Explosion of the Canon - Bibal.Net

Explosion of the Canon

Explosion of the Canon
The Greek New Testament
in
Early Church History
by
Duane L. Christensen
BIBAL Press
North Richland Hills, Texas

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Copyright © 2004 by Duane L. Christensen
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission of the publisher except for
brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Printed in the United States of America
05 04 03 02 01 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 1-930566-41-7
Photo credits:
Page 8, C. F. Stevens, based on specifications of W. F. Albright and G. E. Wright
from The Westminster Historical Atlas to the Bible, rev. ed. (Philadelphia,
1956), p. 48. Reprinted with permission of Westminster John Knox Press.
Page 53, Leen Ritmeyer (reprinted with permission)
Page 78, courtesy of the Biblical Archaeological Society, Washington, D.C.
Page 86, copyright by Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana; reprinted with permission
Page 114, reproduced with permission of the Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library,
Dublin

This book is dedicated to Betty Ames and Brett Massey,
our first Prison Outmate
and the Prison Inmate who brought us together.

Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
1 UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN THE CANONICAL
PROCESS—IN TIMES PAST . . . . . . . . . 1
From Epic Story to the Tanakh . . . . . . . . . . 2
Anticipating a New Ending to the Epic
Story—Completing the Tanakh. . . . . . . . . 24
2 INTRODUCING PAUL AND LUKE AS PROTAGONISTS 33
Stephen’s Sermon in Jerusalem and Paul’s
Summons to Battle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Setting the Stage for the “Battle of the Canon” . . . . 36
A New Chapter in the “Wars of YHWH” . . . . . . 40
3 FROM TROAS TO JERUSALEM AND ROME
—THE CANONICAL JOURNEY . . . . . . . . 45
Luke and Lydia in Philippi—Preparing for
the “Battle of the Canon” . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Paul’s Missionary Activity in Greece and
Ephesus and His Return to Philippi . . . . . . . 49
Going to War—the Journey to Jerusalem
and Then to Rome . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4 THE EXPLOSION OF THE CANON IN
JERUSALEM AND ROME . . . . . . . . . . 57
The Battle Strategy of Luke and Paul in
the Church of Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . 57
The Composition of a “New Torah” in
Jerusalem (ca. 57–59 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The Battle Shifts to Rome—the Other
Half of a “New Testament” (ca. 60–62 CE) . . . . 67
vii

Contents
5 FROM ROME TO THE NEW JERUSALEM
—COMPLETION OF THE TANAKH . . . . . . 77
Eschatological Expectation and the
Great Disappointment of 63 CE . . . . . . . . 79
The Burning of Rome in 64 CE and the
Death of Paul and Peter. . . . . . . . . . . . 86
John and Luke—the Completion of the
Greek New Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6 THE CANON OF THE GREEK NEW TESTAMENT
IN EARLY CHURCH HISTORY . . . . . . . 105
The Canonical Challenge of the Heretic
Marcion (ca. 150 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
The Christian Biblical Canon in
Early Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Restoring the Canonical Text in Light
of Its Numerical Composition. . . . . . . . . 116
7 UNFINISHED BUSINESS IN THE CANONICAL
PROCESS—IN THE PRESENT . . . . . . . . 125
In Search of the Correct Order and
Number of the Books in the Bible . . . . . . . 129
In Search of the “Autographs” of the
Canonical Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
viii

Maps and Illustrations
1. Part One of the Eisodus: Conquest of the Amorite
Kingdoms in Transjordan . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Part Two of the Eisodus: Conquest of Cisjordan
under Joshua . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3. Kingdom of David (ca. 980 BCE) . . . . . . . . 6
4. Reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon (First Temple) . 8
5. The Kodaly Method of Chironomy for Teaching Music . 12
6. Chironomers at Work in Ancient Egypt . . . . . . 12
7. Map of the Canonical Journey of Paul and Luke
(ca. 57–64 CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
8. Map of Aegean Region Showing Philippi, Corinth,
and Ephesus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
9. Reconstruction of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem
and the Temple Mount . . . . . . . . . . . 53
10. The Roman Emperor Nero (54–68 CE) . . . . . . 67
11. Ossuary of “James, Brother of Yeshua” . . . . . . 78
12. Codex Vaticanus (4 th century CE) . . . . . . . . 87
13. Chester Beatty Papyrus (ca. 180–200 CE) . . . . . 114
ix

Asignificant phenomenon has emerged in recent years in a
worldwide Messianic Jewish community. In his book,
Evangelizing the Chosen People, Yaakov Ariel, a non-Messianic
Jewish professor of Religion at the University of North
Carolina, wrote these words: “At the start of the new century,
Messianic Judaism is a growing movement. It has passed its stage
of infancy but has retained its youthful vigor and enthusiasm. It is
characterized by a large degree of optimism, resulting from its relative
success and growth, and a strong sense of mission.”
In the summer of 2001, my wife Martha and I had the occasion
to visit Baruch Ha-Shem—a synagogue in Dallas, Texas.
Some months earlier I was introduced to Betty Ames who is a
member of that congregation through Brett Massey, a prison
inmate serving a life sentence in Texas. One thing led to another
until we now have more than sixty prison inmates working their
way through the BIBAL Study Program in Prison Link Educational
Ministries—all recruited by word of mouth, since the
completed program is yet to be formally launched. At this point in
time [December 2003], I have not finished writing the core curriculum,
with two of the eight textbooks yet to be published. Most
of the prison inmates in the BIBAL Study Program are Messianic
Jewish believers within the Texas prison system, who were
located through the personal ministry of Betty Ames.
Prison Link Educational Ministries is not a ministry I
chose on my own. It is a ministry to which G–d called me. I have
chosen to change my language a bit in order to communicate
more readily within this community—and to make one small
xi

Preface
attempt to bridge the gap that separates Jewish followers of
Yeshua, who are uncomfortable with much of the culture often
identified with Christianity, from other believers.
As Betty Ames puts it, “His mother called him Yeshua, America
calls him Jesus.” In this book, I have chosen to call the Messiah by
his birth name—Yeshua. I have also chosen to use the tetragrammaton
YHWH, rather than the personal name “Yahweh,” Lord,
or Adonai, and to hyphenate the word “God” by using “G–d.”
This is a symbolic gesture to say overtly that I recognize the
authority of the Third Commandment, “You shall not make
wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy
5:11, NRSV). Sometimes I may even resort to the use of the
Hebrew word “Ha-Shem” (“the Name,” cf. Lev 24:16) to refer to
the God I love and faithfully serve in the ministry to which He has
called me. You will also meet the Hebrew words B’rit Hadashah in
place of the more familiar words “New Testament.”
My prayers are with Brett Massey and many others I am gradually
getting to know, some of whom have perpetrated horrible
deeds in violation of the laws of this land. Nonetheless, I learned
long ago that God accepts each one of us as we are—through what
Yeshua suffered in our behalf. I have no more merit in God’s sight
than any of those who are serving time in the prison systems of
this country. We are accepted by G–d as forgiven sinners on the
basis of what Yeshua accomplished in our behalf, not on the basis
of anything we ourselves have done or could do. Moreover, we are
brothers and sisters in a common community of faith serving the
same living Lord and Savior—the Messiah Yeshua. If this book
encourages those who are incarcerated in prisons throughout this
great land of ours in their personal journey with Yeshua, it has
served its purpose.
Betty Ames is an advocate for prisoners, especially those who
choose to enter God’s family as followers of Yeshua. Her personal
ministry week by week reaches out to many inmates, perhaps
more than even she knows. I think of her often as our first Prison
Outmate and I invite each one who reads this book to join her in
this ministry. Yeshua once said these words to his talmudim (disciples):
“I was in prison and you visited me.” The people responded
saying, “When did we see you in prison, and visit you?” Yeshua
xii

said, “I tell you that whenever you did these things for one of the
least important of these brothers (and sisters) of mine, you did
them for me!” (Matthew 25:36–40, Complete Jewish Bible).
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Rabbi
Scott Rubin of Congregation Tiferet Israel (San Francisco) for his
perceptive comments, corrections, and suggestions in matters of
detail. I am also grateful to Joel Kalvesmaki and to members of the
Word Count Project, especially Prof. Casper Labuschagne, who
read an early version of chapter 7 and offered useful criticism and
correction.
If you want to know more about the BIBAL Study Program
and Prison Link Educational Ministries, please contact
me. We invite you to become a Prison Outmate as a sponsor
and/or mentor to a specific Prison Inmate. In so doing you will
be “visiting them” in prison and you will be visiting Yeshua as
well.
xiii
Preface
Duane L. Christensen

Unfinished Business in the Canonical
Process—in Times Past
In one sense, the Bible begins with the book of Exodus. Moses
is the traditional author of the first five books of the Bible; and
the first chapter of Exodus tells the story of Moses’ birth and
the beginning of YHWH’s “Holy War” against the evil of human
and cosmic forces arrayed against his chosen people.
The story of the Exodus from Egypt marks the beginning of a
national epic, which is told in the form of a journey that takes the
people of Israel “home” to the Promised Land. The initial phase of
that journey moves from slavery in Egypt through the waters of
Yam Suf (the Red Sea or the Reed Sea) to the mountain of G–d
(Mount Sinai). There on this mountain YHWH revealed his presence
and his will in the Ten Commandments, which were given to
Moses and the people of Israel.
According to Jewish legend, G–d made the initial copy of the
Ten Commandments on two stone tablets in the twilight of the
evening on the sixth day of Creation. When he had finished creating
the entire universe and all that is in it, G–d had a few minutes
left over—that brief period of time when it is difficult to know
whether the sun has set. Since the Sabbath begins at sunset, there
are a few minutes in the twilight of the sixth day when it is difficult
to determine whether it is still the sixth day or the beginning of the
seventh. In his book Legends of the Jews, Louis Ginzberg says: 1
1

2 Explosion of the Canon
In the twilight, between the sixth day and the Sabbath, ten
creations were brought forth: the rainbow, invisible until
Noah’s time; the manna; watersprings, whence Israel drew
water for his thirst in the desert; the writing upon the two
tables of stone given at Sinai; the pen with which the writing
was written; the two tablets themselves; the mouth of
Balaam’s she-ass; the grave of Moses; the cave in which
Moses and Elijah dwelt; and the rod of Aaron, with its
blossoms and its ripe almonds.
Three of these ten creations concern G–d’s revelation of the Ten
Commandments at Mount Sinai (the writing upon two tables of
stone, the pen with which the writing was written, and the two
tablets themselves). Moreover, a fourth is closely related to this
same event in the cave on Mount Sinai, from which Moses
received a glimpse of the glory of YHWH (Exod 33:17–23).
A. From the Epic Story to the Tanakh
The ancient epic journey, which begins with the story of the birth
of Moses, is extended in the generation after the Exodus from
Egypt. The children of Israel move on from their temporary wilderness
home at Kadesh-barnea in the Negev of southern Judah to
the transfer of leadership from Moses to Joshua on the plains of
Moab. There the story of the Exodus from Egypt under Moses
gives way to the parallel story of the Eisodus (Entry) into the
Promised Land under Joshua. The combination of these two stories,
the Exodus and the Eisodus, was understood in terms of what
the people of ancient Israel called the “wars of YHWH.”
1. The Wars of YHWH
The story of the wars of YHWH concerns the Divine Warrior
poised on the edge of the Promised Land, before the celebrated
battles of the Exodus–Eisodus. He came in the whirlwind and he
marched with his hosts to the sources of the Arnon River in
Transjordan. He marched through the wadis, turning aside to settle
affairs with the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og, and then
across the Jordan to the battle camp at Gilgal and the conquest of
the land of Canaan.

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 3
The Book of the Wars of YHWH, which is cited only once in
the Bible (Num 21:14), was apparently an epic poem about G–d’s
“Holy War” directed against the enemies of Israel in the time of
Moses and Joshua. Many scholars assume that this “lost book” was
an anthology of ancient war poems dealing with the conflict
between the invading Israelites and the original inhabitants of the
land of Canaan. It is more likely, however, that this Book of the
Wars of YHWH was an epic poem on the journey of the people of
Israel from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land,
which was presented in imagery of a great military conquest. That
poem was eminently familiar to all—much as the Iliad and the
Odyssey of Homer were well known in ancient Greece long before
that epic material was written down in the books we know by
those titles today.
In the first phase of the Eisodus (Entry) into the Promised
Land Moses conquered the two Amorite kingdoms in Transjordan
north of the Arnon River Valley, which marked the boundary
between Moab and Israel (see map on next page). At the time of
Moses’ death, the people of Israel were already established in
Transjordan, with Moab to the south and Ammon to the east,
anticipating the crossing of the Jordan River to possess the whole of
the Promised Land.
The details of the historical process in which Joshua led the
people of Israel across the Jordan River into what would subsequently
become the land of Israel to the north and the land of
Judah to the south are difficult, if not impossible, to reconstruct
with any degree of certainty. Some of the key battles are presented
in the book of Joshua, and we have a list of thirty-one kings that
were conquered, as the people of YHWH increased markedly in
both population and territory under their control. The focus of
attention, however, is on the “Wars of YHWH” and not the world
of human political achievements. The story is what is important,
and that story was remembered from the beginning within the
context of public worship on the part of a people who were profoundly
grateful for what YHWH their God had done in giving
them the Promised Land.

4 Explosion of the Canon
Part One of the Eisodus
Conquest of the Amorite Kingdoms in Transjordan under Moses

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 5
Part Two of the Eisodus
Conquest of Cisjordan under Joshua: Premonarchic Israel

6 Explosion of the Canon
With the advent of the monarchy in the time of David and Solomon,
the ancient epic narrative was extended and given a new ending,
which focused on David’s kingdom as G–d’s creation. The new
pattern was achieved by shifting the focus from the mountain of
G–d’s revelation at Sinai to the mountain of G–d’s abiding presence
in Jerusalem, Mount Zion, where David’s son Solomon built
YHWH’s temple. This transformation of the original epic story
anticipates a second transformation, which culminates in the formation
of the Second Testament with its focus on the person of Messiah
Yeshua, a descendant of David, and once again on Mount Zion.
Kingdom of David (ca. 980 BCE)

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 7
In the Gospel of John, Yeshua makes the statement: “Destroy
this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Those
who heard him at that time thought he was referring to King
Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem, which had taken forty-six years to
build (John 2:20); but, after the resurrection of Yeshua, “his disciples
remembered that he had said this” (John 2:22), and now they
understood. In some mysterious way, Yeshua himself is the Temple
in Jerusalem; and the epic story takes on new and deeper meaning.
The transformation of the ancient epic story was achieved by
projecting the kingdom of David into a future messianic kingdom
with the anticipation of a new theophany in which the mountain
of G–d’s revelation and abiding presence in ancient Israel is
extended in an eschatological vision. The Gospel of Luke is a good
illustration of how this transformation became the structuring
principle for a new reading of the ancient epic story. In the center
of Luke’s Gospel stands an account of the transfiguration of
Yeshua. After making his enigmatic statement that “there are
some standing here who will not taste death before they see the
Kingdom of G–d” (Luke 9:27), Luke describes a mysterious experience
on a certain mountain. There Moses and Elijah appeared
with Yeshua, and the three of them discussed “his Exodus, which
he was to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31).
Greek orthodox tradition, which places this event in the vicinity
of Mount Sinai, where both Moses (Exodus 33) and Elijah (2
Kings 19) had their great encounters with G–d in times past, is
surely correct, at least symbolically. Messiah Yeshua appeared on
the mountain of G–d, which combined the experiences of Moses
and Elijah on Mount Sinai with the anticipation of what G–d would
achieve on Mount Golgotha, outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem,
not many days hence in Luke’s narrative account.
2. The Temple in Jerusalem as a New Ending to
the Epic Story
The book of Genesis tells the story of God’s promise to give the
land of Canaan to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and ultimately to the
twelve tribes of Israel (the sons of Jacob). The book of Exodus
tells the story of the people of Israel as state slaves in the land of

8 Explosion of the Canon
Egypt and of Moses, whom G–d appointed to lead them in the
Exodus from Egypt back to the Promised Land. In the story of the
Eisodus (Entry) into the Promised Land under Joshua, the crossing
of Yam Suf (the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds) is fused with the
crossing of the Jordan River, as the people of Israel return
“home.” That epic journey is told in the form of a military conquest.
The epic story of the wars of YHWH may be diagrammed
as follows:
LAND BONDAGE WATERS BATTLE CAMP
[Land Promised (Jordan River) Land Regained]
Deuteronomy marks the end of the first phase of YHWH’s “Holy
War” in the Exodus from Egypt. The final chapter of Deuteronomy
records the death of Moses and the transfer of leadership to
his successor Joshua—and the beginning of the second phase of
the “wars of YHWH.” The Eisodus (Entry) into the Promised
Land began with Joshua and the crossing of the Jordan River, and
was completed in the time of David with the establishment of an
empire, which extended from Mesopotamia to Egypt. The new
ending to the epic story concerns the replacing of the mountain of
YHWH’s revelation (Sinai) with the mountain of YHWH’s abiding
presence in the city of Jerusalem (Zion).
CREATION/LAND BONDAGE WATERS/MOUNTAIN TEMPLE/NEW CREATION
Canaan Egypt Mount Sinai Mount Zion
Reconstruction of Solomon’s Temple

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 9
The First Temple in Jerusalem, which Solomon built, remained
the proper ending of the ancient epic story of Yahweh’s
“Holy War” for almost four centuries—until its destruction at the
hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in 586 BCE. The
tragic flow of political events in ancient Israel, which reached its
climax in the destruction of Jerusalem, began with the fall of the
Northern Kingdom of Israel (721 BCE) and continued in the Babylonian
Exile (ca. 586–520 BCE). It is against this volatile background
of conflict and political turmoil that the canonical process
produced the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), which is essentially the
ancient epic story put down in writing. The process itself began
with the book of Deuteronomy, which was at the same time a
musical and a numerical composition.
3. The Composition of the Tanakh as Sacred
Scripture
In the days of King Josiah the process of renewal focused on the
covenant YHWH established in times past through Moses at
Mount Sinai. And so Josiah led the people of Israel in an observance
of Pesach (the Festival of Passover) as instructed in a certain
“scroll of the covenant,” which was found during the restoration
of the Temple in Jerusalem. “For Pesach had not been so observed
since the days when the judges ruled Isra’el—not during the times
of any of the kings of Isra’el or of the kings of Y’hudah” (2 Kings
23:22, Complete Jewish Bible). Unfortunately Josiah’s great reform
was not enough to turn the tide of history, and the young king was
fatally wounded in battle at Megiddo against the forces of Egypt
(ca. 609 BCE).
The momentum of human tragedy in Israel continued to
increase with the emergence of the Babylonian Empire under
Nebuchadnezzar who destroyed Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple
(ca. 586 BCE). The consequent exile of the leadership in
ancient Israel to distant Babylon set the stage for the composition
of the first canonical (i.e., authoritative) edition of the Tanakh.
The word “TaNaKh” is an acronym made up from the first letter
in the three major parts of the canon of sacred Scripture: Torah
(the Pentateuch), Nevi’im (Prophets—Former and Latter), and

10 Explosion of the Canon
Kethuvim (Writings). The Tanakh emerged as both a musical and
a numerical composition within the context of the Babylonian
Exile. The process of composition began with Deuteronomy.
As Bishop Robert Lowth pointed out more than two centuries
ago, the law codes throughout the whole of the Mediterranean
world were sung at the festivals in antiquity. 2
It is evident that Greece for several successive ages was possessed
of no records but the poetic: for the first who published
a prose oration was Pherecydes, a man of the Isle of
Syrus, and the contemporary with king Cyrus, who lived
some ages posterior to that of Homer and Hesiod: somewhat
after the time Cadmus the Milesian began to compose
history. The laws themselves were metrical, and adapted to
certain musical notes: such were the laws of Charondas,
which were sung at the banquets of the Athenians: such
were those which were delivered by the Cretans to the
ingenuous youth to be learned by rote, with the accompaniments
of musical melody, in order that by the enchantment
of harmony, the sentiments might be forcibly
impressed upon their memories. Hence certain poems
were denominated nomoi which implied convivial or banqueting
songs, as is remarked by Aristotle; who adds, that
the same custom of chanting the laws to music, existed
even in his own time among the Agathyrsi.
The law book we call Deuteronomy was in the hands of the
Levites (Deut 17:18) who were commanded by Moses to recite it
at the Festival of Booths in ancient Israel (Deut 31:9).
We do not know the precise nature of the performance of the
text of Deuteronomy; but we do know that it was sung and that
the people learned it. For generations Levites recited Deuteronomy
as a means of religious education. Eventually it was put in
written form and promulgated in Jerusalem in Josiah’s reformation.
Within that movement, Deuteronomy became the center of
a canonical process that ultimately produced the Tanakh as we
now have it. Recent research in Deuteronomy suggests that the
Hebrew text, as preserved by the Masoretes, is a musical composition.
The tradition of chanting the readings from the Torah in synagogues
preserves memory of the original performance of the
biblical text during the period of the Second Temple in Jerusalem,
and perhaps earlier, as Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura insists.

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 11
For centuries now the scholarly community has ignored the
Masoretic accentual system so far as detailed analysis and commentary
on the text of the Hebrew Bible is concerned. There is
widespread agreement, however, that the system is essentially a
form of musical notation of some sort. At the same time, many
scholars assume that the system is medieval in origin and imposed
on the Hebrew text—perhaps as a form of chant for recitation
within a liturgical setting. After all, the so-called tropes of this
Masoretic system are still used to instruct those who chant the text
in various synagogue traditions.
The musicologist Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura has shown that
these cantillation signs represent an ancient tradition of musical
interpretation, which predates the Masoretes by hundreds of
years. 3 She argues convincingly that the Masoretes did not invent
the musical tradition reflected in their sophisticated system of
notation. They merely fixed on paper a once living tradition so as
to preserve it for all time. The source of their knowledge was
apparently the “Elders of Bathyra,” certain sages among the predecessors
of the Karaite community during the first century CE. 4
Haïk-Vantoura claims that she has recovered the actual melodies
that were part of the text of the Tanakh in the period of the Second
Temple in ancient Israel, and earlier, which the Masoretes centuries
later only partially understood. Though they were aware of
the fact that the system represents a rich musical heritage, the
Masoretes themselves were not musicians. Consequently, they
focused their attention primarily on the linguistic features of that
system and used it to write elaborate grammatical treatises on the
accentual system they had inherited.
John Wheeler, who has studied Haïk-Vantoura’s restitution
of the musical meaning of the “accents” (te‘amim) of the Tanakh
in detail, argues that the masoretic notation parallels a specific
music “sign language” known as chironomy, which is used both to
teach and to conduct the liturgy. Some of the original hand signs,
which are specifically mentioned in masoretic literature, dovetail
neatly with the written signs, their ancient names, and their deciphered
musical meaning. The chironomy that Wheeler has reconstructed
is similar to the hand signs in the modern Kodaly
Method, which is used to teach musical literacy to children, as
illustrated on the following page. 5

12 Explosion of the Canon
The Kodaly Method of Chironomy for Teaching Music
Chironomers at Work in Ancient Egypt
(from tomb paintings of the third and second millenium BCE)
In Wheeler’s estimation, the biblical musical system in based on a
scale theory not far different from that of cuneiform texts in Babylonian
(ca. 1800 BCE) and Ugaritic (ca. 1400 BCE). Like these
systems, the “music of the Bible” is based on the major scale,

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 13
with the primary “mode” being “dorian” (tonic on the third note
of the scale). 6
T. Georgiades, a music historian, has shown convincingly, at
least for ancient Greek literature, that the distinct concepts of
music and poetry, as we use those terms today, were not known in
antiquity. As he puts it, 7
The ancient Greek verse line was a singular formation for
which there is no analogy in Western Christian civilization.
It was, if you will, music and poetry in one, and precisely
because of this it could not be separated into music and
poetry as two tangibly distinct components. For this particular
vehicle of meaning the Greeks, however, had a special
term mousikhv [from which the English word “music”
is derived].
The work of Haïk-Vantoura is essentially built on the same observation.
As with ancient Greek literature, the Tanakh emerged in
the form of mousikhv—a combination of music and language.
What is unique about the situation in ancient Israel is the fact that
the canonical form of the musical performance of the biblical text
is apparently recoverable, at least in part. Aspects of that speechact,
which is in the form of a musical performance of considerable
sophistication, opens the door to a new set of questions in the
study of the Tanakh.
It should be noted that music and poetry are a common
medium for transmitting cultural tradition among virtually all
preliterate peoples. In light of this fact, some missionaries and
administrators of mission agencies are asking new questions about
the translation of the Bible into previously unwritten languages.
The model of the Wycliffe Bible translator is being challenged
from within the ranks of those very translators, as the most effective
means of communicating the word of G–d in certain situations.
Should an individual give virtually a lifetime to the tedious
task of reducing such a language to written form in order to translate
the Bible into one more of the two thousand such languages
that exist to the present time? Where this has been done, the Bible
sometimes remains an external artifact that never really becomes a
vital part of the cultural tradition of those tribal groups. Would it
not be better to translate the Bible into media already present in

14 Explosion of the Canon
such societies for the transmission of culture, namely into their
own forms of music? Experiments with the oral communication
of the Scripture in sub-Saharan Africa, as reported by Herbert
Klem, suggest a positive answer to this question. 8 Moreover, it
may well be that these very experiments provide a closer analogue
to the historical situation in ancient Israel than the several models
advanced within the main stream of academic study of the Bible.
4. Deuteronomy as the Center in the Canonical
Process
In short, Deuteronomy is best explained as a didactic poem, composed
to be recited publicly to music in ancient Israel within a
liturgical setting. The book is primarily a work of literary art
designed to transmit a canonical (i.e., authoritative) body of tradition
as effectively as possible to a given people. It is composed for
oral recitation and, as models in the field of ethnomusicology suggest,
is composed with music as an essential aspect of the tradition
itself. Moreover, as a work of literary art, Deuteronomy is consciously
composed in what some call an “epic style,” which is similar
in its structural features to other epic texts in the world of
antiquity. Thus we ought not to be surprised to find concentric
structural features, which are also the subject of investigation by
students of Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid. And, indeed, such
features are present in the biblical text, as witnessed by the spate of
such observations, which have emerged in the field of biblical
studies in recent years.
An important aspect of the earlier stages of the canonical process
of composition is suggested by the work of Milman Perry and
Albert Lord in their oral-performance theory, which is based on
fieldwork among Yugoslavian poet-musicians. 9 The idea of “oral
composition-in-performance” remains a useful model to explain
the transmission of the Iliad from the time of Homer to the fixing
of that text in written form centuries later in ancient Greece. Frank
Cross and some of his students posit a somewhat parallel phenomenon
in their arguments for the presumed “Hebrew Epic,” which
lies behind the first six books in the Tanakh as we now have

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 15
them. 10 This epic poem is more or less what we are referring to
here as the Book of the Wars of YHWH.
Richard Martin’s work opens perhaps another chapter in this
fascinating story. 11 Martin builds his investigation primarily on
the basis of the disciplines of text linguistics and classical rhetoric,
which include careful attention to the new performance-centered
approach to verbal art that takes into account the audience for
which the speech-act is composed. 12 Martin notes at the outset in
his study that, in the final analysis, it does not matter whether
Homer’s Iliad is a piece of oral poetry or not. We simply do not
have an oral Iliad, “because the poem has somehow become a text;
and that has made all the difference. To put it another way, our
Iliad is no longer an action, as it must have been if it was ever an
oral composition-in-performance. Instead, it is an artifact.” 13 The
same is true of Deuteronomy and the rest of the Tanakh as well.
Deuteronomy is the center of a complex process of canonical
activity in ancient Israel, from at least the time of King Josiah to the
dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the end of the sixth
century BCE. It enjoyed generations of use within public worship in
ancient Israel, in the hands of Levitical singers in ancient Israel,
before its use at the center of canonical activity in the time of Josiah.
The canonical process at that point in time included much more
than the writing of the Torah, or even the so-called “Primary History.”
It included the composition of the whole of what we call here
the seventeen-book “Deuteronomic Canon.”
In a fundamental sense, then, Deuteronomy in its entirety
may be described as “poetry” in the broadest sense. Though it contains
a lyric “Song of Moses” (Deuteronomy 32), most of the
book is in the form of didactic poetry of a lesser nature so far as
heightened speech goes. According to tradition, the original composer
of the text was Moses; but the text itself enjoyed a life of its
own for generations within the public worship of ancient Israel.
Individual words no doubt changed in usage through time. Indeed,
the very structure of the greater “Song of Moses,” which we
now refer to as Deuteronomy, may have changed as it developed
in public performance by a long line of singers in the festivals and
in Levitical circles of ancient Israel through hundreds of years.

