How the Old Testament was Canonized

Recently, we were at a Bible study, and some people asked, how do we know we have the complete Bible, or words of that similar context? And so today, I'm asking, was God's Word put together by men, apart from God?

For instance, by the Roman Catholic Church? Or was it inspired by God? God breathed to his servants, and they therefore put together God's Word, the way God is filed it to be.

Turn with me, please, to 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3. Verse 16 and 17. It says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. If you look at that word in Greek, it is God-breathed. It's just breathe. It's that inspiration, that breath that God has given to the writers, to human writers, so that they're inspired.

And God's Word, all scripture, is profitable for doctrine, for teaching, and for reproof. So we taught, and then sometimes we maybe kind of understand a little bit incorrectly. And so we need to say, hey, that understanding is not quite correct. This is the correct understanding. And therefore, then you go the correction, which is correct, that understanding. It's like tweaks. For instance, like say, for instance, you want to shoot a rocket to the moon, you know, so you got the teaching or knowledge to actually shoot the rocket to the moon. But then you realize that it's a little bit off target. So you've got to reprove it. You've got to correct it, identify that it's wrong. And then you've got to correct it. Even though you've got to tweak it or readjust that direction. And once it's readjusted, then you give instruction, further instruction, of how to keep it that way. In other words, instruction how to live in righteousness. So correction is not mean beating one out because one is wrong. No, correction is just a tweak, a gentle, loving tweak. And God's word is profitable, inspired by God, to teach us about His ways. If we slightly off-mark, to identify where we are slightly off-mark, and then to allow us to correct that, to re-tweak it. And then gives us the further knowledge and instruction to go on doing God's way, inwards the way, of God's righteousness. Instruction of how to live and how to stay that way. Now, the question is, do we really believe that God's word is given by His progression of God? Of course we do.

If that is the catch, it was put together not by human beings that were not following God, but was put together by human beings that were indeed following that inspiration of God.

So, who did God inspire to put the Bible together? Should we believe, by going to a Google search and look for a secular historian and what he thinks that how God, how the Bible was put together? Or should we search the Scriptures to tell us who God gave that responsibility to, to put the Bible together? Because, after all, it's inspired by God. And therefore, thus, the Bible contains all of God's revelation to man that we need for, as it says here, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for frustration, for righteousness. Or something must be. There's some hidden books must be that somehow they slip that.

Do we really think that God will allow that?

Because we already have the semanet. God is powerful. Do we really trust in Him? Do we have the deep respect that He is going to give us the full menu of what we need?

So, which books should be in the Bible? Do we have the full content of God's writings for us?

Or should there be others that we should look out and add to it because they're hidden? Or, to whom did God give that responsibility to select which books should be in the Bible?

Should be any sort of pagan or half-pagan, half-Christian, historian decision? Or did God use His faithful servants to do that?

So, in this sermon, which is my first sermon on this series, I'm going to cover some of the steps of what we call the Old Testament canonization. In other words, how was the Old Testament put together? And which books should be part of the Old Testament when that canonization was done? And by whom was the Old Testament canonized according to God's will? Now, obviously, this is a large subject, and much has been written, and even a son in God's church have written a lot about it. But I just want to keep to some simple, you know, keep it simple, Simon, you know, keep it simple. Because so that we know, so that we know, we can trust God.

Because we're in the sermon, we can trust Him. And for those that are willing to, with that deep respect, just follow that simple truth. So today, we'll see that God has used His people to do the canonization, and we'll then have the conclusion, which means we can have the deep confidence that we have all of God's inspired Word. So turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 17. Because we read verse 16 in a moment ago, which says all Scripture is given by inspiration.

