The Books of the Old Testament in Your Palm: Brief Introductions to the Books of the Old Testament

By Ayuba Mshelia,

The book is about introductions to the books of the Old Testament of the Bible, which is a compendium of God's divine Message to mankind that is uniquely written by forty divinely select people as His spokesmen. How many of these forty select men wrote the Tanakh or the Old Testament?

This synopsis is a guide to the types of questions asked in writing this book. Who, for example, is the author of the Torah or the Pentateuch? Are all the books written by one person? Or are there others? What are the themes and purposes of each book? Does the difference in the arrangement and number of books between the original Hebrew Tanakh and our Old Testament make any difference to its being canon or faith? What are "the books of the kingdoms?" Why don't you see such titles in the Old Testament?

What are the themes of some of the poetical books? For instance, why do good and righteous people suffer and the ungodly prosper? Does God care? How was the first ancient attempt of a holocaust foiled by Hadassah, also known as Esther, a beautiful Jewish orphan who became the queen of King Ahasuerus of Persia? What happened to the culprit? Why was the four-hundred-year period of the judges the most ungodly and apostate in Israel's history. Why was the Davidic covenant threatened by Bathsheba's marriage and Absalom's insurrection?

What is your take on Daniel's "seventy weeks" prophecy? (Dan. 9:24). What does the phrase "seven weeks, and threescores and two weeks" mean to you as used in Daniel's prophecy? What about "A time, times, and a half" (Dan. 12:7) appearing in Daniel's prophecy? What does Ezekiel's vision about the "valley of the dry bones" coming to life mean to Israel and to you as a believer?

The Old Testament begins with the story of creation and life but ends in Malachi (4:6) with a divine threat of a curse. Are you free from that curse as an individual or still under it?

These are the many compelling and poignant questions laboriously dealt with in the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 30, 2022
• ISBN: 9798886161229

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The Books of the Old Testament in Your Palm

Brief Introductions to the Books of the Old Testament

Ayuba Mshelia, PhD

ISBN 979-8-88616-121-2 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88616-122-9 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Ayuba Mshelia, PhD

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

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Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1

Order and Arrangement of the Books of the Tanakh

Order and Arrangement of the Books of the Tanakh in the OT

Books of the NT Authors and Approximate Publication Dates

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Bibliography

About the Author

Preface

Imust acknowledge the anxiety and the exegetical Scriptural fear that overwhelmed me when the idea came to me overnight to write a booklet about introductions to the books of the Old Testament, which primarily prophesied of the coming of Jesus Christ through the seed of a woman (Gen. 3:15). I was disabled by the feeling of insufficiency when the thought occurred to me, but then 2 Corinthians 3:5 popped in my head, which says, Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God (KJV), even though I've published a book about the genealogy of Jesus Christ two years ago. In addition to the above statement by St. Paul, he also says in 1 Corinthians 8:2 (KJV), If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

These apt statements from St. Paul, an apostle of Christ, gave me the confidence and impetus I needed. I convinced myself that if I am worthy of His grace to write about the genealogy of His son, Jesus Christ, then my sufficiency must have been sufficient for Him who above all is the source and embodiment of all knowledge to be bold enough to write about the books of the Old Testament.

With the impetus of His divine grace and guide—and with a statement from Philippians 3:16 (NASB), which reminds us to keep living by that same standard to which we have attained—I was emboldened to sit down and embark on another project of writing this book about the introductions to the Old Testament books, concentrating primarily on the Authorship, date of composition, theme, and purposes of the books, including, of course, succinct synopsis of the message of each book.

To me, it is a true adventure into the unknown. I'm a Christian and always have been but never thought I would one day have the historicity of the knowledge needed nor the expertise and audacity to write a scriptural paper, let alone a book about the great leaders who shaped our concept of the one true God through the ages, great unique men whom through God's providential grace left to us their collected communications, messages, and deeds with the one true God of Israel for our inspiration which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16). My exposure to the Bible and religious studies, other than as a regular Christian and a Bible scholar, was a brief frolic reading for the GCE Advance-level exam paper (I never sat for the exam itself as my priorities changed).

The Bible, and specifically the Old Testament as Hindson et al. observe, reveals to us that God ultimately is the source, supervisor, and sum of all history; and the center and goal of all history is Jesus Christ His Son. Thus, as a depository of all sacred scripture, the Old Testament is the foundation of all the New Testament revelations. The Old Testament body of literature spread over a period extending from the twelfth to the second century BCE. Most of the ancient portion of the inspired literature is written in Hebrew with portions in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8–6:18, 7:12–26; Jer. 10:11; Dan. 2:4–7:28).

