Introduction to The Original Bible

By Bob Barney - The Plain Truth

ORDER of the OLD TESTAMENT

It would seem to me that even we Christians ought to return to the Hebrew order of the books as maintained by the Temple authorities when the Holy Sanctuary existed in Jerusalem, since this is the order that Christ advocated as "the Scriptures" (Luke 24:44–45). The Hebrew manuscript order is as follows:

I.      THE LAW (TORAH)

1)   Genesis
2)   Exodus
3)   Leviticus
4)   Numbers
5)   Deuteronomy

II.     THE PROPHETS

6)   Joshua and Judges
      [reckoned as two separate books by the Jews after the 2^nd century]
7)   The Book of Kingdoms (Samuel and Kings)
      [reckoned as two separate books by the Jews after the 2^nd century]
8)   Isaiah
9)   Jeremiah
10)  Ezekiel
11)  The Twelve (Hosea to Malachi)
      [always reckoned as one book by the Jews]

III.    THE HOLY WRITINGS (or THE PSALMS because it was the
        first book in the collection in this "Royal Division")

12)  The Psalms
13)  The Proverbs
14)  Job
15)  Song of Songs
16)  Ruth
17)  Lamentations
18)  Ecclesiastes
19)  Esther
20)  Daniel
21)  Ezra-Nehemiah [reckoned as one book by the Jews]
22)  The Book of Chronicles [reckoned as one book by the Jews]

These 22 books of the Old Testament (and their arrangement as indicated above) should be the standard canon followed by every version of the Bible today. They represent the exact number presently in our King James Version but, as one can observe, they are arranged and enumerated differently. Again, it was Jerome who gave us our present enumeration of 39 books for the Old Testament rather than the original 22 enumeration (which agreed with the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet).  It was Ezra, the second "Moses" who edited the Old Testament and canonized it. It was the LORD JESUS who affirmed that canonization! If you are a Christian, then you must accept the order above!


Ezra (עֶזְרָא, Standard Hebrew ʿEzra, Tiberian Hebrew ʿEzrâ: short for עַזְרִיאֵל "My help/court is God", Standard Hebrew ʿAzriʾel, Tiberian Hebrew ʿAzrîʾēl) was the "scribe" who led the second body of exiled Israelites that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem in 459 BCE, and is probably the author of the Book of Ezra and the Book of 1 Chronicles in the Bible... He was the son, or perhaps grandson, of Seraiah (2 Kings 25:18-21), and a lineal descendant of Phinehas, the son of Aaron (Ezra 7:1-5). All we know of his personal history is contained in the last four chapters of his book, and in Nehemiah 8 and 12:26.

In the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus (see also Darius I of Persia), he obtained leave to go up to Jerusalem and to take with him a company of Israelites (Ezra 8). Artaxerxes manifested great interest in Ezra's undertaking, granting him "all his request," and loading him with gifts for the house of God. Ezra assembled the band of exiles, probably about 5,000 in all, who were prepared to go up with him to Jerusalem, on the banks of the Ahava, where they rested for three days, and were put into order for their march across the desert, which was completed in four months. His activities in Jerusalem following his arrival are recorded in his book.

For about fourteen years, (i.e., until 445 BCE), we have no record of what went on in Jerusalem after Ezra had set in order the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of the nation. In that year another distinguished personage, Nehemiah, appears on the scene. After the ruined wall of the city had been built by Nehemiah, there was a great gathering of the people at Jerusalem preparatory to the dedication of the wall. On the appointed day the whole population assembled, and the Torah was read aloud to them by Ezra and his assistants (Neh. 8:3). The remarkable scene is described in detail. There was a great religious awakening. For successive days, beginning on Rosh Hashanah (the first day of the seventh month) they rejoiced in the holy days of the month of Tishri. Ezra read to them the entire scroll of the Torah and he and various scholars and Levites explained and interpreted the deeper meanings and applications of the Torah to the assembled crowd. These festivities culminated in a very enthusiastic and joyous seven day celebration of the Festival of Sukkot, concluding on the eighth day with the holiday of Shemini Atzeret. On the twenty-fourth day, immediately following the holidays they held a solemn assembly, fasting and confessing their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. Then, they renewed their national covenant to follow God's Torah, given through the hand of Moses, and to observe and fulfill all of the Lord's commandments, laws and decrees. (Neh. 10:30). Abuses were rectified, and arrangements for the temple service completed, and now nothing remained but the dedication of the walls of the city (Neh. 12).

