Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Opinion Essay: When Was The Old Testament Canonised?
Opinion Essay: When Was The Old Testament Canonised?
Testament Canonised?
Kurt Glenie
mrkglenie@gmail.com
‘What we do know for sure is around the time of the exile (after 587
BCE) the Pentateuch was established as a unique section known as
Torah (law) the rest of what was in this Old Testament was not
established until around 100 years before the coming of Christ.’[1]
However, according to the person who wrote the question, I was wrong. The Answer
was in fact, (B.) By the church after all the disciples had long since passed away.
The point of any discussion [at Jamnia], was not to determine the canon,
but to affirm what was already authoritative for the [Jewish]
community.[3]
To the opinion of Reeves and Hill, I shall add the opinion of Rabbi Brasch, (late of
Sydney,) who argues that the apocryphal books were taken away from circulation at the
Jamnia to make it clear that they were not a part of the canon or ever had been.[4]
[1] Grey, Them, Us, and Me, 29 Professor Grey does go on to say that the order of the
books was fluid for some time. Brasch dates the canonisation of the Prophets before 200
BCE, see Brasch, The Unknown Sanctuary; the Story of Judaism, Its Teachings, Philosophy
and Symbols, 67.
[2] Miller and Huber, The Bible: A History, 85–90; La Sor et al. agree with the three-fold
division, and date the acceptance of the OT canon to 150 BCE, except for Esther, see La
Sor et al., Old Testament Survey, 20.
[3] Reeves and Hill, Know How We Got Our Bible, 37–38 We need to bear in mind that
academics debate the nature of these councils, and how binding they were, and indeed if
they ever existed. ; Brasch, The Unknown Sanctuary; the Story of Judaism, Its Teachings,
Philosophy and Symbols, 54.
[4] Brasch, The Unknown Sanctuary; the Story of Judaism, Its Teachings, Philosophy and
Symbols, 95.
[5] Eusebius, The History of the Church, bk. 4:26.