16 Explosion of the Canon
The concentric structural patterns in Deuteronomy, which
are found at all levels of analysis, bear witness to its tightly woven
composition. That structure points to an author/composer. On
one level of observation, that author is Moses, who composed the
original Torah in musical form. But on another level the author is
G–d himself, at work through a long chain of poet-prophets like
Moses in ancient Israel who recited this text in public worship.
Those poet-prophets made it the center of an elaborate canonical
process that ultimately produced the Completed Tanakh as the
“Word of G–d.”
5. The Deuteronomic Seventeen-Book Canon of
the Tanakh
The earliest version of the canon of the Tanakh may be described in
terms of a seventeen-book structure. 14 As Casper Labuschagne has
shown, the numbers seventeen and twenty-six were of primary
importance in ancient Israel and play a major role in shaping the
received canonical tradition. The numbers are determined from the
numericalvalueofthedivinenameYHWHintheHebrewlanguage:
Y = 10; H = 5; and W = 6, in terms of the normal numerical
value assigned to letters in the Hebrew alphabet. When these
numbers are added, Y (10) + H (5) + W (6) + H (5) = 26.When
the sum of the digits in these same numbers is added (10 = 1 + 0)
+5+6+5=17. The number seventeen is associated with both
YHWH and the numerical value of the Hebrew word for “glory”
and the laborious task of numerical composition of the biblical text
is an act of worship, which is done to the glory of YHWH.
In terms of the canonical process, the number 17 is determined
by the grouping of four structures of four books each,
arranged around the book of Deuteronomy at the center, in the
17-book “Deuteronomic Canon” of the emerging Tanakh:

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 17
Genesis Exodus Joshua Judges
Leviticus Numbers Samuel Kings
Deuteronomy
Isaiah Jeremiah Psalms Proverbs
Ezekiel The Twelve Job Megilloth
The term Megilloth here refers to the Festal Scrolls of ancient Judaism:
Ruth (Feast of Weeks); Song of Songs (Passover); Ecclesiastes
(Booths); Lamentations (9 th of Ab, the destruction of the
Temple); and at a later point in time Esther (Purim). In the earliest
stages of the canonical process, Esther and possibly Ecclesiastes
were not yet included among the Megilloth (Festal Scrolls).
David Noel Freedman presents a strong case for a “master editor”
responsible for writing what he calls the “Primary History”—
the Torah plus the Former Prophets (Genesis through 2 Kings in
the Hebrew Bible). 15 Itislikely,however,thatthismastereditor
was responsible for the entire seventeen-book “Deuteronomic
Canon” within a four-part literary structure, which may be outlined
in the form of a simple chiasm:
Torah Former Prophets
Latter Prophets “Hagiographa”
The term “Hagiographa” here refers to the four books in the
Tanakh, which, in the words of the Jewish historian Josephus,
“contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human
life” (Against Apion 1.8):
Psalms Job
Proverbs “Megilloth”
The four “Festal Scrolls” of the Megilloth, which did not yet
include the scroll of Esther (for Purim), may also be outlined in
the same fashion:
Ruth Song of Songs
Ecclesiastes Lamentations

18 Explosion of the Canon
Evidence for Freedman’s conclusion that a master editor
compiled the Primary History is found in a series of episodes,
which are distributed book by book through eight successive
books in the Tanakh. This series of episodes, which chart the violation
of the first nine of the Ten Commandments one by one,
starts with the sin of national apostasy (the worship of the golden
calf, Exodus 32), which violates the First and Second Commandments.
The series concludes with the sin of bearing false witness
(the Ninth Commandment) on the part of Jezebel in the story of
Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21. Because covetousness lies behind
all the crimes committed, each act implicitly breaks the Tenth
Commandment as well.
The Ten Commandments constitute the essence of the covenant
relationship established between G–d and the people of Israel
at Mount Sinai. The pattern of defiance of that covenant led inexorably
to the downfall of the nation, the destruction of their Temple
and the banishment of survivors from the Promised Land. The
message is clear to a community in the Babylonian Exile that their
fate is not the result of G–d’s abandoning them. It is the consequence
of their abandonment of G–d. The true people of G–d are
those who maintain their covenant commitment by observing the
Ten Commandments.
Genesis does not include an episode in this series because the
covenant at Mount Sinai, in which the stone tablets with the Ten
Commandments were given to Moses, takes place later—in the
book of Exodus. The Nine Commandments and their violation
within the Primary History are as follows:
Commandment Text Episode
1 Do not worship other
gods
Exodus 32 Golden Calf incident
2 No idols Exodus 32 Golden Calf incident
3 Taking YHWH’s
name in vain
Lev 24:10–17 Stoning to death for
sin of blasphemy
4 Keep the Sabbath Num 15:32–36 Stoning to death for
violating the Sabbath

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 19
5 Honor your parents Deut 21:18–21 Stoning to death of
stubborn and
rebellious son
6 You shall not steal Josh 7:20–26 Stoning of Achan and
his family for theft
7 You shall not murder Judg 20:34–48 Murder of the Levite’s
concubine
8 You shall not commit
adultery
9 You shall not bear
false witness
2 Samuel 11 David and Bathsheba
1 Kings 21 Ahab, Jezebel and
Naboth’s vineyard
Freedman identifies the master editor as the scribe Baruch, working
together with his brother Seraiah, in the first half of the sixth
century BCE (see Jeremiah 32:12; 45:1–5; and 51:59–64).
We would add two items to Freedman’s remarkable discovery
in the story of the canonical process, which produced the first
edition of the Tanakh (the seventeen-book-canon). In the first
place, as suggested above, the work of the master editor included
the Latter Prophets as well as the Former Prophets, and what we
call here the “Hagiographa” (Psalms, Job, Proverbs, and the
Megilloth) as well. This “Hagiographa” was subsequently expanded
into the fourth and concluding section of the Tanakh—the
Writings (Kethuvim), which took place in the formation of the
twenty-two-book “Pentateuchal Canon” in the time of Ezra and
Nehemiah. Moreover, the scribe Ezra takes his place alongside
Baruch and Seraiah as a third in the list of “master editors” within
the canonical process that produced the Tanakh as we now know
it (ca. 400 BCE).
Second, we posit the nature of the editing process, which
transformed sacred literature into canonical Scripture, for Baruch
and his brother Seraiah stand within a family of scribal tradition in
ancient Israel who had mastered the ancient principle of numerical
composition. And Ezra, the scribe par excellence in ancient Israel
who was second only to Moses in importance among the Jews of
antiquity, continued this same ancient practice.

20 Explosion of the Canon
The phenomenon of numerical composition is the determining
factor in producing truly “canonical” (authoritative) texts in
ancient Israel. By weaving the numerical value of the ineffable
name YHWH into the fabric of the Hebrew text, these works
became symbolically the word of G–d. The scribes of ancient
Israel were trained in this method of literary composition—a
method, which survived well into the Common Era. And, as we
will see, Luke was the “master editor” within this same scribal tradition,
in the composition of the Completed Tanakh.
6. The Numerical Composition of the Tanakh
The sacred traditions of ancient Israel were transformed into
canonical Scripture by the symbolic weaving of the divine name
YHWH into the fabric of the text. The distinctive feature of a
canonical (i.e, authoritative) work was the simple fact that the literary
work in question became the “Word of G–d.” This was
achieved in actual practice by the systematic weaving of the
divine-name numbers 17 and 26 into the fabric of the composition
itself. Though this phenomenon can be applied to an existing
literary work, the most impressive examples of numerical composition
are those which were so constructed from the outset, as the
author constructed the text verse by verse according to established
rules, with specific “stopping points” on route to a specific goal.
The “stopping points” were places where the running total in
terms of word count was divisible by one or the other of the two
divine-name numbers 17 or 26. The ultimate goal in terms of
total word count of a given work was sometimes a theological
statement about that work, in the symbolism of the numbers
employed in this process. A striking example of this phenomenon
of numerical composition is found in the book of Deuteronomy. 16
To understand how these numbers were used in the composition
of the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy, it is necessary to know
that most verses in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) are divided into
two parts by the presence of an accent marker known as the
atnach. The counting of words within a given text to achieve a
numerical multiple of 17 or 26 applies not only to the total number
of words in the text, but also to the number of words before

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 21
atnach and after atnach. Labuschagne has shown that this same
principle sometimes applies to the distinction between primary
and subordinate clauses and to distinctions on the basis of subject
or speaker, and even the arbitrary change between second person
singular and plural forms.
A surprising conclusion was reached in regards the grand
totals for extended passages, particularly in the Parashot, the
weekly portions in the annual cycle of Torah readings, in Deuteronomy
12–26. Labuschagne observed that there is a total of 119
(= 17 x 7) verses in 12:1–16:17, which consists of three sections
that include the various laws corresponding to the first four of the
Ten Commandments. 17 His claim (p. 14) that there are 260 (=
26 x 10) verses in what he calls sections I–VII (12:1–22:29),
however, needs clarification; for there are actually only 259 verses.
The total of 260 is achieved by adding 11:32 as an introductory
verse, which helps to explain the presence of the double introduction
in which 11:32 is repeated in 12:1. When the whole of Deut
12–26 is examined in detail, we find a total of 340 (= 17 x10x2)
verses sandwiched between 12:1 and 26:16, which function as an
inclusion. The inner core opens with the words, “These are the
statutes and the judgments, which you shall be careful to do in the
land” (12:1). It concludes with the words, “This day YHWH your
God is commanding you to do these statutes and judgments; and
you shall be careful to do them with all your heart and with all
your soul” (26:16). Between these two verses there are exactly
340 (= 17 x 20) verses.
The Central Core (Deut 12–26) stands within the context of
four of the fifty-four weekly portions (Parashoth) in the annual
cycle of Torah readings:
Parashah 47 Deut 11:26–16:17
Parashah 48 Deut 16:18–21:9
Parashah 49 Deut 21:10–25:19
Parashah 50 Deut 26:1–29:8

22 Explosion of the Canon
In Parashah 47 (Deut 11:26–16:17) there are 1118 (= 26
x 43) wordsbeforeatnach. It should be noted that the number
43 = 17 + 26, the sum of the two divine name numbers. In
Parashah 48 (Deut 16:18–21:9) there are 867 (= 17 x 17 x3)
words before atnach; and in Parashah 49 (Deut 21:10–25:19),
there are 1581 (= 17 x 31 x 3) words. The 319 words in
26:1–19 are carefully calculated so that the grand total of words
in the Central Core (11:26–26:19) comes to another multiple of
17, since5355 = 17 x 315.
In terms of the total word-count within the eleven “weekly
readings” (Parashoth) in Deuteronomy, the use of the two divine
name numbers (and the numbers 23 and 32 for the Hebrew
word “glory,” when spelled with waw ) may be summarized
asshownonthefollowingpage.
Multiples of the numbers 17 and 26 appear in ten of the
eleven Parashoth in Deuteronomy, and in various larger combinations
and subdivisions of these literary units. And the number 43
(= 17+26) appears as well on two occasions.
Parashah 52 (Deuteronomy 31) is the only one in which the
three numbers do not fit this particular pattern; and in this
instance all three number are divisible by 23. As we will see, the
numbers 23 and 32 are associated with the Hebrew word for
“glory.” Moreover, the total number of words in Deuteronomy as
a whole is a multiple of the divine-name number 26. The grand
total of 14,300 words in the book of Deuteronomy is then a
coded message about the book itself, which bears the title, “These
are the words” with particular interest in the “Ten Words” (i.e., the
Ten Commandments).
The triangular number ten [in the mathematical formula
n(n+1)/2], which is represented in the number 55 as the sum of
the digits one through ten. It is also the sum of the two numbers
associated with the Hebrew word “glory” (55 = 23 + 32), when
that word is spelled with a waw . When the word for “glory”
is spelled without the waw , it has the numerical value of 17
and 26—the two divine-name numbers associated with YHWH.
The number 55 is multiplied by 10, which in turn is multiplied by
the divine-name number 26, to obtain the total number of words
in a book that bears the title, “These are the words (of YHWH).”

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 23
Parashoth Words: before atnach after atnach Total Number of Words
44 Deut 1:1–3:22 860 (=43x20) + 687 = 1547 (= 17x91)
45 Deut 3:23–7:11 1040 + 833 (= 17x49) = 1873
46 Deut 7:12–11:25 927 + 824 = 1751 (=17 x103)
47 Deut 11:26–16:17 1118 (= 26x43) + 814 = 1932
48 Deut 16:18–21:9 867 (= 17x17x3) + 656 = 1523
49 Deut 21:10–25:19 929 + 652 = 1581 (= 17x93)
50 Deut 26:1–19 183 + 136 (= 17x8) = 319
Deut 27:1–29:8 841 + 587 = 1428 (= 17x84)
51 Deut 29:9–30:20 357 (= 17x21) + 306 (= 17x18) = 663 (= 17x39)
52 Deut 31:1–30 322 (= 23x14) + 230 (=23x10) = 552 (= 23x24)
53 Deut 32:1–52 332 + 289 (= 17x17) = 621
54 Deut 33:1–34:12 301 + 209 = 510 (= 17x30)
Deut 31:1–34:12 960 (= 32x30) + 723 = 1683 (= 17x99)
Deut 11:26–26:19 3097 + 2258 = 5355 (= 17x315)
Deut 1:1–34:12 8082 + 6218 = 14,300 (= 26x55x10)

24 Explosion of the Canon
Someone experienced a great deal of personal satisfaction in the
completion of this remarkable achievement in numerical calculation
and coincidence.
It is possible that the origin of all four of these numbers (17,
23, 26 and 32) will ultimately be found in the ancient science of
harmonics—the theoretical arithmetic underpinning the tuning of
musical instruments in ancient times. Harmonics is a numerical science
based on ratios of string-lengths, which probably emerged
amongst our stone-age ancestors, matured in ancient India, Babylon
and Egypt, and flourished in Greece. 18 It continued until the
seventeenth century, when it was displaced by experimental science
and technology. These four specific numbers apparently took on
fresh meaning in ancient Israel in conjunction with the use of the
letters of the alphabet to designate numbers, which appears to have
emerged much earlier than is commonly assumed by many scholars
who mistakenly derive gematria in Hebrew usage from its subsequent
occurrence in Greek literature. It is likely that scribes in
ancient Israel were influenced in such matters during the Babylonian
Exile, when they were exposed to the intricacies of Babylonian
arithmetic and cosmology.
B. Anticipating a New Ending to the Epic
Story—Completing the Tanakh
The first step in the expansion of the Tanakh in ancient Israel, from
the seventeen-book “Deuteronomic Canon” to the more familiar
twenty-two-book “Pentateuchal Canon” of Jewish tradition, took
place in Jerusalem in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (ca. 400 BCE).
Though nothing is recorded in the Bible itself on the details of this
event, we find references in subsequent Jewish literature, which
provide a glimpse of what happened. In 2 Maccabees 2:13–15
(NRSV) we find the following statement:
it was also recorded, both in these writings, and in the
Memoirs of Nehemiah, how Nehemiah founded a library
and made a collection of the books dealing with the kings
and the prophets, the writings of David and the letters of
the kings on the subject of offerings. Similarly, Judas
[Maccabeus] made a complete collection of the books

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 25
dispersed by the late war, and these we still have. If you
need any of them, send someone to fetch them.
The reference to the founding of a library on the part of Nehemiah,
and Judas Maccabeus two and a half centuries later, suggests
that leaders in the Jewish community were concerned about their
sacred literature—and the collection of these books in an organized
fashion.
The legend of Ezra tells the story of how the sacred books
were lost and how Ezra miraculously reproduced them at G–d’s
command:
Moreover, the Most High gave understanding to the five
men, and by turns they wrote what was dictated, using
characters that they did not know. They sat forty days; they
wrote during the daytime, and ate their bread at night. But
as for me, I spoke in the daytime and was not silent at
night. So during the forty days, ninety-four books were
written. And when the forty days were ended, the Most
High spoke to me, saying, “Make public the twenty-four
books that you wrote first, and let the worthy and the
unworthy read them; but keep the seventy that were written
last, in order to give them to the wise among your people.
For in them is the spring of understanding, the
fountain of wisdom, and the river of knowledge” (2 Esdras
14:42–47, NRSV).
By the time 2 Esdras was written in ca. 100 CE, Jewishscholars
were already moving toward the numbering and arrangement of
the Tanakh as canonical Scripture in twenty-four books. The
other seventy books that Ezra dictated to these five copyists are
what we now call the Pseudepigrapha of Jewish and Jewish-
Christian tradition.
A Mishnaic text (ca. 200 CE) says: “Moses received Torah
from Sinai and delivered it to Joshua, and Joshua to the Elders,
and the Elders to the Prophets, and the Prophets delivered it to the
Men of the Great Synagogue (in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah;
Avoth 1.1). This is a way of saying that Ezra did his “canonical
activity” within the context of an official scribal community with
the responsibility for transmitting that work to subsequent generations
within Judaism. According to Jewish tradition, the special

26 Explosion of the Canon
guild known as “the Men of the Great Synagogue” continued to
function for about two hundred years (ca. 400–200 BCE). As we
will see, the books of the Tanakh were numbered and arranged
within a canon of twenty-two books in Palestinian Judaism during
the first century of the Common Era.
The grandson of Jesus ben Sirach provides useful information
about the structure of this canon in his introduction to the
translation of his grandfather’s book, commonly referred to as
Sirach (or Ecclesiasticus), which is part of the Apocrypha in
Roman Catholic tradition. Jesus ben Sirach refers to “the Torah,
the Prophets and other books of the Fathers,” and calls attention to
the fact that these works are written in Hebrew and are difficult to
translate. As he puts it, “the fact is that there is no equivalent for
things originally written in Hebrew when it is a question of translating
them into another language; what is more the Torah itself,
the Prophets and the other books differ considerably from what
appears in the original text.” He is referring to the Greek translation
of those Hebrew books, which we know today as the
Septuagint (LXX).
By ca. 350–400 CE, when the talmudic tractate Baba Bathra
was written, the twenty-four books of canonical Scripture were
listed in an order different from subsequent Masoretic tradition,
which itself varies somewhat in different historical settings, as the
table on the next page reveals.

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 27
Tanakh (1988)
(Letteris Edition)
Biblia Hebraica
Stuttgartensia
(1984)
Codex Leningrad
(ca. 1000 CE)
Baba Bathra
(ca. 350–400 CE)
Torah
Genesis Genesis Genesis Genesis
Exodus Exodus Exodus Exodus
Leviticus Leviticus Leviticus Leviticus
Numbers Numbers Numbers Numbers
Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deuteronomy Deuteronomy
Former Prophets
Joshua Joshua Joshua Joshua
Judges Judges Judges Judges
1–2 Samuel 1–2 Samuel 1–2 Samuel 1–2 Samuel
1–2 Kings 1–2 Kings 1–2 Kings 1–2 Kings
Latter Prophets
Isaiah Isaiah Isaiah Jeremiah
Jeremiah Jeremiah Jeremiah Ezekiel
Ezekiel Ezekiel Ezekiel Isaiah
The Twelve The Twelve The Twelve The Twelve
Writings
Psalms Psalms 1 Chronicles Ruth
Proverbs Job 2 Chronicles Psalms
Job Proverbs Psalms Job
Song of Songs Ruth Job Proverbs
Ruth Song of Songs Proverbs Ecclesiastes
Lamentations Ecclesiastes Ruth Song of Songs
Ecclesiastes Lamentations Song of Songs Lamentations
Esther Esther Ecclesiastes Daniel
Daniel Daniel Lamentations Esther
Ezra Ezra Esther Ezra
Nehemiah Nehemiah Daniel Nehemiah
1 Chronicles 1 Chronicles Ezra 1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 2 Chronicles Nehemiah 2 Chronicles

28 Explosion of the Canon
The order of the books in the official publication of the Jewish
Publication Society, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (1988), is the
same as that of the Ben Chayyim Rabbinic Bible (Mikra’ot Gedolot
[1524–25]), Biblia Hebraica (by Everardi van der Hooght
[1850]), the popular Letteris Bible (by Myer Levi Letteris [1800–
1871]), the Ginsburg Bible (by Christian David Ginsburg [1831–
1914]), the Snaith Bible (by Norman Snaith [1970]), and Biblia
Hebraica Leningradensia, ed. Aron Dotan (Hendrickson Publishers,
2001). In the latter instance, this is remarkable in that the
publication purports to represent Codex L (Leningrad) in its very
title! However, it does not follow Codex L in regards the order of
the books of the Bible in the Writings (Kethuvim). The most significant
variation is the placing of 1–2 Chronicles at the beginning
of the Writings in Codex Leningrad and in Codex Aleppo as
well—the two oldest manuscripts within the Masoretic tradition.
In all other traditions, 1–2 Chronicles are at the end of the Writings.
The decision on the part of the editors of Biblia Hebraica
Stuttgartensia to follow the order of Codex L (Leningrad) in placing
Psalms before Job and Ruth before Song of Songs (and thus
immediately following Proverbs) reflects sound historical judgment.
The anomalous ordering of the books of the Writings
(Kethuvim) in the Talmud (Baba Bathra) appears to be an attempt
to place the books in presumed chronological order, much like
that of the Septuagint tradition at an earlier point in time for the
entire Old Testament.
In Jewish tradition, the canon of the Tanakh is generally presented
as consisting of twenty-four books divided into three categories:
The Torah (five books), the Former and Latter Prophets
(eight books), and the Writings (eleven books). Nonetheless, this
particular tradition was still not established unequivocally among
the Jews in the time of Jerome (ca. 380 CE). He mentions that “certain
of the Rabbins of that day” place Ruth and Lamentations
among the Writings rather than uniting them with Judges and Jeremiah,
as he does, to have a canon of twenty-two books. 19 The implication
is clear: Among the rabbis there were some who agreed with
Jerome’s canonical arrangement of the Hebrew Scriptures.
The tradition of a canon of twenty-two books was clearly
present in both Jewish and Christian circles during the first four

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 29
centuries of the common era. The earliest, and by far the most
important, description of this twenty-two book canon is that of
the Jewish historian Josephus (b. 37 CE), which has been rendered
by Moses Stuart as follows:
We have not a countless number of books, discordant and
arrayed against each other; but only two and twenty books
. . . and of these, five belong to Moses, which contain both
the laws and the history of the generations of men until his
death . . . From the death of Moses, moreover, until the
reign of Artaxerxes king of the Persians after Xerxes, the
prophets who followed Moses have described the things
which were done during the age of each on respectively, in
thirteen books. The remaining four contain hymns to God,
and rules of life for men. 20
After Josephus, the earliest explicit witness to this twenty- two
book canon is apparently Audet’s Hebrew-Aramaic list (ca. 150
CE), at least according to the interpretation of Peter Katz. 21 There
are numerous later witnesses to the twenty-two book canon,
including Origen (ca. 250), Hilary of Poitiers (ca. 254), Eusebius
(ca. 320), Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 350), Athanasius (ca. 360), the
Council of Laodicea (360–364), Epiphanius (ca. 368), Gregory
of Nazianzus (ca. 370), Jerome (ca. 380) and Rufinius (ca. 390). 22
From the time of Origen the number twenty-two has been explained
in terms of the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
Epiphanius also called attention to the fact that “there are twentytwo
works of God during the six days of creation, twenty-two
generations from Adam to Jacob, ...andalike number of sextarii
in a modius” to explain the number twenty-two. 23
As we will see, the Apostle Paul and Luke were apparently
influenced by this concept of a twenty-two book canon of the First
Testament in the process that produced the Greek New Testament
as a logical extension of the Tanakh within Messianic Judaism.
The first step in this process was apparently the formation of a
group of “Apostolic Writings” to augment the “Hebrew Writings”
of the Tanakh. As the section of the canon of sacred Scripture
known as the Prophets was divided into two parts (the
Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets), so the Writings were
completed in two parts as well. The decision to complete the

30 Explosion of the Canon
Tanakh with the addition of the Greek New Testament as the
“Apostolic Writings” sets the stage for the story of the explosion of
the canon in this book.
Though the sacred Scripture of the early Messianic Jewish
community was the Tanakh, it is clear from the outset that the
received canonical text had taken on new meaning in the person of
Messiah Yeshua. The fundamental categories of the ancient epic
story were given new and transcendent meaning in light of the
person and work of Yeshua.
The original creation story centers on the person of “the first
man Adam,” who is the ancestor of all human beings. But now
Yeshua is likened to “the last Adam, a life giving spirit” (1 Cor
15:45). The possession of the original Promised Land in ancient
Israel reached its climax in the kingdom of David in times past; but
now Yeshua is given “the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32)
and the meaning of the “Kingdom of God” is his central message.
Yeshua chose twelve disciples as a symbolic microcosm of the
twelve tribes of a new Israel, the chosen people of God who found
their identity in the body of Yeshua himself. After the resurrection
of Yeshua, this body of believers came to be known as the Church
of the Messiah Yeshua. The members of this body describe themselves
as delivered from the bondage of sin and death, baptized in
the waters of regeneration as commanded by Yeshua, and sent
forth into the wilderness of a new era with a message of hope centered
in the concept of a “New Jerusalem.” The categories of the
ancient epic story now have a dual meaning, as suggested in the
following diagram—a meaning in the present and future as well as
the distant past.
CREATION
LAND
Exile/ New
Exodus
KINGDOM
BONDAGE
WATERS
WILDERNESS
Israel Present
Church Age
KINGDOM
OF G–D
New
Jerusalem
Yeshua himself described his coming death as “his exodus, which
he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31).
His followers were invited to share in his death and resurrection

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In Times Past 31
and thus to experience a “New Exodus” themselves, just as the
prophets of ancient Israel had foretold. The epic experiences of
ancient Israel in times past were thus brought into the present and
projected into the future as well.
The Tanakh was read, and heard, with fresh insight and new
interpretation on the part of the followers of Yeshua. They saw
themselves as the people of G–d, the true Israel. In time they
began to see themselves in a more inclusive sense, particularly after
the so-called Council of Jerusalem described in Acts 15, in which
Gentiles were welcomed into the fellowship without the necessity
of first converting to Judaism.
As Messianic Jews, the early Christians who wrote the Greek
New Testament were steeped in the Tanakh. It is the only book
they quote, with perhaps a handful of exceptions. Almost all of the
hundreds of citations and quotations in the Greek New Testament
were taken right out of the Tanakh, or from the Greek translation
known as the Septuagint (LXX). In many ways, the people who
wrote the Greek New Testament were much more conservative
than the Pharisees or the Sadducees. They were the real biblicists
of antiquity. For them the Tanakh was the inspired “Word of
G–d” and the message of that book had taken on new form and
meaning in the person of Messiah Yeshua, who somehow embodied
that very “Word of G–d” in his own person. In the lovgo~ of
John 1:1, Yeshua is described as the “Word of G–d” in human
flesh, the incarnate Son of G–d.
It should be remembered that the concept of the Bible as a
single book in the modern sense had not yet arrived. The day of
the great codices of sacred Scripture, in which hundreds of manuscript
pages were sewn together by hand, to make the earliest form
of a book as we know it today, was still far in the future. The text
of the Bible was contained on scrolls, which were made of papyrus
in the earliest periods and subsequently of leather or parchment,
when these texts were composed in their canonical form (as
numerical compositions).

Introducing Paul and Luke as
Protagonists
This is a story about an episode in a Great War—what we
call here the “Battle of the Canon.” An unlikely future
“general” in this war was standing at the edge of an angry
crowd in the city of Jerusalem. A fiery young deacon in the
Church of the Messiah Yeshua in Jerusalem was about to conclude
a remarkable sermon, in which he retold the ancient story of the
“Wars of YHWH.” A few moments later that young preacher
became the first fatality in a new phase of this Great War.
A. Stephen’s Sermon in Jerusalem and
Paul’s Summons to Battle
A story within the story begins with the account of Abraham’s
summons to “Leave your country and go to the land I will show
you” (Acts 7:3). As Stephen put it, Abraham left Chaldea and
went to Haran and then continued his journey—coming to this
land. But he received no inheritance there—“not even a foot’s
length.” Nonetheless, this very land was promised to Abraham’s
descendants, though he had no child. Anticipating the story to follow,
G–d himself declared at the outset that Abraham’s descendants
would be enslaved for four hundred years in another land.
But G–d’s purpose was sure, “they shall come out and they shall
33

34 Explosion of the Canon
worship me in this place” (Acts 7:7). A sacred covenant was sealed
with Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob (the father of
the twelve tribes of Israel) by means of the sign of circumcision.
In an act of domestic violence, Jacob’s son Joseph was sold
into slavery and was brought to Egypt where he eventually found
favor with “Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over
Egypt and over all his household” (7:10). Joseph’s brothers appeared
on the scene in search of grain during a great famine and
Joseph was restored to the family of his father Jacob, in Egypt—as
Abraham had foretold.
As the time of the fulfillment of G–d’s promise to Abraham
drew near, the people of Israel grew and multiplied; and a new
king emerged in Egypt who had not known Joseph. Stephen
reminded his hearers that this Pharaoh dealt craftily and forced
our fathers to abandon their infants. At this time Moses was born
and he was beautiful before G–d. The child was brought up in his
father’s house for three months. And when the child was exposed,
according to a wicked decree, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him as
her own son and Moses was instructed in the wisdom of Egypt.
The first time Moses visited the Israelites he saw a conflict
between two “brothers,” which is what war actually is—a conflict
between “brothers.” Acting out of an idealistic perception of justice,
Moses defended the oppressed man; but he misperceived
their perception. The question was hurled back at him, “Who
made you ruler and judge over us?” (7:27). This time it was the
people of Israel who misperceived Moses’ intentions; for, indeed,
mutual failure in communication is often the root cause of war.
Moses fled from his “brothers” in Egypt to find a new home
in the land of Midian where he fathered two brothers. After forty
years, an angel appeared to Moses as he drew near a “burning
bush” to look. At that moment, he heard the first bath kol of Jewish
history—the voice of G–d from “heaven” who declared: “I am the
G–d of your fathers, the G–d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”
(7:32). In response, “Moses trembled and did not dare to look.”
And the bath kol continued: “Take off your shoes, for this is holy
ground.” G–d, who had seen the ill treatment of his people in
Egypt and heard their groaning, commissioned Moses: “And now
come, I will send you to Egypt” (7:34).

Introducing Paul and Luke as Protagonists 35
But the people of Israel rejected G–d’s servant Moses in the
past, as they have now rejected another “Moses” in the present.
Stephen was driving his point home to an audience that did not
wish to hear what he was saying. Moses said: “G–d will raise up
for you a prophet from your brothers” (7:37). Moses received
oracles from G–d that our fathers refused to obey. Our fathers said
to Aaron, “Make for us gods to go before us” (7:40). In short, the
people of Israel in times past rejected G–d who sent Moses and
they became idolaters.
Standing in the very shadow of the Temple in Jerusalem, Stephen
reminded his hearers that G–d made them worship the host
of heaven, as written in the prophets. Stephen then quoted the
words of these prophets: “you took along the tent of Moloch, and
the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship”
(7:43). Stephen reminded them that Moses made the Tent
of Meeting in the wilderness and Joshua brought it into this land.
There, in this very place, Solomon built a house for G–d, the Temple
in Jerusalem. But G–d does not dwell in man-made houses; for
the prophets of old declared, “heaven is my throne; what kind of
house will you build for me?”
The implications were clear and the reaction certain. Those
who heard Stephen deliver this remarkable sermon “became enraged
and gnashed their teeth at Stephen” (7:54). As he tried to
convey what he alone could see in a vision of the now living and
ascended Yeshua the Messiah “standing at the right hand of G–d,”
they “covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together
against him” (7:56–57). They dragged him out of the city and
stoned him to death—“and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet
of a young man named Saul.”
Saul, who was consenting to Stephen’s death, subsequently
persecuted the emerging Church with a vengeance. But all the
time he was a marked man. G–d had chosen him for leadership in
the “Wars of YHWH” and he could not escape from the relentless
“hound of heaven” who sought him out until he found him on the
road to Damascus. This man “Saul, still breathing threats and
murder against the disciples of the Lord” was approaching
Damascus, when “suddenly a light from heaven flashed around
him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul,

36 Explosion of the Canon
Saul, why do you persecute me?’” (9:1–4). The bath kol (voice
from heaven) continued with these words: “I am Yeshua, and you
are persecuting me” (Acts 9:5, Complete Jewish Bible). This man
called Saul, whose name was changed to Paul, soon took center
stage as that unlikely hero in the unwitting extension of the
ancient “Wars of YHWH,” which continue to the present.
B. Setting the Stage for the
“Battle of the Canon”
In the first generation among the followers of Yeshua in the land
the Romans called Judea, whether one chooses to call that land
today as Israel or Palestine, 24 there was no impelling need to write
the New Testament (B’rit Hadashah). Yeshua explicitly taught
that “this generation will not pass away until all these things have
taken place” (Matthew 24:34). Almost everyone in the messianic
community of faith expected the Second Coming of Yeshua to
take place shortly, in his or her own lifetime. But Yeshua also said,
on that same occasion, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my
words will not pass away” (24:35). The “Battle of the Canon” has to
do with the preservation of those words, both then and now,
within the collection of texts we call canonical Scripture.
The Bible of the messianic followers of Yeshua is the Tanakh
(the Hebrew Bible), which is commonly called the Old Testament,
or in some circles today the First Testament. As already
noted in the previous chapter, the Tanakh, which is the canon of
sacred Scripture that Yeshua knew, is in three major parts—the
Torah, Nevi’im (Prophets), and Kethuvim (Writings). The Tanakh
at that moment in history consisted of twenty-two books. The section
on the Prophets was divided into two parts: the Former
Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1–2 Samuel, and 1–2 Kings) and the
Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and The Twelve
[Minor Prophets]). The “Battle of the Canon” concerns the extension
of the third major section of the Tanakh, the Hebrew Writings,
into a second part—to include the “Apostolic Writings” of
the Greek New Testament within the Completed Tanakh. The
apostle Paul played a central role in this canonical process, along

Introducing Paul and Luke as Protagonists 37
with a second protagonist of equal importance in the person of
Luke, “the beloved physician.”
Our story concerns a conflict, which ultimately produced the
Completed Tanakh as canonical Scripture within an historical process
in ancient Israel and early Christianity. The story begins with
Paul’s second missionary journey, when he and Barnabas decided
to “return and visit the believers in every city where we proclaimed
the word of the Lord and see how they are doing” (Acts 15:36,
NRSV). A major decision at the Jerusalem Conference in Acts 15
sets the stage. Put in the simplest of terms, the question was
whether Gentiles must keep the Torah to be true followers of
Yeshua? The Church of Jerusalem was divided and the “Battle of
the Canon” began.
Paul and Barnabas were sent to Jerusalem to discuss the question
with the church leadership. When the apostles and elders
gathered to consider the issue, Peter reminded them that G–d had
already used him to reach Gentiles who received the Holy Spirit in
Caesarea. Barnabas and Paul then related the signs and wonders
among the Gentiles, which they experienced on Paul’s first missionary
journey in Asia Minor. James, the brother of Yeshua and
the head of the Church in Jerusalem, continued by relating that
what Peter has said agreed with the words of the prophet Amos.
The leaders of the Church in Jerusalem decided that, though certain
requirements were in order to permit fellowship between
Jewish and Gentile believers (Acts 15:19–29), Gentile believers
did not need to observe the Jewish law to be included in the
Church of the Messiah Yeshua.
When Paul was forbidden to speak in Galatia, he went to
Troas where he experienced a vision during the night, in which
“there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying,
‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’” (Acts 16:9). Apparently
Luke was that man in Paul’s vision in Troas, for the first of the
so-called “we” sections in the book of Acts begins at this very
point. Convinced that G–d’s call was to go to Macedonia, “We set
sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following
day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a
leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony”
(Acts 16:11–12).

