Tuesdays Are for the Old Testament
1/9/24
Lessing, R. Reed, & Steinmann, Andrew E. "Chapter One: The Old Testament Canon." Prepare the Way of the Lord: An Introduction to the Old Testament. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2014, 1-12. Kindle Electronic Edition with real page numbers.
Lessing and Steinmann, after briefly introducing "canon" as the term for an authoritative list, describe the Old Testament canon as a collection which could be identified by about 180 B.C. when the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira used almost all the Old Testament writings (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 1). The New Testament also recognizes particular writings as authoritative, making use of all the Old Testament writings but Esther. While not all scholars will admit to the existence of the Old Testament as a gathering of books which stood together prior to about the 4th century of the Christian period, there is evidence that the writings in the Old Testament were held in a different regard than other writings cited in the New Testament (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 2). Despite the proliferation of use of additional Jewish writings in the first few centuries of the Christian period, the writings now recognized as the Old Testament were consistently grouped together for special attention (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 3). Additional writings were not recognized as special, though in some traditions the writings were maintained together. In Reformation scholarship the additional writings were separated out and placed between the Old and New Testaments.
Lessing and Steinmann provide a chart of the writings recognized as the Old Testament by Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies, reflecting the organizational pattern of each group (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 3-5). They then discuss the arrangement of the writings and the logic behind the arrangement. They do observe the relatively early tradition of readings being associated with different Sabbaths, forming a known lectionary (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 6). The Protestant Old Testament is identical in contents to the Jewish one, but in a different order. The Roman Catholic Old Testament contains seven additional books as well as expanded versions of Daniel and Esther (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 7). The additional books, more familiar in Roman Catholic and Episcopal traditions include Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Ben Sira, Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah, and Additions to Daniel. Lessing and Steinmann summarize these writings in brief (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 7-9).
Some parts of the Eastern church affirm some or all of the Apocrypha, as well as a few other writings not included in Western Christian traditions (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 9).
Lessing and Stenmann acknowledge that canonicity is a question which has some room for variation. In general, virtually all parts of the Church recognized the same collections of writings as authoritative (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 10). The chapter concludes with a select bibliography of additional readings on canonicity.
1/9/24
Lessing, R. Reed, & Steinmann, Andrew E. "Chapter One: The Old Testament Canon." Prepare the Way of the Lord: An Introduction to the Old Testament. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2014, 1-12. Kindle Electronic Edition with real page numbers.
Lessing and Steinmann, after briefly introducing "canon" as the term for an authoritative list, describe the Old Testament canon as a collection which could be identified by about 180 B.C. when the Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sira used almost all the Old Testament writings (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 1). The New Testament also recognizes particular writings as authoritative, making use of all the Old Testament writings but Esther. While not all scholars will admit to the existence of the Old Testament as a gathering of books which stood together prior to about the 4th century of the Christian period, there is evidence that the writings in the Old Testament were held in a different regard than other writings cited in the New Testament (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 2). Despite the proliferation of use of additional Jewish writings in the first few centuries of the Christian period, the writings now recognized as the Old Testament were consistently grouped together for special attention (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 3). Additional writings were not recognized as special, though in some traditions the writings were maintained together. In Reformation scholarship the additional writings were separated out and placed between the Old and New Testaments.
Lessing and Steinmann provide a chart of the writings recognized as the Old Testament by Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies, reflecting the organizational pattern of each group (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 3-5). They then discuss the arrangement of the writings and the logic behind the arrangement. They do observe the relatively early tradition of readings being associated with different Sabbaths, forming a known lectionary (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 6). The Protestant Old Testament is identical in contents to the Jewish one, but in a different order. The Roman Catholic Old Testament contains seven additional books as well as expanded versions of Daniel and Esther (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 7). The additional books, more familiar in Roman Catholic and Episcopal traditions include Tobit, Judith, Additions to Esther, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Ben Sira, Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah, and Additions to Daniel. Lessing and Steinmann summarize these writings in brief (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 7-9).
Some parts of the Eastern church affirm some or all of the Apocrypha, as well as a few other writings not included in Western Christian traditions (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 9).
Lessing and Stenmann acknowledge that canonicity is a question which has some room for variation. In general, virtually all parts of the Church recognized the same collections of writings as authoritative (Lessing & Steinmann 2014, 10). The chapter concludes with a select bibliography of additional readings on canonicity.
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