Page 78 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible revised

2. Ecclesiastes
One of the main objections to Ecclesiastes was that it was skeptical and that its talk of life being “vanity”
was not fitting of Holy Scripture. This doubt about the book, however, is more of an interpretive issue
than one concerning inspiration. The thrust of the book is that life lived apart from God is vanity. That is
why at the conclusion of the book, Solomon can say, “Fear God and keep His commandments. . . for God
will bring every act to judgment” (Eccl. 12:13-14). This book was accepted as canon.

3. Esther
Esther was doubted by some because the name of God is absent from the book. People wondered how
a book that did not mention God could be inspired. God’s sovereignty and providence, however, is
prevalent throughout the book as He protected His people from extermination. Josephus and the
Mishnah cite Esther as Scripture.

4. Ezekiel
“This book was questioned by some because of its apparent anti-Mosaical teachings. The school of
Shammai thought that the teaching of the book was not in harmony with the Mosaic law, and that the
first ten chapters exhibited a tendency toward Gnosticism”. xxiii However, no specific examples have
been given to show that Ezekiel contradicts the Mosaic Law or that its chapters tend toward Gnosticism.
As Beckwith has observed, “evidence in favor of the canonicity of Ezekiel is so ample and so early that
the book is something of an embarrassment to those who hold the common view about the date of the
closing of the canon.”. xxiv

5. Proverbs
Some claimed that Proverbs was not inspired because it supposedly contradicts itself (see Proverbs
26:4-5). Many rabbis, though, claimed that when interpreted correctly, Proverbs did not contradict
itself. Support for Proverbs from the Pharisaic, Essene and Christian community strongly vouch for its
canonicity.

The Rules of Canonization (This article is reprinted from https://www.thetrumpet.com/1709-how-
god-preserved-the-bible)

God saw to the preservation of the Bible through a process called canonization. Our English
word canonization comes from the Greek word kanon, which means a straight edge or ruler. The books
of the Bible that we use today have been canonized. This means that after a rigorous review, it has been
determined that these books are Holy Scripture, or the inspired Word of God. This could not have been
done without the use of explicit rules and standards. Unfortunately, we have lost the records of the
specific standards. Yet, we can safely figure out at least four major rules that were used to canonize a
book of the Bible as Scripture.

The Rules of Canonization
The first rule considers divine inspiration of a book. The Bible records that God specifically directed that
certain books be written.

The clearest examples of this rule come from Moses and the other prophets: “And the Lord said unto
Moses, write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua” (Exodus 17:14). “And
the Lord said unto Moses, write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a

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