According to Sandmel et al. (1970), no manuscripts of the Old Testament from the earlier part of this period are preserved. Most are handed down by oral tradition from generation to generation; and the impetus to collect, edit, and make copies might have come from the events of 587/6; during which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took into exile/captivity the cream inhabitants of Jerusalem, including King Zedekiah after watching his children killed and his eyes put out before being bound in chains, nobles, princes, and the royalty (2 Kings 25). The earliest known Hebrew manuscripts containing any parts of the Old Testament are among the Scrolls (Dead Sea Scrolls) found in caves at Qumran and are dated in the last two centuries BCE with some earlier and others later. These include two copies of Isaiah, one complete and another seriously damaged, a commentary containing most of the text of the first two chapters of Habakkuk, and fragments of every other Old Testament book, except Esther.

The text they present is to a large extent identical with that in the Hebrew Bible. In about the second century AD or probably earlier, the Jewish rabbis compiled a text from these manuscripts as had survived the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, thus establishing the traditional or Massoretic Text (MT) from the Hebrew word massorah—tradition.

It is only appropriate I end this brief preface to the books of the Old Testament by quoting from Hindson et al. (2013) when they conclude that the Old Testament is indeed an enduring book. Not only was it the Bible of Jesus and the apostles, but its unfolding account of God's saving work for mankind is integral to every part of the New Testament. As the foundational portion of God's inerrant revelation, its timeless messages will yet bring instruction and correction, and comfort and hope to all who will receive them (Hindson et al.; OT Introduction, p. 4).

Ayuba Mshelia PhD

New York, February 2022

Chapter 1

Introduction

The purpose of these introductions of the books of the Old Testament of the Bible is to present short summaries or overviews of the introductions in a small booklet for people who may want to read the Bible but (1) have little or no guide about the books and needed a summary of each book as a starter or (2) do not have the time to read a whole book of the Word of God. Therefore, this booklet intends to provide a short and concise scriptural overview of each book, including authorship, period of writing, theme, and purpose.

In view of this objective, it's quite pertinent to take a general overview of the Christian's Old Testament transformations and adaptations from its original consonantal Hebrew format, the Tanakh the Septuagint, and its present form and its Latin companion, the Vulgate form.

The Old Testament literature, according to Sandmel¹ spread over a period of time extending from the twelfth to the second centuries, BCE, which were written in classical Hebrew, except some few brief portions which are in Aramaic (Ezra 4:8–6:18, 7:12–26; Jer. 10:11; Dan. 2:4–7, 28). According to Sandmel, none of the manuscripts of the Old Testament from the earlier part of this period have been preserved. Indeed, most of it have been handed down by oral tradition from generation to generation. The earliest known Hebrew manuscript containing any parts of the Old Testament are among the Scrolls (commonly referred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls) found in Qumran which were dated to belong in the last two centuries of BCE (some were found to be earlier and some later).²

First, as alluded to above, the original language of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) was Hebrew; but as the knowledge of Hebrew declined among the Jews, the reading of the Scriptures in the Synagogue had to be followed by a translation of the passages into Aramaic³ which had supplanted Hebrew. These renderings came to be known as Targums (which means translation in Aramaic) and became traditional and stereotyped and eventually were written down. As such, Sandmel claims there are targums to every book of the OT, except Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah; but only one on the Pentateuch is a straightforward translation.

The Tanakh is an acronym for the Torah (instruction, tradition, or simply the Law often called the Pentateuch), the Nevi'im (the prophets), and finally, the Ketuvim (writings). This means it has three divisions compared with the four for the Christian Old Testament (OT). Additionally, the Tanakh has different books and is not listed or arranged in the same order as the OT. The order seems to indicate a different canon (reed, measuring rule which comes to signify the standard for determining which books were Scripture with the following as criteria: {i} were considered inspired; {ii} gave evidence of containing revelation; {iii} gave evidence of apostolicity; and {iv} uniquely used by the Holy Spirit) but the same scripture. The books did not become inspired Scripture at their collection but at the very moment they were written.⁴