38 Explosion of the Canon
It is of interest to note that this same city of Philippi was once
the home of another military figure of renown in the person of
Alexander the Great, the son of Philip of Macedonia. According to
Jewish tradition, that general also made a fateful journey from the
city of Philippi to the Holy Land (whether one calls that land
Israel or Palestine) and to the city of Jerusalem in particular—a
journey that changed the course of human history in the rise of
Hellenism. The legend informs us that, like Paul in the city of
Troas, Alexander also had a dream in which he saw the person of
the high priest of the Temple in Jerusalem, whom he was destined
to meet. Moreover, the high priest Jaddua had a dream about
Alexander as well in the night before the Greek conqueror entered
the city of Jerusalem (Josephus, Antiquities 11.8.4).
Now Alexander ...madehaste to go up to Jerusalem; and
Jaddua the high priest, when he heard that, was in agony,
and under terror ...Hetherefore ordained that the people
should make supplication, and join with him in offering
sacrifice to God, whom he besought to protect that nation,
and to deliver them from the perils that were coming upon
them; whereupon God warned him in a dream, which
came upon him after he had offered sacrifice, that he
should take courage, and adorn the city, and open the gates
...According to which dream he acted entirely, and so
waited for the coming of the king.
When Alexander entered the city of Jerusalem the next day and
met Jaddua the high priest, he said these words (Josephus, Antiquities
11.8.5):
I saw this very person in a dream, in this very habit, when I
was at Dios in Macedonia, who, when I was considering
with myself how I might obtain the dominion of Asia,
exhorted me to make no delay, but boldly to pass over the
sea thither, for that he would conduct my army, and would
give me the dominion over the Persians; whence it is that,
having seen no other in that habit, and now seeing this person
in it, and remembering that vision, and the exhortation
which I had in my dream, I believe that I bring this army
under the Divine conduct, and shall therewith conquer
Darius, and destroy the power of the Persians, and that all
things will succeed according to what is in my own mind.

Introducing Paul and Luke as Protagonists 39
According to the legend, Alexander then entered the Temple
in Jerusalem where he offered sacrifices to G–d, according to the
directions of Jaddua the high priest (Josephus, Antiquities 11.8.5).
And when the book of Daniel was showed him [Dan 7:6;
8:3–8, 20–22; 9:3], wherein Daniel declared that one of
the Greeks should destroy the empire of the Persians, he
supposed that he himself was the person intended. And he
was then glad . . . (and) the next day he called them to him,
and bid them ask what favors they pleased of him; whereupon
the high priest desired that they might enjoy the laws
of their forefathers, and that they might pay no tribute on
the seventh year. He granted all they desired.
As we will see, a lesser known “general” was about to set forth on
another fateful journey from Philippi to Jerusalem, which also
changed the course of human history—in a manner far beyond the
achievements of Alexander the Great. This “general” was Luke,
the beloved physician and the “master editor” of the Greek New
Testament.
Philippi was Luke’s home, for the “we” sections in the book of
Acts end the moment Paul journeyed on from there to Thessalonica
and then to Athens, leaving Luke behind in the house of Lydia. The
“we” sections do not begin again until the moment Paul returned to
Philippi after seven years of missionary activity in the Greek world,
primarily in Corinth and Ephesus. This time, however, Luke left
the city of Philippi with Paul on a journey to Jerusalem, which ultimately
took them both to Rome. When Paul decided “to return
through Macedonia” his traveling companions included Timothy
and Tychicus, two important figures in the subsequent canonical
journey that took Paul and Luke to Rome. The group traveled
ahead to Troas where they waited five days for Paul and Luke to
join them (Acts 20:3–5). They stayed in Troas for seven days before
setting out on that “canonical journey” to Jerusalem, which began
ca. 57 CE and ended about seven years later in Rome.
Our story focuses on the events of six of those years (ca.
57–63 CE), within the context of a larger foment of rebellion in
the Holy Land, which was brewing in the wings. This larger conflict
culminated in the great Jewish Revolt against Roman domination
(66–70 CE) and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem

40 Explosion of the Canon
by the Roman general Titus (70 CE), and the fall of Masada three
years later to the forces of Flavius Silva, the commander of the
Tenth Legion (73 CE).
We do not know with certainty what Paul and Luke had
already accomplished before they left Philippi on route to Jerusalem
(ca. 57 CE), which set the stage for the “Battle of the Canon.”
Nor can we say exactly why they spent a week in Troas before setting
out for Jerusalem, together with Timothy and Tychicus,
whom we will meet again at a later point in our story. The story
we will tell is what we are able to piece together from scattered
texts within and outside the Bible. These texts are examined in
detail within the context of the unfolding story.
C. A New Chapter in the “Wars of YHWH”
Organized religion tends to be the most conservative of all human
institutions. Substantive changes in the forms of religious observance
often take centuries of time. Moreover, the process of
change almost always leads to enormous resistance and even to the
form of violence we call war. This is why we have chosen to
describe the canonical process in military terminology. But there
is another reason as well, one that has deep roots within the formation
of the First Testament (the Tanakh).
The people of ancient Israel referred to their understanding
of G–d’s story in human history as the “Wars of YHWH.” 25 The
only reference to what some have called a “lost book of the Bible”
entitled Book of the Wars of YHWH is found in Numbers 21:14.
Though the purpose of the citation from this “book” is easy to
understand, the Hebrew text is so archaic in form that the text was
poorly understood in antiquity. The author cites this source to
demonstrate the fact that the Arnon River Valley marks the traditional
border between Israel and Moab. But from its very first
word the citation poses difficulties to all translators, ancient and
modern, most of whom simply transliterate the Hebrew text into
presumed place names.
The document in question is not a “book” as such, at least in
thewaywethinkaboutbookstoday.Itisatbestascroll,orperhaps
merely a familiar oral tradition—for no copy of this document has

Introducing Paul and Luke as Protagonists 41
The Canonical Journey of Paul and Luke (ca. 57–64 CE)

42 Explosion of the Canon
ever been found. Though the Hebrew text is difficult to interpret, it
may be rendered as follows:
The Benefactor (i.e., the Divine Warrior YHWH) has
come in a storm;
Indeed, He has come to the wadis of the Arnon.
He marched through the wadis;
He marched, he turned aside—to the seat of Ar;
He leaned toward the border of Moab.
The picture presented here is that of the Divine Warrior (YHWH)
poised on the edge of the Promised Land, before the most celebrated
battles of the Eisodus (Entry) into the Promised Land. He
has come in the whirlwind with his hosts to the sources of the
Arnon River in Transjordan. He marches through the wadi valleys,
turning aside to settle affairs with Moab before marching on
against the two Amorite kings to the north, and then across the
Jordan River to the battle camp at Gilgal and the conquest of the
land of Canaan in Cisjordan. The picture is indeed a fitting one for
the incipit (opening phrase in an old poetic account) of a narrative
poem entitled Book of the Wars of YHWH. The contents of that
“book” concern the mighty acts of G–d in behalf of the people he
has chosen to serve him as their Divine Warrior, who is “commander-in-chief”
of the host of YHWH.
The people of ancient Israel commemorated the “Wars of
YHWH” in public worship within the context of the observance
of Passover, in ways that are somewhat parallel to what Christian
communities have done with the Eucharist, which is a symbolic
portrayal of the death of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ). The crossing
of the Jordan River was reenacted each spring near Jericho, as
reconstructed by Jay Wilcoxen. 26 In many respects the narrative in
Joshua 1–6 is structured in terms of the manner in which these
events were remembered in ritual observance. The most telling
evidence in support of Wilcoxen’s thesis is the passing remark in
Joshua 4:9—“Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan,
in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the
covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.” These stones
were placed in the river bed to assure the worshipers of the presence
of twelve stones with which to build another altar at the battle
camp in Gilgal a year hence, when the story was reenacted

Introducing Paul and Luke as Protagonists 43
again in the annual Festival of Passover. The people of ancient
Israel remembered the “Wars of YHWH” as the story of the primary
salvation events in their history. These wars have two
phases: the Exodus from Egypt and the Eisodus (Entry) into the
Promised Land. The Eisodus in turn takes place in two parts—
under Moses as leader in Transjordan and under his successor
Joshua in Cisjordan.
The primary battles of the Exodus from Egypt focus on the
defeat of Pharaoh at the crossing of the Sea (Exodus 14–15) and
the defeat of the Amalekites on the way to Mount Sinai (Exodus
17:8–15). The defeat of the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og,
whose land was occupied by the Transjordanian tribes of Reuben,
Gad and Manasseh (east), before the Israelites crossed the Jordan
River into the land of the Canaanites (Cisjordan), belongs to the
first phase of the Eisodus into the Promised Land.
It should be noted that Joshua is presented as the military
commander in Israel under Moses’ leadership as early as the battle
against the Amalekites in Exodus 17:8–13. Thus it is also possible
to consider all of the battles from the crossing of Yam Suf (Sea of
Reeds or the Red Sea) to the crossing of the Jordan River as the
first phase of the Eisodus into the Promised Land. At the same
time, it is equally instructive to think of these same conflicts, from
the “Crossing of the Sea” to Moses’ ascent of Mount Nebo to see
the Promised Land, as the Exodus from Egypt. The second phase
of the Eisodus took place after the death of Moses, as Joshua
became YHWH’s instrument in the conquest of the land of the
Canaanites (Cisjordan), as recorded in Joshua 1–12.
To some extent, the Eisodus continues within the Former
Prophets, at least from Joshua through 1 Samuel, for it is David who
completed the conquest of the whole of the Promised Land when he
established the Davidic Empire. Though it is useful to think of
David’s achievement as an extension of the “Wars of YHWH,” the
Book of the Wars of YHWH appears to have focused specifically on the
mighty acts of G–d in the days of Moses and Joshua.
It is interesting to note the fact that a brief reference to
Joshua is embedded in the center of the concentric literary structure
of the Torah as a whole in the statement that Joshua “did not
depart from the Tent (of Meeting)” (Exodus 33:11). 27 This is a

44 Explosion of the Canon
subtle way for the author of the Torah to communicate the fact
that when a leader of G–d’s people chooses to depart from the tent
of “YHWH’s presence,” the undoing of G–d’s blessing has already
begun. The nature of this unfortunate process is explored in depth
in the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28.
Military imagery is central in the story of the First Testament,
from the beginning. Though Messiah Yeshua has come as the
“Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) and his kingdom exalts the humble
and the powerless, we do well to remember this military imagery as
we move to a new chapter in the canonical process. It is not without
meaning that Christians through the centuries have rallied behind
hymns like “Onward Christian Soldiers,” “Soldiers of Christ,
Arise!” and “Sound the Battle Cry.” Somehow we know in the
depths of our being that we are called to “put on the whole armor of
G–d, so that (we) may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil” (Ephesians 6:11). Moreover, the struggle against the forces
of evil takes on special depth in meaning within the concept of spiritual
warfare. And in this arena, as was also the case with the people
of Israel in the distant past, “The Battle Belongs to the Lord.” Like
thechildrenofIsrael,wetooarecalledtotakeourplaceamongthe
hosts of YHWH to wage war against the forces of evil.
The same is true, in another way, within the canonical process
of early Christianity. Indeed, there is deep meaning for us
today in the struggles of Paul, Luke, and others who “waged war”
within the context of the Kingdom of G–d, in Jerusalem (ca.
57–59 CE) and then in Rome (ca. 60–62 CE). That particular episode
in the extension of the “Wars of YHWH” beyond the setting
of ancient Israel is the primary subject of our story.

From Troas to Jerusalem and Rome:
The Canonical Journey
The Gallio inscription, which was found at Delphi in 1905,
provides an important fixed point to determine the chronology
of events for Paul’s missionary and canonical
activity. 28 Gallio was proconsul in Achaea between 51 and 53 CE.
Since Luke makes reference to Gallio in Acts 18:11–17, in relation
to Paul’s eighteen-month visit in Corinth, we can conclude that
Paul left Luke behind in Philippi in ca. 50 CE. Seven years later
Paul returned to Philippi, at the conclusion of his third missionary
journey (ca. 57 CE). We do not know in detail what Luke did during
these seven years. Nonetheless, we can conclude that it was
during this time that he wrote the bulk of what we now know as
the Gospel of Luke, and perhaps a major part of the Acts of the
Apostles as well. Though Luke was a Gentile, he is associated with
a Jewish woman by the name of Lydia (who may well be his wife)
and he demonstrates that he has mastered ancient scribal practices
within Palestinian Judaism in regards the numerical composition
of Scripture. Some of this he may have learned from Paul, but they
were together for only a brief time at his initial conversion in ca.
50 CE. As a scholar and writer within that messianic Jewish setting,
Luke had other sources of information beyond that of his
friend and mentor, the apostle Paul. In the ancient literary art of
numerical composition he learned his lessons well, as we will see.
45

46 Explosion of the Canon
A. Luke and Lydia in Philippi
—Preparing for the “Battle of the Canon”
The moment we meet Luke in Troas, as “the man from Macedonia,”
we find ourselves at a decisive point of transition within the
messianic community of faith in the Roman world. Though
Gentiles were already among the followers of Yeshua, such as the
centurion Cornelius (Acts 10), the extension of the messianic
community into Europe was the moment when this new faith
community began its independent journey from the Jewish context
in which it was born in the land of Judea. By the end of the
Jewish Revolt and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the center
of this religious community was no longer within Judaism as
such. Christianity had become a world religion of its own.
When Paul and Luke set out for Jerusalem (ca. 57 CE), they
left a “book carrier” (failovnhn) with Carpus in Troas together
with its contents—“the books (bibliva) and the parchments
(membravna~)” (2 Timothy 4:13). These documents included a
collection of Paul’s Letters and the Gospel of Luke, as the first step
in the canonical process that culminated in the Completed Tanakh.
And perhaps of greater importance, they included lists of numbers
in the numerical composition of these documents that symbolically
made them the “Word of G–d.” Luke is probably the person
ultimately responsible for editing (in numerical composition)
most, if not all, of the Second Testament, including the Letters of
Paul, and the one to the Galatians in particular.
While Luke was pursuing his work as a gifted scholar, writer,
and master editor of what subsequently became the Greek New
Testament, Paul was following his calling as an evangelist and missionary
statesman, who was at the same time a gifted writer as
well. Under Paul’s leadership, the Church was established and
flourished in the Greek speaking world, particularly in Corinth
(where Paul spent eighteen months) and in Ephesus (where he
spent more than two years).
The distance between Philippi and Corinth is not much farther
than from my home near San Francisco to that of my brother
in Redding, California (or between Boston, Massachusetts and

From Troas to Jerusalem and Rome 47
Map of Aegean Region
Showing Philippi, Corinth, and Ephesus

48 Explosion of the Canon
New York City; i.e., about 200 miles). The distance between
Philippi and Ephesus is about the same. Hence, it is likely that
Paul and Luke were in contact during this period, particularly if
Luke’s primary work was that of a scribe. Luke was engaged in
careful research, which included travel, and the numerical composition
of what was to become sacred Scripture in the Completed
Tanakh—including the Letters of Paul. Paul was a primary source
of much of the information Luke used in his calling as a writer of
what was intended from the outset to be canonical Scripture,
namely the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles. In his study,
A Chronology of Paul’s Life, Jewett places Paul in Macedonia in the
winter of 55/56—a year before Paul and Luke made their “canonical
journey” to Jerusalem. 29 Moreover, it is possible that Luke
traveled to Corinth (ca. 50–51 CE) and Ephesus (ca. 53–55 CE)to
see Paul in the course of writing the Gospel of Luke and the earlier
sections of Acts of the Apostles.
The idea of a fifth and concluding section of the Tanakh
emerged in the years immediately prior to the journey to Jerusalem
on the part of Paul and Luke in ca. 57 CE. At this stage, the
concept of extending the Tanakh in the form of canonical (i.e.,
numerically composed) Scripture was focused primarily on the
writings of Paul and Luke in relation to their own understanding
of the canonical structure of the Kethuvim (the Hebrew Writings).
It is likely, however, that Mark and John knew of this canonical
activity (in the form of numerical composition) even before Luke
was in direct consultation with them and other leaders in the
Church of Jerusalem during Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea (ca.
57–59 CE). When the next stage in the canonical process unfolded
in Jerusalem, and still later in Rome, all Four Gospels emerged
together in the form of carefully contrived numerical compositions—similar
to that achieved earlier by Luke and Paul (especially
in the Letter to the Galatians).
When Paul and Luke first traveled from Troas to Philippi,
we find a brief description of a woman named Lydia (Acts
16:11–15). There is very little information about her, but what we
do find presents an intriguing figure. Lydia appears in the guise of
the “wife of noble character” in Proverbs 31:10, who “is clothed
in fine linen and purple” (31:22, Complete Jewish Bible). In fact, as

From Troas to Jerusalem and Rome 49
my student Joseph Garcia put it, “the description of the woman in
Prov 31:10–31 fits Lydia like a glass slipper.” 30 At her conversion,
Lydia’s entire “household” was baptized. The virtuous woman of
Proverbs 31 clothes her entire “household ...inscarlet” and
“watches over the affairs of her household” (31:21, 27; NIV).
After Paul and Silas were released from prison in Philippi, the text
says explicitly that “they went to the house of Lydia, and when
they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed” (Acts
16:40, NASB). In one sense, even Paul and Silas were under the
care of this remarkable woman who “watches over the affairs of
her household” (Prov 31:27).
Prior to her conversion, Lydia was already a “worshiper of
G–d” just as the virtuous woman is described as one “who fears the
Lord” (31:30). The most outstanding aspect of the character of the
virtuous woman is her productivity and strong business sense.
Once again, Lydia possessed the same assets. As a prosperous businesswoman
she is described as “a dealer in purple cloth” (Acts
16:14). The virtuous woman in Proverbs is one who “is clothed in
fine linen and purple” (31:22). The Hebrew word for purple in
Proverbs 31:22 and the Greek word employed by Luke both signify
the color of the dye used and also the stained cloth itself.
Imagine Lydia’s profound pleasure, as Luke’s wife, to find
these subtle and beautiful allusions to that marvelous text in the
Tanakh, which is also closely related to the story of Ruth (cf. Ruth
3:11), in her husband’s brief description of her? What an extraordinary
“Mother’s Day” expression Luke has hidden within the
context of what he and his wife Lydia both knew would become
sacred Scripture in the Completed Tanakh for generations to come!
B. Paul’s Missionary Activity in Greece and
Ephesus and His Return to Philippi
The expansion of the Church among the Gentiles took Paul and
his company from Asia Minor to Philippi and to other cities in the
Greek speaking world, as the Church spread to Europe. After
Lydia and her household were baptized, Paul and Luke stayed
with her (Acts 16:13–15). The focus within the concentric literary

50 Explosion of the Canon
structure of Acts 16 is on the healing of a slave prophetess as Paul
commanded “the spirit” in her to come out. The “imprisonment”
and deliverance of this slave girl is contrasted with the incarceration
and deliverance of Paul and Silas in Philippi. The deliverance
of Paul and Silas from prison in Philippi is reminiscent of the
deliverance of Peter from prison in Jerusalem in Acts 12. But in
this instance, though their fetters fell off during an earthquake,
they did not leave the prison; and the jailer’s household was subsequently
saved and baptized. It was the jailer who hosted Paul and
Silas; and the magistrates of the city apologized, asking Paul and
Barnabas to leave Philippi.
From Philippi, Paul “passed through Amphipolis and Appolinia
(and) came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue
of the Jews” (17:1). The story of the spread of the Church in
Greece from Thessalonica and Beroea to Athens and Corinth, and
Paul’s subsequent ministry in Ephesus is told in Acts 17–20. The
literary focus here is on Paul’s extended ministry in Ephesus of
more than two years on his third missionary journey (18:19–
19:20). Prior to this, however, Paul spent eighteen months in
Corinth teaching Gentile converts (18:1–17), before setting sail
for Syria and the conclusion of his second missionary journey
from the Land (whether one chooses to call that land Israel or
Palestine; 18:18).
Paul’s ministry in Ephesus occurred on three different occasions.
Paul’s initial visit there, which took place at the end of his
second missionary journey, is described in Acts 18:19–21; and he
promised to return. He then traveled to Caesarea, Jerusalem, and
Antioch in Syria (18:22). Paul’s third missionary journey took
him to Ephesus for a period of two years, which reached its climax
in the riot over Diana of the Ephesians (Acts 19). This set the
stage for Paul’s final “canonical journey” to Jerusalem (Acts
20:1–12), when the “we” sections in Acts resume with the words
“we sailed from Philippi” (in 20:5)—indicating Luke’s presence
with Paul on that fateful journey.
Paul and Luke observed Pesach (Passover) in Philippi in the
spring of 57 CE. They then sailed to Troas, where they met the rest
of the party—“and there we stayed seven days” (Acts 20:6). Nothing
is said at this point on what they did in Troas that week, before

From Troas to Jerusalem and Rome 51
they resumed their journey to Jerusalem. Some years later, however,
when Paul and Luke were together in Rome (ca. 63 CE),
Paul summoned Timothy to join them there—and to bring Mark
with him (2 Tim 4:11). At this point, Paul asked Timothy to
bring the “book carrier” failovnhn that he “left at Troas with Carpus”
with its contents—“the books, especially the parchments” (2
Tim 4:13). This suggests that Paul and Luke used that week in
Troas to secure safekeeping for the original copies of the manuscripts
of sacred Scripture they had been working on. These
manuscripts probably include some of the Letters of Paul and the
Gospel of Luke—and perhaps much of the book of Acts as well.
When Paul and Luke left Troas, they traveled to Assos,
Mitylene, Chios, Samos, and Miletus (20:13–16). At the port city
of Miletus, Paul met with the elders from Ephesus (20:17–38). It
is here that we find Paul himself reporting what he believed was in
store for him in the journey ahead: “the Holy Spirit testifies to me
in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for
me” (20:23). It is here that we learn that Paul had no choice in the
matter of making this journey to Jerusalem. Paul states the matter
plainly: “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem,
not knowing what will happen to me there” (20:22). He had
no choice, because this is what G–d had told him to do. A new
chapter in Paul’s work was about to begin, which focuses squarely
on the “Battle of the Canon.”
C. Going to War—the Journey to
Jerusalem and Then to Rome
Luke tells the story of their journey to Jerusalem and Paul’s arrest
there in Acts 21. The ship landed in Caesarea where Agabus confirmed
Paul’s fears by prophesying trouble in Jerusalem (21:1–14).
Nonetheless, Paul and Luke continued their journey to Jerusalem
(21:15–17), where they met with James and the elders of the
Church of Jerusalem. James told Paul to purify himself according to
the Jewish law to satisfy his opponents among the Jewish Christians
in Jerusalem (21:20–24). Paul purified himself and went to the

52 Explosion of the Canon
Temple in Jerusalem where he was arrested and given opportunity
to defend himself (21:26–40).
When Paul motioned with his hand from the steps to the
Antonia fortress, next to the Temple in Jerusalem, and addressed
the mob in the Hebrew language, “there was a great hush”
(21:40). Paul’s message to the people in the temple precincts
focuses on his conversion on the road to Damascus (22:6–16).
But when he included the words that G–d addressed to him, “I
will send you to the Gentiles” (22:21), the mob called for Paul’s
death (22:22). At that point, the tribune sent Paul into the barracks
and ordered him “to be examined by scourging” so as to
determine the facts of the case (22:24). But when he was informed
that Paul was a Roman citizen, the tribune was afraid and ordered
a meeting of the council (the Sanhedrin) to determine the facts.
The tribune had purchased his Roman citizenship at great cost,
while Paul “was born a citizen” (22:27–28). After appearing
before the Sanhedrin the following day, the Lord encouraged Paul
that night by telling him that he “must bear witness also in Rome”
(23:1–11). Before that happened, however, Paul spent two years
as a prisoner in Caesarea awaiting trial.
A plot to kill Paul in Jerusalem was revealed and Paul was
delivered to Felix in Caesarea (23:12–24). The high priest
Ananias presented the case against Paul (24:1–9), and once more
Paul was given the opportunity to defend himself (24:10–21).
Felix postponed the case, hoping to receive money from Paul; and
Paul remained there in prison for two years (24:22–26).
At this point in the story, Festus succeeded Felix as procurator
of Judea (24:27), and another plot to kill Paul was aborted
(25:1–12). Festus finally reviewed Paul’s case in the presence of
King Herod Agrippa II and his wife Bernice (25:13–37). Paul’s
defense included the third account of his conversion on the road to
Damascus recorded in the book of Acts (26:4–23). The literary
structure here focuses attention on the bath kol, in which Paul
heard the words from heaven: “I am Yeshua whom you are persecuting”
(26:14–15). The chapter ends with a comment on the
part of Agrippa to Festus: “This man could have been set free if he
had not appealed to the emperor” (26:32). As we will see, this
verse also marks the end of the original first edition of Acts within

From Troas to Jerusalem and Rome 53
Reconstruction of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount

54 Explosion of the Canon
the context of the “New Torah,” which was completed in Jerusalem—before
Paul and Luke set sail from Caesarea for Rome in the
fall of 59 CE.
Though nothing is recorded about Luke’s activity in Jerusalem
during Paul’s two years in prison at Caesarea, he was present
there; for another “we” section begins immediately when his work
on the final section of the book of Acts resumes (27:1), and it continues
through Acts 28:16.
This final section of the book of Acts was written in Rome as
a carefully constructed numerical composition of 1343 (= 17 x
79) words, to match that of Acts 1–2, which also appears to have
had 1343 (= 17 x 79) words. That number was chosen by Luke
to reach a specific goal in the grand arithmological design of the
emerging canon of the Greek New Testament as a numerical composition.
The “Battle of the Canon” moves to a second phase in
this masterfully crafted literary addendum to both the book of
Acts and the “New Torah,” of which it is an essential part.
The content of Acts 27–28 focuses on Paul at sea as prophet,
healer, and savior. Paul and other prisoners embarked for Rome
and sailed as far as Crete (27:1–8). At this point the centurion in
charge of the prisoners on board decided to go further and Paul
predicted the loss of the ship at sea (27:9–10). Nonetheless, the
captain and owner of the ship attempted to reach a better port in
which to wait out the winter weather (27:11–12). A “perfect
storm” hurled the ship across the Mediterranean Sea for fourteen
days as all hope for survival was lost (27:13–20). Speaking once
again as a prophet, Paul assured them that “there will be no loss
of life among you” (27:21–26). As the time of shipwreck approached,
Paul took charge (27:29–40). Fearing the rocks at
shore, the crew let out four anchors and prayed for daylight and
the sailors were prevented from abandoning the ship.
At this point, Paul presided in a remarkable “communion
meal—as he took bread and they ate together, all 276 (= 23 x 12)
of them. Though the symbolism of the number is not spelled out,
it speaks to the emergence of G–d’s people among the nations as a
new “Israel” (twelve tribes) to the glory of YHWH (the number
23 is associated with the Hebrew word for “glory,” as we will see).

From Troas to Jerusalem and Rome 55
After eating, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat
into the sea. And then they saw a beach on which they sought to
bring the ship ashore. They cast off the anchors and made their
way toward the beach; but they struck a shoal and the stern of the
ship broke off. The soldiers were kept from killing the prisoners
and somehow everyone made it to shore safely, as Paul had predicted.
In their attempts to find warmth by building a fire, Paul
was bitten by a viper but he suffered no harm. The Divine Warrior
intervened to protect an important “general” in his army for the
ongoing “Battle of the Canon.”
The book of Acts concludes with a brief section on Paul
awaiting trial in Rome (28:16–31). Paul lived “by himself” with a
guard (28:16), where he spent two years working with visitors
who came to visit with him freely (28:30–31). Paul explained to
Jewish leaders why he was a prisoner (28:17–20), by citing the
words of the prophet Isaiah (28:25–29). The focus of attention in
this concluding episode is on the fact that these Jewish leaders had
received no report from Judea about Paul who was teaching them
about the Kingdom of G–d and Yeshua the Messiah at Paul’s
house in Rome. As we will see, Paul and Luke greatly expanded
the nature of their teaching in the city of Rome, as the “Battle of
the Canon” entered its second phase.

