Scholars who argue for an earlier
closure of the HB/OT often appeal to the prologue of Sirach, 2 Macc 2:13-15,
Philo, 4QMMT, and Luke 24:44, but a careful analysis of these texts does not reflect
a clear tripartite canon before or during the first century CE. Even if there
was an emerging Jewish scriptural canon at the end of the first century CE
(Josephus and the author of 4 Ezra), that is not a major focus of the majority
of rabbinic sages until much later. The same can be said of the early church.
For example, the author of Heb 1:1 begins with a reference to God having spoken
“to our ancestors . . . by the prophets” and then throughout cites texts from
the Pentateuch, the Prophets, Psalms, and Wisdom of Solomon without distinction
(see Heb 1:3 citing Wisdom 7:25). All these works are cited as scripture and
are introduced as “prophets.” There are no scriptural designations for these
cited texts like “as the scripture says” or “it is written” throughout the book
except in Heb 10:7, a quote from Ps 40:7. Apparently the only closed divisions
of books that were widely accepted in the first century were Torah, or
Pentateuch, and the Twelve (Minor Prophets). It is difficult to argue that
there was a third division of Jewish scriptures in the first century CE since even
the parameters of the second division, “Prophets,” is not yet clear. For the
rabbinic Jews, the formation of the HB canon took centuries, and disagreements
over its shape continued even later. For instance, the Karaite Jews (8th c. CE,
Babylon) chided rabbinic Jews and their successors in the ninth to eleventh
centuries because they recognized the Tanak scriptures instead of only the
Torah (Pentateuch). Before the ninth century CE it is unlikely that Jews in Diaspora
accepted the rabbinic traditions that were written only in Hebrew and Aramaic
or only the books in the HB canon instead of the books in the LXX. The Diaspora
Jews, who spoke only Greek or Latin until well into the ninth century CE, would
have adopted the LXX books as their scriptures. (Lee Martin McDonald, “Recognizing
Jewish Religious Texts as Scripture,” in Ancient Jewish and Christian
Scriptures: New Developments in Canon Controversy, ed. John J. Collins,
Craig A. Evans, and Lee Martin McDonald [Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2020], 68)
