The Importance of the Hebrew canon

I mentioned in the last post that one of the reasons against inlcuding the deuterocanoncial books is that they were not accepted in the Hebrew canon.

This is not a question of language. The issue is not whether the Hebrew version of the Old Testament is more valid than the Greek version.

What is of interest, is that it seems that Jesus recognised, (whether he used the Hebrew version of the Greek version), the order of books and only those books which were in the Hebrew canon.

We need to bare in mind that the Hebrew canon included three sections.
The Law, the Prophets, the Writings. The order of the Hebrew canon was (and still is to my knowledge)
Genesis
Exode
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy

Joshua
Judges
Samuel (1 & 2)
Kings (1 & 2)
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Ezekiel

Psalms
Proverbs
Job
Song of songs
Ruth
Lamentations
Esther
Ecclisastes
Daniel
Ezra-Nehemiah
Chronicles (1 & 2)

Now, in Luke 24 verses 44 and 45 we read:

He [Jesus] said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

The Greek version of the Hebrew did not follow the same order. So whichever "Old Testament" Jesus used, he was clearly arguing from the order of the Hebrew "Old Testament".

In Luke 11 verses 50 and 51 we read:

Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary.

The importance here in this verse is that the killing of Abel is found in Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew canon, and the killing of Zechariah in the book of Chronicles, the last book of the Hebrew canon. This certainly seems to imply once again that Jesus was familiar with the ordering of the books as presented in the Hebrew canon, and probably even that it is the canon he recognised as containing the Words of God. It suggests too, that Jesus may even have used the Hebrew canon. Again, the importance is not the language in which it was written, but the order and choice of books which made up this canon.

The fact that Jesus deliberately speaks of all the prophets and goes no further than Zechariah, implies also that there were no prophets after his time. So the Hebrew canon can be seen as giving a complete view of God's dealing with the Jewish people, until the New Testament and the arrival of John the Baptist who is the forerunner of the Messiah, Jesus.

This is also important, in that if God sent no prophet to Israel between the last recorded prophet of the Hebrew canon, then anyone who was writing during this time was not speaking on behalf of God, nor under the inspiration of God as did the prophets of old.