The Explosion of the Canon in
Jerusalem and Rome
In the first phase of the “Battle of the Canon,” Luke as “general”
(i.e., the master editor) was working in consultation
with James (brother of Yeshua), John, Peter, Mark and others
in the Church of Jerusalem, while Paul was in prison nearby at
Caesarea. Their labors produced the “New Torah” as a collaborative
numerical composition, which formed the structural center of
the Completed Tanakh.
A. The Battle Strategy of Luke and Paul
in the Church of Jerusalem
At the outset, Luke’s primary literary task was the completion of
the book of Acts, which he brought to a temporary “stopping
place,” anticipating the continuation of this unfolding story,
which ultimately ends in the city of Rome. At the same time, Luke
was also at work in a larger and more complex task, working
together with Mark—that of editing the Synoptic Gospels into
canonical Scripture as numerical compositions, in which his own
Gospel plays a central role. The end result in terms of the numerical
compositional design of the Synoptic Gospels, and of the
“New Torah” as a whole, is stunning, as we will see in the next section
of this chapter.
57

58 Explosion of the Canon
As a “military tactician” in the “Battle of the Canon,” at least
from a literary perspective, Luke was a “military genius” beyond
that of Alexander the Great or Napoleon in other times and other
places. His inspired leadership in “battle” determined the eventual
outcome of this particular phase of YHWH’s “Holy War” through
centuries of time as our story unfolds. As we will see, the reverberations
of this explosion of the canon, which took place in Jerusalem (ca.
57–59 CE) and then in Rome (ca. 60–63), continue to the present.
The Bible of the early Christian Church was the Tanakh of
Judaism, but it was read through a new set of glasses, as it were.
The explosion of the canon was the completion of G–d’s ancient
story in the person and work of Yeshua the Messiah, and specifically
in putting that story in the form of canonical Scripture. Luke
describes the process well, at least in principle, with a story at the
conclusion of his Gospel. The risen Yeshua appeared to two of his
disciples on the road to Emmaus, but they did not recognize Him.
The men described the events, which had just taken place in Jerusalem,
and their dashed hopes. They spoke of the empty tomb, as
reported by the women and confirmed by others. At this point,
Yeshua interpreted the Tanakh to them—starting with the Torah
of Moses and proceeding through the Prophets, “He interpreted
to them the things about himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke
24:27). Later these two men describe their feelings, “Were not
our hearts burning within us while he was opening the Scriptures
to us?” (Luke 24:32). When they arrived in Emmaus, Yeshua
entered the house to stay with them. “When he was at the table
with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to
them.” In this communion service, their eyes were opened and
they recognized him; but he vanished from their sight.
At first, it was sufficient to merely read the text of the Tanakh
with this new set of glasses, to see how it all came to fullness in the
person and work of Yeshua. For a season the preached “gospel”
was sufficient. But the word that became flesh in the incarnation
soon took on a life of its own—in the canon of sacred Scripture,
within the Completed Tanakh. This was the battle plan, as Luke
and Paul conceived it under divine inspiration. They would preside
over the numerical composition of the Second Testament.

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 59
Luke was a remarkable man in his own right. Not once in all
of his enormous literary activity does he even give us his own
name. All that we know about him personally comes from incidental
remarks on the part of the apostle Paul, Luke’s long-time
friend and mentor—and his “fellow-general” in the “Battle of the
Canon.” The name “Luke” (Luka`~) occurs only three times in the
Greek New Testament (Colossians 4:14, 2 Timothy 4:11, and
Philemon 24). Moreover, all we know about Luke comes from the
Bible itself, namely that he was a physician beloved by Paul (Col
4:14), Paul’s fellow worker during Paul’s imprisonment in Rome
(Philem 24), and a Gentile by birth. The latter conclusion is drawn
from the fact that Paul does not group him among the “men of the
circumcision” in Colossians 4:10–14.
Luke’s native country is uncertain. Eusebius and Jerome,
among others in early church tradition, claim that Luke was from
Antioch in Syria. On the other hand, as we have already noted,
evidence in the book of Acts suggests that he is the “man of Macedonia”
who joined Paul and his party in Troas on a missionary
journey to Philippi, his hometown.
As a working hypothesis, we posit three stages in the “Battle
of the Canon,” which produced the Completed Tanakh. The
Gospel of Luke was part of that process from the beginning, as a
definitive presentation of the person and work of Messiah
Yeshua who was seen as the fulfillment, or completion, of the
Tanakh (see Luke 1:1–4).
The first stage in the canonical process that ultimately produced
the Greek New Testament was the composition of the
“Apostolic (Greek) Writings”—in a collection of nine books. As
such, this was intended at the outset to be a counterpart to the
Hebrew Writings, and to be the concluding fifth section of the
canon of the Completed Tanakh (Torah, Prophets, and Writings)
as follows:

60 Explosion of the Canon
1. Torah 5 books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy
2. Former Prophets 4 books: Joshua, Judges, 1–2 Samuel, and
1–2 Kings
3. Latter Prophets 4 books: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel & The
Twelve (Minor Prophets)
4. Former (Hebrew) Writings: 9 books (in a 4 + 1 + 4 pattern)
5. Latter (Greek) Writings: 9 books (in a 4 + 1 + 4 pattern)
The “Latter (Greek) Writings,” which we refer to here as the
“Apostolic Writings,” were intended to be “canonical Scripture”
(as numerical compositions) from the beginning, by Paul and
Luke (ca. 57–62 CE). They appear to be structured in a 4 + 1 + 4
pattern, as follows:
Romans 1 Corinthians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians
Luke’s Gospel
2 Corinthians Galatians Timothy Titus
These eight Letters of Paul (to four churches and two individuals)
were arranged in two groups of four, with the Gospel of Luke in
the center. The arrangement of the “Apostolic (Greek) Writings”
in the initial stage of the “Battle of the Canon” reflects the 4 + 1 +
4 structure of the Kethuvim (“Writings”) of the Tanakh, which
may be outlined as follows:
Psalms Proverbs Ezra Nehemiah
Daniel
Job Megilloth 1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles
The term Megilloth (“Scrolls”) refers to the five Festal Scrolls
(Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther). In
this structure, the book of Daniel serves as a connecting bridge
between two groups of four books, each of which is arranged in
the form of a simple chiasm.

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 61
The second stage of the “Battle of the Canon” was in two
parts: the composition of the “New Torah” in Jerusalem (ca.
57–59 CE), and the other half of the Second Testament in Rome
(ca. 60–62). While this was taking place, Paul was a prisoner
awaiting trial—first in Caesarea, and then in Rome. Under Luke’s
leadership, with the apostle Paul as nearby consultant in Caesarea,
the apostles and other key leaders in the Church of Jerusalem produced
the “New Torah” (the Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles).
And once again, while Paul was a prisoner awaiting trial in
Rome (ca. 60–62 CE), Luke played a central role in the composition
of the remaining books in a twenty-two-book canon of the
Greek New Testament.
The “Apostolic Writings”—a Twenty-two-book “New Testament”
New Torah 5 Four Gospels + Acts of the Apostles
Paul as “prophet” 13 Letters of Paul
Four “pillars” 4 Hebrews, James, Peter, and John
The structure of the “New Testament” in this model mirrors that
of the Tanakh, as described by Josephus: “For we have . . .
twenty-two books . . . five belong to Moses ...theprophets, who
were after Moses, wrote down in their times in thirteen books.
The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts
for the conduct of human life” (Against Apion, 1.8).
The four books in the third section of the Tanakh, as described
by Josephus are the “Hagiographa” of the original seventeen-book
“Deuteronomic Canon”: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and
the Megilloth (Festal Scrolls). The four corresponding books in
the third section of the “New Testament,” as conceived by Luke
and Paul, are as follows:
Four “Pillars” Four Writings Associated with the “Pillars”
Paul Epistle to the Hebrews
James Letter of James
Peter First Letter of Peter
John First Letter of John
The third stage in the “Battle of the Canon” took place after the
martyrdom of Paul and Peter in Rome, producing the twenty-

62 Explosion of the Canon
seven-book canon of the Second Testament as we now have it,
under the authority of the apostle John. The five books added at this
point in time were 2 Peter, 2–3 John, Jude, and Revelation. It is
interesting to note, in passing, that these particular books were not
considered canonical in the Syriac churches (the Peshitta) until the
so-called Philoxenian Syriac translation of 508 CE.
In this final form, the canon was symbolically closed—with
forty-nine books arranged in a symmetrical pattern, in which the
New Torah functions as a bridge connecting the First Testament
and the Second Testament, and belonging to both. In short, it is
correct to insist that the Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles are
not in fact “in the New Testament.” They are located between the
Testaments—belonging as much to the First Testament as to the
Second Testament.
B. The Composition of a “New Torah” in
Jerusalem (ca. 57–59 CE)
But enough background. Let’s hear the unfolding story of the
“Battle of the Canon,” starting with its two unlikely heroes in the
Holy Land (whether one chooses to call that land Israel or Palestine)
in the year 57 CE. The first of our two “generals” was a prisoner
at Caesarea with a most uncertain future, at the whim of
petty Roman officials whose action, or lack thereof, would determine
his fate. Or did Felix, Festus, and King Herod Agrippa have
any power at all or any real relevance in this Great War? Were they
not little more than pawns in a much larger war game in which the
Divine Warrior would have his way regardless?
Luke was a scholar. For seven years now he had been studying
and working intensely on a “second doctoral degree,” as it
were. He had been writing the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the
Apostles. Already a gifted intellect, this “beloved physician” had
now encountered the Great Physician and his life changed forever.
He was called to a new task. As he put it in the beginning of his
masterpiece, the Gospel of Luke:
Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things
that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 63
handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses
and servants of the word. Therefore, since I
myself have carefully investigated everything from the
beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly
account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you
may know the certainty of the things you have been
taught (Luke 1:1–4, NIV).
There is information hidden here, which calls for explanation and
reflection. The Greek words translated “to draw up an account”
present a simple and obvious meaning. The verb ajnatavxasqai
means “to compile” in the sense of arranging in the proper order.
And the Greek word dihvghsin suggests in Greek rhetoric “the
statement of the case.” But the second reference here to “an
orderly account” in verse 3 is an entirely different phrase in the
Greek text. Here Luke says that he is writing “in order” (using the
word kaqexh`~) in the sense of “one after the other”—in sequence
of space and logic. In short, the image he presents at the outset
suggests that the reader should pay close attention to the ordering
of the words he is writing. Moreover, that reader is designated as
Theophilus (or “lover of G–d”). Those who truly love G–d will
appreciate Luke’s labor of love; for he has put this text “in order”
to the glory of YHWH—in a numerical composition.
The work of numerical composition of the Greek New Testament
probably began with a careful editing of Paul’s Letter to the
Galatians on the part of Paul and Luke, in which they bent the
original text of Paul’s correspondence a bit to produce a remarkable
achievement in numerical composition. In Luke’s hands, an
inspired letter of the apostle Paul was transformed into canonical
Scripture in which the total word count was 2210 (= 26 x 17 x
5). The numbers 26 and 17 had long been associated with the personal
name of the Divine Warrior—YHWH. Each letter in the
Hebrew alphabet is also a number, and these two particular numbers
had long been associated with both the personal name
“YHWH” and the Hebrew word for “glory” in terms of the
numerical value of these words in the Hebrew language. As Casper
Labuschagne has shown, both of these words are interpreted
as having the value of both 17 and 26: 31

64 Explosion of the Canon
, “glory”
alphabetical value: ( = 11) + ( = 2) + ( = 4) = 17
as numerical signs: ( = 20) + ( = 2) + ( = 4) = 26
, “YHWH”
alphabetical value: (=10) + (=5) + (=6) + (=5) = 26
sum of digits: ( =1+0)+( =5)+( =6)+( =5)=17
Labuschagne suggests that the number 17 may be associated with
G–d’s personal name in terms of the numerical value of
’ahweh, which is analogous to the archaized form of yahweh .
The normal first person singular form ’ehyeh occurs in the
famous verse in Exodus 3:14, where the divine name is revealed
and defined—“I AM WHO I AM.” The numerical value of the
archaic word ’ahweh is 17. It is thus possible to read the
combination of 17 and 26 as representing the “glory of YHWH”
as well as the combination of the two divine-name numbers.
Labuschagne also discusses an alternate spelling of the word
“glory” , sometimes written as in the Hebrew Bible,
which he explains as follows:
alphabetical value: ( = 11) + ( =2)+( =6)+( =4)=23
value as numerical signs: (=20) + (=2) + (=6) + (=4) = 32
Labuschagne finds numerous examples of the combination of
these two numbers in Deuteronomy in the pattern 23 + 32 = 55
(the triangular number ten; i.e., the sum of the digits 1 through
10). He calls attention to others ways to represent the “glory of
YHWH” ( ): (23 + 17)=40;(23 + 26)=(32 + 17)
= 49 (= 7 2 ); and 32 + 26 = 58.
As we have already shown, the total word count in the book
of Deuteronomy is itself a theological statement. The master editor
of the book of Deuteronomy composed a text with a total
word count of 14,300 (= 26 x 55 x 10). In that instance the
number selected is a multiple of the divine-name number 26, the
number 10 (for the Ten Commandments), and 55 (which is the
sum of the digits one through ten and the sum of the two numbers
associated with Hebrew word “glory”— 23 + 32). Apparently
Luke decided to do something similar for the Synoptic Gospels
(Matthew, Mark, and Luke).

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 65
Working together with the apostles and church leaders in
Jerusalem, Luke presided as the “general” (i.e., the master editor)
in charge of a major phase in the “Battle of the Canon.” Apparently
one of the goals in terms of total word count in the “New
Torah” was to approximate that of the original Torah. According
to Andersen and Forbes, there are 79,983 words in the Pentateuch
of Codex L (Leningrad). 32 The total word count of the
“New Torah,” as reflected in Codex B (Vaticanus), appears to be
80,444—in terms of an ideal goal in its original edition, which did
not yet include John 21 and Acts 27–28. That particular number
was apparently selected for its symbolic value:
Numerical Composition of the “New Torah” in Jerusalem
(ca. 57–59 CE)
Word Count in Codex B Possible Count in Original
(Vaticanus) Canonical Form
Matthew 18,278 18,275 = 17 x 1075
Mark 11,003 10,999 = 17 x 647
Luke 19,347 19,346 = 17 x 1138
John 1–20 14,841 14,841 = 17 x 873
Acts 1–26 16,989 16,983 = 17 x 999
*Synoptic Gospels {ca. 59 CE} 48,628 48,620 = 17 x 26 x 55 x2
*New Torah {ca. 59 CE} 80,458 80,444 = 17 x 26 x182
Galatians
{left in Troas, ca. 57 CE} 2,214 2,210 = 17 x 26 x 5
The most significant number in this model is the total word count
of the Synoptic Gospels as a whole, which is somewhat similar to
that of Deuteronomy (14,300 = 26 x 55 x 10). The word count
of both works includes the product of the numbers 26 and 55 as
numerical factors. Moreover, Luke apparently selected the product
of the two divine-name numbers (442 = 17 x 26) as a primary
building block in the numerical composition of the Greek New
Testament as a whole.
Luke used both divine-name numbers (17 and 26), together
with triangular ten (55) and its association with the Ten Commandments,
to produce the Synoptic Gospels as a literary unit
within the first edition of the “New Torah.” As we have noted

66 Explosion of the Canon
above, the number 55 also carries allusions to the “glory” of
YHWH (55 = 23 + 32). Moreover, Luke selected the total word
count of the New Torah (80,444) to be an approximation to the
length of the original Torah (79,983 words in Codex Leningrad).
We know little about Matthew beyond the fact that he was one
of the Twelve Disciples of Yeshua (see Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18;
Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Apart from four lists of Yeshua’s disciples,
Matthew’s name appears only in Matthew 9:9, as a tax collector
who followed Yeshua. The parallel accounts of Matthew’s call in
Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27–29, however, identify this tax collector
as Levi, son of Alphaeus (Mark 2:14). In light of this fact, Matthew
was probably the brother of the apostle James “the less” who is also
called “son of Alphaeus” (Mark 3:18, cf. 15:40). This means that
there were apparently three pairs of brothers among the Twelve
Disciples: Peter and Andrew (sons of John [John 1:42], who was
also called Jonah [Matt 16:17]), James and John (sons of Zebedee),
and Matthew and James (sons of Alphaeus). If Alphaeus is identified
with Clopas (or Cleopas in Luke 19:25), the husband of
(Mary) Salome, sister of Mary the mother of Yeshua (cf. John
19:25), as Edersheim argued long ago, then Matthew (Levi) and
his brother James were cousins of Yeshua. 33
Detailed study of the concentric literary structure of the Gospel
of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke indicates a close connection
between the two. This suggests the possibility that Luke,
working together with Mark in Jerusalem and subsequently in
Rome (cf. 2 Tim 4:11), edited the Gospel of Matthew into its
present form as a numerical composition. Matthew himself may
have died some years earlier and was thus unable to serve on the
military staff at this particular point in the “Battle of the Canon.”
The New Torah, which emerged in Jerusalem before Paul
and Luke departed for Rome (ca. 59 CE), was destined to become
the structural center of the Completed Tanakh (the Bible as a
whole). Meanwhile, Luke had been working with Paul in the
numerical composition of the Letters of Paul for some time. But at
this particular moment, four of those letters were not yet written:
2 Timothy, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Even so, the
concept of a “New Testament” alongside the “Old Testament,”
each with twenty-two books, was already taking shape. The jour-

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 67
ney to Rome simply interrupted
the process temporarily.
Though the substance of
Luke’s grand strategy in the
“Battle of the Canon” was now
a reality in principle, significant
changes were about to
take place in the Holy Land
that would have repercussions
in Rome as well. These changes
led to the assassination of
James, the emigration of the
apostle John to Ephesus, and
Peter’s journey to Rome where
he and Paul died at the hands
of the Emperor Nero.
Nero, Roman Emperor
(54–68 CE)
C. The Battle Shifts
to Rome—The Other Half of a “New
Testament” (ca. 60–62 CE)
When Luke arrived in Rome, together with Paul, his work as
“master editor” of the Greek New Testament was far from complete.
First of all, Luke finished the book of Acts by adding two
chapters, which tell the story of what just happened on their journey
from Caesarea to Rome. The previous edition of Acts of the
Apostles already had a total word count divisible by the divinename
number 17. To retain this feature, Luke composed the story
of the journey to Rome in Acts 27–28 with a total word count of
1343 (= 17x 79). Luke then left Paul in Rome to go abroad on
an important mission—to obtain the Epistle to the Hebrews for
inclusion in the Completed Tanakh, as the center of the second half
of the Greek “New Testament.”
When Paul later instructed Timothy to bring Mark with him
to Rome, he went on to say, “When you come, bring the “book-

68 Explosion of the Canon
carrier failovnhn that I left in Troas, also the “scrolls” bibliva,and
above all the parchments membravna~” (2 Timothy 4:11–13). The
bibliva are papyrus scrolls (“books”), and the membravna are expensive
parchment documents, which include the lists of numerical
information about these texts. It is also possible that Paul was
referring to the final copy of his works, which were written on
both sides of parchment leaves. Whether these documents included
copies of Paul’s Letters or merely lists of numerical information
about them, this is apparently the earliest known reference
to a codex—a quire of manuscript pages written on both sides and
held together by stitching. The codex is the earliest form of a
book, which replaced the scroll of earlier times.
Some weeks before Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, and
before Luke returned to Rome, Luke was waiting for Timothy to
arrive when he wrote a brief note, which he attached to the completed
manuscript of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Now I urge you, brothers, to bear with my message of
exhortation; for I have written you only briefly. Know that
our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon
enough, I will bring him with me when I come to see you.
Greet all your leaders and all G–d’s people. The people
from Italy send greetings to you. Grace be with you all
(Hebrews 13:22–25, Complete Jewish Bible).
In saying that he has written “only briefly,” the author of this note
was referring to the note itself, for the Epistle to the Hebrews is
the longest sustained argument within the whole of the Completed
Tanakh. He was not speaking of Timothy’s release from prison,
but rather from his duties so that he was able to join the “central
command” in Rome. It is clear that Timothy did not arrive in
time, for Luke was present with Paul in Rome when Paul urged
Timothy to join them there: “only Luke is with me. Take Mark
and bring him with you, because he is a very useful helper in my
work” (2 Timothy 4:11, Complete Jewish Bible).
From earliest times, the Epistle to the Hebrews has been
associated with the apostle Paul. In the latter part of the fourth
century, Jerome (ca. 340–420) went much farther than most,
when he said: “To our own people, we must say that this Epistle,
which is inscribed ‘To the Hebrews,’ is received as the apostle

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 69
Paul’s not only in the churches of the east, but by all the ecclesiastical
writers of former times.” 34 Writing in the ninth century, Bassin
the Syrian gave four pages of argumentation in favor of Pauline
authorship. And when Martin Luther relegated Hebrews, along
with James, Jude and Revelation to an appendix in his German
translation of the New Testament, the Roman Catholic Church
responded. A decree of the Council of Trent in 1546 stated explicitly
that the list of sacred books includes fourteen letters of Paul
and that this list includes the Epistle to the Hebrews (DS 1503).
Many Protestant as well as Roman Catholic scholars continue to
affirm this position.
The case against Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the
Hebrews, however, emerged early and persists within the main
stream of biblical scholarship to the present. Writing at the turn of
the third century, Gaius, the Roman anti-Montanist, did not consider
Hebrews to be one of Paul’s works. Writing somewhat later
in the third century, Origen (ca. 185–254), the great theologian
and biblical scholar in Alexandria, maintained a similar position.
The tradition that Luke was associated with the writing of
this document is ancient, going back to at least the time of Clement
of Alexandria (d. 220 CE; see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History
6.14.4). Clement informs us that Paul wrote the letter in the
Hebrew language and Luke translated it into Greek. Modern
study, however suggests rather strongly that Hebrews is not a
translation as such, and that the book is written in an elevated
Greek style, which is different from that in the Letters of Paul.
Luke is not the translator, but the one who “edited” the text, by
making it a numerical composition (i.e., canonical Scripture).
Origen (d. 254 CE), who studied under Clement of Alexandria,
maintained the tradition that Luke translated Hebrews, but with
serious doubts, as witnessed by his widely quoted reflection on
this issue (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.25):
The thoughts are those of the Apostle (Paul), but the
phraseology and the composition are those of someone
who recalled to mind the teachings of the Apostle and who,
as it were, had made notes on what was said by the teacher.
If any church, then, holds this Epistle to be Paul’s let it be
commended for this, for not without reason have the men

70 Explosion of the Canon
of old handed it down as Paul’s. Who the author of the Epistle
is God truly knows, but the account that has reached us from
some is that Clement, who was bishop of the Romans,
wrote the Epistle; from others, that Luke, wrote the Gospel
and the Acts, is the author.
Origen’s comment on Luke’s possible role as author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews may reflect distorted memory of Luke’s role as
“editor” in the numerical composition that transformed this
sacred writing into canonical Scripture.
The Epistle to the Hebrews played a significant role in the
formation of the twenty-two-book canon of the Greek New Testament,
which emerged in Rome (ca. 62 CE). From a canonical
perspective, the Epistle to the Hebrews functioned as the center of
the second half of the Greek New Testament. It formed a literary
bridge connecting the thirteen Letters of Paul with the seven General
Epistles of James, Peter (2), John (3), and Jude. This central
role may be outlined as follows:
The Twenty-Two Books of the Apostolic Writings of the Second Testament
A Nine Ecclesiastical Letters of Paul—to seven church in Europe and Asia
B Four Personal Letters of Paul—to Timothy (2), Titus, and Philemon
X Epistle to the Hebrews—an Epistle of the four “pillars”
B´ Seven General Epistles of the four “pillars
A´ Revelation of John to the seven churches of Asia
The focus in this structure is on the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is
connected with Paul in its closing verses (13:22–25), and with the
Letter of James in its title. The Letter of James is addressed to “the
twelve tribes (of Israel) in the Dispersion (i.e., the “Hebrews,” cf.
James 1:1). The outer frame in this concentric structure moves
from Paul’s nine letters to seven churches, to the Revelation to
John, which is addressed to seven churches in Asia Minor.
It makes little difference who the original author of
Hebrewswas.ItismoreimportanttorealizethatLukeistheone
who transformed it into canonical Scripture (as a numerical composition).
It is also important to remember that the work was
associated with the apostle Paul from the beginning. Thus it is
probably best to think of Hebrews as an “epistle of the four pillars”—i.e.,
a general epistle.

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 71
The death of James, the brother of John, at the hands of
Herod Agrippa in ca. 42–44 CE (see Acts 12:1–3) left only Peter
and John among the three special disciples who accompanied
Yeshua on the Mount of Transfiguration. Paul and James, the
brother of Yeshua, subsequently joined the ranks of Peter and
John as “primary apostles” (the “four pillars”) so far as the canonical
process was concerned.
When Paul and Luke went to Jerusalem in ca. 57 CE, all four
“pillars” were apparently there in that city engaged in a common
task—the “Battle of the Canon.” Within four years most of their
work was completed in the city of Rome, and within seven years
three of the four “pillars” were dead, leaving John alone to complete
the Tanakh, working together with Luke, and perhaps Mark
as well. It is possible that the works associated with these “four pillars”
were also associated in some way with the four primary prophetic
books of the Tanakh (i.e., the Latter Prophets—Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel and The Twelve [Minor Prophets]). In this
regard, it is interesting to note that the Letter of James is expressly
addressed “to the twelve tribes in the Dispersion (1:1), suggesting
that the Letter of James may have been associated with the Book
of the Twelve (Minor Prophets).
In Christian circles, the thirteen Letters of Paul were seen as
the counterpart to the thirteen “prophets” of ancient Israel, from
Joshua through Ezra and Nehemiah, as described by Josephus
(Against Apion 1.8).
Joshua Judges Isaiah Jeremiah
Samuel Kings Ezekiel The Twelve
Daniel
Ezra Nehemiah
1 Chronicles 2 Chronicles
The thirteen “Letters of Paul” may be outlined in a similar
manner, as follows:

72 Explosion of the Canon
Romans 1 Corinthians
2 Corinthians Galatians
Ephesians
Philippians Colossians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy
1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians Titus Philemon
In this way of thinking, Ephesians functions as a literary bridge
connecting three groups of four Letters of Paul. In the case of the
final eight in this series, it is also possible to place them within a
chiasm, by combining them into four pairs:
Philippians & Colossians 1 & 2 Thessalonians
1 & 2 Timothy Titus & Philemon
The common reference to Paul’s “prison epistles” is essentially a
reference to Paul’s letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians
and Philemon. While Philippians and Colossians form a structural
pair in several respects, the connection between Colossians and
Philemon is so close in historical setting, individuals addressed,
and specific vocabulary that the two are often studied and discussed
together. Here we find one pair of ecclesiastical letters (i.e.,
letters addressed to specific churches in Greece and Asia Minor—
Philippians and Colossians) set over against two personal letters,
or “pastoral epistles,” as they are commonly called. A similar situation
appears in the second structural pair in the above chiastic
structure. This time the natural pairing of two “ecclesiastical” letters
to the church at Thessalonica is set over against the structural
pair of “pastoral letters” addressed to Timothy.
The original four “General Epistles” are the Epistle to the
Hebrews and the Letter of James (to the “twelve tribes of the Dispersion”),
together with the First Letter of Peter and the First Letter
of John. The relation between these four works may also be
described in terms of a simple chiasm:
Hebrews 1 Peter
1 John James
Hebrews and James are both addressed to the Hebrews, i.e. the
“twelve tribes (of Israel) in the Dispersion.” Both are associated

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 73
with “pillars” in the church who were not among the original
twelve disciples of Yeshua—namely the apostle Paul and James, the
brother of Yeshua. The remaining pair of letters is associated with
the two survivors among the favored three of Yeshua’s disciples,
who accompanied the Messiah on the Mount of Transfiguration.
The shaping of the Epistle to the Hebrews within its canonical
context as an epistle of the four “pillars” (i.e., of Paul, James,
Peter and John) suggests the hand of a master editor more than it
does the typical role of an amanuensis. That editor was Luke, who
spent two years working in Jerusalem (ca. 57–59) in the company
of James, Peter and John, and then accompanied Paul to Rome,
where he spent two more years (ca. 60–62 CE), awaiting the outcome
of Paul’s imprisonment.
After leaving Paul in Rome in order to complete the “Apostolic
Writings” on which they were working, Luke took an existing
literary work and transformed it into a “General Epistle,”
which ties together much of the content of what ultimately became
the Greek New Testament. From the outset, the Epistle to
the Hebrews was intended to constitute the teaching of the four
“pillars” of the Church, in the form of a numerical composition
(i.e., canonical Scripture). It was sent to Paul by Luke who hoped
to bring Timothy with him shortly to work with Paul in Rome
(Hebrews 13:22–23). For some reason, Timothy was delayed and
Luke was present in Rome when Paul instructed Timothy to come
quickly—bringing Mark with him, and the manuscripts Paul and
Luke had left with Carpus in Troas (2 Timothy 4:9–13).
Paul wrote the following words in that same passage: “But
Tychicus, I have sent to Ephesus” (2 Timothy 4:12). The immediate
context concerns canonical matters, for the following verse
contains Paul’s request of Timothy to fetch Mark and the “manuscripts”
in Troas. The mission of Tychicus was apparently canonical
in nature as well. He apparently went to Ephesus to obtain
necessary documents from the apostle John who himself was
unable to join the others in Rome. Those manuscripts apparently
included the final chapter of John’s gospel and what we now refer
to as the First Letter of John, which took its place with the Epistle
to the Hebrews, the Letter of James, and the First Letter of Peter

74 Explosion of the Canon
as the “Four Epistles of the Four Pillars.” This is the first edition of
what we now call the General Epistles.
The passage in 2 Timothy 4:9, which makes specific reference
to Demas who “has fallen in love with the present world,” is
commonly interpreted to mean that he deserted Paul and went to
Thessalonica (4:10). A close reading of the Greek text, however,
reveals a different message, for the Greek verb ejgkatevlipen here
does not necessarily mean “desertion.” It means to “leave behind,”
as in a race. He has gone on ahead, as it were. Paul is referring to a
parting of company with Demas—perhaps because of a difference
of some sort that has risen between them at that particular moment.
The normal Greek word for desertion is ajpostravfh, which
appears earlier in 2 Timothy 1:15. In that instance, certain people
including Phygelus and Ermogenes “turned away” from Paul. In
short, they deserted him. Demas, on the other hand, went to
Thessalonica because “he is loving the now age” ajgaphvsa~ to;n nu`n
aijw`na. The language used here is that of eschatology. Demas
prefered the “now age” in reference to the Second Coming of
Yeshua, as opposed to the “not now age”—i.e., the delayed
parousia (Second Coming).
Demas was apparently not yet convinced of the need to extend
the necessary labor to “complete the Tanakh” at this particular
point in time, with Paul and the others. Paul and Luke believed that
G–d called them to the task of writing canonical Scripture to guide
the Church for generations to come. Demas went to Thessalonica,
where interest in matters of eschatology had been of primary concern
for quite some time in search of understanding in this matter.
He apparently got the information he needed.
Demas returned to Rome to rejoin the others in their endeavors;
for he was present with Paul, Luke, and Mark when the Letters
to the Colossians and to Philemon were subsequently written.
The greeting at the conclusion of Colossians includes these words:
“Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends greetings, as does Mark . . .
Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send you greetings”
(Col 4:9, 14). The Letter to Philemon ends with similar words:
“Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner for the sake of the Messiah Yeshua,
sends greetings to you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke,
my fellow workers” (Philemon 23, Complete Jewish Bible). When

The Explosion of the Canon in Jerusalem and Rome 75
Demas left Paul to go to Thessalonica, Mark was not yet present
with the others in Rome. But when Paul wrote to the Colossians
and to Philemon, Mark and Demas were in Rome working
together. Whatever the difference was between Paul and Demas,
it was settled in short order. The believers in Thessalonica apparently
helped Demas understand that the Day of the Lord will
come when the lawless one is destroyed (2 Thess 2:3–10); but
before that time, a number of other things must happen first.
Yeshua will indeed destroy the “lawless one” when his time comes,
but we do not know when that time will be. From the beginning,
Yeshua wanted his followers to live as though he might return that
very day; and, at the same time, to prepare the Church for a thousand
generations to come. We are called to live our lives today in
that same tension.

