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<blockquote data-quote="gluadys" data-source="post: 10885130" data-attributes="member: 27903"><p><em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Just for the sake of accuracy here, I should mention that the Old Testament was canonized in three stages: the Torah, the Prophets and The Writings.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The Torah consists of the five books: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, all traditionally attributed to Moses. The reality is much more complex. Even if Moses did find time to write anything (and he probably did) we have to remember that the bulk of the Israelites were illiterate. So in promulgating the law of God, Moses had to rely primarily on commiting it to the memories of people who could not read and write--and who would also commit it to the memory of those they trained as successors. Mostly, these would be the priests. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Eventually, however, actual written records did become more necessary and more popular. The analysis of linguistic clues has led scholars to suggest 6 important stages in the compilation of the Torah as we know it:</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>1. The writing of J---those sections (including Gen.2:4b through Gen.3) of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers) written by a Judean who lived during the time of the two kingdoms.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>2. The writing of E---Those sections (such as the incident of the golden calf and many of the laws in Exodus) of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers written by a Levite -- possibly a direct descendant of Moses-- living in Israel during the time of the two kingdoms. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>3. The fusion of these two into a single narrative by an editor. This revision was probably done shortly after the fall of Israel to the Assyrians. Refugees who came from Israel into Judea no doubt brought E with them, and the two versions (northern and southern) of their common history were amalgamated. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>4. Either the writing of P or the writing of D. (Scholars differ on which came first.)</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>5. The writing of D or the writing of P.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>D is found only in the book of Deuteronomy. It has many linguistic features which connect it with Jeremiah and probably comes from the same prophetic community, if not from Jeremiah himself. Jeremiah came from a priestly family, but not the one which governed the temple in Jerusalem.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>P refers to the sections of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers written by a priest of Jerusalem shortly before or during the Babylonian exile. All of Leviticus, with a few editorial exceptions, is written by P. P is clearly a priest of the temple of Jerusalem and a descendant of Aaron. He is the one who pays the most attention to the laws and the sacrifices. The whole description of the building of the tabernacle comes from P. So does the opening section of Genesis (1:1-2:4a) </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>6. The combination of P with JE and the addition of Deuteronomy. All the books contain some evidence of this final editing which took place during or shortly after the Babylonian exile. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The late <strong>writing</strong> of the Torah does not imply that these stories and laws were unknown to previous generations. As noted, even if Moses was literate, he had to entrust the law to people who were not. Particularly among the priests, it would not be unusual for details of sacrificial rituals to be passed on orally for many generations without much alteration. So even if Leviticus is written during the Babylonian exile, the rituals it recounts could easily date back to the time of Moses. And even if J wrote sometime after the death of Solomon, the core of the stories he tells of Abraham could go back to the actual events. But clearly it is more difficult to trace and verify oral history than it is to trace written documents. It is also virtually impossible to tell where history leaves off and legend begins. Those responsible for learning and passing on these stories made no such distinction between "plain fact" and "mythology". To them it was all one. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The Torah as we know it appears to have been finalized by the days of Ezra. Some even suggest him as the final redactor.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The collection of writings known as the Prophets appear to have been canonized by the 2nd century BCE. The rabbis who compiled this collection and began treating them as holy scripture believed that the age of prophecy had ended within a century or so of the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple and city of Jerusalem. (This is one reason Daniel is not included in among the Prophets, though in the Septuagint and in Christian bibles, the book of Daniel is found in the "prophetic" section.) On the other hand, except for the Torah, almost all the books found in the "history" section of Christian bibles are accounted in Jewish tradition as part of the Prophets.