The Christian OT is based, as mentioned above, on the Septuagint, which is the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible from its original Hebrew to Greek. The first to be translated as the Pentateuch (first five books of Moses) in the third and second centuries BCE and the rest of the OT is about the second century BCE. The Septuagint, as the name signifies, was a translation made by seventy—thus sometimes the designation LXX—Jewish scholars/Masoretes, presumably for the Jewish community in Egypt and the whole region of the Mediterranean, for most of whom Greek was a lingua franca. The Masoretes (traditions) developed a system of recording the vowels traditionally used when reading the consonantal texts of the Tanakh. These vowel pointings are printed in the editions of the Tanakh. In addition, the Masoretes introduced a system of punctuation (Cantillations marks) which are as well printed in the editions of the Tanakh. To the Jewish people, the Old Testament is the unquestioned expression of God's mind and will.

The present form of the Christian OT evolves from the Septuagint as well as the Latin translation, the Vulgate, in about late fourth century BCE. For instance, the books of Samuel were originally a single volume in the Hebrew Canon. However, the single volume of Samuel was divided into two by the translators of the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, who viewed Samuel and the Kings together as the Books of the Kingdoms. The book of Kings of the Hebrew scriptures was likewise divided into two books, and the four books then constituted the Books of the Kingdoms.

Consequently, First and Second Samuel were labeled the first and second books of the kingdoms, and the First and Second Kings were labeled as the third and fourth books of the kingdoms in the Septuagint. When the OT was translated into the Latin Vulgate, substantial modifications were made to the Septuagint in that the term Books of the Kingdoms was dropped, and the present division of Samuel and Kings was adopted and became the standard, at least for the Western Church (Hindson, KJV, p. 444). The same trend happened with the Chronicles, which was also a single volume in the Hebrew Canon. It, too, became separated into two by the translators of the Greek Bible, the Septuagint, and given the title Things Left Behind, stuff not included in either Samuel or Kings.

The original Hebrew title of Daily Matters, like its English version, Chronicles, indicates that the material in these two books recounts some of the most important events in the lives of Israel's leaders, notably its kings. The Vulgate made changes dropping Things Left Behind and adopted the present name and division, which has become standard.

The three divisions of the Tanakh

The Torah dates from between the fifteenth and the thirteenth centuries BCE. This date depends on when Moses lived (Stern, CJB, 2016).⁵ The early prophets date from about the fourteenth century BCE to the tenth century BCE. The later prophets date from the ninth century BCE to the fourth century BCE; the writings date from the tenth century BCE to the third century. Some scholars accept later dates up to second century BCE (Stern, CJB, 2016).

The Torah or Pentateuch, which refers to the five books, often referred to as the Moses's books. Some scholars believe Moses wrote them himself, while others think they have been modified by latter scholars or scribes. The first of the books, Genesis, deals with the story of creation narratives, the floods, and the dispersion of nations. Genesis 12 seems to be the introduction of the Jewish people through the first patriarch, Abram (later Abraham), Isaac, Jacob, and finally, Joseph, being sold in Egypt.

The Exodus presents Moses as recruited by YWHW from the Median wilderness, the plagues, the crossing of the red sea into the Sinai wilderness/desert, and the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai by God. Also included are the instructions by God for the construction of the Tabernacle, the apostasy in the building of the golden calf.

Finally, the construction and dedication of the Tabernacle and the introduction of the priesthood system.

Leviticus gives instruction to the sacrificial system and other aspects of Jewish life. Numbers describes the peoples' sojourn in the desert for forty years and their rebellious ways as God himself molds a people for Himself. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives additional laws in the context of the history of the forty years spent in the Sinai wilderness. He also appoints Joshua, the son of Nun, by the recommendation of God to be his successor. Before his death in the land of Moab on the mountain of Nebo, on top of Pisgah which overlooks Jericho at the age of 120 years, he wrote a poem in praise of God and offered blessings to the twelve tribes.

The prophets. The Torah dates from the fifteenth to thirteenth century BCE. The early prophets date somewhere between the fourteenth and tenth century BCE, and the later prophets from about the ninth to fourth Century BCE (D. Stern, CJB, 2016). The early prophets consist of four books, namely, Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1 and 2), and Kings (1 and 2). Joshua tells about entering the promised land and the land distribution to each of the twelve tribes. Judges tells about the next three or four centuries after Joshua, under different judges or deliverers. Among such are Gideon, Samson, and Samuel.

