Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Protestant Apologist Phillip Kayser on Biblical Prophets Editing the Inspired Texts of Previous Prophets

  

The final ordering and editing of the Old Testament canon was also done by prophets

 

The fact that the canon was being developed as it was written verse by verse also helps to explain the inspired editing of books by later prophets. Solomon not only wrote many proverbs, he also edited the order of previously written proverbs. (Ecclesiastes 12:9 says that “he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs.”) The inspired prophet Hezekiah did further arranging of the book of Proverbs. (Proverbs 25:1 says, “These also are the proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied . . . “ The Hebrew word for “copied” [עתק] can mean “collected” or arranged.) Hezekiah not only composed an inspired Psalm (see Isaiah 38:9-21), but was also one of three prophets who were involved in editing and arranging the Psalter in its present canonical form. (Many scholars conclude that this editing process was the work of David [1 Chron. 15:16], Hezekiah 2 Chron. 29:30; Prov. 25:1], and Ezra [Nehemiah 8]. This editing work may have included the addition of inspired superscriptions as well as the notes of how a book of Psalms has just ended [see Psalm 72:20]. Ezra also wrote the books of Ezra, Chronicles, and Psalm 119) He also appears to have been responsible for the initial use of the “tri-grammaton” symbol that prophets placed at the end of every book except for the “Megilloth” (i.e., the Festival Scrolls: Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther). Those five scrolls were given a special place in the temple liturgy by the prophet Ezra, but were placed before 2 Chronicles. The significance of this is that 2 Chronicles has a longer and stronger form of the “tri-grammaton” symbol, . . . Thus, no section of the Old Testmaent is without prophetic signature. (Phillip Kayser, The Canon of Scripture: A Presuppositional Study [Biblical Blueprints, 2021], 53, 54)

 

Elsewhere, Kayser notes the following:

 

Nathan Wells gives examples of potential edits when he says,

 

Examples of possible modernization include the use of “Chaldees” in regard to Ur (Gen. 11:28, 31), and an update to the city name of Laish to Dan (Gen. 14:14). Possible explanatory glosses include the addition of “Damascus” to clarify Eliezer’s place of origin (Gen. 15:2), and the parenthetical comment that equates Israel’s dispossession of the land to the people of Esau’s dispossession of land of the Horites (Deut. 2:10-12), a fact that had yet to occur. Transitional updates include such as the death of Moses (Deut. 34), the death of Joshua (Josh. 24:29-33), as well as the arrangement and transitional verses between the books of the Psalms (Ps. 41:13; 72:19; 89:52; 106:48), including the phrase, “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended” (ps. 72:20). Apologetic commentary is seen in the text where an editor inserted information so as to prove the validity of the narrative or the continuing impact of an event. Examples include the previously mentioned archaeological explanation regarding Og (Deut. 3:11), as well as the plentiful occurrences of the phrases, “until this day,” “to this day” and other variations (Gen. 32:32; Deut. 3:14; 10:8; 29:28; Josh. 7:26; 8:28; 9:27; et al.) (From an unpublished paper, A Defense of Textual Updating) I personally do not see the need for such explanations, but neither do I see them as out of accord with the prophetic crafting of the canon by God’s authorization. (Ibid., 54-55 n. 15)

 

Finally, on Deut 4:2 and 12:32 (cf. Rev 22:18-19), we read that

 

When Moses forbade anyone from adding to the law in Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32, he was not saying that Scripture could not be added to the canon. Otherwise he would have disobeyed his own injunction when adding several chapters to the end of Deuteronomy. God was forbidding any additions to the moral code laid down in the Pentateuch. Thus Jews held that the Pentateuch was a complete moral code, and that the Writings and Prophets merely applied that law rather than adding to it. If Ezra did indeed add inspired notes to the Pentateuch (a point still in question), it is clear that he did not add to the moral code of the Pentateuch, since no new laws were given by Ezra. (Ibid., 55 n. 16, emphasis in original)

 

Further Reading


Biblical Prophets Changing their Words and the Words of Previous Prophets