. . . the traditional
tripartite canon, properly speaking, was not in place prior to the fall of the
Temple in 70 CE and perhaps even somewhat later. Just as there was no
“standardized text” neither was there yet a definitive canon of Scripture.
Though the Prologue to Ben Sira can be interpreted as reflecting a tripartite
grouping of books (not canon), it can also be interpreted as reflecting a
bipartite grouping of Scripture (the Law and the Prophets) plus other religious
literature, and the latter interpretation is strengthened by the lack of any
other mention of a tripartite canon for two hundred years until Josephus” (Eugene
Ulrich, “Qumran and the Canon of the Old Testament,” in The Biblical Canons,
ed. J.-M. Auwers and H. J. De Jonge [Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum
Lovaniensium 158; Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2003], 77)
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