De Moor II:13: The Canon of Scripture, Part 1

From the Efficient, Instrumental Cause, or the Amanuenses, we proceed with our AUTHOR to the Material of Composition, or the Books of which Sacred Scripture consists.  These Books are called ἐνδιάθηκοι, committed to writing, and Canonical.  The Canonical Books EUSEBIUS, Historia Ecclesiastica, book III, chapter III, calls ἐνδιάθηκοι, committed to writing, that is, properly Testamentary or Federal, because they are contained in the Old or New Testament, concerning which denomination shortly.  Otherwise they are called ἐνθιάθετοι γραφαὶ, writings laid up, for example, in Dialogo contra Marcionitas, which is commonly attributed to ORIGEN, Section V, page 136, because ἀνετέθησαν ἐν τῇ τῆς διαθήκης κιβωτῷ, they were laid up in the ark of the covenant, according to WETTSTEIN,[1] in his Notis in Dialogo contra Marcionitas, column 85, because the exemplar of the Canonical Books, laid up in or next to the Ark of the covenant, was of old kept, with EPIPHANIUS[2] and JOHN OF DAMASCUS[3] compared:  while this denomination shall properly have regard only to the Books of the Old Testament.  But according to SCALIGER, ad Eusebii Chronicon ad Annum 1584, the ἐνδιάθετοι γραφαὶ are simply the Canonical Scriptures, the Scriptures that are in the Canon, gathered into the Canon; because διατιθέναι is to constitute a Canon, ἐνδιατιθέναι to put into the Canon.

              The Books of Sacred Scripture are called Canonical, because they have been gathered by the Ancient Church within a Canon of θεοπνεύστων/inspired Books, designed for the perpetual use of the Church, which Books alone prescribe Canon, the rule and norm of the universal Church’s faith and manners.  Κανὼν/Canon properly is the tongue on a balance, which is above the scales and makes them level; see HENRICUS STEPHANUS’ Thesaurum Linguæ Graecæ.  And since from its inclination unto this or that side it is known what weighs more; thence it appropriates to itself the signification of a rule and norm, unto which something is compared.  Thus as a rule it is made use of as a guide for faith and manners, by which all things in faith and practice are to be proven, Galatians 6:16;[4] Philippians 3:16.[5]  Unless in these places a metaphor in the language of κανὼν/canon is chosen from the rulers and lines of architects in building houses; or from the line or rule in the starting lines of the stadium, on which they were standing on a level, until they received the signal to run, and which is also wont to go by the name of κανὼν/canon:  both are especially accommodated unto the present matter, to denominate thence the Books as Canonical:  see LYDIUS’[6] Agonistica sacra, chapter VII; ADAMI’S[7] Observationes Sacras, chapter V, § 21, pages 399-402; WOLF’S Curas philologicas et criticas on Galatians 6:16.  The θεόπνευστοι/inspired Books alone constitute that Canon of faith and manners:  hence the index or catalogue of the same, even the assembled body of the same, also began to be called Canon metonymically,[8] and the Books having regard to this Canon began to be called Canonical; not with the expression used more loosely of Books that were extending to the Canon or catalogue of those to be read publicly with profit in the Church, unto which use several Ecclesiastical Books not θεόπνευστοι/inspired were formerly admitted:  but more strictly, in which sense ATHANASIUS, Epistola XXXIX, de Festis, says that he reckoned the Books τῆς θεοπνεύστου γραφῆς, of inspired writing, κανονιζόμενα καὶ παραδοθέντα πιστευθέντατε θεῖα εἶναι βιβλία, to be received into the Canan, delivered, and believed, as divine Books:  and in this sense Books κανονιζόμενα, received into the Canon, and ἀναγινωσκόμενα/read, are opposed to each other; again see ATHANASIUS’ Epistola XXXIX, de Festis:  from both of which, moreover, are distinguished the ἀπόκρυφα, Apocryphal Books, see tome 2, pages 38-40.  In the same manner, RUFFINUS, in his Expositione in Symbolum,[9] opera Hieronymi, tome 4, page 113, distinguishes between Books Canonical, Ecclesiastical, that is, read in the Church, yet lacking the authority to confirm faith, and Apocryphal; accordingly, with all the Books of the Old and New Testaments enumerated from Genesis to Revelation, he subjoins:  These are the ones that the fathers included within the Canon, and upon which they maintained our assertions of faith depend.  Yet it is to be understood that there are also other books which are not Canonical, but are called Ecclesiastical by the fathers:  that is, Wisdom, which is said to belong to Solomon, etc.  All which they did indeed desire to be read in the churches:  yet not to be set forth for confirming from these the authority of faith.  But they named the other Writings Apocryphal, which they did not desire to be read in the churches:  see BUDDEUS’ Theologiæ dogmaticæ, tome I, page 195, comparing ENS’ de Canone Librorum Novi Testamenti, chapter III.

