Page 80 - Doctrine and History of the Preservation of the Bible revised

portions of the Old Testament. Jewish traditions tell us Samuel assembled the book of Judges. It is
evident Samuel added to the book of Deuteronomy: 1 Samuel 10:25 shows that God directed Samuel to
write into a book the laws concerning the establishment of the monarchy; what we have left of that
book is found in Deuteronomy 17:14-20. It is also believed that Isaiah and Jeremiah most likely compiled
1 and 2 Kings. Sections from Isaiah and Jeremiah are repeated verbatim in Kings.

The men most responsible for the canonization of what we know as the Old Testament today were Ezra,
Nehemiah and the body of priests and elders known as the Great Assembly. This great assembly
consisted of 120 men of whom Ezra was the chief. Among its members are said to have been Daniel and
his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They pulled together all of God’s revelation to that
point into one complete book. At that time, the Old Testament was preserved on 22 scrolls.

When the King James Old Testament was established, it was separated into 39 books and reorganized
into three basic classifications of law, history, and poetry. This was not a correct structuring of the true
text. Essentially, translators chopped up the Bible, introducing confusion.

Originally, the three divisions into which these scrolls were put were the Law, the Prophets and the
Psalms, or Writings. These three divisions of the Old Testament are known as the tripartite. Jesus Christ
confirmed that the Old Testament was complete in these three divisions. Just after His resurrection He
told the disciples, “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things
must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms,
concerning me” (Luke 24:44).

Isaiah prophesied that the true Church of God would be used to complete the canon of God’s revelation
to all mankind. He wrote: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples” (Isaiah 8:16). The
apostles Peter and Paul had a part in finalizing the New Testament. We know that Paul worked to
protect a set of parchments. “The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with
thee, and the books, but especially the parchments” (2 Timothy 4:13). The parchments were obviously
the originals of Paul’s letters that we have today. It was Peter that certified Paul’s epistles as Scripture.
He wrote this about Paul’s letters: “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which
are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do
also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16).

It was up to the Apostle John to complete the canonization of the Bible by finalizing the New Testament.
His Gospel, letters and the book of Revelation were the last and final books to be added to the Bible.
John states this at the very end of his Gospel: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the
which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the
books that should be written. Amen” (John 21:25). John was very aware of the Gospel accounts of
Matthew, Mark and Luke. Jesus Christ inspired John to write his Gospel in a unique way that gives more
depth about Jesus Christ’s message brought from God the Father. Then at the end of his Gospel, John
states definitively that there would be no other Gospels in the canon. He adds the word Amen to add a
ring of finality to that section of the Bible. He makes a similar statement at the end of Revelation. He
writes, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall
add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the
book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation
22:18-19).

78