Samuel, for instance, talks about the anointment and rulership of the first two kings, Saul and David. Kings recounts the story of the kings, starting shortly after about 1000 BCE, with Solomon continuing with the division of the kingdom into the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Then it continues with the stories of Elijah and Elisha and a number of kings to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, by Assyria in about 722 BCE. It concludes with the Babylonian conquest of Judah.

The later prophets consist of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Shneim ‘Asar, the Twelve (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). ⁶

The Tanakh's Writings section is larger than that of the OT because it includes eight books which are located somewhere in the Christian OT. Also, in the Tanakh, the later prophets come immediately after the early prophets, but in the OT, the prophets come last. These subtle differences occur because the OT follows the order in the Septuagint. The writings in the Tanakh include the 150 psalms, expressing the deepest spiritual yearnings and truths; proverbs or wisdom literature; Job, which addresses the question of why bad things happen to good people in an unsurpassed poetic language; Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Chronicles, and 2 Chronicles.

Most scholars agree that the Torah achieved its present form in around 445 BCE (Stern, CJB, 2016), the prophets later, and the writings even much later.

The Tanakh versus the OT

There are few differences between the Tanakh and the OT, which result from early translators to the Greek, the Septuagint. The first difference is the order of books. The books in the Tanakh appear in different order from those in the OT. While the Tanakh is divided in three divisions, that the Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim, the OT is divided into four divisions, the Pentateuch, or Moses's five books, historical books, writings, and the prophets. Both the Torah and the OT have the Pentateuch first. The prophets section of the Tanakh is divided into early and Later prophets. The early prophets of the Tanakh correspond more or less with the OT historical books, minus Ruth, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, which are placed under writings in the Tanakh. The later prophets of the Tanakh are similar with that of the OT, except that the Tanakh groups them under one section and places Lamentations and Daniel with the writings (see Table 1).

Hence it follows that our OT has different number of books to the Tanakh from which it evolves. This mainly is due to how the books are arranged and grouped by the oldest manuscript of the Septuagint from which the OT evolved. While the Tanakh consists of twenty-four books, the OT has thirty-nine books (see Table 2). The difference as mentioned prior is due to the fact that the Tanakh classifies the following books as single volumes/books: 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, the twelve (Minor Prophets, so called because their books are short), Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles as can be seen; thus what the Tanakh considers five books, the OT sees them as twenty separate books or volumes.

Another difference between the two canons is in the names of the books. The Tanakh names the books based on the first word used, for instance Sh'mot (names) for Exodus; B'resheet (in the beginning) for Genesis, et al. Another subtle difference is the Chapter and verse numbering. Last but not the least is that the Tanakh consists of the traditionally preserved Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, while the OT draws more information from scholarly studies from other ancient texts to arrive at the final product, the OT.

There have been some observations made related to the differences in order and arrangement of the books. Some Jewish scholars point out the fact that the order of the books in the Tanakh is not random but that each book has its own place and meaning in the revelation of God's truth to mankind (https://menorah-bible.jimdofree.com/English/structure-of-the-bible/correct-book-order/).

To support this argument, our Lord Jesus's speech in Luke 24:44–45 is cited as evidence of his preference of the tripartite arrangement of the Tanakh over the arrangement in the Septuagint or the Vulgate. In the speech, he said:

These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures. (Luke 24:44–45 KJV 2013)

The above argument becomes invalid and of no effect, especially if one considers that as a Jew youth growing up, the Lord Jesus Christ would be more exposed to the exposure of the Tanakh than its Septuagint translation.

What shall we say then? Do these differences in arrangement and order of the books make any difference or render one or the other of no effect in terms of faith? God forbid as stated clearly by Apostle Paul, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16). The order and arrangement are merely a human ingenuity of how to organize and store the word of God for all generations. Hence the differences in how the OT and Tanakh are organized have no effect on faith or the inviolability of the scriptures. St. Peter clearly states, Knowing this first…that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old (any) time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1:20–21).

I, therefore, categorically object to the assertion that our Lord made the speech quoted in Luke 24:44–45 above because of his preference of the Tanakh over the Christian Septuagint or the OT. This is because as pointed out above, all scripture is given inspiration of God (2 Tim. 3:16) and not of any man. The holy men of God were used as instruments to record his message to all humanity. The Jewish Canon closed in about 420 BCE with the prophecy of Malachi (Hindson, Study Bible, Text and Notation; 1 Chron. 3:10–24, p. 4, 645, 2013). Hence, two orders of arrangements and different number of books but one canon and one faith.