              Separately these are called the Books of the Old and New Testament or Covenant, with the appellation taken from 2 Corinthians 3:14.[10]  A Testament, διαθήκη, in Sacred Scripture very often denotes the testamentary Covenant of God, which God makes with the elect sinner, and which He willed to confirm through the death of His Son.  But improperly and through a metonymy of subject for adjunct, or of the thing contained in the place of the container, Testament, διαθήκη, denotes the Books of the Covenant, the Tables of the Testament; which are also by way of division called the Old and New Testament according to the twofold Economy of the Covenant of Grace before and after the incarnation of Christ, which diverse Economies of the one Covenant are likewise called metonymically two Testaments or Covenants, the Old and the New; and under which double-facing turning point of time, and diverse Economy of the Covenant, these Books were written.  By another appellation these Books of the Old and New Testament are able to be called the Prophets and Apostles, from Ephesians 2:20, in which the doctrine delivered with great unanimity both before and after Christ in the Books of the Old and New Testament the Apostle calls the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.  For, that by Prophets are to be understood, not the recent Prophets living in the time of the Apostles, but those that had lived under the Old Testament, and had consigned their writing unto the perpetual use of the Church, I showed in § 12.

              Of these Books our AUTHOR relates:

              α.  the enumerating Number,

              β.  the Division;