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The traditional Jewish compilation of the Prophets is divided into Earlier and Later Prophets, and the Later Prophets are sub-divided into Major and Minor Prophets (depending on the volume of their work--not its importance.)</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Earlier Prophets</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Joshua</em></p><p><em>Judges</em></p><p><em>Samuel (I & II)</em></p><p><em>Kings (I & II)</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Later Prophets (Major)</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Isaiah</em></p><p><em>Jeremiah (& Lamentations)</em></p><p><em>Ezekiel</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Later Prophets (Minor aka the Twelve)</em></p><p><em>Hosea</em></p><p><em>Joel</em></p><p><em>Amos</em></p><p><em>Obadiah</em></p><p><em>Jonah</em></p><p><em>Micah</em></p><p><em>Nahum</em></p><p><em>Habakkuk</em></p><p><em>Zephaniah</em></p><p><em>Haggai</em></p><p><em>Zechariah</em></p><p><em>Malachi</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Several of the later prophetic books shade into apocalyptic writing, especially Ezekiel and Zechariah. So many modern interpretators identify apocalyptic writing as prophecy although it is a distinctive genre. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The final section of the Old Testament to be canonized were the Writings. With a few exceptions, these are all post-exilic writings. Their status was still in flux in the 1st century CE and the final decision on what to include and what not to include came a century or so later. This had an impact on the Christian bible. The Septuagint translation of the scriptures into Greek included several books and parts of books originally composed in Greek (though by Jewish writers). The Septuagint was the Old Testament used by Greek-speaking Christians and formed the basis of early Christian translations into other languages such as Latin. It is the bible used by non-Protestant Christians to this day. But as the Hebrew canon was finalized by the rabbis, books and parts of books composed in Greek rather than Hebrew were excluded. (Some books in Hebrew were also excluded for other reasons.) So sections of Daniel such as the story of Susannah and the Song of the Three Children were excluded, as well as books such as Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The books which were accepted and are found in the Hebrew bible and all Christian bibles today are:</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Ruth</em></p><p><em>Chronicles (I & II)</em></p><p><em>Ezra</em></p><p><em>Nehemiah</em></p><p><em>Esther (non-Greek sections)</em></p><p><em>Job</em></p><p><em>Psalms</em></p><p><em>Proverbs</em></p><p><em>Ecclesiastes</em></p><p><em>Song of Solomon</em></p><p><em>Daniel (non-Greek sections)</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Since Psalms is a collection of hymns, many of them are much older than the time the collection was put in writing (in fact, this collection was probably edited many times). It includes psalms by David and may include even older hymns. Proverbs, likewise, includes material from older collections. Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are traditionally attributed to Solomon but were likely written at a later date. All of the others are post-exilic with the most recent being Daniel (2nd century BCE).</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gluadys, post: 10885130, member: 27903"] [i] Just for the sake of accuracy here, I should mention that the Old Testament was canonized in three stages: the Torah, the Prophets and The Writings. The Torah consists of the five books: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, all traditionally attributed to Moses. The reality is much more complex. Even if Moses did find time to write anything (and he probably did) we have to remember that the bulk of the Israelites were illiterate. So in promulgating the law of God, Moses had to rely primarily on commiting it to the memories of people who could not read and write--and who would also commit it to the memory of those they trained as successors. Mostly, these would be the priests. Eventually, however, actual written records did become more necessary and more popular. The analysis of linguistic clues has led scholars to suggest 6 important stages in the compilation of the Torah as we know it: 1. The writing of J---those sections (including Gen.2:4b through Gen.3) of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers) written by a Judean who lived during the time of the two kingdoms. 2. The writing of E---Those sections (such as the incident of the golden calf and many of the laws in Exodus) of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers written by a Levite -- possibly a direct descendant of Moses-- living in Israel during the time of the two kingdoms. 3. The fusion of these two into a single narrative by an editor. This revision was probably done shortly after the fall of Israel to the Assyrians. Refugees who came from Israel into Judea no doubt brought E with them, and the two versions (northern and southern) of their common history were amalgamated. 4. Either the writing of P or the writing of D. (Scholars differ on which came first.) 