had been serving the Jewish community for 400 to 450 years. It is no surprise, then, that He and the New Testament authors treated it as known and settled.
• For His part, Jesus regularly quoted from and alluded to the Jewish canon. This included references to specific authors and their writings, such as Moses (cf. Matthew 19:8), David (cf. Matthew 22:43–44), Isaiah (cf. Matthew 15:7), and Jonah (cf. Matthew 12:39–40). He quoted them as authoritative, affirming they were part of the canon. He also referred to the Jewish groupings of books, saying things such as, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44), where “Psalms” was a shorthand for referring to the “Writings” in some collections. This showed that He believed the Jewish canon was authorized in its entirety. He also referenced bookends of the Prophets, saying “… from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah …” (Matthew 23:35). More than just alphabetically a through z, Abel was found in Genesis, the first book of the Jewish canon, whereas Zechariah is in 2 Chronicles, the last book of the Jewish canon. He thus viewed the Jewish canon as the complete canon.
• The New Testament authors also affirmed the Old Testament as authoritative. Just about every NT book quotes or alludes to the Jewish canon, including Romans 9:17, Galatians 3:8, and 2 Timothy 3:16.
• Note that neither Jesus nor the New Testament writers ever quoted or referenced the Apocrypha, books written in the 450 years between the close of the Jewish canon and the beginning of the New Testament. Thus, while the Roman Catholic canon includes those books, since they were not a part of the Jewish canon and not affirmed by Jesus or the apostles, they are not considered part of the biblical Old Testament canon and are not to be read as authoritative in the way the canon is read.

implications for today

God created us in His image (Genesis 1:26–27), meaning we were created to be like Him and to display Him to the rest of creation. After we sinned (Genesis 3), our relationship with Him was broken, and we no longer had direct access to Him. However, God determined to repair that relationship, which required teaching us about Him, our sin, His justice, and how to be saved. The Old Testament, and the history it covers, is God setting the groundwork for the arrival of Jesus, our Savior.

Because Scripture is God’s revelation, He is the one who has ensured its accuracy (cf. 2 Peter 1:20–21). He specifically chose individuals to be His prophets and to speak for Him. It was through them that we received the Old Testament books, and because God intended for us to know Him, we can be confident that the Old Testament we have today is complete and true.

Sometimes people dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant; however, most of what we know about God is in those books! Therefore, it’s imperative that we read it as often as we read the New Testament and that we come to know it as much as we know the New Testament. When Paul said that all of Scripture is profitable for a Christian's life (2 Timothy 3:15–17), he wrote at a time when most of the Scripture available was the Old Testament.

God intended to reveal Himself, and we can trust that the God who does whatever He pleases (Psalm 115:3) has not failed to do so!