Questions and Observations Concerning the Canon of the Old Testament

I’ve been doing a little study on how we got the canon of the Old Testament. Of course it was a work in progress as the nation of Israel progressed over the centuries… a thousand years or so.

First the “Torah" (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) were accepted as the “Old Testament”. Around 3,000 years ago. Then over the course of time the “Prophet’s” and “Other Writings” were included into the Jewish canon of the Old Testament.

The final canon of the Old Testament was determined by Jewish Rabbi’s in the second century AD and adopted by Christians into the Christian Bible.

Here is my question… why would Christians accept a canon of the Old Testament as determined by a cursed people who God had rejected?

Perhaps we should let Jesus determine the canon of the Old Testament. If so he only quoted or alluded to 24 of the 39 accepted Old Testament books.

If we let the whole of the New Testament define the canon of the Old Testament then there are 12 books of the Old Testament that are never directly quoted from in the New Testament… those are Judges, Ruth, 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Lamentations, Obadiah and Zephaniah.

If we let the writings of early church Fathers identify the Old Testament canon then the list of books goes far beyond what is currently accepted.

Whether we let Jewish Rabbi's, Jesus, New Testament writers or early church fathers determine the canon of the Old Testament...

The study of the canon of the Old Testament and how we got it is a very interesting study and in my opinion vital to the development of the Bible student. As lovers of God and as Christians lets study everything we can but especially what Jesus and the writers of the NewTestament considered important enough to reference.