Verse 17, what is the purpose? So that, you know, so what? So that, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God has preserved His Word for us with one purpose, with one end goal, for us to be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Would He leave that to happenstance to some half-pagan people to do that, and put it together? No, it's God's Word, and it's inspired by Him, and therefore it's put together by Him under inspiration. Let's go further to 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 14. So it's in the same book, in the same section, and even in the same page. It says, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 14, remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words, you know, profit, to the ruin of the years. Yeah, people get involved with a lot of things that are no-b truth. We do have the word of truth, but we do need to, as it says elsewhere, as I'm 20, I think it is, you know, a little bit, yeah, a little bit there, so that we can actually divide it and put it together. And then a little bit further, in verse 23 says, avoid foolish and ignorant disputes. Oh yeah, you'll have a lot of disputes about all, but what about this book, and what about that book, what about that, whatever the people come up with. Avoid those foolish and ignorant disputes. I mean, God's word doesn't, it's not politically correct, you know, but it's the truth. Be careful, because they're ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And the servant of the eternal of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle to all able to teach, patient, in humility, question those who are in opposition, they're opposed, they've come out of different objections. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they will know the truth, because we know that sometimes people not accept it, and they will be stubborn, and they'll say, no, run and settle, as you say, and they'll go down way. And in verse 26, and that day may come to the senses, and escape the smear of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do Satan's work, his work. So, we really need to be aware that Satan has deceived the whole world. And what better way to start deceiving people by questioning the veracity of God's Word? To break away God's Word, and to break away that trust in God's Word. If there's one thing that is a faith destroyer, something that is going to destroy your faith is when you chip away at the very word of God, and you start saying, well, I doubt it. Maybe these books are not all there, or there are books missing, and things like that. Remember, Christ said, thy word is truth.

So, that's what we're doing today. We're going to look a little bit further about the Bible, and we're going to specifically look at Old Testament.

Turn with me, please, to Luke chapter 24. Look chapter 24. This is Christ.

Now, look chapter 24. That's after his resurrection. Look 24, verse 44 and 45.

And so, let me say, let me say, let Christ say to them, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written with the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the Psalts concerning me. So, Christ was saying, this was written and prophesied about me in what you and I today call the Old Testament.

And he gives a very clear definition of the three sections, main sections of the Old Testament, or the three main parts or divisions of the Old Testament, which is the law of Moses, the prophets, and the section which is started with the Psalms, which is also called the writings, but it's the section in which the Psalms is the first book that they're of. So, those three sections, and if you just want to make a note, you can just write it down, it's the law, which is the five books of the law, five books of Moses, you know, the Pentateuch.

Then it's the prophets. So, they're in the law, you've got five books, five. Then you've got prophets, you've got six major books. First, you've got the former prophets, which was Joshua and Judges.

Then what they used to call the book of the kingdoms, which included 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Samuel, 1 Samuel, and 17. That was the book of the kingdoms, the kingdoms. The kingdoms. So, there's the former prophets, two books, Joshua and Judges, and the book of the kingdoms. So, Joshua and Judges were put together as one.

Now, today we've split it up into two, but still the same major group, Joshua and Judges, and the book of the kingdoms, which is Samuel and Kings, which today we are first Samuel, second Samuel, first Kings, and second Kings, but it's the same books. It's got two of the former books, the Joshua and Judges, and the kingdoms. And then we have three major prophets, three major prophets, which is Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, three major prophets. So, there we have two books, as I mentioned, which is the former, which is one was Joshua and Judges, the other one is the kingdoms. Then another book was the major prophet, and that is three books with a major prophet, which is Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. So, now we've got five. Three plus two is five, right? It was the former and a major. And then we had one extra book, which is the minor prophets, which actually today are the 12 minor prophets, but it was just compacted into one, let's say, scroll, okay, into one book. Okay, so those are the 12 from Hosea to N So, the prophets, we had six books, well, maybe scrolls or whatever, so six books. So, he had the five of the law, six of the prophets, and then he had the writings, which started with songs.

The writings had 11 books, 11 books. First, we had the former poetic writings, which is songs, prophets, and Job. Then we had the five scrolls, or the five scrolls, what they call the megalot, which are Song of Solomon's, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. And those would be read at specific times of the year, every year. We'll come to that a little later. So, it's the five of the megalot. And then we had the three last ones, which were, they called the latter, restoration books, which are Daniel, Esme and Nehemiah, which was one, and Chronicles, which was another one. The second Chronicles, that was into one, basically, a chorolo manuscript. So, we had 11 books in the writings. We go back through them again. The three former poetic, which is songs, prophets, and Job. We have the five megalot, Song of Solomon's, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. And we had three later, or latter, restoration books, which was Daniel, Esme and Nehemiah, which was one, and Chronicles, which was also one, like first Chronicles, second Chronicles.