5. The writing of D or the writing of P. D is found only in the book of Deuteronomy. It has many linguistic features which connect it with Jeremiah and probably comes from the same prophetic community, if not from Jeremiah himself. Jeremiah came from a priestly family, but not the one which governed the temple in Jerusalem. P refers to the sections of Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers written by a priest of Jerusalem shortly before or during the Babylonian exile. All of Leviticus, with a few editorial exceptions, is written by P. P is clearly a priest of the temple of Jerusalem and a descendant of Aaron. He is the one who pays the most attention to the laws and the sacrifices. The whole description of the building of the tabernacle comes from P. So does the opening section of Genesis (1:1-2:4a) 6. The combination of P with JE and the addition of Deuteronomy. All the books contain some evidence of this final editing which took place during or shortly after the Babylonian exile. The late [b]writing[/b] of the Torah does not imply that these stories and laws were unknown to previous generations. As noted, even if Moses was literate, he had to entrust the law to people who were not. Particularly among the priests, it would not be unusual for details of sacrificial rituals to be passed on orally for many generations without much alteration. So even if Leviticus is written during the Babylonian exile, the rituals it recounts could easily date back to the time of Moses. And even if J wrote sometime after the death of Solomon, the core of the stories he tells of Abraham could go back to the actual events. But clearly it is more difficult to trace and verify oral history than it is to trace written documents. It is also virtually impossible to tell where history leaves off and legend begins. Those responsible for learning and passing on these stories made no such distinction between "plain fact" and "mythology". To them it was all one. The Torah as we know it appears to have been finalized by the days of Ezra. Some even suggest him as the final redactor. The collection of writings known as the Prophets appear to have been canonized by the 2nd century BCE. The rabbis who compiled this collection and began treating them as holy scripture believed that the age of prophecy had ended within a century or so of the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple and city of Jerusalem. (This is one reason Daniel is not included in among the Prophets, though in the Septuagint and in Christian bibles, the book of Daniel is found in the "prophetic" section.) On the other hand, except for the Torah, almost all the books found in the "history" section of Christian bibles are accounted in Jewish tradition as part of the Prophets. The traditional Jewish compilation of the Prophets is divided into Earlier and Later Prophets, and the Later Prophets are sub-divided into Major and Minor Prophets (depending on the volume of their work--not its importance.) Earlier Prophets Joshua Judges Samuel (I & II) Kings (I & II) Later Prophets (Major) Isaiah Jeremiah (& Lamentations) Ezekiel Later Prophets (Minor aka the Twelve) Hosea Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah Malachi Several of the later prophetic books shade into apocalyptic writing, especially Ezekiel and Zechariah. So many modern interpretators identify apocalyptic writing as prophecy although it is a distinctive genre. The final section of the Old Testament to be canonized were the Writings. With a few exceptions, these are all post-exilic writings. Their status was still in flux in the 1st century CE and the final decision on what to include and what not to include came a century or so later. This had an impact on the Christian bible. The Septuagint translation of the scriptures into Greek included several books and parts of books originally composed in Greek (though by Jewish writers). The Septuagint was the Old Testament used by Greek-speaking Christians and formed the basis of early Christian translations into other languages such as Latin. It is the bible used by non-Protestant Christians to this day. But as the Hebrew canon was finalized by the rabbis, books and parts of books composed in Greek rather than Hebrew were excluded. (Some books in Hebrew were also excluded for other reasons.) So sections of Daniel such as the story of Susannah and the Song of the Three Children were excluded, as well as books such as Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. The books which were accepted and are found in the Hebrew bible and all Christian bibles today are: Ruth Chronicles (I & II) Ezra Nehemiah Esther (non-Greek sections) Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon Daniel (non-Greek sections) Since Psalms is a collection of hymns, many of them are much older than the time the collection was put in writing (in fact, this collection was probably edited many times). It includes psalms by David and may include even older hymns. Proverbs, likewise, includes material from older collections. Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon are traditionally attributed to Solomon but were likely written at a later date. All of the others are post-exilic with the most recent being Daniel (2nd century BCE).[/i] [/QUOTE]
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