The Integrity of the Biblical Canon in Light of Its Historical ...

MCDONALD: The Integrity of the Biblical Canon 107
know, included far more than the writings of the current Hebrew
Bible. Although all of the OT books but Esther were found at Qumran,
many other writings were also found there in the same caves
with little or no distinguishing features in them that could be used to
argue that they were held in separate esteem from the books that
were finally included in the OT biblical canon. This is especially so in
the case of the Temple Scroll and the Manual of Discipline.
6. In an earlier text found at Qumran, perhaps dating as early as
150 BCE, and recently translated and published by several scholars,
namely the Miqsat Ma c aseh Torah—or more commonly called 4QMMT,
or "The Second Letter on Works Reckoned as Righteousness (Plates
15-16), reads in part, "For on account of these things we have written
for you that you may perceive in the book of Moses and in the words
of the prophets and in David and in the words of the days (or
Chronicles) from generation to generation."
Again, all that we can say from this text is that Moses and the
Prophets and David (the Psalms?) and perhaps the Chronicles are
mentioned, but we do not know what "David" refers to nor what is
implied by the Chronicles or "days" in this passage. Since the Prophets
were referred to as a collection or category, we can probably
assume that the classical Hebrew prophets were in mind, but they are
not identified for us in the passage, and it is not clear that this
included all of the Former and Latter Prophets.
7. In Luke 24:44, when Jesus was in the closing hours of his postresurrection
ministry with his disciples, he reminded his disciples
that "everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets,
and the psalms must be fulfilled." Although it is quite common today
for scholars to infer from this that Jesus was referring to the third
category of the Hebrew Bible that obtained in the second century,
namely, the Hagiographa or Ketubim, there is nothing in the first century
or before that would lead us to that conclusion. Beckwith argues
from the premise that in the rabbinic writings the third category of
Scriptures was sometimes called the Homashim, or "fifths," and that
this term was occasionally used in reference to the Psalms, 27 that this
is what Jesus had in mind when he referred to Psalms in this text. This
makes sense, of course, if we can show that this notion existed in the
first century, but that is simply not the case according to the available
evidence. Since the most common designation for the Hebrew Scriptures
in the NT writings was "Law" or "Law and the Prophets," Luke
24:44 is an isolated text in the NT literature that indicates the growth
in the early Christian community in its awareness of that third part of
the Hebrew Scriptures. There is no reference in the first century CE or
27. See Sepher Torah 2.3-4; Sop. 2.4 noted above in n. 22.