So, in that structure, we had a total of 22 major books, or 22 scrolls, let's put it this way.

Law, prophets, and writings were the three major divisions, and we saw, yeah, that Christ referred to them. So, they knew exactly what it was. They were total of 22. Now, some people later start splitting a roll into two, for instance, Samuel and King's separated, and then Josh and Judges separated, and then they ended up with a count of 24. So, some people say count of 24. And in our Bibles, we just split them up, like, for instance, the 12 minor prophets. Each one is a book, instead of just one big book called the Minus, but we still have the same content.

The same content. So, at the time of Christ, there was looked as 22 scrolls.

Those books are exactly the same books we have today in Old Testament Bible, but we've just subdivided, for instance, Kings and Samuel and Kings into four books. First Samuel, Second Samuel, First Kings, Second Kings. So, we just split them up into smaller sections. We put it this way. Like, for instance, the 12 minor prophets, which was just one book. Now, we've got, starting from Isaiah all the way to Malachi, we just split them in front.

Now, let's look at Matthew 23. Matthew 23, verse 34 to 35. Matthew 23, verse 34 to 35.

Because what we said so far is, Christ identified there were three main sections, the law, the prophets, and the Psalms. The Psalms meaning the first book of the writings which had 11 books in it. As I mentioned to you, the former poetic, the Megalot, and the later restoration.

Christ identified with those three great divisions of Old Testament. But look at it, another interesting point. They had seven parts to it. You see, because, even though there's three great divisions, the law, the prophets, and the writings, so there was the law, the prophets had three subsections into it, which was the former prophets, the Major and the Minor. And then the writings had another three subsections, which was the former poetic writings, which starts with the Psalms, then had the five Megalots, and the three later restoration books. So if you look at those subsections, even though there were three, they were split into seven, you know, which was the law, three for the prophets, and then three for the writings, so seven. So we had three great divisions of the Old Testament, which means complete, and we had seven subdivisions, great subdivisions, which means complete perfection.

You know, a lot, God uses a lot in numbers, like the weeks of seven days and things like that, so there's a lot of meanings in numbers. And even 22 is for a meaning, because 22 is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Interesting. We'll come to that in a moment. But let's look at Matthew 23. In Matthew 23, now Christ again is recognizing the order of those books, and look at it in Matthew 23, verse 34 to 35. Matthew 23, verse 34 to 35. This is therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, the Christ down there, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. And indeed, the apostles and a lot of true Christians have been persecuted. Verse 35, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah. And if you look at the biblical books in that order that they had at that time, in that order, as it was that original order, which indeed you probably, if you get a Hebrew Bible like a Tanakh, you'll find it in that same order. From, it says, the righteous blood from Abel, which is in the first book, Genesis, to the blood of Zechariah, which is on the last book, which is in Chronicles. Because remember, there are three latter restoration books where Daniel, Ezra, and Maya in Chronicles. So, Chronicles was the last book in the way they had organized.

Now, some people may say, oh well, it says Zechariah, son of Benekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and altar. And when you go to Chronicles, it says that he was the son of Joiada. And people say, oh well, he's a different person. But when you look at it many times, people in the Bible have two names, like Simon Peter, sometimes referred to Simon, sometimes referred to Peter, sometimes referred to Saul, and at times referred to Paul. Sometimes he's referred to Matthew, sometimes referred to Levi. It's the same person. So, quite often, you have the pernanes used, and Joiada and Parakaya imply the same meaning, which says the praise or blessing of Jehovah. So, it just shows that Christ recognized the beginning and the end of that Old Testament. There were no additional books added to it. You know, it's like book endings through that point. So, that is, therefore, we know that Christ supported the three major divisions of the law, the prophets, and the writings. Christ also identified the book endings through the people that died in those sections in that Old Testament from the beginning to the end.

And then let's look at another example here, where Christ spoke to the Jews in Matthew 26, verse 34. Matthew 26, 26 verse 34.

It says, How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must happen thus?

When Christ said, the Scriptures, they all knew what he was talking about. They were not wondering, Oh, there are a few other books that he's missed out.

