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Minor Prophets, Part 3: Persian Period and Restoration

  1. Lesson One
    Obadiah
    17 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  2. Lesson Two
    Haggai
    17 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  3. Lesson Three
    Zechariah
    20 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  4. Lesson Four
    Malachi
    18 Activities
    |
    2 Assessments
  5. Lesson Five
    OT Wrap-Up (Psalm 119)
    15 Activities
    |
    5 Assessments
  6. Course Wrap-Up
    Course Completion
    1 Activity
    |
    1 Assessment

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The Jewish historian Josephus references twenty-two books, rather than twenty-four, when he compares the Old Testament with the less reliable ancient histories prominent in Greek tradition:

We have not myriads of books, disagreeing and conflicting with one another, but only twenty-two, containing the record of all time, and justly accredited.

F. F. Bruce offers a simple explanation:

When Josephus speaks of twenty-two books, he probably refers to exactly the same documents as the twenty-four of the traditional Jewish reckoning, Ruth being counted as an appendix to Judges and Lamentations to Jeremiah.

Here again we see an apparent difference in canon explained by a simple re-organization of the same texts. There were a number of different ways of ordering and organizing the books of the Old Testament, and it’s important that we see this for what it is rather than as a fluctuation of the canon itself. 

Quotations: F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, 1988, pp. 32-33.