The Christian bible as we have it today, varied in versions as it is, went through numerous incarnations before the canon was finally established in the 7^th Century AD. In this entry, I am providing a brief history of how the Old Testament came about. There are a few words that pop up when discussing the bible and I have listed them here so that you don’t get confused:

Scripture – inspired writings which may or may not be accepted as part of official canon.
Canon– list of specific scripture that are accepted as authoritative.
Vulgate – 4^th century Latin translation of the bible, published in 382 AD by Jerome.
Pentateuch – also known as The Law, includes the first 5 books of the bible, also known as the torah.
Septuagint– translation of Hebrew bible into Koine Greek, also known as the Greek Old Testament
Targum and Peshitta – the Targum is the Jewish translation of the old testament into Aramaic; the Peshitta is the Christian translation, also known as the Syriac.
Extant – still in existence, surviving. Extant manuscripts are early or original manuscripts that are still in existence.
Diaspora – dispersion of Jews beyond Israel. Occurred in 600 BC and 70 AD.
Hebrew –  a Semitic language of the children of Israel; a member of the ancient people living in Israel and Palestine and descendants of Jacob.
Tanakh – Hebrew bible.
Torah – specifically means the five books of Moses, but is also used to refer to the collective Jewish scriptures.
Talmud – the spoken torah

The earliest written biblical records we have are the Pentateuch; these are the first five books of the bible that are commonly attributed to Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Book of Genesis is a liturgical or religious text that provides a timeline from Adam until the arrival of Moses. The Pentateuch, or the law,was universally accepted as scripture by the Israelites throughout their history. We do not know for certain what language they were initially written in, but the earliest copies are in Hebrew and it is most likely that Moses would have written them in Hebrew.   Many scholars are of the view that  the history recorded in Genesis was written at the time of Moses and was derived from oral traditions; however there is evidence that Abraham at least wrote his teachings down so this would have been a source that Moses relied on. There is no evidence that Adam kept a record, but an absence of evidence does not equal an evidence of absence.

The Old Testament is divided into 5 sections:

The law

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

The History

Joshua
Judges
Ruth
Samuel
Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther

Writings

Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
Song of Solomon

The Major Prophets

Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel

The Minor Prophets

Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi

If we organize them in chronological order, they would look something like this (I do not know who make this chart so I cannot source it):

 Languages

Much of the Old Testament would have been written in Hebrew, but it is important to note that apart from the Pentateuch, these books were not accepted as scripture when they were first written. Jeremiah the prophet, for example, was rejected by the people and the state, and his prophecies were not embraced until centuries later when his warnings were proven true. Isaiah condemns Israel for rejecting the seers and prophets, warning that this behavior will lead to their being scattered. (Isaiah 30:10. See also Jeremiah 2, 7, 8, 14, Hoseah 4:6, Amos 3) 2 Kings 17:15 advises ‘they rejected his statues, and his covenants that he made with their fathers’. Also, the Jews never had a ‘book of books’ as we do today. We are used to having an official book of canonized scripture because it has been this way since the 7^th century AD , but prior to this, there were various scrolls of various teachings that were referenced, but none of them were ever considered sacrosanct the way we do today.

The languages of the Old Testament’s early history before Moses are unknown. There is reference in LDS scripture to the language of Adam as being pure and undefiled, but beyond that we do not have any further clarification. We can be pretty confident that Abraham spoke Aramaic since he lived in Ur of the Chaldeas which is in modern day Iraq. When he traveled to Palestine, he would have encountered the Semitic languages which included Hebrew but it is unknown when Hebrew itself evolved as a language. Some young earth creationists are of the view that Hebrew was the first language spoken by humans and was passed down from Adam until the language got confounded at the tower of Babel but there is no basis in the scriptures or science to support this claim.

By the time of the patriarch Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, the people became known as Hebrews indicating that their language had by this time become established. Moses would have learned Egyptian having grown up in the Egyptian court, but as I stated earlier, it is most likely that he wrote his record in Hebrew so that his people could understand. The Israelites were known as Hebrews and if you want a good explanation of why this was so, check out this link: Who Are The Hebrews? .