In that hour, Jesus said the multitudes, and let's look at verse 56.

But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. And all the disciples for two came and fled. They knew which ones were the proper Scriptures.

There was no doubt about which ones were the Scriptures.

Look also in Acts 17, Acts 17, verse 2. And here is Paul going to synagogues around the Gentile world, in this case in Thessaloniki. And look in verse 2, And Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures.

There was no argument about which Scriptures they were.

They knew which ones they were. Look at verse 11, 17, verse 11. Now, these were more fair-minded than those in Thessaloniki, those in the Berea ones, in that they received the Word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures. They knew which Scriptures to search.

And those are the ones that Christ defined with the book endings, as I explained to you of the martyrs, and the three parts. Therefore, there is no explanation about which Scriptures.

Those Scriptures were circulated through all the synagogues around the world, whatever Jewish people were.

And today, you and I have the same Old Testament content.

Yes, it's divided into, subdivided into books, maybe different sequence, but it's the same content.

Now, look at another interesting Scripture as well. It's in 2 Timothy, chapter 3.

2 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 15. And this is Paul talking about Timothy young.

And he says that from childhood, you, Timothy, have known the holy Scriptures. You, Timothy, from childhood, have known the holy Scriptures.

The word holy comes from the Greek, he-erios, which means sacred. Sacred.

Sacred meant, when something was sacred, it meant it pointed to the holy place in the temple. Sacred.

Because those are the Scriptures that were kept in the temple.

They were the temple Scriptures. That's why they were sacred.

And all synagogues throughout the Roman world had exact replicas. Of the temple Scriptures.

In other words, of the sacred Scriptures. In other words, of the official canon.

They all had the same. Around the whole Greek world. So, we have, in the original order, 22 major Old Testament books.

And this is supported by other writers outside of the Bible. For instance, Josephus, in Book 1, Section 8, of his famous work, Antiquity of the Jews, recognized only 22 books.

Jerome, at the end of the fourth century, in 391 AD, said the following, and I quote, as then, there are 22 elementary characters by means of which we write in Hebrew. And it was the Hebrew calendar. Hebrew, half of it, had 22 characters.

So, I'm going to restate that again. As then, there are 22 elementary characters by means of which we write in Hebrew. So, we reckon 22 books by which, as by the alphabet of the doctrine of God, a righteous man is instructed.

So, they knew exactly which ones were the beginning and the end, the sequence, that there were 22, and it was about 23, or 27, or whatever the number. There were those 22. And those are the exact same ones we have in our Old Testament Bible, or those linked to different ways, because, instead of having just one book for Sandal and Kings, we have first Sandals, second Sandals, first Kings, second Kings, just divided slightly differently. But it's the same content. Also, the early Greeks, the Syrians, the Armenians, and early Catholics admit that there were 22 major books in Old Testament.

To this day, Jewish translations contain 22 Old Testament major books.

So, the books we have today in Old Testament have not been lost, and there's none missing.

It's all 22. Why 22 major books? As I said, numbers have a very important meaning to God.

22 is the complete Hebrew alphabet. So, it's the basis for the written word. Wow, the basis for the written word.

And then, there's also poetry done with the Hebrew alphabet that's called alphabetic acoustics.

For instance, you can do something, write some section of Scripture with the first letter of the alphabet, which is A. Then, you write some section of the Scripture with the second letter of the alphabet, and C, and so on. For instance, Psalm 119, which is the longest Psalm in the Bible, as you know, from verse 1 to verse 8. In Hebrew, they all start with A, a left. So, from verse 9 to 16, they all start with B. That's left. And then verse 17 to 24, they all start with C, which is emo, and so on. So, the 22nd, which ends the Psalm 119 with 22nd. So, each letter of the alphabet has eight Psalms to it. So, eight times 22, you add up 176, which is the number of Psalms in the book of Psalms.

The book of limitations, if you turn quickly to the book of limitations.

at Here we are... If you just quickly look at it. If you look at chapter 1, from verse 1 to verse 32, he is an across-beater. In all it's got 22 verses, and each verse begins with a letter of alphabet. So verse 1 starts with A, verse 2 starts with B, verse 3 is with C. So that is limitations Chapter 1. Now if you look at the limitations of chapter 2, how many verses have got? 22. Again, verse 1 starts with A, verse 2 with B, and so on, of the Hebrew alphabet.