From Rome to the New Jerusalem:
Completion of the Tanakh
Until his martyrdom in Jerusalem, at Passover in the
spring of 62 CE (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 2.23),
James appears to have functioned as de facto ruler of
the Christian community from Jerusalem. As E. L. Martin observes,
the New Testament informs us that it was James to whom
reports were given (Acts 12:17), to whom other church leaders
deferred (Gal 2:11–14), from whom executive decisions were
sometimes rendered for the church body as a whole (Acts
15:13–19), and to whom the apostle Paul reported and submitted
on doctrinal issues (Acts 21:18–26). 35 Paul went so far as to state
that his preaching among the Gentiles would have been in vain
had he not gained the approval of “James the Lord’s brother” and
the other apostles (Gal 2:1–10). As Martin puts it, “James even
demanded of Paul that he offer animal sacrifices in the Temple
with four other Jewish Christians to prove that ‘you yourself also
walk orderly, and keep the Law’ (Acts 21:24).” 36 James was held
in high esteem by many of the leaders within Judaism. The second
century writer Hegesippus informs us that many of the ruling class
of the Jews believed in the Messiah. Some of the scribes and Pharisees
apparently thought James’ popularity was so great that there
was “a danger that the entire people would accept Yeshua as the
Messiah” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.23).
77

78 Explosion of the Canon
The decisive turning point in the history of the early Church
was the death of James (ca. 62 CE), the brother of Yeshua. James
was the bishop of the Church in Jerusalem, which included “many
thousands of believers . . . all zealous for the law” (Acts 21:20)
—the first “mega-church” in recorded history. As long as James
was alive, there was general unanimity of belief among Christians
in keeping the Jewish Torah. Even Gentiles were subject to a less
stringent version of Jewish law. With the death of James, however,
the situation changed rather quickly.
Paul, Peter, John and Jude all make reference to the many
rebels (“false teachers”), who emerged on the scene in the months
and years after James’ death. It was the unexpected death of James
that put the matter of Christian leadership in disarray in the city of
Jerusalem. This was also the very time that the narrative in the
book of Acts comes to an abrupt end.
Ossuary (Bone Box) of “James, Brother of Yeshua”
To complicate matters further, the events leading up to the great
Jewish Revolt against Roman domination, which broke out in the
Roman province of Judea in 66 CE, were already well under way.

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 79
That rebellion led to the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple in
70 CE, at the hands of Titus Flavius Vespianus. This horrendous
war did not officially end until the fall of the fortress of Masada to
the Roman commander Flavius Silva in 73 CE. By this time, the
structure of the canon of the Completed Tanakh was complete,
though the Revelation to John continued to be refined until
John’s death in ca. 98 CE.
At the outset, the conceptual design of the “Apostolic Writings,”
as promulgated by the surviving “pillars” of the Christian
Church (Paul, Peter and John), functionally closed the canon of
sacred Scripture, which we have called here the Completed Tanakh.
Dozens of other gospels and sacred writings of various sorts were
yet to be written, some of which were used widely within early
Christianity. Moreover, the very order of the original forty-nine
books would be rearranged on different occasions.
Some individuals like the heretic Marcion in the second century,
and even the great reformer Martin Luther hundreds of years
later, attempted to remove various books from this canon, but
without success. Others, like those who produced the great Greek
uncial texts of antiquity, tried to add other works to the list. But
the canonical injunction of ages past holds true: “You must neither
add anything to what I command you nor take anything from
it” (Deut 4:2). All efforts to add other books, to remove them, or
even to rearrange the original books in a different order from what
G–d intended are apparently doomed to ultimate failure.
A. Eschatological Expectation and the
Great Disappointment of 63 CE
So long as Paul and the other “pillars” of the Christian Church
(James, Peter, and John) expected the return of Yeshua within
their own lifetime, there was no compelling need to produce the
New Testament as canonical Scripture. As eschatological beliefs
changed, however, so did strategy within the canonical process.
The assassination of James in 62 CE and the great disappointment
in eschatological expectations for the approaching sabbatical cycle
in 63–70 CE caused many in the community of Messianic Judaism

80 Explosion of the Canon
to reassess their beliefs. Sometime after the burning of Rome in
64 CE, Paul also suffered martyrdom (ca. 66 CE), and Peter shortly
thereafter (ca. 67 CE), during the infamous reign of the Emperor
Nero (54–68 CE).
The series of events in the fateful decade that culminated in
the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (ca. 60–70 CE) produced
a shift in the canonical process itself. Before their journey to
Jerusalem in ca. 57 CE, Paul and Luke apparently envisioned the
task in terms of adding a fifth segment of the Tanakh (Torah,
Prophets [Nevi’im], and “Hebrew” Writings [Kethuvim]) in the
form of a collection of nine “Apostolic Writings.” That collection
apparently consisted of eight Letters of Paul and the Gospel of
Luke. During the four years of Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea
and then in Rome (ca. 57–62 CE), however, this idea of the
“Apostolic Writings” was expanded into a twenty-two-book
“New Testament” as a counterpart to the Tanakh (the twentytwo-book
“Old Testament”). The Four Gospels and Acts of the
Apostles were subsequently separated out as a “New Torah” connecting
two parallel testaments, each of which consists of
twenty-two books.
Luke apparently completed the book of Acts during Paul’s
imprisonment in Rome (ca. 60–62 CE). Its abrupt ending makes
reference to the fact that Paul “lived there at his own expense, and
welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of G–d
and teaching about the Lord Yeshua the Messiah quite openly and
unhindered” (Acts 28:30–31, Complete Jewish Bible).
It was against the background of these events that Paul,
working together with Luke, completed the numerical composition
of his “Nine Ecclesiastical Letters to Seven Churches” and
incorporated them into a larger whole. The 4 + 1 + 4 structure of
these letters mirrors that of the nine books in the Writings of the
Tanakh. At the same time, these nine Letters of Paul functioned as
a literary complement to the book of Acts.
The “Apostolic Writings” of Paul were subsequently expanded
to include the four “Personal Letters” of Paul (1–2 Timothy,
Titus and Philemon) and the works of the three other “pillars”
of the Christian Church in that first generation (ca. 30–70 CE)
—James, Peter, and John. This version of the “Apostolic Writ-

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 81
ings” formed a Second Testament—originally in twenty-two
books—which complemented the twenty-two books in the First
Testament (the Tanakh).
After the death of James, the canonical process was carried
further to its final form in a forty-nine-book canon of the Christian
Bible under the authority of the surviving “pillars” of the
Church—Paul, Peter, and John. Eusebius reported that not long
after the death of James the apostles “were driven out of Judea”
(Ecclesiastical History 3.5). Josephus informs us that a great “sickness
fell upon our city, and everything went from bad to worse”
(Antiquities 20.9.4 214). Chaos increased and so did emigration
so that by 64 CE, when the Roman procurator Florus began his
rule in Judea, Josephus reports that even whole cities and regions
of the country sought refuge in other provinces of the Roman
Empire (The Jewish War 2.14.2 278–79).
The apostle John was among the émigrés that took up residence
in Ephesus at this time. At some point, Peter went to Rome
where he and Paul were subsequently martyred (ca. 64–67 CE).
Peter wrote his first epistle from Rome (which he calls “Babylon”
in 1 Peter 5:13) in ca. 62–64 CE, after the death of James. Mark
may be the person who put this letter in the form of a numerical
composition, as suggested by Peter’s reference to him as “my son
Mark” in 5:13. It is conceivable that 1 Peter was addressed primarily
to Jewish Christians who left the Roman province of Judea en
masse (with other Jews) at this time.
In the middle of the first century there was widespread belief
in the approaching dawn of a new age among both Christians and
Jews within the Roman Empire. And for many, the year 63 CE
was a cardinal year in prophetic expectation. A new sabbatical
cycle of seven years in the Jewish calendar began in the fall of that
year. 37 For Jews, the sabbatical cycles were important prophetic
indicators.
The prophet Daniel had predicted that there were to be seventy
sabbatical cycles of seven years until the Kingdom of G–d
would arrive on earth. He divided those 490 years into a period of
49 years (seven times the seven-year sabbatical cycle), another of
434 years (62 x 7 sabbatical cycles), and a final seven-year period
that was divided into two parts of 3½ years each. Regardless of

82 Explosion of the Canon
what the author of the book of Daniel may have originally meant,
many in the first century believed that the “seventieth week of
years” in Daniel’s prophecy was near at hand. They thought that it
would coincide with the sabbatical cycle scheduled to begin in 63
CE and end in 70 CE. These final seven years of Daniel’s prophecy
were thought to embrace a period of great trouble for Israel, the
city of Jerusalem, and the Temple in particular. The conclusion of
this final seven years was expected to witness the advent of the
messianic Kingdom of G–d.
Yeshua had prophesied that imposters would arise who would
lead people into the desert where their new “Moses” (the Messiah)
would lead the Jews to victory over the Romans: “Wherefore if they
shallsayuntoyou,‘Beholdheisinthedesert’...believeitnot”
(Matt 24:26). In his account of the first year of Nero’s reign,
Josephus says: “these imposters and deceivers persuaded the multitude
to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they
would exhibit manifest wonders and signs, that should be performed
by the providence of God. And many that were prevailed
on by them suffered the punishments of their folly” (Antiquities
20.8.6, 168). Moreover, a certain Egyptian false messiah led
30,000 people to the Mount of Olives and/or the desert at this time,
proclaiming that he would cause the walls of Jerusalem to be
destroyed. Though Felix, the Roman procurator restored order, the
Egyptian himself escaped, and about two years later the Roman
authorities thought the apostle Paul to be that Egyptian renegade
(Acts 21:38; Antiquities 20.8.6 169–172).
Paul believed that the glorious return of the Messiah would be
an occasion when “the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of G–d:
and the dead in the Messiah shall rise first: Then we which are alive
and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1
Thes 4:16–17). These words were written around 50 CE. Shortly
thereafter Paul clarified his teaching on matters of eschatology in a
second letter to the Thessalonians, in which he argued that a number
of events must take place before the Messiah returns.
Subsequently Paul elaborated on his eschatological beliefs in
greater detail to the Church at Corinth: “But each in his own order:

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 83
the Messiah the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to
the Messiah. Then comes the end, when (the Messiah) hands over
the kingdom of G–d the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler
and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put
all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is
death...Whenallthingsaresubjectedtohim,thentheSonhimself
will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection
under him, so that G–d may be all in all” (1 Cor 15:23–28).
Works associated with other authors in the New Testament
also express belief in the imminence of the Messiah’s return from
heaven. Hebrews speaks of “the last days” (1:2), “the end of the
ages” (9:26), the day of reckoning was “drawing near” (10:25), it
was only “a very little while away” (10:37). The apostle James tells
his readers it is “the last days” and that they should be patient
“untilthecomingoftheLord...forthecomingoftheLordis
near” (James 5:3, 7, 8). The apostle John is no less urgent in his
appeal that the end of the age was near: “Children, it is the last
hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many
antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour”
(1 John 2:18). The return of the Messiah in that generation
seemed to be assured because Yeshua himself taught it: “Truly I
tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things
have taken place” (Matt 24:34). Yeshua told his disciples that
some of them would not die before they would “see the Son of
Man coming in his kingdom” (Matt 16:27–28).
In popular belief, however, two events had to take place
before the last sabbatical period of Daniel’s prophecy could begin.
The city of Jerusalem and the Temple must be destroyed first,
according to the common understanding of Dan 9:26–27. Moreover,
the Roman Empire had to be overthrown; for there was
hardly a prophetic interpreter at that time who did not consider
the Roman Empire to be the “iron legs” of the Babylonian image
of Daniel 2. The “iron legs” would break into ten divisions, some
strong as iron and others weak as miry clay. In 63 CE, when the
new sabbatical cycle began, those “iron legs” were as strong as
ever. The anticipated world war that would overthrow the “iron
legs” of the Roman Empire never happened.

84 Explosion of the Canon
Instead of a world war starting between the East and the
West in 63 CE, followed by a revolt of the various kingdoms
within the Roman dominion, to fulfill what Christians believed to
be what Yeshua prophesied (Matt 24:6–7), the opposite occurred.
Rome was stronger than ever. With the passing of that year, Paul
and other leaders of the Christian community found confirmation
to what G–d had already shown them in the canonical activity of
recent years in Jerusalem and in Rome. They now knew that the
“iron legs” of Rome were likely to remain in power for a long time
to come. They realized that the prophesied ten kings, and the “little
horn,” were not going to appear in ca. 63 CE.
Peter also became convinced of the fact that much time probably
remained in world history before the Second Coming of
Yeshua would take place. In his second letter (ca. 63/64 CE), Peter
says that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years (2 Peter 3:8).
The final “generation” will be at some future point in time,
beyond his life span.
It gradually became clear to the leadership of the early Christian
Church that the Completed Tanakh was necessary, to serve as a
guide for the Christian community until the events of the last days
finally take place. Paul and Luke took the first step to that end
when they edited the Letters of Paul and the Gospel of Luke in ca.
55–57 CE into numerical compositions (i.e., canonical Scripture).
These manuscripts were left with Carpus in Troas (2 Tim 4:13),
when Paul and Luke left on their fateful journey to Jerusalem (ca.
57 CE). These nine books constitute the initial version of the
“Apostolic Writings,” which correspond to the nine books in the
“Hebrew Writings” (Kethuvim) of the Jewish Tanakh.
Over the course of the next five years (ca. 57–62 CE), Paul
and Luke expanded the concept of the “Apostolic Writings” into a
collection of twenty-two books, which correspond to the twentytwo
books in the Jewish Tanakh. Within this structure, Paul’s nine
“Ecclesiastical Letters to Seven Churches” parallel the nine Writings
of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). In 2 Peter 3:16, the Letters of
Paul are acknowledged as Scripture.
After the execution of Paul and Peter in Rome (ca. 64–67
CE), the task of completing the canon of the Christian Bible fell to
the apostle John (working together with Luke, and perhaps Mark

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 85
as well). The destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE
brought with it a measure of renewed credibility to the apocalyptic
eschatology of former days. But by then popular beliefs regarding
the end times had already shifted and a canon of the “Apostolic
Writings” had already emerged under the authority of the four
“pillars”—Paul, James (the brother of Yeshua), Peter, and John.
By the time the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the only one of
these four remaining was John. Under John’s authority, the
canonical process was ultimately completed, probably by Luke
(with Mark’s assistance), which produced the Christian Bible as
the Completed Tanakh (a 49-book canon = 22 + 5 + 22 = 7 2 ). 38
Evidence from study of the numerical composition of the
Greek New Testament suggests that Luke (perhaps assisted by
Mark) was working with the apostle John in the final stage of the
canonical process, which produced the Greek New Testament as we
now have it. This evidence comes primarily from study of the total
word count of the Four Gospels in Codex B (Vaticanus) in comparison
with other early textual witnesses—especially Codex Sinaiticus
and Codex Alexandrinus. As we have reconstructed the canonical
process here, the first additions to the “New Torah” composed in
Jerusalem (ca. 57–59 CE) were Acts 27–28 and John 21. These two
additions, which are included in the text of Codex B, are combined
in the following table with the forty-three verses attested in these
other primary textual witnesses, which do not appear in Codex B.
These additions to the “New Torah” are as follows:
Biblical Book Number of Number of
Verses Added Words Added
Matthew 6 [12:47; 16:2–3; 17:21; 18:11; 23:14] 93
Mark 17 [7:16; 9:44, 46; 11:26; 15:28; 16:9–20] 223
Luke 4 [17:36; 22:43–44; 23:17] 41
John 38 [5:4; 7:53–8:11; 21:1–25] 759
Acts 78 [8:37; 15:34; 24:7; 27:1–28:31] 1,392
Totals: 143 2,508
The first thing Luke did in Rome was to complete the book of
Acts by adding chapters 27–28, which tell the story of the journey
to Rome from Caesarea. As we have already noted, this addendum
is made up of 1,343 (= 17 x 79) words. The additions to the Gospel
of John include the concluding chapter (John 21), the story of
the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53–8:11), and John 5:4. At

86 Explosion of the Canon
this stage in the canonical process, the Gospel of John appears to
be the key book in terms of numerical composition with a total
word count of 14,841 + 759 = 15,600 (= 26 x 600).
For the most part, at least for the New Torah, it appears that
Codex B (Vaticanus) reflects the canon as completed in Jerusalem
(ca. 59 CE). Codex Sinaiticus, on the other hand, appears to represent
the revision of the five books in the New Torah, which took
place in Rome (ca. 63).
It is interesting to note, in passing, that the story of the woman
taken in adultery is sometimes placed after Luke 21:38 in a later
“family” of minuscule manuscripts of the Greek New Testament
(the most important of which are the minuscules 13, 69, 124, 788,
and 1346). Moreover, the word count for Galatians, in particular,
suggests that both divine name numbers 17 and 26 play a significant
role in the numerical composition of the Letters of Paul. In
general the picture appears to be much the same as what we have
already observed for the Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles (the
“New Torah”), as composed in Jerusalem (ca. 59 CE). 39
B. The Burning of Rome in 64 CE and the
Death of Paul and Peter
The great fire in Rome, which started on July 19, in 64 CE,
destroyed much of the magnificent city of Rome. The repercussions
of this event were felt throughout the whole of the Roman Empire.
According to Suetonius (Nero 40), some of Nero’s astrologers even
suggested that he ought to move his capital to Jerusalem because it
was then a popular belief that a new world empire was soon to
appear on the scene centered in the Roman province of Judea.
Though we cannot trace with any certainty the course of
events within the early Christian Church from 62 to 70 CE, it
appears that both Paul and Peter were victims of the persecution
of Christians in Rome under Nero after the great fire of 64 CE.
According to tradition, Paul was beheaded in Rome and Peter was
crucified upside down.
According to the Talmud (both the Babylonian and Palestinian
versions), a series of four miraculous signs were witnessed in

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 87
Codex Vaticanus (4 th century CE)
The leaves measure 10.8 inches on each side.
The text appears in three columns with 40 to 44 lines
per column and about 16 to 18 letters per line.

88 Explosion of the Canon
the forty years before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
in 70 CE. The following quotation is from the Palestinian Talmud
(Sotah 6:3; which should be compared with Yoma 39b in the Babylonian
Talmud): 40
Forty years before the destruction of the Temple the western
light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson,
and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand.
They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get
up in the morning and find them wide open. Said Rabban
Yohanan ben Zakkai to the Temple, ‘O Temple, why do
you frighten us? We know that you will end up destroyed.
For it has been said ‘Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the
fire may devour your cedars’ (Zechariah 11:1).
A mass exodus from the Holy Land took place from 62 to 64 CE,
and large numbers of Jewish Christians abandoned the faith after
the great disappointment in 63 CE. When the remnants of the
Christian community in Jerusalem retreated to the city of Pella,
some sixty miles northeast of Jerusalem, in the summer of 66 CE,
they numbered at best a thousand or so (see Eusebius, Ecclesiastical
History 3.5). Many of those who left the Christian community
joined the ranks of the revolutionary forces when the Jewish/
Roman war broke out in 66 CE.
Before the burning of Rome in 64 CE, Paul (working with
Luke) edited his four Personal Letters into numerical compositions
(i.e., canonical Scripture) and the idea of a twenty-twobook
canon of “Apostolic Writings” emerged to complement the
twenty-two-book canon of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), as described
by Josephus:
Canon of Josephus (22 books) The “Apostolic Writings” (22 books)
5 books of Moses Torah New Torah 5 Four Gospels +
Acts
13 prophets/writings Prophets Paul as
prophet
13 Letters of Paul
4 “hagiographa” Writings Four “pillars” 4 Hebrews,
James, Peter &
John

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 89
The twenty-two-book collection of “Apostolic Writings” was
arranged under the authority of the “four pillars” (Paul, James,
Peter and John), though by the time the task was completed James
was martyred in Jerusalem (ca. 62 CE).
The Four Pillars of the Church The Four Gospels Total Books
James 1 epistle and Matthew = 2 books
Peter 1 epistle (1 Peter) and Mark = 2 books
Paul 14 epistles (13 letters
+ Hebrews)
and Luke–Acts = 16 books
John 1 epistle (1 John) and John = 2 books
The final stage in the canonical process, which expanded this
twenty-two-book canon of the “New Testament” into a fortynine-book
canon of the Completed Tanakh, took place sometime
after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul (ca. 64–67 CE) andbefore
the death of John (ca. 98 CE). It was achieved under the authority of
the apostle John, who may have included Luke (and possibly Mark)
among his co-workers. They added four books (2 Peter, 2–3 John,
Jude, and Revelation) to form the “Seven General Epistles” as a literary
complement to Paul’s letters to seven churches, and the Revelation
to John, which was also addressed to seven churches.
The four Gospels and Acts were treated as a “New Testament
Pentateuch” (five-part structural unit)—a New Torah, which
completed the First Testament and connected it with the Second.
In this concentric design, the Gospels and Acts are as much a part
of the First Testament as they are of the Second Testament—completing
the one and beginning the other.
The canon of the Completed Tanakh includes the original
Tanakh (Torah + Prophets + “Hebrew” Writings), plus its literary
complement in the “Apostolic Writings” (i.e., the Greek New
Testament). This Completed Tanakh contains forty-nine books: 22
+5+22=49=7 2 or (7 x 7). The literary structure of the whole
was achieved under the authority of the apostle John, who loved
symmetry, as we know from the Gospel of John and Revelation—and
he was fond of the number seven, which speaks of perfection
and completion within the canonical process.

90 Explosion of the Canon
By the time of the burning of Rome, earlier eschatological
expectations in which Messianic Jews believed that Yeshua would
return to establish his kingdom in Jerusalem in that generation
had been modified. James shared the belief in the Messiah’s imminent
return, as witnessed by his comment, “for the coming of the
Lord is near” (James 5:8). It was his martyrdom in ca. 62, and the
events that unfolded in the months following, which led to a reassessment
and clarification of this popular belief in Messianic
Jewish circles.
The shift in Paul’s eschatological beliefs took place some
years earlier, as shown by careful study of 1 Thes 4:16–17 and 2
Thes 2:1–12, and the fact that Paul saw the necessity of a Completed
Tanakh prior to his fateful journey to Jerusalem (ca. 57 CE).
In 2 Thes 2:1–12, Paul clarified his earlier teaching arguing that
the day of the Lord’s return would not come until the “lawless
one” was revealed and destroyed by Yeshua himself. It was Paul’s
belief in a delayed Second Coming of Yeshua that led him and
Luke to undertake the task of completing the Tanakh with a collection
of “Apostolic Writings.”
A similar shift in Peter’s teaching is shown by comparing 1
Peter 4:7 (“The end of all things is near”) with 2 Peter 3:3–4,
“that in the last days scoffers will come . . . saying, ‘Where is the
promise of his coming? Forever since our ancestors died, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’” The former
expectation that the Messiah will come in glory within the
lifetime of the first Christian generation had faded.
John carried the discussion further with his warning against
antichrists. In 1 John 2:18–27, he declared, “Children, it is the last
hour!” Like many other early Christians, John believed that he lived
“in the last hour” and expected an enemy of G–d (see 2 Thes
2:3–12) or false messiahs (cf. Mk 13:5–6, 21–22) before the final
end. John applied these teachings of an “antichrist” (“counter-
Messiah”) to the many false teachers within the Christian community,
which emerged after the death of James (ca. 62 CE).In2John
7–9,Johnspokeof“manydeceivers...whodonotacknowledge
the coming of Yeshua the Messiah in the flesh.” His use of the word
“antichrist” here (v. 7) suggests that he had widened his under-

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 91
standing somewhat to include “everyone who does not abide in the
teaching of the Messiah, but goes beyond it” (2 John 9).
Careful analysis suggests that most of the canonical process,
which produced the Second Testament, took place before the
destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Paul and Luke took the
first step by editing eight of Paul’s letters into numerical compositions
along with the Gospel of Luke, before the two of them
made their fateful journey from Macedonia to Jerusalem in ca. 58
CE. These Letters of Paul had already assumed the status of
Scripture by the time 2 Peter 3:14–16 was written. The next
stage in the canonical process was the formation of a twentytwo-book
canon of “Apostolic Writings” under the authority of
Paul, Peter, and John (ca. 63–64 CE), which is described above at
the beginning of this chapter.
It is useful to compare the introductory notes of four of the
books associated with the “four pillars” of the Christian Church—
in Hebrews, James, 1 Peter and the Revelation to John:
Four Books Associated with the Four Pillars of the Early Christian Church
A “Paul”—in Hebrews: “Long ago G–d spoke . . . by the prophets . . . but in these
last days . . . by a Son”
B James, a servant of G–d and of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, to the twelve
tribes in the Dispersion
B´ Peter, an apostle of Yeshua the Messiah, to the exiles of the Dispersion in
Pontus, Galatia, etc.
A´ John—in the Apocalypse: “The revelation of Yeshua the Messiah . . . to his
servant John”
The introductions to James and 1 Peter make specific reference to
Yeshua the Messiah and to “the Dispersion” of the “twelve tribes”
or “the exiles” within the Roman Empire. The Epistle to the
Hebrews picks up this same theme in its title, which suggests that
the early Christian Church considered itself to be the “true Israel.”
The introduction to Hebrews makes reference to G–d speaking
“by the prophets” in times past, “but in these last days he has spoken
to us by a Son” (Heb 1:1–2).
The introduction to Revelation continues the same thought
with its reference to the “revelation of Yeshua the Messiah,” which
G–d made “known by sending his angel to his servant John” (Rev
1:1). It should be noted that the introduction to Hebrews makes

92 Explosion of the Canon
reference to G–d’s Son as “having become as much superior to
angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs”
(Heb 1:4). In short, the introductions to the first three of the
“General Epistles,” which are associated with three of the “four
pillars” (Paul, James, and Peter), and the Revelation to John are
carefully structured in chiastic form—with Paul and John forming
a framework around James and Peter. Moreover, the first three of
these works are all addressing the “Hebrews” of “the Dispersion.”
John, on the other hand, is the channel of “the revelation of
Yeshua the Messiah” to “the seven churches that are in Asia” (Rev
1:4)—like the apostle Paul with his “Ecclesiastical Letters” to
seven churches.
It is important to note that the Seven General Epistles of
James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude form a literary unit as well.
These seven books are arranged in a menorah pattern within a
larger literary framework that includes Hebrews and Revelation. In
terms of introductory editorial comments at the final stage of the
canonical process, these nine books may be outlined as follows:
Nine Writings Associated with the Four Pillars of the Church:
Hebrews—Revelation
A Hebrews—“in these last days (G–d) has spoken to us by a Son”
B James—servant of G–d & Lord Messiah Yeshua / love one another (2:1–26; 4:1–16)
C 1 Peter—“an apostle of Messiah Yeshua” / love one another (3:8)
D 2 Peter—“servant and apostle” / false teachers and their punishment (2:1–22)
X 1 John [no title or editorial prologue given] / love one another (2:28–3:24)
D´ 2 John—“the elder to the elect lady” / false teachers (“antichrists”) (vv. 7–9)
C´ 3 John—“the elder to . . . Gaius” / love—“your love before the church” (vv. 5–7)
B´ Jude — “servant of Messiah Yeshua and brother of James” / false teachers (vv. 5–16)
A´ Revelation—“revelation of the Messiah Yeshua, which G–d gave him”
In this structure, the focus is on 1 John and the command to love
one another. 1 John is without an editorial introduction naming
the author and the addressee, as is also the case with the Epistle to
the Hebrews. Moreover, its opening words direct attention to the
opening words of the Gospel of John. “We declare to you what
was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen
with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our
hands, concerning the word of life” (1 John 1:1, cf. John 1:1).

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 93
The outermost frame opens with the statement that “in these
last days (G–d) has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb 1:2). That Son is
named in the opening words of the Revelation to John—“The revelation
of Yeshua the Messiah, which G–d gave him to show his
servants what must soon take place” (Rev 1:1). The second frame
pairs the Letter of James, “a servant of G–d and of the Lord
Yeshua the Messiah” (James 1:1), and Jude, “a servant of Yeshua
the Messiah and brother of James” (Jude 1). A further pairing of
these two books is evident in the subject at the center of each of
these two epistles. The injunction to love one another by showing
no partiality in our dealings one with another (James 2), and by
speaking no evil against one another (James 4), frame the
structural center of James.
The message of the central chapter in James 3 may be summarized
as follows: true wisdom is found in pure speech, without
arrogance and criticism. The warning about false teachers is in the
structural center of Jude (vv. 5–16). The dual message of the seven
General Epistles focuses on the problem of false teaching in the
church, and how to deal with it. The answer from the three “pillars”
of the Christian community in Jerusalem (James, Peter and
John) was clear: our actions must proceed from a prior commitment
to show love one to another (James 2:1–26; 4:1–16; 1 Peter
3:8; 1 John 2:28–3:24; and 3 John 5–7).
2 Peter and 2 John both have the subject of false teachers at
their center, which form the innermost frame around the book of
1 John in the above structure, with its elaborate presentation of
the command to love one another (1 John 2:28–3:24). The problem
of how to deal with true and false prophets is an issue of
primary concern in both the First Testament and the Second Testament.
Yeshua once said, “By this everyone will know that you
are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
When it comes to the matter of dealing with false teaching in the
church today, however, all too often we forget this command in
our haste to purge apparent evil from our midst.
3 John returns to the subject of love, which is also a primary
theme in 1 Peter. The pairing of the Letter of James with the Letter
of Jude once again juxtaposes these same two themes—that of
love (in James) with that of false teachers (in Jude). Moreover,

94 Explosion of the Canon
Jude is introduced as “a brother of James” (1:1). In short, it
appears likely that this letter is included as a sort of second book of
James, as it were (written after the death of James); and that it
owes its position within the canon more on its association with
James as one of the “four pillars” of the church than as an independent
work of one of the twelve disciples of Yeshua.
After the martyrdom of Paul and Peter in Rome (ca. 64–67
CE), the authority for the canonical process was in the hands of the
apostle John, the sole survivor among the four “pillars” of the
early Christian Church. John, and the “brothers” working under
his authority, continued their work on the “Apostolic Writings” of
the New Testament until John’s death (ca. 98 CE). The dominant
church tradition states that the apostle John moved to Ephesus
after years of leadership in Jerusalem, and there wrote the five
writings known as Johannine. He is said to have lived to an old
age and to have died a natural death at Ephesus. According to
Eusebius (Ecclesiastical History 3.18.1; 20.9; 23.4), John lived
until the time of Trajan (98–117 CE). Irenaeus claims that when
he was “still a boy” he learned about John’s ministry in Ephesus
from Polycarp (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.20.5).
The Muratorian Fragment (2. 9–23) states that John was
with the rest of the apostles when he was led to write the Gospel of
John. This suggests a date while the apostles Paul, James, and
Peter were alive and favors the Holy Land as the place of writing,
perhaps at the very time Luke was in Jerusalem and Paul was a
prisoner nearby in Caesarea (ca. 57–59 CE). As we will see in the
next section of this chapter, an initial draft of the Revelation to
John was apparently written before the destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 CE. It appears that the apostle John played a singular role in
the canonical process both before and after the death of Paul (ca.
64–66 CE) and the death of Peter (ca. 67 CE), until his own death
some thirty years later (ca. 98 CE).