Hence, in spite of these subtle differences in order and arrangement of books between the Tanakh and the OT, they remain the same inspired inerrant Word of God. One canon, one faith. After all, these differences do not exist in the New Testament or B'rit Hadashah (as is called in the Complete Jewish Bible [CJB, Stern, 2016]) section.

Order and Arrangement of the Books of the Tanakh

Table 1

Order and Arrangement of the Books of the Tanakh in the OT

Table 2

The Old Testament begins with the story of creation (Gen. 1–2) and ends with the threat of a divine curse (Mal. 4:6) which was removed by the atoning death of Jesus Christ who came to redeem fallen humans and restore creation to its intended purpose—in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26)—in his millennial kingdom. Thus, the OT remains incomplete awaiting the arrival of the promised one (Mal. 4:5–6; Zech. 9:9). Hence, both testaments or covenants complement each other; without the other, none is complete. Two canons, one Bible.

The most important theme of the New Testament is that Christ's death on the cross is God's means of reconciling an immoral and alienated humanity to himself (Marshall I. Howard, 2007).

The name New Testament is set off from the first half of the Christian Bible, which was called the Old Testament. However, both halves could have been called covenants, given the meaning of the word testament. For instance, during our Lord's last supper with his disciples, he referred to his death as inaugurating this new covenant between God and his people (Luke 22:20). The fulfillment of this covenant is not unexpected; it has been promised by God through such prophets as Jeremiah and Ezekiel more than 600 years earlier (KJV Bible).

Jeremiah has promised that the new covenant will be more generous than the first that God made with Moses. The new covenant Jeremiah prophesied will place God's law within his people/believers and would provide greater intimacy with God and greater universal knowledge of him and the final forgiveness of sins (Jer. 31:31–34). Ezekiel made similar prophecy of God gathering his people, Israel, and cleanse them from their filth and give them a new heart of flesh and a new spirit which is the Holy Spirit which would enable them to obey his commandments (Ezek. 36:24–27). All the twenty-seven divinely inspired books of the New Testament / Covenant richly elaborate on these marvelous provisions of God's generous arrangement for His believers. While most of the authors of the twenty-seven books were Jewish, Luke, the one Greek, has the distinction of being the only Gentile and a physician and of writing more of the New Testament (about 28 percent) more than any others, including Apostle Paul who has 25 percent. As we will show later, most of these writings cover the latter half of the first century AD.

The process of canonization of the New Testament was complex and lengthy in the initial centuries of Christianity because of the number of books which were considered inspired. The process was characterized by a compilation of books that are in the apostolic tradition and considered authoritative in worship, teaching, and relevant to the existing historical situations and in consonance with the Old Testament (Gamble Harry, 1985).

The earliest attempt at solidifying a Canon was made in c. AD 140 by Marcion (Gospel of Marcion)⁹ who accepted only a modified version of Luke and of Paul's letters, rejecting the Old Testament completely. He was a staunch follower of Apostle Paul who he believed was the only apostle of Jesus Christ. His canon was largely rejected and was denounced as a heretic by the early Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian, and he was fittingly excommunicated by the Church of Rome in c. AD 144 (Harnack, 1921, p. 17). The rejection of the Marcion gospel led some scholars, among whom were Adolf von Harnack, John Knox (1942), and David Trobisch (2007) to argue that the Church formulate its New Testament canon, this in an attempt to thwart the challenge posed by Marcion.

The New Testament is arranged basically in accordance with the literary genre or content of each book. It was arranged in like manner so as to give logical order to the contents, especially as it relates to the life of the Savior. Hence, the gospels were given first, followed by the historical account of the expansion and growth of the Church (Acts) and its correspondence; that is, the twenty-one epistles. The New Testament ends appropriately with the ultimate destiny of the Church and the abominations to ensue at the end-times when Christ himself comes to save Israel and all mankind with a rule of righteousness and peace for a thousand years—millennial kingdom (Rev. 20:4–6).

The first-century period of Christ in Palestine was one of dynamism and cultural diversity and tumult caused by the interplay of the end of the Hellenistic period and the emergence of the Roman empire dominance. Ancient copies of the NT illustrate these diverse contexts; for instance, there are about 5,000 Greek manuscripts of the NT, 8,000 Latin manuscripts, and 1,000 manuscripts of translations into the ancient languages of local and diverse cultures within the Roman Empire, thus rendering the NT the most attested ancient document in the world (Hindson, KJV, 2013). Out of these diverse and massive manuscripts emerged the final one we have today.