                             I.  With respect to the Old Testament,

                             II.  With respect to the New Testament.

              I.  α.  The Number of the Books of the Old Testament is variously computed.  JOSEPHUS, in book I, contra Apionem, page m. 1036, counts twenty-two Books, whose words that have regard unto this matter EUSEBIUS cites, Historia Ecclesiastica, book III, chapter X.  This number is followed by a fair number of the Fathers, Origen, Athanasius, Hilary, Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ruffinus, Epiphanius; and, that this agrees with the number of the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, JEROME observes in Prologo galeato, which is found in his operibus, tome 3, pages 16, 17:  “Therefore,” says he, “just as there are twenty-two letters by which we write in Hebrew everything that we say, and by means of them the human voice is captured:  so also twenty-two volumes are enumerated, by which, as if by letters and introductions, the infancy, yet tender and nursing, of the just man is instructed in the doctrine of God.”  Now, these twenty-two Books are reckoned in this manner in JEROME’S Prologo galeato, opera, tome 3, pages 16, 17:  1.  Genesis, 2.  Exodus,  3.  Leviticus, 4.  Numbers, 5.  Deuteronomy, 6.  Joshua, 7.  Judges with Ruth, 8.  Samuel, whose Books are also, by Jerome’s observation, according to the Vulgate and Greek Versions, called first and second Kingdoms; 9.  Kings, which in the Versions cited is contained in the third and fourth volume of Kingdoms, or rather Kings, according to the same Jerome; 10.  Isaiah, 11.  Jeremiah, 12.  Ezekiel, 13.  The Book of the twelve Prophets, which, adds Jerome, in their, namely, the Hebrews’, writings is called trei asar, the Twelve;[11] 14. Job, 15.  the Psalms of David, comprehended in five divisions and one volume; 16.  the Proverbs of Solomon, 17.  Solomon’s Ecclesiastes, 18.  the Song of Songs, 19.  Daniel, 20.  Dibre hayyamim, that is, the Words of days,[12] which comprehends the first and second Book of Paralipomenon, things passed over;[13] 21.  Ezra, which itself was also similarly divided into two books among the Greeks and Latins, 22.  Esther.  “Thus,” says the Holy Father, “there are likewise twenty-two books of the old law:  that is, five of Moses, eight of the Prophets, nine of Hagiographa.”  “But,” says our AUTHOR, “they posit twenty-four Books with the Jews commonly, according to the Alphabet in other Tongues, and among the Hebrews augmented by the two י/Yods in the ancient writing of the name Jehovah,[14] and the number of Apocalyptic Elders,[15] with the books of Ruth and Lamentations considered separately.”  For, when the Books are reckoned only as twenty-two, the Book of Ruth is contained under the Book of Judges, and the Book of Lamentations under the Book of the Prophecies of Jeremiah.  JEROME, in his Prologo galeato, opera, tome 3, pages 16, 17, makes mention of this augmented number of Holy Books:  “Nine of Hagiographa,” says he, “although some write Ruth and Lamentations among the Hagiographa, and suppose that these books are to be counted in their number, and that through this there are twenty-four books of the ancient Law.”  The same he compares, not with the letters of some Alphabet, but with the number of twenty-four Apocalyptic Elders, proceeding in this manner:  “whom John’s Apocalypse introduces under the number of twenty-four Elders, worshipping the lamb,” etc.  This number of twenty-four Books occurs in Gemara Bava bathra, folios 14b and 15a.  The same is retained by Ibn Ezra,[16] Salomon Jarchi,[17] David Kimchi, Elias Levita in the præfatione 3 upon his book Masoreth, and most more recent Jews, with GALATINUS observing, de Arcanis Catholicæ Veritatis, book I, chapter I, so that among them the Bible is usually calledעשרים וארבעה, the twenty-four:  see the places cited in the Observationibus of DE VOISIN on Martí’s[18] Pugionem Fidei, folio 94, or 115, 116.[19]  The Jews in this number are able to have regard unto the Hebrew Alphabet, with the letter Yod thrice repeated in honor of the tetragrammatic Name.  For the ancient Rabbis, if credit be given to GALATINUS, de Arcanis Catholicæ Veritatis, book II, chapter X, were wont to abbreviate the name Jehovah by a triple Yod (ייי), even indeed to the end that they might denote the mystery of the Trinity:  but afterwards (perhaps out of hatred for Christians defending the Trinity) they withdrew one Yod, and by a double Yod with a shewa (ְ) and a qametz (ָ) subscripted (יְיָ) they everywhere wrote the name in the Chaldean paraphrases.  “Some of the Greek Fathers,” says SIXTUS SENENSIS in book I of Bibliothecæ Sanctæ, section I, page 2, “received this distribution, which most aptly agrees with the number of twenty-four Greek letters; and a fair number of the Latins, both ancient and more recent, embraced it with equal zeal, having regard unto that mystical number of the twenty-four Elders, whom John introduced in his Apocalypse, etc.”

Jerome

              Our AUTHOR yet adds, “No more than twenty-seven.  With the Twofold Books divided according to the additional computation of the Five Final Letters, they posit with Jerome.”  For thus again JEROME, in his Prologo galeato, opera, tome 3, pages 16, 17:  “Moreover, there are five double letters among the Hebrews, כ/ך, מ/ם, נ/ן, פ/ף, צ/ץ.  For they write these one way at the beginning and in the midst of words, another way at the end.  Whence also five are esteemed by most as double Books, Samuel, Malachim,[20] Dibre hajomim,[21] Ezra, Jeremiah with Cinoth, that is, with his Lamentations.”  And indeed, if the two Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are numbered separately as individuals, and are separated Nehemiah from Ezra and Lamentations from the Prophecies of Jeremiah, five are added to the twenty-two Books before enumerated, which together make up the number twenty-seven.  Which number will equally return, if with SIXTUS SENENSIS, while indeed holding Jeremiah with Lamentations as the same Book, you separate, on the other hand, the little book of Ruth from the Book of Judges.  FRANCIS JUNIUS, Oratione III de Fœdere et Testamento Dei, column 38, opera, tome 2, observes:  “Now, what the Fathers divided into twenty-two Books according to the number of Hebrew letters, and into twenty-seven Books, is reckoned in this manner.  Four Quintuplets of Books are posited, and two Books in addition, in this manner:  The First quintuplet:  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.  The Second quintuplet:  Joshua, Judges with Ruth, twofold of Samuel, twofold of Kings, twofold of Chronicles.  The Third:  Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song.  The Fourth:  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, τὸ δωδεκαπρόφητον, Book of the Twelve Prophets.  To these two others are added, twofold Ezra, and Esther.  From these twenty-two, if you divide those which are twofold (think the books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra), twenty-seven Books are constituted, which is the number of all the figures by which the letters of the Hebrews are depicted.”