Now you go to chapter 3, and how many have you got then?

66. That is a multiple of 22, right? Three times. So it's got three across-beater feet. Chapter 3, from A to the end, and then A to the end, and A to the end three times.

And then look at chapter 4. How many has got? 22. Again, from A to the end of the Hebrew alphabet, and look at chapter 5, again in 22, from A to the end of the Hebrew alphabet. So what have you got? You've got five chapters.

Now five means, symbolic, symbolized grace to God, number five.

But in the middle chapter, it's got three across-beaters. So in total, you've got one, two, plus three, so it's five, six, seven, seven across-beaters, which is complete. So it's God's complete grace to the people.

Look at Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31.

Proverbs 31.

Proverbs 31, there is a stitch right at the end of Proverbs 31. Starting from verse 10, which is called the virtuous woman or the virtuous wife.

From verse 10 to verse 31, how many verses is that? Counting in 22. Verse 10 starts with the A, verse 11 starts with the B, and so on. Yes, a full across-beater of the Hebrew alphabet.

It's a coincidence, isn't it? But it's full of it. It's full of it. I mean, I'm just highlighting to you a few that are interesting.

Genesis chapter one. I'm not going to go into it now, but if you take your time to count, there are 22 things or beings mentioned in Genesis. Chapter one, starting from day and night and ending with male man and female woman. 22. From Adam to Israel, how many generations?

22. What a coincidence! So there's a lot of interesting things that we don't fully understand.

But one thing we know, is God is probably a great mathematician better than you and I.

So, 22 Old Testament books, plus 27 New Testament books, which by the way, 27 is 3 to the power of 3. Right, 3 times 3 is 9, 9 times 3 is 27. Hmm, interesting. Three is complete. Alright, interesting. But, 22 Old Testament books, plus 27 New Testament books, adds up to how many books?

22 plus 27.

It's 49. 7 times 7 is? 49. Absolute completion of the Bible. A coincidence, isn't it? I don't think so.

Now, what about things like other versions like the Apocrypha and the Septuagint, and things like that, which were written primarily in a time, between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

At the early beginning of the 3rd century, he was actually born, born at the end of the second century, but he was about 18 when the century turned into the 3rd century. He was a man called Origen Adamantios.

He was a Hellenistic scholar and ascetic. Now, if you remember, there are some sermons about Gnosticism, and asceticism is a type of Gnosticism, and Paul speaks about Arroz the A or Touch not, don't do this, don't do whatever. There's all these ascetic ideas. But Origen, he was a scholar, and he was ascetic. So, to me, that means he was not a tricrucian. Right? Simple as that. But as researched by F.F. Bruce, in a book entitled, The Canon of Scripture, on page 73, which, by the way, you can download it for free as a PDF, which I do, so you don't have to buy it.

But on page 73 of the Canon of Scripture, he compiled what is called the Exapla, which in Greek means six-fold. So, what he had, he had six columns, after all the testimony. And in one column, he had the Hebrew text word for word. Imagine a whole old testament like that, in six columns. It was an amazing amount of work. Then another column, he had the Hebrew text transcribed into Greek letters. On the third column, he had a Greek version called Dachilos Greek version. On the fourth column, he had a Semancus Greek version.

On the first column, he had the Septuagint. And on the sixth column, he had the, which is obviously a Greek version as well. And then on the sixth column, he had the Theodosians Greek version. So he had Hebrew, a letter from the other text word for word. Then he had the Hebrew text like that. Then he had those four other Greek versions. One of them, which is the Septuagint, he then noticed that there were different versions of the Septuagint, which he then attributed that, to quote, the careless, carelessness of the scribes, or rash, or rash corrections they did, and therefore things were not 100% correct.

And he therefore, quote unquote, corrected that Septuagint. So that the current Septuagint version that you and I have, his Origen's corrected version, that he did early in the third century. Now, the Septuagint, therefore, has certain verses that quote exactly as it is in the New Testament. Some people say it's because he then tweaked them to be exactly as they are in the New Testament. Whether that is true or not, I do not know.