While the Tanakh was written mostly in Hebrew (parts of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel were written in Aramaic, a Semitic language), the New Testament (NT) was largely written in Greek but not the classical Greek of Plato and Homer, but Koine (common) Greek, which was the lingua franca of daily affairs throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East the first century (Stern, CJB, 2016). It is, however, probable that a good portion of the NT books were as well written in either Hebrew or Aramaic, drawing upon source materials in these languages. This has been shown to be true with all the four gospels, Acts, Revelation, and several of the general letters. Most of the Pauline letters, however, were mostly written in Greek and, because of his Jewish roots, were greatly influenced by Jewish thought-forms.

Many scholars date the gospels later in the first century because they see them as final product of arduous work. The known complete list of the twenty-seven books is found in a letter written by Athanasius, a fourth-century bishop of Alexandria, dated c. AD 367 (Lindberg, Carter 2006, p. 15). The twenty-seven-book New Testament was first canonized during the councils of Hippo in c. AD 393 and Carthage, North Africa, in c. AD 397. Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in c. AD 405. It is possible that the council in Rome under Pope Damascus I that ratified the same list first in AD 382. These councils also provided us with the Canon of the Old Testament, which in some, especially the Catholic bibles, included the apocryphal books (Kummel Werner Georg, 1975).¹⁰ There have been different views regarding accepting the apocryphal books as part of the OT Canon. The Westminster Confession (1643) states that the books commonly called Apocrypha, not being divine inspiration, are not part of the Canon of Scripture and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, or to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writing (Hindson, KJV, p. 1349).

There is no scholarly consensus on the date of composition of the present New Testament texts. Some more conservative scholars like John Robinson, Dan Wallace, and William Albright dated all the books of the NT before AD 70 (2006, 1976). Other scholars such as Bart Ehrman (1997, p. 8) and Harris (Harris, 2010, p. 20) date some of these texts much later. For instance, Harris dates Jude and 2 Peter to AD 130–150. The New Oxford Annotated Bible comments that scholars generally agree that the Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. They are not eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus's life and teaching (The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised standard version [Oxford University Press, 2010], p. 1380). Richard Pervo dated Luke and Acts to c. AD 115 (Pervo Richard, 2015), and David Trobisch dated Acts in the mid to late second century, contemporaneous with the publication of the New Testament (PDF, Dec. 28, 2007/Jan. 2008, pp. 30–33).

The KJV (Hindson 2013, p. 1359) offers these dates for the publication of the New Testament books (see Table 3). It dates the earliest gospel to published in the AD 40s to be James, a Jew, a pastor, and the half brother of our Savior, Jesus Christ. In between the AD 40s–70s, the gospel of Matthew (Levi), Jewish apostle of Jesus and a tax collector; the gospel of Mark, Jewish disciple of Peter and a missionary; Luke, a Greek disciple of Paul and a physician; finally, in this group, is John, Jewish apostle of Jesus and a fisherman. The Acts was published in about the 60s by Luke as a continuation of his gospel.

The period ranging from AD 49–67 saw the publication of the Pauline letters to the Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon by Paul, Jewish, the thirteenth apostle of Jesus Christ, a tentmaker and former Pharisee. Both 1 Peter and 2 Peter were published in between c. AD 63–69 by Peter, a Jewish apostle of Jesus and a fisherman. The Hebrews was published in between AD 64–69 has no known author.¹¹

The letter to the Hebrews had difficulty in being accepted as a part of the Christian canon because of its anonymity (Lame William, 1991). As early as the third century, Origen wrote of the letter, men of old have handed it down as Paul's, but who wrote the Epistle God only knows (Eusebius, Chapter 25, Church History Book v. 1).¹²

New Testament scholars, since the early Church fathers, had suggested different people as authors including, among others, Paul, Barnabas, Luke, Apollos, Timothy, Priscilla, and Aquila. Jude, a Jew, a half brother of Jesus, was published between c. AD 65–80. Contemporary scholars often have rejected Pauline authorship (Ehrman, 2004a, p. 325) based on its distinctive style and theology. The last of the gospels to be published were 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and the Revelation, all by John, Jewish apostle of Jesus and a fisherman. Paul and Luke combined together for writing 53 percent (Luke 28 percent, and Paul 25 percent) of the twenty-seven New Testament gospels. All gospels