              Now, there is no discernable fault of the Jews in this, that they make the computation of the θεοπνεύστων/inspired Books to conform to the Number of Alphabetic letters, as indeed some of the Papists maintain.  For they were not, therefore, prohibited from admitting additional Books into the Canon, lest they should exceed the number of the letters of the Alphabet:  but, while the Canon of θεοπνεύστων/ inspired Books had already been constituted among them by the gift of the prophetic Spirit, only for the help of education and memory did they begin to reckon them according to the Alphabet.

              Now, in the threefold manner of Computation already mentioned, the twelve Minor Prophets are always considered all together to make up only one Book, named according to the Chaldean dialect from the number of authors, תרי עסר, or תריסר, the Twelve, but δωδεκαπρόφητον, Book of the Twelve Prophets, among the Greeks, as it is in EPIPHANIUS’ de Mensuris et Ponderibus, chapter IV, opera, tome 2, page 162.  JEROME, in his Prologo galeato, opera, tome 3, pages 16, 17, calls it the Book of the Twelve Prophets.  That conjunction is ancient, whether brought about by Prophetic Men under divine impulse a little after the release from captivity, or even by human management, because the prophecies of these individual Prophets were less with respect to mass and treat a related argument.  Whether to this it indeed has regard, that the words of Amos are cited in Acts 7:42 out of βίβλῳ τῶν προφητῶν, the Book of the Prophets, as if one of many or of the twelve, I would not dare to affirm; since the Book of the Prophets, taken in greater latitude, is thus able to be set over against Moses, or Moses and the Psalms.[22]  But if these twelve Minor Prophets are also numbered as individuals separately, there are thirty-nine Books total in the Old Testament.

[1] Johann Rudolf Wettstein the Younger (1647-1711) served as Professor of Theology at Basel from 1685 to 1696.

[2] De ponderibus et mensuris, page 534.

[3] Of the Orthodox Faith, book 4, chapter 18.

[4] Galatians 6:16:  “And as many as walk according to this rule (τῷ κανόνι τούτῳ, according to this canon), peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”

[5] Philippians 3:16:  “Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule (τῷ αὐτῷ—κανόνι, by the same canon), let us mind the same thing.”

[6] Jacobus Lydius (1610-1679) was a Reformed theologian and philologist.  He served as minister at Dordrecht.

[7] Cornelius Adami (died 1721) was a Reformed theologian and philologist.

[8] Metonymy is a rhetorical device in which a word or name is used in the place of another word or name associated with it.

[9] Ruffinus was a fourth century churchman, a friend of Jerome turned foe, a commentator, and a monastery builder.  His work in the translation of Greek patristic literature into Latin has proven to be of great importance, preserving works that would have otherwise been lost.  He wrote Commentarium in symbolum apostolorum.

[10] 2 Corinthians 3:14:  “But their minds were blinded:  for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament (τῆς παλαιᾶς διαθήκης); which vail is done away in Christ.”

[11] Chaldean:  תרי עשר.

[12] Hebrew:  דברי הימים, the Hebrew title of Chronicles.

[13] Greek:  Παραλειπομένων, the Greek title of Chronicles.

[14] יהוה/Jehovah was sometimes abbreviated יי.

[15] Revelation 4; 5.

[16] Abraham Ibn Ezra (c. 1089-1164) was a renowned Spanish Rabbi.  Although a universal scholar, at the heart of his work is his commentary on the Hebrew Bible.  He commented on the entirety of the Old Testament, and his exegesis manifests a commitment to the literal sense of the text.

[17] The details of the life of Rabbi Salomon Jarchi (Solomon Jarchi ben Isaac) have been obscured by the mists of time.  It is relatively safe to associate him with the eleventh century.  He commented on the whole of the Hebrew Bible, and the principal value of his commentary is its preservation of traditional Jewish interpretation.

[18] Ramón Martí (died 1284) was a Catalan Dominican friar and theologian.  In 1250, he was appointed by the provincial chapter, together with seven others, to study the oriental languages for the purpose of mission work among the Jews and the Moors.

[19] Joseph de Voisin (died c. 1685) was a French priest, expert in Hebraic and Rabbinical learning.  De Voison published Martí’s Pugionem, expanded with his own Observationibus.

[20] That is, Kings.

[21] That is, Chronicles.

[22] See, for example, Luke 24:44.