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 95
C. John and Luke—the Completion of the
Greek New Testament
John, who survived the other three “pillars” of the early Christian
Church (Peter, James, and Paul) by thirty years, was responsible
for five books commonly referred to as the Johannine literature:
the Gospel of John, 1–3 John, and the Revelation to John. As we
have already noted, John and his followers, which may have
included Luke (and perhaps Mark as well), were also responsible
for the expansion of the “Apostolic Writings” from a collection of
twenty-two books of the original “New Testament” to the fortynine-book
canon of the Completed Tanakh. This was achieved by
making the Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles into a “New
Torah,” which connects the First Testament and the Second Testament.
The structure of the twenty-two books of the Second Testament
may be outlined as follows:
Romans 1 Corinthians Philippians Colossians
Ephesians
2 Corinthians Galatians 1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians
1 Timothy 2 Timothy
Titus Philemon
Hebrews James 2 John
1 John
3 John
1 Peter 2 Peter Jude Revelation
In this structure, nine “Ecclesiastical Letters” of the apostle
Paul to seven churches were set over against nine “apostolic
works”— associated with Paul (Hebrews), James, Peter (2), John
(4), and Jude (“brother of James”). In each instance we find the
groups of nine books arranged in a 4 + 1 + 4 pattern. The two
books that function as a literary “bridge” in this structure, connecting
subgroups of four books, are Paul’s letter to the Church in
Ephesus and the First Letter of John. After the death of the other
primary leaders in the early Christian movement (James, Paul, and
Peter) in ca. 62–67 CE, John’s ministry as sole surviving member

96 Explosion of the Canon
of the four original “pillars” of the church was centered in the city
of Ephesus. Four of the books in what we designate here as the
nine “apostolic works” are writings of the apostle John.
The arrangement of these twenty-two books of the Second
Testament in the pattern 9 + 4 + 9 = 22 reflects the arrangement
of the books in the First Testament. The concentric structure of the
larger Completed Tanakh may be outlined in a menorah pattern:
The Completed Tanakh in a Menorah Pattern
A Torah + Former Prophets (“Primary History”) 9 books [4 + 1 + 4]
B Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel + The Twelve) 4 books
C Hebrew Writings (“Hagiographa,” Daniel & Chronicler) 9 books [4 + 1 + 4]
X New Torah (Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles) 5 books
C´ Paul’s Nine “Ecclesiastical Letters” 9 books [4 + 1 + 4]
B´ Paul’s Four “Personal Letters” 4 books
A´ Epistle to the Hebrews through Revelation to John 9 books [4 + 1 + 4]
The “Primary History” (Torah plus Former Prophets), corresponds
with the second half of the Second Testament (Hebrews
through Revelation). The thirteen Letters of Paul, the apostle to
the Gentiles, correspond in this structure to the second half of the
Hebrew Bible (Tanakh); and a “New Torah” (New Testament
Pentateuch) stands in the center of the Completed Tanakh.
Though the date of the Revelation to John is a matter of dispute
in scholarly discussion, there is strong tradition that John lived
until the last decade of the first century and that Revelation was
written near the time of his death (ca. 98 CE). Nonetheless, some
scholars date the book earlier—in the late 50’s or early 60’s CE.
Some historical indications in the book support this conclusion.
The single most important argument for an early date is the
eschatological perspective of the imminent return of Yeshua, which
is like that of Paul’s earlier letters (1 Thess 4:16–17 and 1 Cor
15:23–28; see also Hebrews 1:2; 9:26; 10:25, 37; James 5:3–8; 1
Peter 4:7–11; and 1 John 2:18). The book opens with the statement:
“The revelation of Yeshua the Messiah, which G–d gave him
to show his servants what must soon take place” (Rev1:1).Inthe
final chapter we read: “the Lord the G–d of the spirits of the prophets,
has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
“See, I am coming soon ...forthetimeisnear...See,Iamcomingsoon

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 97
...SurelyIamcomingsoon”(Rev22:6,7,10,12,20).This
appeal to the soon coming advent of Yeshua the Messiah is also
found in the messages to the seven churches (Rev 2: 5, 16, 25; 3:3,
11, 20). The author of Revelation believed in Yeshua’s imminent
return.
E. L. Martin argues for a possible date of the book of Revelation
in the earlier years of Nero’s reign (ca. 54–64 CE). 41 He interprets
Rev 11:1–2 to indicate that the temple in Jerusalem was still
standing, which requires a date prior to 70 CE; and John’s statement
that Jerusalem had a population of 70,000 persons (Rev
11:13) suggests a time before the devastating war of 66–70 CE.
Moreover, the code name of the beast in Rev 13:18 is 666, widely
thought to symbolize the name of Nero Caesar. The Tenth Legion
of the Roman army occupied the central area of Jerusalem in the
years following the war, for some years after the fall of Masada in
73 CE. Moreover, the statements in Rev 2:9 and 3:9 suggest that
some Christians wished they were Jewish. During and after the
war, the Jewish people were held in such disdain throughout the
Roman Empire that this was no longer likely. The book of Barnabas,
which was written near the end of the first century, is decidedly
anti-Jewish in its themes. According to Martin, even the
Gospel of John from beginning to end is never flattering to the
Jewish religious establishment, in spite of the fact that John saw
himself as an apostle sent to the Jews.
At the same time, if one looks at traditional evidence from the
middle of the second century, one must date the composition of
the book of Revelation to the last decade of the first century (see in
particular Irenaeus, Against Heresies. 5.30.3). Allusion to the legend
of Nero’s return in Rev 13:3 and 17:9–11 suggests a time in
the decades after his suicide in 68 CE. Moreover, Revelation uses
“Babylon” as a code name for Rome (14:8; 16:19; 17:5, 18;
18:2, 10, 21), but elsewhere Jews used this code name in this
manner only after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 CE.
It appears that the book of Revelation was more than thirty
years in the making and went through at least two editions. In its
structural center, an angel told John that he would experience a
second phase of understanding prophetic information at some
undisclosed future time. John was told to take a small scroll from

98 Explosion of the Canon
the hand of this angelic messenger and to eat it, and it would be
sweet to his mouth but bitter to his stomach. When this happens,
John would receive further instructions about a future revelation
dealing with the end-times that concerns the nations: “Then they
said to me, ‘You must prophesy again about many peoples and
nations and languages and kings’” (Rev 10:11). As Martin observes,
“This new prophetic message that John was to receive in
the future could have been his final visionary experience when he
was taken by the Spirit to the Isle of Patmos and where he put the
final touches on the complete Book of Revelation.” 42
Clement of Rome sent a lengthy letter to the Church in Corinth
(ca. 95 CE), which in all probability was written while the
apostle John was still alive and ministering in Ephesus, three hundred
miles distant from Corinth on the other side of the Aegean
Sea. Within the sixty-five chapters of Clement’s work there is no
reference to the apostle John, as E. L. Martin observes. At the
same time, the problems Clement is addressing in Corinth are the
same ones that John encountered around Ephesus and other areas
of his influence, as reflected in the three letters of John. Moreover,
chapters 47–51 of Clement’s letter are concerned with the subject
of brotherly love, which is a primary theme of John. There are
forty-two references to “love” in John’s Gospel, and on forty-six
occasions John emphasizes “love” in his three short letters. Yet
there is no reference to John or his writings in the letter of
Clement to the Corinthians.
Some twenty years later, Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch, was
taken prisoner and martyred in Rome (ca. 115 CE). On route he
passed through western Asia Minor and wrote seven letters,
including letters to the Christians at Ephesus (where John had
resided) and to Polycarp whom we know to have been an intimate
disciple of John. Once again, as Martin observes, there is not one
single reference to the apostle John.
We learn from Eusebius that some of the most prestigious of
early Christians returned to Jerusalem after its destruction in 70
CE and established a congregation there, which was apparently
located on the Mount of Olives (see Eusebius, Proof of the Gospel,
3.5 124d). There were fifteen Jewish overseers in succession in
Jerusalem, until the Romans once again destroyed the city in 135

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 99
CE. After that, the Jerusalem congregation continued to exist until
the time of Eusebius and Constantine; but it was made up of Gentiles,
since anyone of Jewish ancestry was banned from Jerusalem
and its environs by the Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138 CE).
Though the aged apostle John continued to minister in Asia
Minor (ca. 68–98 CE), it should be noted that he took seriously his
commission to go to the Jews while Paul and others had gone to
the Gentiles (Gal 2:9–14). The last part of John’s life continued to
be within the Jewish environment, while the center of Christendom
had moved to the Gentile world—and to the city of Rome in
particular. As Martin notes, “John was consistently in contact with
Ephesus in his last 30 years of life, but since he considered himself
the remaining apostle commissioned to go to the Jews, he must
have been in contact with the Jews in Jerusalem and Jabneh. In his
old age when he could not travel himself, he sent his representatives
whom he customarily called ‘the brethren’ to teach the Jewish
people in the areas of his responsibility (3 John 5–6).” 43
Roman persecution of the Christians began in the reign of Nero
(54–68 CE), and continued until the reign of Constantine (324–337
CE) who embraced Christianity and established it as the official religion
of the Roman Empire. According to Tacitus (Annals 15.44),
Nero needed a scapegoat for the devastating fire of 64 CE, which he
found in the Christians. Tacitus describes the Christians as a
detestable sect, which owed its name to Chrestus, who, in
the reign of Tiberius, suffered under Pontius Pilate. Suppressed
for a while, this dangerous superstition soon revived
and spread not only in Judea but even in the city of
Rome, the common cesspool into which everything hateful
and abominable flows like a torrent from all parts of the
world. When some of these depraved and profligate
wretches were induced to confess their guilt, Nero had
some of them torn apart by dogs, some nailed to crosses,
and others burned alive. 44
According to Tertullian (Apologeticum 5), “Nero was the first who
raged with the imperial sword against our sect, just when it was
coming into notice at Rome. But we are proud indeed of having
such a man to inaugurate our condemnation; for any one who
knows him can understand that what Nero condemned cannot

100 Explosion of the Canon
but have been something very good indeed. Domitian tried it too,
another Nero for cruelty” (lines 16–23).
It is of interest to examine Rev 17:9–11 and its reference to
the succession of Roman emperors: “there are seven kings, of
whom five have fallen, one is living, and the other has not yet
come; and when he comes, he must remain only a little while. As
for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the
seven, and it goes to destruction.”
Of numerous attempts to identify these kings, the most likely
interpretation is to start the series with Julius Caesar and to interpret
the five “fallen” kings of “Babylon” (Rome) as those who were
deified by the Roman senate, followed by Domitian, who claimed
divinity while living. The list concludes with a mythical Nero-like
adversary of G–d derived from legends about Nero’s return from
death (see Sibylline Oracles 4.138–39; 5.108–110, 214–27).
1. Julius Caesar (101–44 BCE)
2. Augustus (31 BCE–14 CE)
3. Claudius (41–54 CE)
4. Nero (54–68 CE) — the only ruler in this list who was
not deified
5. Vespasian (69–79 CE)
6. Titus (79–81 CE)
7. Domitian (81–98 CE)
8. “Neronic Antichrist” — envisioned as a return of Nero
from death
This list fits the reading of Rev 17:9–11 in matters of detail as the
following diagram shows more clearly:
The Seven Kings of Revelation 17:9–11 in the Vision of the Great
Whore and the Beast
A Julius Caesar 1 st “fallen” emperor (i.e., deified by the Roman Senate)
B Augustus 2 nd “fallen” emperor
C Claudius 3 rd “fallen” emperor
X Nero: “the beast that was and is not; an 8 th but belongs to the 7”
C´ Vespasian 4 th “fallen” emperor
B´ Titus 5 th “fallen” emperor
A´ Domitian“one is living” (claimed divinity while yet living)

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 101
The three “fallen” emperors among the Julio-Claudians (Julius
Caesar, Augustus, and Claudius) that preceded Nero correspond
with three emperors of the Flavian dynasty after Nero—
two of whom are “fallen” (Vespasian and Titus) and one who was
still alive (Domitian). Though Nero himself was not deified by the
Roman senate, and thus not one of the “fallen kings” in a technical
sense, he was the one who inaugurated the Roman policy of persecution
against the Christians, after the burning of Rome in 64 CE.
Moreover, according to legend, Nero would return from the dead
in the form of the “Neronic Antichrist”—a mythical adversary of
G–d who is called the “beast” in Revelation. As John put it earlier
in Revelation, “One of its heads seemed to have received a deathblow,
but its mortal wound had been healed” (13:3). Nero committed
suicide in 68 CE. The reference to a “mortal wound . . .
healed” reflects the widespread belief in Nero’s return from
death—the “Neronic Antichrist” that John envisions as the successor
to Domitian.
The apostle John was among the émigrés who left the Holy
Land in the mass exodus at the time of the “great disappointment”
(ca. 62–64 CE), when popular eschatological expectations among
both Jews and Christians failed to materialize in Jerusalem. Like
the apostles Paul and Peter, John also found it necessary to adjust
his eschatology in the light of unfolding events in that fateful
decade of 60–70 CE.
The execution of James in Jerusalem (ca. 62 CE) was followed
by the martyrdom of both Paul and Peter in Rome (ca.
64–67 CE), which left John as the sole surviving member of the
original four “pillars” of the early Christian movement. The political
chaos within the Roman government following Nero’s suicide
in 68 CE added fuel to the fire, as John reflected on the complex
flow of events in the Roman Empire in light of his own understanding
of eschatology. The Jewish Revolt, which was climaxed
by the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus (70 CE) and the fall of
Masada (73 CE), was observed by John from his place of asylum in
Ephesus. His final thoughts on the subject were written before the
death of Domitian in 98 CE (Rev 17:10—“one is living”), perhaps
from the island of Patmos (Rev 1:9). According to early church

102 Explosion of the Canon
tradition, John was exiled to Patmos in the 14 th year of the
emperor Domitian (95 CE). 45
The description of the canonical process is complicated by
the fact that there was no longer a consensus within the Jewish
community on how to count the twenty-two books of the Tanakh
(Hebrew Bible). Additions were made to the books of Esther and
Daniel, both of which were closely associated with the older category
of the four “festal scrolls” (the Megilloth)—of Song of Songs,
Ruth, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes.
The inclusion of the books of Esther and Daniel in the canon
of sacred Scripture, with and without these additions, led to new
ways of thinking about the structure of the Tanakh in Jewish circles.
As a result, even the number of books in the Tanakh became a
matter of dispute. By the time the Mishna was compiled (ca. 200
CE), Jewish tradition reckoned the Tanakh as containing twentyfour
books. This change in the way Jewish leaders count the books
may be in reaction to the Christian practice of counting twentytwo
books in the Tanakh, as E. L. Martin suggests. 46
It was John, probably in consultation with Luke, who envisioned
the canon with a “New Torah” at the center of a menorah
pattern in a forty-nine-book canon. In this way of thinking, the
four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles were seen as the center of
the Christian Bible—forming a literary bridge to connect the First
Testament and the Second Testament. A useful way of looking at
the content of this Completed Tanakh as conceived by John (and
Luke) may be outlined as follows:
The Completed Tanakh in Forty-Nine Books
(1 + 12 + 9) + 5 + (9 + 12 + 1) = 49 = 72
A Genesis as introduction—from Creation to Moses (the true prophet) Genesis
B Twelve Writings—by Moses (4) and the Prophets (8) Exodus–Malachi
C NineWritingsof1 st Testament—life & worship in 2 nd Temple Psalms–Chronicles
X New Torah: Gospels & Acts—Yeshua a prophet like Moses Matthew–Acts
C´ Nine Writings of 2 nd Testament—life & worship in the Church Romans–2 Thess
B´ Twelve Writings—by Paul (4) and the “Pillars” of the Church (8) I Timothy–Jude
A´ Revelation as conclusion—judgment and new creation (final prophet) Revelation
The framework in this structure moves from the book of Genesis,
as an introduction to the Bible as a whole, to the book of

From Rome to the New Jerusalem 103
Revelation as a grand conclusion, which includes a new creation at
the end of history. In the center of this structure, we find Yeshua
the Messiah as the “true prophet” like Moses, who is presented
within the context of a “New Torah” (a Christian Pentateuch) in
the structural center of the Christian Bible.
The first half of the outer frame in this structure presents the
epic story in twelve books. The story begins with the Exodus from
Egypt (Exodus through Deuteronomy). It continues with the
Eisodus into the Promised Land and moves on to the ultimate loss
of that land (Former Prophets). It then shifts to the messianic
vision of G–d’s work among the nations through the people of
Israel in time to come (Latter Prophets). These twelve books of
the First Testament, four by Moses and eight prophetic writings
(the Former Prophets and Latter Prophets) are set over against
twelve apostolic writings in the Second Testament, extending
from Paul’s four “Personal Letters” to the eight “General Epistles”
(from Hebrews through Jude). The innermost frame opens with
nine books of the Writings in the First Testament, in which the
book of Daniel connects the four books in the Hagiographa
(Psalms, Job, Proverbs, and the five “festal scrolls” [Megilloth])
with the four books of Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 Chronicles and 2
Chronicles. The innermost frame concludes with Paul’s nine letters
to seven churches (Romans through 2 Thessalonians).
The resulting outline of the Completed Tanakh (Torah +
Prophets + Writings), which places the books of the Bible in their
“correct order,” may be outlined in linear fashion as follows:

104 Explosion of the Canon
Table of Contents for the Completed Tanakh
(49 books = 22 + 5 + 22 = 72)
First Testament [22 Books]
Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy)
Prophets (Nevi’im)—Former Prophets and Latter Prophets
Writings (Kethuvim)— “Hagiographa,” Daniel, Ezra,
Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles
New Torah [5 Books]
Four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke & John)—as
Completion of the “Law and the Prophets”
Acts of the Apostles
Second Testament [22 Books]—as “Latter Writings” (Kethuvim)
Thirteen Letters of Paul—an Apostolic Prophet
Eight Apostolic Writings—associated with the Four
“Pillars” of the Church
The Revelation to John—as the Final Prophet
For the First Testament, this order of the books in the Completed
Tanakh is essentially that of common knowledge in Judaism
through the centuries. For the Second Testament, it is the order of
books in the traditional “New Testament” of the Christian Church
from the time Jerome published the Latin Vulgate (ca. 400 CE)to
the present. We believe that this “correct order” of the books in
the Bible as a whole is also that of the apostle John within the Messianic
Jewish community, at the end of the first century CE.

The Canon of the Greek New
Testament in Early Church History
Many scholars assume that the Greek New Testament is
the response on the part of early Christianity to challenges
it faced in the second and third centuries CE.In
this way of reading the evidence, they argue that though the followers
of Yeshua produced writings of their own, which were read
in local church gatherings, no one would have thought to add
these newer writings to the older sacred Scripture of ancient Israel
(the Tanakh). In their understanding, it took a serious theological
controversy within the church to bring about the decisions that
caused Christians to create a Bible of their own. The reasoning on
the part of those who take this position is based on a false assumption
that the first generation of the followers of Yeshua did not
concern itself with canonical issues and the belief that the Greek
New Testament enjoyed an evolutionary growth through time.
Though it is true that early Christianity faced serious challenges
particularly in the person of Marcion (ca. 150 CE), which forced
the leadership to grapple with the issue of what is and what is not
canonical Scripture, Christians did not create a Bible of their own
at that time. In effect, efforts to deal with the theological challenges
they faced in the second and third centuries enabled the
Christian community to recover the original canon of the Completed
Tanakh, which was in danger of being lost. That canon was
formulated in the second half of the first century CE—within the
105

106 Explosion of the Canon
Messianic Jewish community in Jerusalem and Rome, as described
in chapters four and five of this book.
Christianity emerged within the context of Palestinian Judaism.
In the first generation, missionary activity on the part of Paul
and others focused primarily in Jewish synagogues throughout
the Dispersion. Even formal Roman policy considered the Christian
Church to be a Jewish sect, at least until the reign of the
emperor Nero (54–68 CE). The situation was already changing,
however, even before Nero chose the Christians as scapegoats for
the burning of Rome in 64 CE.
The conference in Jerusalem in Acts 15:1–29, which is discussed
by Paul in Galatians 2:1–10, concerns missionary work
among the Gentiles. The decision rendered reflects a minimal
imposition of the Jewish law on Gentile converts. When Paul
arrived in Jerusalem, together with Luke (ca. 57 CE), James and the
elders of the Church advised him to demonstrate his respect for
Jewish law by taking part in a cleansing ritual in the Temple. By the
time of Paul’s trial in Rome four years later, however, the growing
tension between Jews and Christians in Jerusalem had increased
markedly. According to Josephus (Antiquities 20.200), the assassination
of James, the head of the Church in Jerusalem and brother of
Yeshua (Passover, 62 CE), was ordered by the high priest Ananus,
who accused James “and certain others” of transgressing the law.
The persecution of the Christians in Rome under Nero (ca.
64–66 CE) took place within the context of a growing foment of
rebellion among the Jews in the Holy Land, which exploded in the
great Jewish Revolt (66–70 CE). This horrendous war ended in
the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 CE. Bythis
time, Jews and Christians had gone their separate ways.
The smoldering hatred of the Roman Empire on the part of
the Jews combined once again with Jewish eschatological beliefs
in the abortive “Second Jewish Revolt” under the leadership of
Simon bar Kosiba (the Bar Kokhba Revolt, 132–135 CE), whom
many among the Jews considered to be the long awaited Messiah.
By this time, however, Roman patience was exhausted and the
conquest of the Jews in the Holy Land was total. Jews were
banned from the city of Jerusalem, which was turned into a Gentile
city with a new name, Aelia Capitolina.

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 107
It is no wonder that Christians in the middle of the second
century distanced themselves as far as possible from their Jewish
origin within the former Church of Jerusalem. The anti-Semitic
actions on the part of Marcion, a Christian leader in Pontus (Asia
Minor), must be understood against the wave of anti-Judaism that
swept through the entire Roman Empire in the reign of the
emperor Hadrian (117–138 CE).
A. The Canonical Challenge of
the Heretic Marcion (ca. 150 CE)
Marcion chose to sever all links to Jewish Christianity and to Judaism
in particular. Erroneously thinking that this is what Paul
taught, he preached that the God of the Jews is a God of the Law
(the Creator God) who must be distinguished from the Father of
Jesus, who is the God of Love. Marcion believed that Paul’s gospel
had been subverted. He set out to restore the true teaching of
Paul, and thus he focused on the dichotomies between the way of
faith and the works of the Law—the way of Paul against that of his
opponents, the Judaizers. He was bothered by the fact that Christians
placed so much emphasis on the fulfillment of Old Testament
promises. Marcion wanted nothing to do with the Tanakh,
the Bible of the Jews.
Marcion was active in western Asia Minor, and specifically in
the city of Ephesus. He selected as his canon of sacred Scripture
the Gospel of Luke and ten of Paul’s Letters—excluding the
so-called Pastorals (1–2 Timothy and Titus). But the Scriptures he
selected were edited according to one overriding principle: the
separation of Jesus from the God of the Tanakh in Jewish tradition.
It is curious to note how close, at least in the choice of specific
literary works, Marcion’s “canon” is to that of the first step in
the canonical process taken by Paul and Luke (prior to 57 CE), as
discussed above in chapter three. It should be noted in passing that
the argument that the oldest papyrus of the Pauline Letters (the
Chester Beatty Papyrus 46, dated to 180–200 CE) is similar to that
of Marcion in that it does not include the Pastoral Epistles is misleading.
That manuscript does not include 2 Thessalonians or

108 Explosion of the Canon
Philemon as well, for the simple reason that its ending is missing.
It is more likely that Marcion had reasons of his own for excluding
1–2 Timothy and Titus from his “canon.”
Marcion chose one Gospel (Luke) and one Apostle (Paul). In
that decision, he may have found support in historical memory of
the canonical process in Ephesus, however distorted it was at this
point in time, which associated the oldest version of the canon of
the Greek New Testament with the Gospel of Luke and Paul’s
Ecclesiastical Letters. To this collection Marcion added the brief
Letter to Philemon because of its close association with the Letter
to the Colossians. The city of Colossae is less than a hundred and
fifty miles from Ephesus where Marcion’s work was centered. To
this collection of eleven biblical books, Marcion appended his own
“Antitheses” in which he argued his case for the principle of the
opposition between the Gospel and the Law.
Marcion took his message to Rome where he confronted the
leaders of the Church with such texts as Luke 5:36—on sewing
new patches on old garments; but his message was rejected. Undeterred,
however, Marcion proceeded to organize what he considered
to be “the True Church,” which resembled that of the official
church elsewhere in most respects in terms of its worship practices.
Marcion’s modifications of church order may explain his
decision not to include the so-called Pastoral Epistles (1–2 Timothy
and Titus) in his “canon.” It is interesting to note the fact that
Marcion’s teaching included the participation of women in significant
leadership roles, which he maintained in light of Paul’s teaching
“in Christ there is neither male nor female.” At the same time,
Marcion taught sexual abstinence, since procreation was seen as a
command of the Creator God.
Historians agree that Marcion was an effective leader, as witnessed
by the vehemence evoked in his adversaries. Some scholars
believe that in numbers alone the Marcionites may have surpassed
the non-Marcionites in the period from 160–180 CE. Justin
Martyr, who lived for a time in Ephesus and died about 165 CE,
contended that the Marcionites had spread throughout the
Roman Empire. Major Church Fathers who challenged the teaching
of Marcion include Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Epiphanius. Cyril
of Jerusalem warned his catechumens not to be misled by Mar-

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 109
cionites entering a city in search of a Christian place of worship.
The continued existence of the Marcionites through centuries of
time is amazing in light of the simple fact that they recruited members
through adult conversion alone.
The primary difference between Marcion’s canon of sacred
Scripture and that of those who opposed him is the validity of the
Old Testament within the canon; for many Christians proudly
assert that they are “New Testament believers.” And for all practical
purposes they ignore the Old Testament as superceded. In this
regard, one could say that among Christians today there are many
Marcionites. The canon of the New Testament, however, cannot
be properly understood and interpreted, if it is removed from its
context within the Completed Tanakh. This is essentially what is
demonstrated by the flow of events that Marcion precipitated.
The response to Marcion’s challenge in the early Christian
Church was not the creation of the Christian Bible, as such. The
arguments of Harnack, and more recently von Campenhausen,
that Marcion was the “creator of the Christian holy scripture” go
much too far. 47 In response to Marcion, the church recovered the
concept of reading the New Testament within its larger context in
the Completed Tanakh of the apostolic era in the land of Judea,
which from 135 CE was called Palestine (from the Roman designation
Syria Palestina). At the same time, most of what is
commonly presented as “canon history” in the study of early
Christianity remains true. The church had lost sight of its origins
in Palestinian Judaism—and of the very structure of the Completed
Tanakh, in particular, as understood by Luke and the apostle
John. It took the challenge of the heretic Marcion to launch the
on-going struggle within the church as a whole to rediscover the
nature of its heritage in the Tanakh, as the Bible of Yeshua and all
of his followers in the first century of the Common Era.
B. The Biblical Canon in Early Christianity
Writing in defense of the Old Testament (ca. 150–160 CE), Justin
Martyr was the first orthodox writer to set forth a doctrine of
Holy Scripture, as Lee McDonald argues. 48 Justin answers questions
of how Christians could reject the demands of Jewish Law

110 Explosion of the Canon
and still accept the Old Testament as Scripture. To accomplish this
task, Justin argued that the Old Testament is a Christian book in
two essential ways. In the first place, Yeshua was in fact the fulfillment
of the prophecies of the Old Testament. Second, the law was
intended solely for the Jews as punishment for their disobedience.
Justin interpreted the recent expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem
by Hadrian as an extension of their punishment:
For the circumcision according to the flesh, which is from
Abraham, was given for a sign; that you may be separated
from other nations, and from us; and that you alone may
suffer and your land be made desolate and your cities
burned with fire, and so that strangers may eat your fruit in
your presence, and not one of you may go up to Jerusalem.
(Trypho 16.2).
Justin did not call for a new collection of Christian Scriptures,
along the lines of what Marcion proposed. In the earliest description
of Christian worship outside the Greek New Testament itself,
Justin indicated that the Gospels were read in public worship,
along with the writings of the prophets “as time permits.” 49
And on the day called Sunday there is a meeting in one
place of those who live in cities or the country, and the
memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read
as time permits. When the reader has finished, the president
in a discourse urges and invites [us] to the imitation of
these noble things. Then we all stand up together and offer
prayers. And, as said before, when we have finished the
prayer, bread is brought, and wine and water, and the president
similarly sends up prayers and thanksgivings to the
best of his ability, and the congregation assents, saying the
Amen; the distribution, and reception of the consecrated
[elements] by each one, takes place and they are sent to the
absent by the deacons. Those who prosper, and who so
wish, contribute, each one as much as he chooses to. What
is collected is deposited with the president, and he takes
care of orphans and widows, and those who are in bonds,
and the strangers who are sojourners among [us], and,
briefly, he is the protector of all those in need. (1 Apology
67, C. C. Richardson (ed.), Early Christian Fathers [The
Library of Christian Classics, vol. 1, Philadelphia: Westminster
Press, 1953] italics added)