The Septuagint then also included the apocryphal books, books that were written between the Testaments. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Septuagint was divided into four sections, which was law, history, poetry, and prophets, which has in that way, includes our current Old Testament layout, which is around that sequence. But it's still that is the 22 books just laid out differently, the same content, which today we have 39 books. But then they added to the Septuagint extra books, which is the apocryphal books. The apocryphal books teach some things that are true.

But they also teach many things that are not true. In other words, it seems to remind you of something that is good and evil mixed together. In other words, things that are not true and not historically 100% accurate. Let me give you some examples of what the apocryphal teaches. Apocryphal teaches or gives examples of praying for the dead. That is incorrect. You should do that. The dead are dead. The barferer gives you examples of petitioning saints in heaven in their praise.

That's incorrect. The saints are dead. They sleep until resurrection. The barferer teaches worshipping of angels. Is that correct? You don't worship angels. The barferer teaches owls giving, quote-unquote. In other words, in the Catholic Church it's called penance. If you're in the Catholic, you know what penance is. You've got to do some sacrifices to pray for a town for your saints. So those are the things that are included in the apocrypha.

And those were not part of those three sections that Christ identified and they delineated by those book endings, as I mentioned to you. So, what have we got so far? We have, I've tried to keep it in a simple way, but we have clearly identified the apocryphal books were not part of the 22 Holy Scriptures, the temple scriptures.

And with it identified, there's no missing books. And you know, even Paul, he says, you know, some people that are trying to write to you in my name and things like that, there was a lot of ideas and people coming out and writing it through books, and yeah, people are finding them today. How well there should be in the Bible? Or people saying, well, there's a book from Paul, but there is this.

They're not from me. You know, there's a lot of those things happening. So, but now that we've proved which books should be in the Old Testament, and that we do have the complete set of books in the Old Testament, let's analyze them, how they were canonized. How do we put together? Let's start by reading in Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 we're going to read, started from verse 1. What advantage then has the Jew? Well, what is the prophet of circumcision?

Much in every way, chiefly because to them we're committed the oracles of God. The Jews, specifically the Jewish priesthood, had the custody of the holy writings. And not only that, the holy writings said, you've got to do this on the Sabbath, you've got to do this on these holy days, etc.

They had the custody of the day when those holy days were. Otherwise, how could people observe those holy days? Now let's look at Exodus 17 verse 14. Right at the beginning, Exodus 17 verse 14 says, And then the Lord said to Moses, write verse for a memorial in the book, and recounted in the giving of Joshua. Now, God instructed Moses to write things down, to preserve it as a memorial. And then look at Deuteronomy 28, which is the last one of the five books of the law, Deuteronomy 28, verse 38.

28, 58. If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glory as the awesome name, the Lord your God. Written in this book. So what do we have? As far as Old Testament, we actually have five canonizations.

Five canonizations. And the first canonization rule was putting together the books was done by Moses, the books of the law. Look also in Deuteronomy 31. Deuteronomy 31, verse 9 through 13.

So Moses wrote this rule and delivered it to the priests, the sons of Levi, the bulldog of the covenant. And Moses commanded them, saying, at the end of every seven years, the point of time of the earth, the peace of heaven echoes, the place that the Lord showed them, and then he used all these instructions, and says, you shall be careful, you shall learn, you shall year, you shall learn to fear, and he kept observing, you see in verse 12. So, and look at verse 13, and that their children, who have not known, may year and learn to fear the Lord your God. So the law was written and was to be read, so the people would know. So the first canonization was done by Moses. During the time of Moses, there was no real great conflict about which ones are the holy writings or not. There was only him. So those were the inspired writings. Later, as you know, for instance, at the time of Ezra, there were the Samaritans. Remember the Samaritans? That the northern tribe was taken out by Assyria, and they brought in foreigners into that area, which became known as the Samaritans. And then they said, well, we've got the writings, and they stopped writing their own things as well. So they started writing their own things, so there was conflicts at that time. But at the time of Moses, there was none. The remaining canonizations are actually mentioned in the Book of Chronicles, which was done, or a compilation done by Ezra, the last compilation of the Old Testament. And all canonizations took place in Jerusalem during the Old Testament times. Each canonization occurred when temple services were being revitalized. In other words, when people started going wrong, and then you needed to bring things back on track, like we saw strong use to say, bring the church back on track. So when things had gone off track, and when things were brought back on track, then there would be a canonization to get the people back on track. So let's look at that. And so we're going to look at the second canonization, which is done by Kings David and Solomon. And look with me in 1 Chronicles chapter 25. 1 Chronicles chapter 25.