Ezra - Relation to the Book of Ruth

According to some scholars, the Book of Ruth was originally a part of the Book of Judges, but it was later separated from that book and made into an independent book. Its opening verse explicitly places it during the time period of the Judges, and its language and description seem to make the authorship contemporary with that period. On the other hand, the message of the book, which shows acceptance of marrying converts to Judaism, has been used to suggest that the book was written during the early days of the Persian period. At that time, Ezra condemned intermarriages and, according to his eponymous book, forced the Israelites to abandon their non-Jewish wives who did not convert. According to this theory, the Book of Ruth was written in response to Ezra's reform and in defense of these marriages. More likely, the book was a response to critics of King David, who contested his qualifications as a Jew due to his Moabite ancestry. In that context, the book uses the precedent set by a Jewish court, lead by Boaz, to demonstrate that a Moabitess could convert and be a member of the Children of Israel.

Ezra - Place in editing the Torah and Bible....According to Rabbinic Jewish tradition, Ezra collected and arranged the canon of the Hebrew Bible. 

It was probably Ezra who footnoted the entire scripture, added needed endings to stories, or additional information for the reader. Thus we see "and it is named to this day..."  Terms like this found in the Torah would not be written by Moses, but by someone some 500-1,000 years later! Also, who wrote the account of the death of Moses? Maybe Joshua, but most believe Ezra did it.




 THE ORDER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT:


Contrary to some other views, there is not a canonized order to the New Testament Scriptures as there is to the Old Testament Scriptures.  While the Old Testament was kept confined to the Israelite church protected by the priests, the New Testament was broadcast to the world through Greek copies and different language translations. Athanasius as the bishop of Alexandria listed the twenty-seven books in 367 A.D. The Chalcedon Council merely affirmed what had already been clearly established in 451 A.D. As you can easily see this is three hundred years after the time of the first apostles. The early church basically had only the Scripture (Old Testament) and some letters from Apostles to go by. Probably by 100 AD, most of the 27 books we now see as scripture was in the hands of most Christians.  The Roman Church placed Paul's writings ahead of the the Epistles in an attempt to de-Judiaze the church.  The Plain Truth is that if you were a disciple of John, you probably read his Gospel first and then the others, his letters first and then the others and so on.


It is very controversial to make this claim, but we most always scrutinize the letters of the New Testament, as many bad copies were made of them and there may be some major errors in some of them. This is why Paul told the people to test what he wrote with the SCRIPTURE to see whether or not what he was saying was the truth. He claimed he would personally sign all his letters, as many forgeries existed even in his time. Ironically, most of his letters in the New Testament are NOT SIGNED!


A good thing we should be reminded of-- the Catholic church in Rome never had control over the Eastern churches, especially the Jerusalem one, which were in turn divided even among themselves. The current Catholic Bible is largely accepted as canonical from fatigue: the details are so ancient and convoluted that it is easier to simply accept an ancient and enduring tradition than to bother actually questioning its merit.  To make matters worse, we know of some very early books that simply did not survive at all (the most astonishing example is Paul's earlier Epistle to the Colossians, cf. Col. 4:16), and have recently discovered the very ancient fragments of others that we never knew existed, because no one had even mentioned them.
This leads to an important point.  It is not by history that we have the New Testament, but only by FAITH that those letters included today in New Testament Scripture are the ones God wanted us to read as scripture! To claim any more would be a lie!  However, we do have HISTORY and Jesus HIMSELF that proves the canonization of Old Testament Scripture, so it is beyond doubt, and its order, as I have it in this Bible is FACT!  Since we know that either 49 or 50 is true completion, again by faith we hold that the modern 49 books of the Holy Bible are from God Almighty.


As for the order of the New Testament, I used time-lines to place the order of the books. The Order is then: THE GOSPELS, THE ACTS, THE LETTERS and THE REVELATION.