Around 930 BC, The nation of Israel divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. In 722 BC, Israel was invaded by Assyria and the people scattered or intermarried with the Assyrians, and the Samaritan nation emerged generations later. Around 600 BC, Babylon invaded the kingdom of Judah and scattered the Jews in what is referred to as a diaspora. The Babylonians took all the educated and skilled citizens off to Babylon to serve the empire, others who had the means to escape the invasion fled to Egypt. As a result, those who were literate came to speak either Aramaic or Egyptian. A few decades later, the Babylonian empire receded and the Persian Empire took over under the leadership of Darius. He allowed the Jews return to Israel and re-build the City of Jerusalem and restore the temple. Since most Jews now spoke Aramaic, nobody could read or understand the Hebrew Scriptures including most of the priests. But what was the scriptures of the Hebrews?

Scripture

There does not seem to be a universally accepted standard for what constitutes scripture, making it difficult to assess the individual books of the bible as being genuinely inspired. Many of the historical books have no identifiable author or any confirmation from the prophets that they were inspired.  I wonder if books such as Kings and Samuel are accepted as part of the canon simply because they have been around for a very long time. They no doubt contain many inspirational stories, which of course is at the root of scripture, but that in and of itself does not justify canonization. Furthermore the early books of the bible seem to present a polytheistic religion with references such as ‘let us go down’ and titling Jehovah ‘God of Gods’. Over time, polytheistic references were removed, as well as passages that gave God an anthropomorphic nature. This suggests that there was a willingness to tamper with the scrolls that they held in high esteem. Other books were discarded or lost over the centuries such as the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 24:7), The Book of the Wars of the Lord (Numbers 21:14) the Book of Jasher (Johhua 10:13) and the Book of Nathan the prophet (2 Chronicles 9:29) to name but a few. Even more striking, we learn in 2 Kings 22:8 that even the sacrosanct was entirely lost for some time, to be discovered by Hilkiah the high priest during the reign of Josiah.

Although the spoken language changed, translating the scriptures into the language of the people was forbidden. It was acceptable, however, to provide an oral translation, so priests would give sermons in Aramaic called targums but they were more interpretations and explanations than direct translations. The Hebrew was considered sacrosanct and possessing a written translation was punishable by death. This seems to be a pattern of uninspired religious clerics because the same oppressive decree would be made by the Christian church several hundred years later when Latin went out of fashion and ministers tried to translate the book into English or German. The Christian translation of the Old Testament into Aramaic is known as the Peshitta, or the Syriac. The Catholic Old Testament is derived from the Syriac which included what is now known as apocryphal books such as the Maccabees; the protestant bible, like the Jewish torah, is translated from the Greek which ends with Malachi.

Corruption

It should also be noted that prophets of the time often condemned the church government for their wickedness so such a standard to forbid readable translations came from man and not God. During the exile, the Persians did not allow a descendant of David on the thrones of Israel or Judah which created a political vacuum. This vacuum was filled by the high priests who oversaw the festivals. These high priests were condemned by God through Malachi “the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law of his [gods] mouth…but ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi…therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people (Malachi 2:7-9). He was also critical of how they had corrupted the ordinances of the temple “ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye way, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, the table of the lord is contemptible’ Malachi 1:7.

At some point an Aramaic translation was finally permitted. Soon after, however, Alexander of Greece was expanding his empire and eventually all people were then learning Greek. Jewish leaders, realizing that the people no longer spoke Hebrew, embarked on a project to translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, starting in 300 bc and completing it 100 years alter. The Greek is known as the Septuagint.  Nevertheless, the translation had to be written between the lines of the Hebrew scrolls and were not stand alone translations.

By the time of Christ, the Jews did not have an official canon. It was not until the Christians came along that there was impetus to have an official list of accepted scriptures. I will delve into this history next time.