1 Chronicles chapter 25. Reading verse 1. So David and Solomon put together why? Because the temple was being built. And because of that, there were ceremonies that had to be done, and things and responsibilities, and duties that had to be fulfilled for the temple. So there was a need for a canonization to identify what things to do for the temple services. So 1 Chronicles 25 verse 1.

And all these responsibilities of psalms and psalms and things to do in the temple, etc., were canonized by David and, believe it or not, by Solomon. Look at Ecclesiastes 12 verse 8 and 9.

Ecclesiastes 12 verse 8 and 9. Again, because that was the time of the temple being set up. So Ecclesiastes 12 verse 8 and 9.

It says, right at the end of the Book of Ecclesiastes, vanity or vanity says the preacher, all is vanity. And moreover, verse 9, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he pondered and sought out, and set in order many prophets. So he set in order, he studied and arranged them with great care, and put that section of the Bible up to that period, as far as the temple services, the various liturgies, the various psalms, the various prophets. He was put there together by David and Solomon. That was the second canonization. When we get onto the third canonization, it was by King Ezra Caius and Isaiah. During the time of Ezra Caius and Isaiah the prophet, an attack to Israel from Australia was imminent. In this emergency situation, God inspired that certain books be borrowed canon for proper guidance to the people in real religious matters, if all religious services were to be suspended by the Assyrian invasion.

Ezra Caius re-established the true worship of God. Look in 2 Kings, 2 Kings 18, verse 5. It says, 18th by him trusted the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. God ranks Ezra Caius as the most righteous king above all kings, more than even King David. And now let's go to 2 Chronicles chapter 31. 2 Chronicles chapter 31. 1 Corinthians chapter 31. Verse 2. And Ezra Caius appointed the divisions of the priests and the Levites, according to their divisions, each man according to his service. The priests and Levites were burned off in his and his obvious to serve, to be thanked and to praise in the gates of the camp of the Lord. He then, he obviously went through this, he studied God's word carefully, and look at it in verse 20 and 21 of the same chapter. And Ezra Caius did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the Lord his God. And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered. So he was fit and capable and righteous to actually put all these things together up to that time. And one of the things he did, look from Psalm 120 to 134, you got the 15 pilgrimage songs in order of traveling to the feast. And Ezra Caius added 10 songs to those songs of the increase or pilgrimage, 5 by David and 10 by him, the 15 program songs. Look at Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25. Proverbs 25. Verse 1.