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 111
It should be noted that the reading from the “memoirs of the
apostles” preceded that of “the writings of the prophets.” This
suggests that the reading from the Gospels has the status of a
“Parashah” from the New Torah in relation to readings from the
“Haftarah,” which in this instance may actually include the original
Torah of the Tanakh.
McDonald calls attention to the fact that Justin appealed to
“our writings” to clarify a point in his argument (in Apol. 28.1).
He notes that Hennecke sees these “writings” as a reference to
Christian literature. 50 This suggests the possibility that what we
have designated here as the twenty-two-book Second Testament
(i.e., the second half of the Greek New Testament) was also
treated as Scripture at this time.
The situation is transparent a decade or so later in the writings
of Irenaeus of Lyons (writing ca. 170–180 CE), who explicitly
named and defended the scriptural authority of Christian
writings. Though Irenaeus never made a fixed list of inspired
Scripture for the New Testament, he did argue for the fourfold
Gospel as canonical Scripture. His is also the first recorded reference
to the terms “Old Testament” and “New Testament,” and he
claimed that both testaments are Scripture. As McDonald notes,
“He freely employed the four canonical Gospels and the letters of
Paul in a scriptural fashion.” 51 One could carry that argument further
in regards Irenaeus’ reference to the writing of the apostles
(see Against Heresy 3.4.1). A strong case can be made that
Irenaeus considered the whole of the Greek New Testament as we
now know it to be canonical Scripture, though he did not present
a specific list of books as such. For him, the canon was the faith
that was delivered to the church by the apostles and their successors.
The focus on a precise collection of sacred writings took center
stage in the century after Irenaeus.
Like Irenaeus before him, Tertullian (ca. 160–225) recognized
the New Testament as Scripture, in which he distinguished
two groups—the Gospels and the apostles. He says, “If I fail to settle
this article of our faith by passages out of the Old Testament, I will
take out of the New Testament a confirmation of our view . . .
Behold, then, I find both in the gospels and in the apostles a visible
and invisible God ( Against Praxeas , 15). 52 Tertullian did not

112 Explosion of the Canon
produceafixedlistofthebooksinwhathecalls“theapostles.”Itis
possible that the term refers to the second half of the Greek New
Testament, with the Epistle to the Hebrews in its structural center,
as discussed above. McDonald notes that Tertullian also called the
writings of the New Testament an “entire volume” (The Prescriptions,
32). In another place he says that Rome “mingles the Law and
the prophets in one volume (Prescriptions, 36). If he means by this
the Torah and the rest of the Tanakh, then Tertullian was probably
referring to the second half of the Greek New Testament in his
description of that work as “the Gospels and the apostles.”
Although McDonald insists that, “It was Eusebius, bishop of
Caesarea, who is the first to set forth a clearly identifiable list of
NT writings, or ‘canon,’” he notes that even then that canon is not
“as precise as many subsequent theologians would have hoped.” 53
The key text from Eusebius reads as follows: 54
At this point it seems reasonable to summarize the writings
of the New Testament which have been quoted. In the first
place should be put the holy tetrad of the Gospels. To them
follows the writing of the Acts of the Apostles. After this
should be reckoned the Epistles of Paul. Following them
the Epistles of John called the first, and in the same way
should be recognized the Epistle of Peter. In addition to
these should be put, if it seem desirable, the Revelation of
John, the arguments concerning which we will expound at
the proper time. These belong to the recognized books.
Of the disputed books, which are nevertheless known to
most are the Epistle called of James, that of Jude, the second
Epistle of John, which may be the work of the evangelist
or of some other with the same name.
Eusebius then presents a third category, “the books which are not
genuine”—such as the Acts of Paul, Shepherd of Hermas, Apocalypse
of Peter, Letter of Barnabas, the Teachings of the Apostles,
and “in addition, as I said, the Revelation to John, if this view prevail.
For, as I said, some reject it, but others count it among the
recognized books.”
The theological crisis that led to this statement by Eusebius,
among the fifteen such lists given by Hahneman from the fourth
and fifth centuries, is much more than the attempt of a heretic like
Marcion to establish a new canon of sacred Scripture. 55 The crisis

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 113
grew from the increasing number of other sacred writings that had
appeared on the scene by this time and the increasing distance of
the Greek speaking Christian Church from its origins in Palestinian
Judaism. As McDonald notes, “Most Christian churches at the
end of the second century appear to have been in basic agreement
with the core of Irenaeus’ collection of NT scriptures, even
though no precise limitations were imposed on that collection.” 56
McDonald goes too far, however, to imply that there are in fact no
limitations imposed on the list of books in the canon of sacred
Scripture for Irenaeus. It is more likely that his concept of the
canon is essentially that of the Completed Tanakh of apostolic tradition
in the previous century.
Evidence from the Chester Beatty Papyri (ca. 180–200 CE),
which were acquired in 1930–31, challenged the prevailing view
at the time of their discovery that prior to the fourth century each
Gospel had circulated separately. The Four Gospels appear together
here (in Papyrus 45), along with Acts of the Apostles, in a
single codex, but in the so-called western order: Matthew, John,
Luke, Mark, Acts. The fact that Acts appears with the Four Gospels
suggests that the copyist intended this papyrus to be a copy of
the “New Torah” of apostolic tradition. A second papyrus in that
collection contains an incomplete collection of the Letters of Paul,
in which the Epistle to the Hebrews is placed immediately after
Romans and Ephesians precedes rather than follows Galatians.
Though the codex is incomplete, most scholars conclude that the
Pastoral Epistles were not included in this collection. Though this
may be the case, it does not necessarily reflect doubt about their
Pauline authorship, as some have claimed.
Evidence from the Muratorian Fragment, which was first
published by its discoverer Lodovico Antonio Muratori in 1740,
remains problematic. The 85 lines of text include a list of New
Testament books, which the list accepts as authoritative. The list
includes the Four Gospels; Acts of the Apostles; thirteen Letters
of Paul (excluding Hebrews); Jude; 1 and 2 John; the Wisdom of
Solomon; the Apocalypse of John; andtheApocalypse of Peter. The
list admits that not everyone in the church accepts the last two in
the list. James, 1 and 2 Peter, and 3 John are not mentioned. Most
scholars have dated the text to 180–200 CE, until Albert Sundberg

114 Explosion of the Canon
Chester Beatty Papyrus (180–200 CE)
The oldest known collection of Paul’s Letters includes the Epistle to
the Hebrews together with eight of Paul’s nine Ecclesiastical Letters
(all but 2 Thessalonians). Chester Beatty Papyrus 45 includes the
Four Gospels (in the order Matthew, John, Luke, Mark) and Acts of
the Apostles [Matt 20:24–Acts 17:7].

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 115
published strong arguments in 1973 for a fourth century date. 57
The inclusion of Wisdom of Solomon in the list is curious, but not
without parallels in the fourth century (Eusebius, Epiphanius, and
Codex Alexandrinus).
Raymond Brown argues that patristic citations give evidence
of the acceptance of the literature of the New Testament as authoritative
in the life of the church and an indication of the beginnings of
a Christian canon of Scripture. 58 At least three of the Four Gospels
were grouped together by Justin (ca. 150–160 CE); and, as we have
already seen, all four by Irenaeus (ca. 170–180 CE). Kümmel argues
that a group of Paul’s letters circulated as a group in many churches
by the end of the first century. 59 AndaccordingtoR.M.Grant,
Basilides (writing in the reign of Hadrian, ca. 117–138), made
explicit what others already believed—namely, that the writings of
Paul and the Gospels (Matthew, Luke, John) were considered to be
Scripture, on a par with the Tanakh. 60
Like others before him, Clement of Alexandria (writing ca.
190–215 CE) cited as Scripture from all of the books of the Greek
New Testament, except for James, 2 Peter, and 3 John. 61 Clement’s
successor in Alexandria, Origen (writing ca. 200–254)
cited from the Four Gospels, fourteen epistles of Paul (he appears
to have included Hebrews, though he did not believe that
Paul wrote it), 1 Peter, 1 John and Revelation as Scripture. 62 The
canonical list attributed to Origen, however, appears to have
been produced by Eusebius and Rufinus in the fourth century. In
fact, according to Everett Kalin, “all such canonical lists were
produced in the fourth century or later.” 63 The widespread interest
in listing the books of the New Testament at this juncture in
church history reflects how far removed the situation was from
the initial emergence of the Greek New Testament as an integral
part of the Completed Tanakh in Palestinian Judaism. All memory
of the original structure of the Greek New Testament in terms of
the structure of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) was forgotten. The
debate and decisions of the church councils in the fourth and
fifth centuries functionally re-established the parameters of the
original canon of the first century.

116 Explosion of the Canon
C. Restoring the Canonical Text in Light of
Its Numerical Composition
There is little room for debate when it comes to the fact that the
Masoretes of Jewish tradition preserved evidence that the scribes
of antiquity counted the number of verses and words, and even the
letters within those words, for the individual books of the Torah
and the Prophets. These numbers are still recorded at the end of
the books in question within the Masoretic tradition. Moreover,
the middle verse of each book of the Torah is clearly marked with a
marginal note.
At the conclusion of each of the books in the Torah and the
Prophets in Codex L (Leningrad) we find a brief note concerning
the number of verses—and for the Torah as a whole, the number
of words and even the number of letters. Thus at the end of the
book of Deuteronomy we find the following information:
Sum of the verses of the Torah: 5,845
Sum of the words of the Torah: 79,856
Sum of the letters of the Torah: 400,945
It was not until recent studies using computers that we discovered
that much of this numerical information is incorrect. As Andersen
and Forbes have shown, there are in fact 79,983 words in the
Torah of Codex L (Leningrad). 64 In their study, G. E. Weil and
his colleagues counted 5,844 verses, 79,981 words, and 304,844
consonants in the Torah in this same manuscript.
The discrepancy between what appears in the tradition of the
Masoretes and what is actually in the masoretic text leads to some
interesting conclusions. It appears that the Masoretes were handing
down a tradition they received alongside the Hebrew text in their
hands and that the numbers they preserved are not based on a
meticulous count of the appropriate categories for the specific texts
they had just copied. The data may be summarized as follows:

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 117
Word Count in: the Masorah Andersen/Forbes Weil
Genesis 20,612 20,613 20,613
Exodus 16,713 16,713 16,713
Leviticus 20,613 11,950 11,950
Numbers 16,408 16,413 16,412
Deuteronomy 14,294 14,294 14,293
Total 79,856 79,983 79,981
The first observation is the simple fact that the numbers given in the
masoretic tradition do not add up to the total they themselves
record for the Torah as a whole, and the word count for Leviticus is
off by roughly 10,000 words. Moreover, as Weil has shown, the
total number of consonants for the Torah as a whole in Masoretic
tradition is off by almost 100,000! The minor discrepancy between
the word count of Andersen/Forbes and G. E. Weil concerns a difference
of only one word in both Numbers and Deuteronomy.
A careful analysis of the Hebrew text for the book of Deuteronomy
as a whole suggests that the original word count was
14,300. 65 Moreover, the number itself appears to be symbolic in
nature—expressing hidden theological information, within the
unfamiliar world of biblical numerology. The total word count of
14,300 (= 26 x 10 x 55) is carefully contrived. The title of the
book of Deuteronomy in Jewish tradition is the opening words,
“These are the words.” The words are then described as being the
words of Moses, which YHWH instructs him to say. Those words
are shaped in terms of the Ten Commandments. The number 26,
as we have already seen in this book, is the numerical value of the
divine name YHWH. The number 10 refers to the Ten Commandments;
and the number 55 (= 23 + 32) is the triangular
number of 10, or the sum of the numbers 1 through 10). In the
scribal tradition of ancient Israel, the triangular number ten happens
to be the sum of the two numbers associated with the
Hebrew word “glory” (55 = 23 + 32). The canonical task of
numerical composition, in which the divine-name number is
woven into the fabric of the text, was done to the glory of YHWH
as an act of worship.
The amazing thing is that we are able to restore, with some
degree of confidence, the missing six Hebrew words in the origi-

118 Explosion of the Canon
nal canonical text of Deuteronomy. The text is that well preserved!
Now we understand more fully the injunction within the book
itself, “You must neither add anything to what I command you nor
take anything from it, but keep the commandments of YHWH
your God with which I am charging you” (Deut 4:2). The scribes
of ancient Israel, and in subsequent Judaism, constructed a “wall
around the text” to protect it and to preserve it intact. And they
succeeded, in that they have handed us a manuscript that is
removed by hundreds of years from its composition, which nonetheless
appears to preserve the original word count to a remarkable
degree of accuracy.
A somewhat similar situation is found in the Book of the
Twelve (Minor Prophets), which is approximately the same
length as Deuteronomy, with an original word count of 14,352
(= 26 x 23 x 12 x 2). Once again, the number appears to have
been selected for its symbolic significance. There are 12 books in
this literary work; it is the word of YHWH (26 is the numerical
value of YHWH); and the word was written to the “glory of
YHWH” (23 is the numerical value of , “glory”). Moreover,
each of the twelve books within the Book of the Twelve (Minor
Prophets) is also composed in terms of various combinations of
the four primary compositional numbers (17, 23, 26 and 32). 66
Word Count in the Book of the Twelve (Minor Prophets)
Book Words before & after atnach
Hosea 2380 = 1283 + 1097 2380 = 17x140
Joel 952 = 510 + 442 442 = 17x26; 952 = 17x56; 510 = 17x30
Amos 2040 = 1130 + 910 2040 = 17x120; 910 = 26x35
Micah 1394 = 744 + 650 1394 = 17x82; 650 = 26x25
Nahum 559 = 299 + 260 559 = (17+26)x13; 260 = 26x10
Hab. 676 = 364 + 312 676 = 26x26; 364 = 26x14; 312 = 26x12
Zeph. 768 = 384 + 384 384 = 32x12
Haggai 598 = 368 + 230 598 = 26x23; 368 = 23x16; 230 = 23x10
Zech. 3128 =1768 +1360 3128=17x23x8; 1768=17x26x4; 1360=17x80
Mal. 878 = 448 + 430 430 = (17+26)x10
Obad. 291 = 174 + 117 289 = 17x17 {without 2-word heading}
Jonah 688 = 380 + 308 688 = (17+26)x16; 680=17x40{without1:1}
Totals 14,352 =7,852 +6,500 all three numbers divisible by 26
6500 = sum of squares of 1 through 12
14,352 =(26 x 23 x 12)x2

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 119
One of the purposes of composing a text in the form of a
numerical composition is to provide the means for reconstructing
the original form of that text in the face of inevitable copying
errors in the transmission of that text. In short, the primary value
of numerical composition is in the matter of what we commonly
call textual criticism—the task of determining the correct text of
the Bible itself. The very process of interpretation and of translation
is dependent on having an accurate copy of the text, one that
represents the original canonical form (i.e., the ideal numerical
composition of that text as the author conceived it). By discovering
the ideal form of the canonical text, we are in a position to
restore that text through careful comparison of the various ancient
textual witnesses
The situation in regards the text of the Greek New Testament
is similar to that of the Hebrew (and Aramaic) Tanakh. Evidence
from a preliminary word count (using Codex Vaticanus) suggests
that Luke and Paul used the ancient principle of numerical composition
from the very beginning of the canonical process that
produced the Greek New Testament as the fifth and final section
of The Completed Tanakh.
Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy
Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, 1–2 Samuel,
1–2 Kings
Latter Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Book
of the Twelve
Former (Hebrew) Writings: Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Festal
Scrolls, Daniel, etc.
Latter (Greek) Writings: Apostolic Writings of the Greek
New Testament
The principle of numerical composition, however, was soon forgotten
in the maelstrom of political events in the Holy Land in the
middle of the first century, and subsequently throughout the
whole of the Roman Empire in the formative period of Christianity
as a world religion.
According to Lee McDonald, the Roman emperor Diocletian
launched the last great empire-wide persecution of the Christians

120 Explosion of the Canon
on February 23, 303. His edict specifies the desire to avoid the
shedding of blood, but he demanded that all Christian churches be
destroyed and that the sacred scriptures of the Christians be
burned. The earlier Decian persecution (250–251) had required
Christians to sacrifice to the emperor at penalty of death, like
other localized persecutions throughout the Roman world in
times past. The Diocletian persecution sought to destroy the organization
and life of the church by focusing on eliminating the
books, buildings, and offices of the Christian churches. As things
turned out, many Christians refused to surrender their sacred
books and many deaths occurred.
In his discussion of “The Burning of Sacred Books,” McDonald
includes a detailed example of the manner in which the decree
of Diocletian was carried out, as recorded by Eusebius: 67
In the eighth and seventh consulships of Diocletian and
Maximian, 19 th May, from the records of Munatius Felix,
high priest of the province for life, Mayor of the colony of
Cirta, arrived at the house where the Christians used to
meet. The Mayor said to Paul the bishop: “Bring out the
writings of the law and anything else you have here, according
to the order, so that you may obey the command.”
The Bishop: “The readers have the scriptures, but we will give
what we have here.”
The Mayor: Point out the readers or send for them.”
The Bishop: “You all know them.”
The Mayor: “We do not know them.”
The Bishop: “The municipal office knows them, that is, the
clerks Edusius and Junius.”
The Mayor: “Leaving over the matter of the readers, whom the
office will point out, produce what you have.”
Then follows an inventory of the church plate and
other property, including large stores of male and female
cloths and shoes, produced in the presence of the clergy,
who included three priests, two deacons, and four subdeacons,
all named, and a number of “diggers.”
The Mayor: “Bring out what you have.”
Silvanus and Carosus (two of the subdeacons): “We have
thrown out everything that was here.”

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 121
The Mayor: “Your answer is entered on the record.”
After some empty cupboards have been found in the library,
Silvanus then produced a silver box and a silver lamp,
which he said he had found behind a barrel.
Victor (the mayor’s clerk): “You would have been a dead man if
you hadn’t found them.”
The Mayor: “Look more carefully, in case there is anything left
out.”
And when the dining-room was opened, there were found there
four bins and six barrels.
The Mayor: “Bring out the scripture that you have so that we
can obey the orders and command of the emperors.”
Catullinus (another subdeacon) produced one very large
volume.
The Mayor: “Why have you given me one volume only? Produce
the scriptures that you have.”
Marcuclius and Catullinus (two subdeacons): “We haven’t any
more, because we are subdeacons; the readers have the
books.”
The Mayor: “If you don’t know where they live, tell me their
names.”
Marcuclius and Catullinus: “We are not traitors: here we are,
order us to be killed.”
The Mayor: “Put them under arrest.”
They apparently weakened so far as to reveal one reader, for the
Mayor now moved on to the house of Eugenius, who produced
four books.”
The Mayor now turned on the other two subdeacons, Silvanus
and Carosus:
The Mayor: “Show me the other readers.”
Silvanus and Carosus: “The bishop has already said that
Edusius and Junius the clerks know them all: they will
show you the way to their houses.”
Edusius and Junius: “We will show them, sir.”
The Mayor went on to visit the six remaining readers. Four produced
their books without demur. One declared he had none, and
the Mayor was content with entering his statement on the record.

122 Explosion of the Canon
The last was out, but his wife produced his books; the Mayor had
the house searched by the public slave to make sure that none had
been overlooked. This task over, he addressed the subdeacons: “If
there has been any omission, the responsibility is yours.”
Eusebius describes the persecution in detail, emphasizing the
martyrs at Nicomedia. As noted above, the persecution involves
systematic burning of the sacred Scriptures.
The Christians who handed over their sacred Scriptures to
the Roman authorities were called the traditores. They were despised
among their fellow Christians, especially the Donatists who
considered these traditor clergy worthy of damnation to eternal
fire. The Christians who did not give in and who survived were
called confessors. Those who died were called martyrs. A serious
problem emerged subsequently in the fourth century over what to
do with the traditores or lapsi (those who had fallen away from
their faith). This controversy eventually involved the Christian
emperor Constantine himself. 68
In the face of violence and death, many Christians surrendered
their sacred Scriptures to the flames of the imperial decree.
To replace the Scriptures that were destroyed, copies were made
under less than ideal circumstances. Moreover, the memory of the
original numerical composition of these texts was long since forgotten.
Is it any wonder that the state of preservation of the text
of the Greek New Testament is much poorer than that of the
Hebrew Tanakh? One scholar in his web-site estimates that there
are 200,000 textual variants in the Greek New Testament. 69
Nonetheless, the phenomenon of numerical composition of that
text provides an invaluable tool in the task of textual criticism for
the Greek New Testament as well as for the Tanakh.
Evidence from the Word Count Project in the Greek New
Testament also has much to say on the question of an original
Hebrew/Aramaic New Testament as championed by James
Trimm. 70 It remains possible that much of the New Testament
(i.e., the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John and the Epistles of
James, Peter, John and Jude may have been originally composed
in Aramaic by Jews living in the Land (whether one calls that land
Israel or Palestine). This may also be true of the Revelation to
John and the original Epistle to the Hebrews, whoever the author

The Canon of the Greek NT in Early Church History 123
of that book may have been. Be this as it may, these same books
emerge as sacred Scripture in the Greek New Testament. These
texts were transformed into canonical Scripture by the timehonored
principle of numerical composition under the general
supervision of Luke as the “master editor” of the Greek New Testament.
This canonical task was undertaken under the authority
and general supervision of the Apostle Paul from the outset.
The existence of copies of various books of the New Testament
in Aramaic (ultimately producing the Syriac Peshitta), and
in Hebrew, within the early Messianic movement in the ancient
Middle East bear witness to the complex origins of the New Testament
(B’rith Hadashah) within Palestinian Judaism. Nonetheless,
the Completed Tanakh as canonical Scripture includes the Greek
New Testament as its fifth and concluding canonical division:
Torah, Prophets (in two parts—Former and Latter Prophets),
and Writings (in two parts—Hebrew and Greek [Apostolic] Writings).
The numerical composition of the Bible as a whole bears
witness to this fact.

Unfinished Business in the Canonical
Process—in the Present
Current study of the canonical process in both Judaism
and Christianity raises profound questions, which are
not easily resolved. Shemaryahu Talmon argues that
scribes in antiquity went well beyond the simple task of copying
the text. 71 A scribe worked creatively with the text as “a minor
partner in the creative literary process,” augmenting and enriching
it for the community. Consequently attention has shifted to what
Eugene Ulrich calls the “latter stages in the composition of the
Bible.” 72 Ulrich’s conclusions illustrate the situation well. He says,
“I would argue that there is no canon as such in Judaism prior to
the end of the first century C.E. or in Christianity prior to the
fourth century, that it is confusing to speak of an ‘open canon,’ and
that ‘the canonical text’ is an imprecise term, at best an abstraction
(not a text one could ever pick up and read).” 73 For Ulrich, and
others, there is no original “canonical text” to recover through textual
criticism. The text itself grew through time, and the authoritative
version of the text emerged at the end of that process, rather
than the beginning.
Most scholars writing in the field of “canon history” argue
from a position in sharp contrast to the thesis presented in this
book, because they are unaware of the principle of numerical composition.
This principle applies primarily at the beginning of the
canonical process, at least in the matter of word count. Since the
125

126 Explosion of the Canon
addition or subtraction of so much as a single word destroys the
original authoritative pattern by symbolically removing the divine
presence in that text, which is conveyed in its numerical composition,
the text in question ceases to be the “words of G–d” in an
absolute sense. At the same time, it is not possible from a human
point of view to copy a text as long and complex as the Hebrew
Bible without introducing the normal copying errors of addition
(dittography) or subtraction (haplography) of specific letters and
words. Moreover, it was difficult, if not impossible, to locate all
such errors once they were made. To minimize the proliferation of
such errors scribes were forbidden to correct even obvious copying
errors present in the authoritative text they were copying.
Such corrections were made in marginal notations, which produced
the phenomenon of kethiv/qere’ readings. Readers were
instructed to read what appears in the marginal note (qere’, “what
is to be read”) in place of what is actually written in the text itself
(kethiv, “what is written”).
The scribes in ancient Israel also appear to have devised a simple
means of restoring G–d’s symbolic presence in terms of the
numerical composition without adding or subtracting any words
as such within a given text. They adjusted the letter count by use of
optional vowel letters to achieve specific totals divisible by the
number seventeen. I see no other way to explain the data, which
has emerged in recent Masoretic studies. The following table gives
the letter count for the five books of the Torah in at least three different
Masoretic manuscripts at different points in time over the
course of four hundred years:
Norzi Silberberg Even- Madrid Ginsburg Weil
(16 th c.) (19 th c.) Shoshan (M1) 1894 1978
Genesis 78,064 78,064 78,064 78,063 78,033 78,070
Exodus 63,529 63,529 63,529 63,496 63,499 63,533
Leviticus 44,790 44,790 44,790 44,788 44,789 44,795
Numbers 63,578 65,530 65,530 63,560 63,732 63,544
Deut. 54,893 54,893 54,892 54,892 54,892 54,906
Rabbi Solomon Norzi (b. 1560 CE) lived in Mantua, Italy, where
he had access to an important Spanish manuscript of the Hebrew
Bible. Working more than 300 years later, probably from the
same manuscript that Norzi used, a German copyist by the name

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In the Present 127
of Simon Silberberg devised a simple but laborious method of
counting each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet
line by line in a hand written manuscript, which was copied from
this text. Though the modern Israeli scholar Abraham Even-
Shoshan may have based his work, at least in part, on that of Norzi
and/or Silberberg, he differs from them both in the letter count of
Deuteronomy. 74 In this instance his letter count agrees instead
with that of Christian David Ginsburg (1894) and the earlier
marginal notation in the medieval manuscript (M1) located in
Madrid. The data published by G. E. Weil in 1978 is based on a
computer count of Codex L (Leningrad). 75 The close correspondence
in these figures is astounding. But of even greater significance
is the fact that these numbers appear to reflect an original
editorial design based on the number seventeen:
Genesis 78,064 letters = 17 x 7 x 656
Exodus 63,529 letters = 17 x 37 x 101
Leviticus 44,795 letters = 17 x 17 x 155
Numbers 63,529 letters = 17 x 37 x 101
Deuteronomy 54,893 letters = 17 x 3229
Total 304,810 letters = 17 x 11 x 1630
It is curious to note that the letter count in the books of Exodus
and Numbers within this system is identical, with 63,529 (= 17
x 37 x 101) consonants in each of these books. This phenomenon
was achieved by use of optional vowel letters without changing
the word count as such within each of these books. The appearance
of the multiple of 17 x 17 for the letter count of the central
book of Leviticus is noteworthy. This number is preserved
exactly in Codex L (Leningrad), to which the earlier scholars in
question did not have access in their manual letter counts for the
five books of the Torah.
The concept of numerical composition of the biblical text
brings fresh meaning to the time-honored belief on the part of
those who maintain that the Bible “is the Word of God written
and is therefore inerrant in the autographs.” 76 If one were to press
the position of Ulrich, Talmon, and others to its logical conclusion,
there is no original autograph to recover. From their point of
view, the text was augmented through time by a long series of

128 Explosion of the Canon
“partners” in the creative literary process with the authoritative
text emerging at the end of that process. On the other hand, if the
text was originally written as a numerical composition, that
numerical design is recoverable, at least in principle. Moreover,
we are in a position to judge the fidelity of the copying process
within a given textual tradition by careful comparative study. The
initial task is that of recovering the principles that shaped the original
numerical composition.
Though the phenomenon of numerical composition can be
imposed on an existing text, as Luke apparently did with the Epistle
to the Hebrews (and perhaps the Letters of Paul), this can be
achieved only with the expenditure of an enormous amount of
energy. Moreover, the fact that a text has been composed as a
numerical composition is not apparent to a person reading that
text who is unfamiliar with the process. In one sense, Ulrich and
others are correct in their assessment of the changes that took
place in the copying of religious texts through time. Like the process
of translation, which by its essential nature is a form of interpretation,
individual scribes through the centuries of textual
transmission also interpreted the texts they were copying and they
“improved” those texts in various ways. This explains the fact that
texts like Paul’s Letter to the Galatians increased in regards total
word count by as much as 1 percent from Codex Vaticanus to subsequent
hand-copied uncials in the fourth and fifth centuries such
as Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and Ephraemi Rescriptus—and by as
much as 2 percent by the time we get to the first printed edition of
the Greek New Testament by Erasmus in 1516.
The principle of numerical composition in the Bible suggests
that recent attempts to “erase the line” between so-called “higher
criticism” and “lower criticism,” as argued by Ulrich and others,
are misinformed. Creative scribes may produce what others perceive
to be more readable texts, and thus more useful in some
ways. But the changes introduced destroy the design of the original
numerical composition; and by removing the “divine-name
numbers” from the fabric of the text, these scribes violate the
foundational canonical injunction not to add anything or subtract
anything from the sacred text (Deut 4:2). Moreover, they stand
accountable: “I warn everyone hearing the words of the prophecy

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In the Present 129
of this book that if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the
plagues written in this book. And if anyone takes anything away
from the words in the book of this prophecy, God will take away
his share in the Tree of Life and the holy city, as described in this
book” (Rev 21:18–19).
A. In Search of the Correct Order and
Number of the Books in the Bible
The traditional order of the thirty-nine books in the Old Testament
of the Christian Bible is quite different from that of Jewish
tradition. The first five books, the books of Moses, are the same
in Jewish and Christian tradition. But from that point on the
conceptual design diverges. In Christian tradition the so-called
“historical books” are grouped together in chronological order,
including the little books of Ruth and Esther. Thus Ruth appears
immediately after the book of Judges, because its opening words
are, “In the days when the judges ruled.” Reading the book of
Ruth as a sort of appendix to the book of Judges, however, gives
it an entirely different setting from that of the opening book of
the five Festal Scrolls in Jewish tradition. There the close connection
between the book of Ruth and the concluding chapter of the
book of Proverbs is hard to miss. The remarkable acrostic poem
on the “virtuous woman” begins with the question,
“Who can find a virtuous woman?” (Prov 31:10). In Codex L
(Leningrad) the reader turns a single page to find a description of
Ruth, which fits that of the virtuous woman like the proverbial
“glass slipper.” Moreover, Boaz who describes Ruth explicitly as
an “virtuous woman” (Ruth 3:11) also says, in effect,
“I have found her.”
Placing the books of 1–2 Chronicles immediately after 1–2
Samuel and 1–2 Kings makes perfect sense from a logical point of
view in terms of their parallel content and the verbal dependence of
the former on the latter. But in Jewish tradition Chronicles belongs
among the Writings at the very end of the Tanakh, whereas the
books of Samuel and Kings are among the prophets. Placing the
so-called poetic books (Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and

130 Explosion of the Canon
Song of Solomon) before the seventeen books of the prophets also
makes sense in terms of logical arrangement in the Christian Bible.
But it separates the Former Prophets from the Latter Prophets in
Jewish tradition, so that Christians seldom see the close connection
between these two sections of their Bibles. Daniel is placed among
the so-called Major Prophets within the Protestant Christian tradition,
whereas in the Tanakh the book functions as a sort of literary
bridge within the Writings, connecting its major parts. Once again
the literary setting functions as a pair of glasses, as it were, through
which the book is normally read in a different way in Christian contexts
from that of Judaism. Putting the twelve so-called Minor
Prophets immediately after the book of Daniel also makes good
sense, but it communicates the fact that these books should be read
as separate entities rather than a single “Book of the Twelve” in Jewish
tradition. The book of Malachi, in particular, forms a fitting
ending to the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. The Tanakh,
however, concludes with the book of Chronicles preceded by the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah. These books are displaced in Christian
tradition to that of the historical books much earlier in the
arrangement of the books of the Bible. In Jewish tradition, the
chronological reversal at the end of the Bible with Ezra and Nehemiah
before Chronicles raises literary questions, which invite reflection
and fresh discovery of surprising meaning.
Yeshua and his followers within the first generation of the
Messianic Jewish community in the Holy Land learned the Tanakh
in its correct order within the three primary categories—Torah,
Prophets and Writings. At the same time, however, the individual
books themselves were never actually placed in any specific order
between two covers within a single book. The biblical text was written
on scrolls; and the followers of Yeshua learned the Tanakh primarily
by hearing it recited (or sung) in public worship, with
primary focus on readings from the Torah (the weekly Parashoth)
and the Prophets (the accompanying Haftaroth) and they learned it
well. Hardly a page of the Greek New Testament is without a specific
citation or allusion to specific texts in the Tanakh. One of the
reasons that the followers of Yeshua in the Holy Land were so fluent
in their use of the Tanakh in their interpretation of it through
personal experience, is the simple fact that they learned to “think

