The word “canon” means a standard or test of measurement, from the Greek word kavwv, meaning measuring rod or line. This word is not used in the Bible, but those books that form our Bible are said to be canonical, which means that they are considered to be genuine and of full authority. Although other books may have been inspired (see Numbers 21:14; Joshua 10:13; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29), none of them were intended to be canonical—otherwise they would have been preserved by God for us in the Bible today.

No books which God intended to be included in the canon have been lost. The Lord has given us a complete Bible suited for our every need (1 Peter 1:23, 25; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17).

The word “apocrypha” means “hidden” or “secret” and applies to 14 books of which there is uncertainty as to their date, origin, and authorship. The Jews did not recognize them as canonical or authoritative. There is no evidence that the apocryphal books were included in the Septuagint, which was the Bible of Christ’s day. The Roman Catholic Council of Trent in 1546 declared the apocryphal books to be canonical. Protestants have always rejected them. After the Reformation of the 16th century, the Apocrypha was included with the Scriptures for some time, but in 1825 the British and Foreign Bible Society decided to eliminate the Apocrypha from the Bible, and Protestants have given up the practice of printing it in the Bible.

The canon was fixed at the time of Ezra. No alterations have been made to it since. The threefold division of the canon does not indicate the time of writing of the separate books.

The New Testament shows that the OT was complete at the beginning of the 1st century. There was no dispute concerning this on the part of either Christ or the Jews of His day.

Jesus frequently appealed to the Old Testament as undisputed authority (Matthew 22:29; John 5:39; 10:35). The New Testament refers to every book of the OT except seven—Obadiah, Nahum, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

Josephus was a Jewish historian who lived from a.d. 37–95. In the first century, he recognized the same books as we have today. That canon was completed long before his time; the last of the canonical books was written not later than Artaxerxes (Ahasuerus in the book of Esther). Any of the books of Jewish history after this time were not put with the canonical writings.

This Greek translation of the OT Scriptures was made at Alexandria by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus around 277 b.c. It contains all the canonical books of the OT, again revealing that the canon must have been in existence before that time.

Jewish tradition also says that the canon was completed by Ezra. The following points favor this:

The circumstances in Ezra’s time required a collection of the sacred books.

This could be done at that time, where it could not be done in the time of captivity.

The formal public readings of Scripture in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah made this a necessity. (Nehemiah chapters 8–10).

Ezra had the necessary qualifications (Ezra 7:6, 10; 10:10).

It would seem that the canon was not complete before the time of Ezra, because the Samaritans who separated from the Jews at this time only had the Pentateuch (the first 5 books written by Moses.)

There is no original manuscript for either the OT or the NT. The Hebrew manuscripts had disappeared before the NT was written. The so-called originals of today are copies of the real original manuscripts—and there are many of them, nearly 1, 700 of the OT and about 400 of the NT There is much possibility of mistakes with so many.

Apart from recent discoveries, the oldest of any considerable size is the St. Petersburg codex dated a.d. 916.

There is little that we may consult in the way of older Hebrew manuscripts than those of the 10th century. We can consider that we have an accurate translation, because the Jews were particularly careful in the minutest accuracy of their copies, and there are other sources by which we can check. . . . Each new copy had to be made from an approved manuscript, written with a special kind of ink, upon sheets made from the skin of a clean animal. The writer also had to pronounce aloud each word before writing it, and on no account was a single word to be written from memory. They were to reverently wipe their pen before writing the name of God in any form, and to wash their whole body before writing “Jehovah,” lest that holy name should be tainted even by the writing. The new copy was then carefully examined with the original almost immediately; and it is said that if only one incorrect letter were discovered, the whole copy was rejected. . . .

Other Hebrew writings include the Talmud, a collection of the sayings of authoritative Jewish scribes around a.d. 200. The Talmud quoted extensively from the OT canon and the Targum, which are paraphrases of the canon into the language of the people.

The Samaritan Pentateuch, which has come down independently of the Jewish, is the samaritan's scripture of the first five books of the Bible.

NT Quotations. There are about 263 direct quotations from the OT and about 370 references, and these agree.

Translations. The oldest is the LXX version in Greek (Septuagint) from about 277 b.c., which is the most important and was used widely in Christ’s day. It was probably used by Him and the apostles, and it is practically the same as that which we have. The Syriac version was made about a.d. 200. This agrees with the OT.

The monuments. The names of kings mentioned in the OT correspond exactly with the names of kings mentioned in different ancient monuments and prove that the Bible is accurate.

The OT was written in Hebrew, with the exception of Ezra 4:8–6:18; 7:12–26; Jeremiah 10:11; Daniel 2:4–7, 28. These particular portions were written in the Chaldean dialect, which is no doubt due to the fact that Daniel and Ezra had particular connection with the Babylonian and Persian rulers at the time.

The Hebrew language is a branch of the Semitic languages, which include Syrian, Chaldean, Assyrian, Phoenician, Arabic, and Ethiopic dialects. Probably, the Hebrew came from the language of Abraham of Ur of the Chaldees. The story of Judges 12:6 shows that even this language had its own dialects from place to place and from tribe to tribe. However, when used for sacred purposes by the scribes and priests, it remained pure and comparatively unchanged from the days of Moses until the captivity.