These are also the prophets of Solomon, which the men of Ezra Caius, King David, or they were king of Judah, copied. So from Proverbs 25 to the end of Proverbs, Proverbs 25 to Proverbs 31, Ezra Caius added that section. So he canonized, that was the third canonization, he signed all the books with the initials H-Z-K. It's like, for instance, if you have a document to sign and to say you authenticated that it's right, you initial the corner of each page, he signed each book, at the end of each book, with the initials H-Z-K, at the end of all Old Testament books, except the Megalot. Because the Megalot was to be read every year, all those five books. So he bound firmly and confirmed and authenticated as the Holy Scripture. Then we have the fourth canonization, which is by King Josiah and Jeremiah the prophet, at the time that Judah was threatened to be attacked by Babylon. So look at 2 Chronicles chapter 34. 2 Chronicles chapter 34. Verse 14. And now when they brought out all the money that was, I'm not sure I'm cleaning the verse, into the house of the Lord, Ilk and the priest found the book of the Lord, of the Lord given to Moses. So the book of the Lord was found by Ilk, the high priest. Now look at verse 27. It says, So the king was given the promise that he had a little extra time, Josiah the king. So let's look at... then he wrote, Jeremiah. Look at 2 Chronicles 35, verse 25. He says, So that book was added at that time. So at the time of Josiah, there were books added like Lamentations, Jeremiah and the minor prophets were put together at the time of Josiah and Jeremiah. Then they're going to captivity. The temple is destroyed and they're going to captivity. Who looks after the scriptures during that moment? They're now in Babylon. God used Daniel to preserve God's Word in Babylon because he was placed as one of the people in charge to keep the books in the Babylonian Library. And he took with him that God's Word was put in there and it could be looked after and protected. Look at Daniel chapter 1. Daniel chapter 1. Verse 4. He said, They took Daniel, he says, That means, that implies that in the palace he had access to books to learn to reach to be taught. He had access to the library, to the top information. And we know because of that he had access to the law and to the writings of Jeremiah. Look at Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. Daniel chapter 9. Verse 2. In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of years specified by the Word of the Eternal through Jeremiah the prophet. How did he know? He had a responsibility to keep that. God's Word through that Babylonian captivity. That he could accomplish Jeremiah the prophet which would accomplish seventy years in the Desolation of Judas. Look at verse 11. Yes, all Israel has transrest your law and has departed so as not to obey your forces. Therefore, the curse and oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against him. That explains how he had access to the law. And he had access to other books, as he decreases in Daniel 7, verse 10. So, that canonization was done by King Josiah, that was the fourth canonization, and Daniel kept it with him. Then we get to time when they go back to Jerusalem. And then you get Ezra, the prophet, and Jeremiah. And look at Ezra, chapter 7. Ezra, chapter 7.

Ezra, chapter 7, verse 8 to 10. And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the first month, which was in the seventh year of the king. And on the first day of the first month, it began his journey from Babylon. And on the first day of the first month, he came to Jerusalem according to the good hands of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the role of the eternal, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. Ezra went back to Jerusalem after seven years of captivity in Babylon, after the temple was repelted. That was somewhere in the first century before Christ, from about 457 B.C. At that time, the Samaritans in the north of Jerusalem, which had been brought in by the Syrians, claimed they had inspired writings. Samaritans then started to write their own books, and claimed to be inspired by Word. And so, God inspired Ezra to the final canonization of the Old Testament. And those then became the temple scriptures, which were backed up by Jesus Christ and the apostles. Ezra then divided the Old Testament into three major divisions, as mentioned before, the law of prophets and writings. And he added three lack of restoration books, namely Daniel, Ezra and Amaya, and Chronicles. First and second Chronicles. So those three major books, Daniel, Ezra and Amaya, and Chronicles. And he was making up the Old Testament writings from 19 to 22. Ezra started an annual reading of the Megalot. He started the tri-annual reading of the laws and prophets. So every third year they will read that again, the same section. It's interesting that in Luke 4, 16 through 17 and 20, Christ read a section on the day of Sabaton, which is the day of week, which is on the day of Pentecost. And three years later on the day of Pentecost, they read the same thing. So when Christ started his ministry, they read a section on the day of Pentecost, and he closed the books and everybody looked at him, remember? And three years later, they were reading exactly the same thing when the gods of the Spirit was given. They were reading exactly the same section because they were reading the law and the prophets in a cycle every third year. So that was pulled down at the time of Christ and the apostles. Jesus Christ backed up the canonization. You know Matthew 5, 18, where it says, it's not a tickle or a little thing will be added to the canon until all law be fulfilled. You can't take one little dot or one little... and that basically shows the writing, because the previous writing, the Samaritan writing, was more like Arabic writing, and then Ezra changed all the writing to the new Hebrew type writing, which is more like square-like, and which is not the dots and tickles. So basically Jesus Christ supported Ezra's canonization. And then we have in 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 21. For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy man of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Old Testament scripture was inspired by God's Holy Spirit. God gave the scripture to human beings, and God used His servants to canonize or put together the Bible. We have proved today which books should be in Old Testament. We have, you and I have, the complete set of Old Testament books. There are no lost books or missing books. We have seen that God has used these people to do the Old Testament canonization, and therefore we can have the confidence, because we'll respect the authority, as we are in the semanet of God and the power that He has, we can have the real confidence that we have the Word of God. In the next sermon in this series, I intend to do the same thing, but for the New Testament.