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In the Present 131
Tanakh” by knowing at a deep level its literary structure. By seeing
the forest itself with clarity of vision, they could stop and examine
any given tree in it with remarkable depth of understanding.
The arrangement of books in the New Testament today differs
from what is found in the oldest and most important Greek uncial
codices, which have survived from ca. 325–450 CE. It differs from
the first complete listing of these books by Bishop Athanasius of
Alexandria in his Easter Letter of 367 CE as well. In the earliest and
best manuscripts of the Greek New Testament, the seven General
Epistles of James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude are placed immediately
after Acts, and almost always before the thirteen Letters of
Paul. Of the eight oldest Greek (uncial) codices, seven have the
books of the New Testament in the following order: four Gospels,
seven General Epistles, fourteen Letters of Paul (including
Hebrews), and the Revelation to John. Codex Sinaiticus places the
Letters of Paul before the General Epistles, but Acts appears immediately
before the Letter of James. The ordering of the books of the
Greek New Testament, in which the seven General Epistles appear
before the Letters of Paul, is followed in the majority of the approximately
300 uncial manuscripts (fourth through ninth centuries CE)
and some 4000 minuscule texts (seventh through fifteenth centuries
CE). From this evidence, some scholars conclude that this
Greek manuscript order is the “original order” of these books. In
1881, B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort chose to go with this ancient
order in their official Greek text of the New Testament. 77 In so
doing, they were in agreement with Lachmann, Tischendorf, and
Tragelles before them.
In his Easter Letter of 367 CE, the oldest known list and
arrangement of the books of the Christian Bible (the Completed
Tanakh), Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria placed the seven General
Epistles before the Letters of Paul, with Hebrews between 2
Thessalonians and 1 Timothy. Writing in 1907, Caspar R. Gregory,
whose publication of Tischendorf’s Greek New Testament
(1894) provides the main source of textual materials on which
scholars still depend, argued strongly that we should restore the
“original order” of the books in the Bible. As he put it, “Every
New Testament should have the books in precisely the same
order, the order of the Greek Church, which in this case is of right

132 Explosion of the Canon
the guardian of this ancient literature.” 78 But there is no single
order for the books of the Second Testament in the Greek Church
of antiquity, as careful perusal of the seventy-five manuscripts
Reuben Swanson used in his work on Galatians reveals. 79
It is possible to outline Gregory’s proposed “original order”
of the New Testament epistles and the Revelation to John in a
concentric pattern, as follows:
A Seven General Epistles: James, Peter (2), John (3), and Jude
B Nine Ecclesiastical Letters of Paul—to seven churches
X Epistle to the Hebrews
B´ Four Personal Letters of Paul—to Timothy (2), Titus and Philemon
A´ Revelation to John—to seven churches
Because of the symmetry in this arrangement of the twenty-two
books in the second half of the New Testament, it is easy to understand
why it has achieved popularity in some circles. Nonetheless,
truth is not determined by majority vote. From earliest times there
has also been strong witness to the traditional so-called “western”
order, with the Letters of Paul in the initial position, after Acts of
the Apostles, which concludes with the account of Paul as a prisoner
in Rome (ca. 60–62 CE).
Jerome (ca. 345–419 CE) is sometimes blamed as the culprit
responsible for giving the Christian Church its Bible in the
“wrong order.” Some scholars argue that Jerome placed the Letters
of Paul before the seven General Epistles in an attempt to exalt
the position of Paul (the apostle to the Gentiles) above those apostles
who were commissioned to go to the Jews. They argue that
Jerome arbitrarily placed Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and the city
of Rome in particular, ahead of the Jewish apostles who were
associated with Jerusalem. In short, they insist that “the arrangement
of Jerome is provincial, sectarian and clearly adopted for
political reasons.” 80 But though Jerome played a significant role in
establishing the traditional “western” order of these books in the
Latin Vulgate, he was not its originator. He himself acknowledged
that he was influenced by Epiphanius (d. 403) in this decision.
Moreover, the Latin theologian Rufinus (d. 410) advocated
this order, as did the Third Synod of Carthage (397). Innocent of
Rome (401–417) did the same; and there are prominent eastern

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In the Present 133
Christians as well who followed this “western” order, such as
Gregory of Nazianzus (330–389) and Amphilochius, bishop of
Iconium (373–394). The decision was not “adopted for political
reasons,” as some scholars conclude, since there is good precedent
that goes back to at least the time of the earliest of the Greek
(uncial) codices. Moreover, it should be noted that the oldest and
most important of these codices add books to the New Testament
and rearrange the books of the Old Testament in a somewhat arbitrary
fashion, which includes the addition of various apocryphal
works in no consistent order.
In spite of the weight of evidence from the New Testament
Greek manuscript tradition, a case can be made for the traditional
“western” order in the Latin Vulgate as representing the “correct
order” of the books of the New Testament. Though the New Testament
was written in Greek, it was translated early into Latin.
Jerome revised that Latin tradition as the official canonical text of
the Roman Church. This so-called “western” order of the books of
the New Testament reflects the structure of the canon as promulgated
by the apostles Paul, Peter, and John in the second half of
the first century within Messianic Palestinian Judaism.
The fact that this “western” arrangement has survived the
challenge of those who championed the priority of the seven General
Epistles in times past invites us to take a closer look at the symmetry
of this order, as it appears in almost all printed editions of
the Christian Bible:
A Nine Ecclesiastical Letters of Paul—to seven churches
B Four Personal Letters of Paul—to Timothy (2), Titus and Philemon
X Epistle to the Hebrews
B´ Seven General Epistles: James, Peter (2), John (3), and Jude
A´ Revelation to John—to seven churches
There is symmetry in this arrangement as well. The outer frame
moves from Paul’s nine letters to seven churches, to Revelation,
which is addressed to seven churches. The inner frame consists of
four letters from Paul and seven from four persons other than
Paul. The symmetry is more striking, however, when we place this
section of the canon within the larger setting of the New Testament
(B’rit Hadashah) as a whole:

134 Explosion of the Canon
A The four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles (a “New Torah”)
B Thirteen Letters of Paul—to seven churches (9) and three individuals (4)
X Epistle to the Hebrews
B´ Seven General Epistles—James, Peter (2), John (3) and Jude
A´ Revelation to John—to seven churches (the Apocalypse)
The principle of lectio difficilior applies here; for it is easier to
explain the arrangement that displaces the seven General Epistles
and the Epistle to the Hebrews than it is to explain the order presented
here unless, of course, this order is original. In the so-called
“original order” canon advocated by Westcott and Hort (and others),
the books are simply rearranged in presumed chronological
sequence, as was also the case in the ordering of the books of the
Old Testament in the Septuagint tradition of Alexandria, long
before the time of Jerome.
In the “western order” of canonical tradition, the Epistle to
the Hebrews was used to connect the thirteen “Letters of Paul”
with the seven General Epistles. This structure suggests the possibility
that the thirteen Letters of Paul correspond in some way
with the thirteen “prophets” (Nevi’im) in the canon of the First
Testament, as described by the ancient Jewish historian Josephus.
The structure of the Completed Tanakh is a natural extension
of the original twenty-two-book canon of the Tanakh (the First
Testament) to include its counterpart in the Second Testament, in
which the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles function as a
“New Torah” in the center. The end result is a canon of forty-nine
books [(9 + 4 + 9) + 5 + (9 + 4 + 9) = 49 = 7 2 ]:
A Nine Books of the Primary History—Torah (5) and Former Prophets (4)
B Four Books of the Hebrew Prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve
C Nine Books in the Writings of the First Testament
X New Torah—the Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles
C´ Nine Books in the Writings of the Second Testament—Paul’s Ecclesiastical Letters
B´ Four Books of the Apostle Paul—Personal Letters (Timothy [2], Titus, and Philemon)
A´ Nine Books of the “Apostolic Story”—Hebrews + 7 General Epistles + Revelation
The apostle Paul played a central role in the formation of this
canonical structure, with his nine “Ecclesiastical Letters to Seven
Churches” set over against the nine books of the Writings
(Kethuvim) in the Jewish Tanakh.

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In the Present 135
Another way of looking at the structure of the Bible as a whole,
which shows the continuity between the Tanakh of Jewish tradition
and the Greek New Testament (B’rit Hadashah) isasfollows:
Torah (Law)—five books of Moses (the Pentateuch)
Nevi’im (Prophets)—in two parts: Former Prophets and Latter Prophets
Kethuvim (Writings)—in two parts: Hebrew Writings (OT) & Apostolic
Writings (NT)
A fitting title for the Christian Bible arranged in its “correct order”
is thus the Completed Tanakh—the Torah plus the Prophets
(Nevi’im) plus the Writings (Kethuvim). The Completed Tanakh
includes both the Hebrew Writings of the Old Testament (Tanakh)
and the Apostolic Greek Writings of the New Testament (B’rit
Hadashah). In short, the Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles
function as a bridge connecting the First and the Second Testaments,
each of which consists of twenty-two books.
Paul and Luke were the first persons in the Jewish Messianic
community to conclude that the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), as the
Scriptures of the Jewish people, needed to be expanded to include
a fifth section, which ultimately became the New Testament. The
first step to that end was the formation of the “Apostolic (Greek)
Writings” as a counterpart to the “Hebrew Writings” (Kethuvim).
Paul and Luke were already working on this before they made
their fateful journey to Jerusalem in ca. 57 CE. In its earliest form,
the canon of the Apostolic Writings was apparently made up of
eight of the Letters of Paul and the Gospel of Luke. During the
years of Paul’s imprisonment in Caesarea (ca. 57–59 CE) and
Rome (ca. 60–62 CE) the vision was expanded into a twenty-twobook
canon of a “New Testament” alongside the twenty-two-book
canon of the Tanakh (the “Old Testament”). And by this time, the
persons involved in this project included all of the primary leaders
within the Church of Jerusalem.

136 Explosion of the Canon
B. In Search of the “Autographs”
of the Canonical Text
The principle of numerical composition of the biblical text invites
us to seek the ideal form of that text in the mind of the original
author. That form of the text is what we mean when we use the
word “autograph.” Where the presumed original canonical form
(i.e., the “autograph”) can be determined, at least in terms of the
ideal form of its numerical composition, we find a powerful tool in
our hands with which to take up the task of textual criticism. We
may not be able to select with confidence between variant readings
involving single words, but we can often reach firm conclusions
when the alternate reading changes the word count.
Logoprosodic analysis of the Psalms illustrates the power of
this tool in the task of evaluating suggested emendations on the part
of those who have applied themselves to a variety of methodologies
in the study of these pithy texts. 81 Here the key is not only the matter
of total word count, but also numerical symmetry within individual
psalms in relation to the concept of the “meaningful center”
of each psalm. For further information on this subject, see the
appropriate files on our website www.bibal.net. Moreover, the relevance
of data from the total word count of larger sections of the
Psalter as a whole is raising new questions as well, about the composition
of certain groups of psalms, and their arrangement within
the five “books” of the Psalter.
Though we cannot predict where the research in “The Word
Count Project” will ultimately lead, it seems likely that a fruitful
application will be in the study of the Greek New Testament. If the
thesis of this book has substance, then we are in a position to gain a
glimpse into the very mind of its master editor(s) in regards the
original numerical composition. The first result in this quest is
already evident. The best of the critical texts of the Greek New Testament,
which have emerged from the labor of hundreds of scholars
through centuries of time, is of limited worth when it comes to serious
study of the word count in the Greek New Testament. There is
no easy answer to the question, how many words are there in a
given book? It all depends on what manuscript you are working

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In the Present 137
with, and even then whether or not one counts the words originally
written in the text, or the words included in ancient corrections of
that text. A specific example may illustrate both the problems
involved and the promise inherent in such study.
Preliminary study of Paul’s Letter to the Galatians in the
Word Count Project reveals the fact that Codex B (Vaticanus) is
by far the best witness to use in the quest to recover the “autograph.”
This conclusion has profound implications in that it suggests
the need for a different concept of the basic critical text of the
Greek New Testament on which to build the science of translation
and interpretation. The eclectic text produced by modern scholarship
is a major step in the right direction, but it does not take us to
our goal. We are better served by the labors of Reuben Swanson,
who is providing a tool of enormous importance in textual criticism—in
his multi-volume work, New Testament Greek Manuscripts
(Pasadena: William Carey International University Press,
1995–present). Here we find an accurate transcription of the
Greek text of Codex B (Vaticanus) as the base text, with the transcription
of all the major textual witnesses arranged in parallel
lines beneath that text. One can see at a glance every textual addition
or subtraction, and even minor differences in spelling. A huge
amount of data is at one’s fingertips to assess the value of each
variant reading for every verse in the Greek New Testament.
Word Count in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians
Chapter Pap 46 Codex B B corrected Codex Codex A Codex C Erasmus Textus Receptus
1 352 361 361 363 364 361 364 364
2 376 382 382 387 382 385 384 384
3 441 453 453 456 457 460 463 465
4 435 443 443 446 447 446 451 453
5 310 309 310 316 318 320 319 318
6 267 266 267 271 270 270 270 272
Totals 2181 2214 2216 2239 2238 2242 2251 2256
The total word count in Codex B (Vaticanus) for the book of
Galatians is 2214 words, which was subsequently corrected with
the addition of one word in chapters 5 and 6. This compares to
2239 in Codex (Sinaiticus), 2238 in Codex A (Alexandrinus),
and 2242 in Codex C (Ephraemi Rescriptus). This suggests that

138 Explosion of the Canon
among these four surviving uncials from the fourth and fifth centuries,
Codex B is in a class by itself in terms of total word count;
for Codex , A and C are all more than twenty words longer than
Codex Vaticanus. Thus the text has grown in terms of word count
by more than 1 percent. On the other hand, Papyrus 46 (Chester
Beatty) appears to have a significantly lower word count than
Codex Vaticanus. Though the text of the Chester Beatty Papyrus
46 is fragmentary in nature, enough has survived to indicate that it
is approximately thirty words shorter than Codex Vaticanus. This
observation does not mean, however, that Papyrus 46 is in fact a
better text; for it is a different kind of text. Our point here is the
simple fact that Codex Vaticanus is much closer to the original text
of Galatians than any of the other witnesses we have and that the
text itself tends to grow through time. The word count in the first
printed edition of the Greek New Testament by Erasmus (1516
CE) is 2251, whereas that of the so-called Textus Receptus is
2256. In both instances, we are dealing with texts that are more
than forty words longer than Codex Vaticanus (i.e., 2 percent longer
in terms of word count).
If the original total word count is symbolic in nature, as in the
case of the book of Deuteronomy and the Book of the Twelve
(Minor Prophets), we need not look very far to find a likely candidate
for the word count of the presumed “autograph” of Galatians.
It is 2210 = 26 x 17 x 5. This number combines both divine-name
numbers and the number five, which suggests that the book of
Galatians is indeed the “Word of G–d” and an integral part of the
fifth and concluding segment of The Completed Tanakh.Itiseasyto
locate four possible corrections to the text of Codex Vaticanus,
which restore the presumed original canonical form. These corrections
in 1:22, 3:28 and 4:23 involve the subtraction of four words.
In this instance all four suggested changes are with strong textual
support from ancient witnesses, and the change in 4:23 has already
been accepted in the standard critical edition of The Greek New Testament,
4 th edition (United Bible Societies, 1993).
Further observations from careful study of the word count
within each chapter of the presumed original canonical form of
the text of Galatians reveal remarkable symmetry:

Unfinished business in the Canonical Process—In the Present 139
A 207 = 23 x 9 words in 1:1–13
B 153 = 17 x 9 words in 1:14–24
X 833 = 17 x 7 x 7 words in chapters 2–3
B´ 442 = 17 x 26 words in chapter 4
A´ 575 = 23 x 5 x 5 words in chapters 5–6
In terms of total word count, the opening and closing sections in
this structure make use of the number 23, the number associated
with the word “glory.” Moreover, the total word count in the sum
of these two sections (A + A´) is 782 = 17 x 23 x 2. Though the
break between verses 13 and 14 in the first chapter appears to fall
in the middle of a sentence, the punctuation here is not present in
Codex B. Note that Gal 1:24 starts with the word kai (“and”) and
is commonly translated as the beginning of a new sentence. The
same is apparently the case at the beginning of verse 14. The
thought in 1:13 focuses attention on Paul’s persecution of the followers
of Yeshua as he sought to destroy “the church of God.” In
verse 14, the focus of attention shifts to Paul’s former zeal for the
traditions of his forbears as he “advanced within Judaism beyond
many of (his) own age among (his) people.” The content of
1:15–22 concerns the first three years of Paul’s life after his conversion,
as he continues his argument that he received a direct revelation
from Yeshua. Only then does Paul return, in passing, to
the subject of his former persecution of the followers of Yeshua in
1:23, which was introduced in verse 13. Note also the inclusion in
the reference to God’s revelation as being “not from men nor
through man, but through Jesus Christ” (1:1, RSV) with the
words in 1:12—“I did not receive it from man . . . but it came
through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” The two sections, 1:1–13
and 1:14–24, may be read as two successive literary structures,
which are closely connected in content—much the same as the
close connection between successive chapters elsewhere in Paul’s
Letter to the Galatians (see especially chapters 3–4 and 5–6).
The largest segment of the book, which is in the center, consists
of a multiple of 17 and 49 (= 7 x 7). The number 17 is associated
with the divine-name, which suggests that Paul’s Letter to
the Galatians is composed to be symbolically the “Word of G–d.”
The number 49 is associated with the concept of “the glory of
YHWH” in other ways, in terms of combinations of other

140 Explosion of the Canon
compositional numbers: 49 = 17 + 32 = 26 + 23; and,of
course, 49 = 7 2 , where the number 7 expresses symbolically the
idea of fullness and abundance. 82
The inner frame in the above concentric structure of the book
of Galatians consists of two parallel structures involving the divine
name number 17—one made up of 153 words, which is both
divisible by 17 and the sum of the numbers one through seventeen.
The number 442 is the product of the two divine-name
numbers 17 and 26. In short, the numerical structure of the book
of Galatians on a macro-scale suggests that we have here a carefully
contrived literary masterpiece. It is anything but the sort of
“off the cuff” letter of passion that one might write at the spur of
the moment in a situation of crisis.
A curious possibility emerges as one contemplates the relation of
the numerical structure of the book of Galatians to that of the
Gospel of Luke and the combination of Luke–Acts. Some of the
structural details are so similar that they suggest common authorship,
at least in terms of their numerical composition. Not only
does the study of the numerical composition of Galatians thus lead
us in a major step toward the presumed original canonical form
(the “autograph”), it also suggests the surprising possibility that
Luke is the person who edited the Letters of Paul in terms of their
numerical composition. As we have already seen in chapter 4 of
this book, this is also the case with the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The study of the numerical composition of the Bible as a
whole has scarcely begun. In the case of the Greek New Testament,
the “explosion of the canon” in the inspired mind of Luke,
as the master editor, has reverberations that have continued
through the centuries and will continue to do so for generations
to come—Deo volente.

1. Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1961), p. 44.
2. R. Lowth, Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, trans. G.
Gregory (London: Chadwick, 1815), pp. 54–55.
3. S. Haïk-Vantoura, The Music of the Bible Revealed, trans. D. Weber
and ed. J. Wheeler (Berkeley: BIBAL Press, 1991).
4. See P. Kahle, The Cairo Geniza,2 nd ed. (New York: Praeger, 1959),
pp. 82–86, 103.
5. On the Kodaly method, see Lois Choksy, The Kodaly Method: Comprehensive
Music Education from Infant to Adult, 2 nd edition (Englewood
Cliff, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1987).
6. See A. Kilmer, R. Brown and R. Crocker, “Sounds from Silence:
Recent Discoveries in Ancient Near Eastern Music,” Stereo LP,
with 24 page booklet. Bit Enki Records 101 (1976).
7. T. Georgiades, Music and Language: The Rise of Western Music as
Exemplified in the Settings of the Mass (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1982), p. 6.
8. H. Klem, Oral Communication of the Scriptures: Insights from African
Oral Art (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1982.
9. See A. B. Lord, The Singer of Tales (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1960).
10. F. M. Cross, Jr., Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1973).
11. R. P. Martin, The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the
Iliad (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989).
12. See E. Fine, The Folklore Text: From Performance to Print (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1984).
13. R. P. Martin, Language of Heroes, p. ??.
14. See D. L. Christensen, “Josephus and the Twenty-two-book Canon
of Sacred Scripture,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
29/1 (1986), pp. 37–46.
141

142 Notes
15. David Noel Freedman, The Nine Commandments: Uncovering the
Hidden Pattern of Crime and Punishment in the Hebrew Bible
(Doubleday, 2000).
16. See D. L. Christensen, “Deuteronomy as a Numerical Composition.”
In Deuteronomy 1:1–21:9, Word Biblical Commentary, 6A
(Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001), xcix–cvii; and C. J. Labuschagne,
Deuteronomium, De Prediking van het Oude Testament, vols. I–III
(Callenbach, 1987–1997), and especially the four inserts to those
volumes which present in detail his “logotechnical analysis” of the
Hebrew text of Deuteronomy.
17. C. J. Labuschagne, Deuteronomium II (1990), pp. 12–14.
18. Leon Crickmore, “A re-valuation of the ancient science of harmonics,”
Psychology of Music 31 (2003), pp. 391–403. See also Ernest
McClain, “The Forgotten Harmonical Science of the Bible,” Epigraphical
Society Occasional Papers (forthcoming).
19. See M. Stuart, Critical History and Defence of the Old Testament
Canon (Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1872), p. 255.
20. In Against Apion 1.8 (italics his). For a more recent translation and
discussion of this passage see S. Leiman, The Canonization of Hebrew
Scripture: The Talmudic and Midrashic Evidence (Hambdin: Connecticut
Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1976), pp. 31–32.
21. P. Katz, “The Old Testament Canon in Palestine and Alexandria,”
ZNW 47 (1956), p. 196.
22. See Stuart, Critical History, pp. 395–422, for a convenient collection
of these texts with English translations. Cf. also A. Sundberg,
The Old Testament of the Early Church (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University, 1964), pp. 134–155.
23. Sundberg, Old Testament, p. 43.
24. After the quelling of the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (the so-called Second
Jewish Rebellion) in 135 CE, the province of Judea was renamed
Syria Palaestina by the Romans. The city of Jerusalem was refounded
as a Roman colony and renamed Aelia Capitolina. From this point
on the province in question was commonly referred to as Palestine.
25. See D. L. Christensen, Prophecy and War in Ancient Israel: Studies in
the Oracles Against the Nations in Old Testament Prophecy. BIBAL
Monograph Series, 3 (Berkeley, CA: BIBAL Press, 1989), pp.
48–55; and The Torah. BIBAL Study Program 1 (North Richland
Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 2002), pp. 79–80.
26. See J. A. Wilcoxen, “Narrative Structure and Cult Legend: A Study
of Joshua 1–6.” In Transitions in Biblical Scholarship. Transitions in
Biblical Scholarship, vol. 6 (University of Chicago Press, 1968),
pp. 43–70.

Notes 143
27. For a discussion of “Joshua at the Structural Center of the Hexateuch,”
see D. L. Christensen, The Torah, pp. 25–26.
28. See A. Plassart, “L’inscription de Delphes mentionnent le proconsul
Gallion,” Revue des Études Grecques 80 (1967), pp. 372–378;
and K. Lake, “The Chronology of Acts.” In The Beginnings of Christianity,
Part I: The Acts of the Apostles, ed. F. J. Foakes Jackson and
K. Lake (London: 1933), pp. 445–474.
29. R. Jewett, A Chronology of Paul’s Life (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1979).
30. The quotation is taken from a student paper by Joseph Garcia, “The
House of Lydia” (unpublished),which was written under my direction
in his undergraduate program of studies with William Carey
International University.
31. C. J. Labuschagne, Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Rediscovering the
Bible Codes (North Richland Hill, TX: BIBAL Press, 2000).
32. F. I. Andersen and A. Dean Forbes, The Vocabulary of the Old Testament
(Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1989), p. 23.
33. Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 8 th ed.
(New York: Longmans, Green, 1896), vol. 2, p. 63.
34. This quotation is taken from E. L. Martin, Restoring the Original
Bible (Portland, OR: Associates for Scripture Knowledge, 1994),
p. 359. The quotation is taken from Jerome’s letter to Dardanus
(the emphasis is my own).
35. E. L. Martin, Restoring the Original Bible (Portland, OR: ASK Publications,
1994). I am in debt to Martin for a number of the citations
in this chapter from Josephus, the early church fathers, and the
Bible itself.
36. Ibid., p. 266.
37. See B. Z. Wacholder, “The Calendar of Sabbatical Cycles During
the Second Temple and Early Rabbinic Period,” HUCA, 1973, pp.
153–196.
38. For a discussion of this process, see D. L. Christensen, New Testament
Epistles and the Revelation to John: BIBAL Study Program 6
(North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 2003).
39. See D. L. Christensen, The Gospels and Acts of the Apostles: BIBAL
Study Program 5 (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 2002),
pp. 27–29, 83–85, 125–26, and 162.
40. J. Neusner, The Yerushalmi, pp. 156–57; reference taken from E. L.
Martin, pp. 199–200.
41. E. L. Martin, Restoring the Original Bible (ASK Publications, 1994),
pp. 323–24.
42. Ibid., p. 436.

144 Notes
43. Ibid., p. 460.
44. Most scholars believe that Nero outlawed Christianity in a senatus
consultum and persecuted its adherents. That the Roman government,
between the reigns of Nero and Nerva, made unrepentant
adherence to the Christian faith a crime punishable by death is
incontrovertible.
45. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3:18–20; see also Irenaeus, Against
Heresy 5.30.3; Jerome, De viris illustribus (392 CE) 9.
46. E. L. Martin, Restoring the Original Bible, p. 68.
47. See Hans von Campenhausen, The Formation of the Christian Bible.
Translated by J. A. Baker (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972), p. 163. I
owe this reference to Lee M. McDonald, The Formation of the Christian
Biblical Canon, revised & expanded edition (Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 1995), p. 160.
48. L. M. McDonald, The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon, p.
161.
49. I owe this reference to McDonald, pp. 163–164. McDonald notes
that B. Metzger cites several examples from Justin that conclusively
show that the “memoirs of the apostles” were the Gospels
(ibid., p. 163, n. 82; see Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament:
Its Origin, Development, and Significance [Oxford: Clarendon,
1987], pp. 145–146.
50. Ibid., p. 164, n. 85. See E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, New
Testament Apocrypha. English trans. Edited by R. McL. Wilson. 2
volumes (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963), pp. 31ff.
51. Ibid., p. 167.
52. Citation taken from McDonald, p. 205.
53. Ibid., p. 206.
54. Citation taken from McDonald, p. 207.
55. For this list together with dates and provenances, see McDonald,
ibid., pp. 194–195.
56. Ibid., pp. 170–171.
57. A. C. Sundberg, Jr., “Canon Muratori: A Fourth-Century List,”
Harvard Theological Review 66 (1973), pp. 1–41.
58. See R. Brown, “Canonicity.” In Jerome Biblical Commentary (Inglewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968), p. 530. I owe this reference
to Lee McDonald, ibid., p. 192, n. 7.
59. W. G. Kümmel, Introduction to the New Testament, revised edition.
Translated by H. C. Kee. Nashville: Abingdon, 1975. This reference
and the following on are taken from McDonald, ibid., p. 193.
60. Robert M. Grant, The Formation of the New Testament (New York:
Harper & Row, 1965), pp. 121–124

Notes 145
61. MacDonald, Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon, p. 199.
62. Ibid., p. 201.
63. E. Kalin, “Re-examining New Testament Canon History: 1. The
Canon of Origen,” Currents in Theology and Mission 17 (August
1990), p. 282 (reference taken from McDonald, ibid., p. 203, n.
35.
64. See Francis I Andersen and A. Dean Forbes, The Vocabulary of the
Old Testament (Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1989),
p. 23.
65. See D. L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1:1–21:9. Word Biblical Commentary,
vol. 6A (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001), pp. cv–cvi.
66. For details on this phenomenon, see the appropriate files on
www.bibal.net website.
67. L. McDonald, ibid., pp. 179–180.
68. See David H. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (New York: Harper
& Row, 1978), pp. 410–412. Citation taken from McDonald,
ibid., p. 181.
69. See www.NeverThirsty.org (Like the Master Ministries); the estimation
is based on 24,633 manuscripts, 24,000 fragments, and
36,289 patristic quotations.
70. See “The Semitic New Testament Project” on James Trimm’s
website: www.nazarene.net and www.bibleman.net and the Hebrew
Roots Version (HRV) translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Aramaic
sources.
71. S. Talmon, “The Textual Study of the Bible—A New Outlook,” in
Qumran and the History of the Biblical Text, ed. F. M. Cross and S.
Talmon (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975), 321–
400, esp. 381.
72. E. Ulrich, “The Canonical Process, Textual Criticism, and Latter
Stages in the Composition of the Bible, in The Dead Sea Scrolls and
the Origins of the Bible. Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related
Literature (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1999), pp. 51–78.
73. Ibid., p. 56.
74. A. Even-Shoshan, A New Concordance of the Bible (Jerusalem: Kiryat
Sepher Publishing House, 1982), p. 38.
75. G. E. Weil, P. Rivière and M. Serfaty, Concordance de la Cantilation
du Pentateuque et des Cinq Megillot, Documentation de la Bible, I
(Paris: Éditions du C.N.R.S., 1978), p. 452 [p. 1* in “Appendices”].
76. See the statement of doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Theological
Society.

146 Notes
77. B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Hort, Introduction to the New Testament
in the Original Greek (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1988
[c1881]), pp. 320–21.
78. C. R. Gregory, Canon and Text of the New Testament (Edinburgh:
T. & T. Clark, 1907), pp. 467–469.
79. See Reuben Swanson, “Order of the New Testament Books in the
Manuscripts Used for This Work,” New Testament Greek Manuscripts:
Variant Readings Arranged in Horizontal Lines Against Codex
Vaticanus: Galatians (Pasadena, CA: William Carey International
University Press, 1999), pp. 129–135.
80. The words of E. L. Martin, Restoring the Original Bible (Portland,
OR: Associates for Scriptural Knowledge, 1994), p. 10.
81. See in particular the combination of my own method of prosodic
analysis with the logotechnical analysis of Casper Labuschagne in
the Psalms Project on our website www.bibal.net.
82. See Casper J. Labuschagne, Numerical Secrets of the Bible: Rediscovering
the Bible Codes (North Richland Hills, TX: BIBAL Press, 2000),
pp. 26–32 –“Explicit References to the Number Seven in the Bible.”