Moody Radio openline on March 23, 2019: Dr Michael Rydelnik: We are talking about the old testament canon and I raised the issue of Yavneh, which is where Judaism reformed itself after the destruction of the temple, in the greek term it's called Jamnia. Now, they have a role in determining the old testament canon, what was it? Steven Sanchez: Now, let's say that it wasn't. It wasn't oh we got a lot of books laying around here, let's pick a few and make a canon for ourselves. Dr Michael Rydelnik: Because there was already a canon ... Steven Sanchez: They already knew what the canon was, so they are reaffirming, they are acknowledging, there are some questions at the margins, about the books that are difficult to interpret but that's vastly different from saying let's make a canon for ourselves and sanctify it as authoritative, Dr Michael Rydelnik: They already accepted the canon, we see it in the new testament, Jesus already accepted the canon but they say well what about the song of Solomon, seems a little too sensual ... Dr Jim Coakley: There was an ongoing discussion to see what are we going to do with this books, as Steve says, that are at the margin, like ... Steve Sanchez: Proverbs, Ezekiel, Ester ... Dr Michael Rydelnik: They think Proverbs could be illogical, why? Because one verse says answer a fool, another says don't answer a fool instead of understanding it as wisdom, so they are talking about that, they are talking is Ester a non spiritual book because God's name is not mentioned, they are talking about Ecclesiastes, it's kind of skeptical in places, Dr Jim Coakley: So they are using his words as authoritative when it's Solomon musing about life, Dr Michael Rydelnik: But the most influential Rabbi there, Rabbi Akiva, he kept insisting that yes these are words of God, he wasn't saying we should include them, he was saying let's not get rid of them, they are in the canon already. Steven Sanchez: That's important. They all already know what's in between the covers of the book. Dr Michael Rydelnik: I always think it's important that we know when it comes to canon, what they are really doing is these new books were showing up, remember this is the years between 70 and 120 AD, new books are showing up, they are called the new testament, they actually allude to them, these Rabbis at Yavneh, they don't like it. So they say these, not those, they don't accept their authority because they are excluding the new testament from the canon. Their job is not to decide what the Hebrew canon is, what they want to is to exclude the new testament canon.
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Question on moody radio open line program on March 23, 2019 with Dr Michael Rydelnik, Dr Jim Coakley, Steven Sanchez. How was the old testament canon recognized? Michael Rydelnik: I am going to jump in here. I had the authoritative expert in a course that I took in Seminary, he wrote the book "General introduction to the bible", he wrote the book "From God to us". His name is Norman Geisler. He's quite a respected person. I think one of the things that he said about canon is especially important. We talk about all this different test of canonicity but the main thing that he said is that when books of the bible were written, the people of God immediately received them as the word of God. It wasn't like we are going to test this one out to see if this is the word of God. It was immediately received as the word of God. That's why I don't think the books of the Hebrew bible were the literature of Israel, they were not. They were the literature of the remnant of Israel, books written to the faithful of Israel to give them the word of God and they immediately received it as such and then they passed it on and as the books were received, they were added to this collection of books and of course there was the guy that I think was most significant and Rabbinic writings says he's significant as well, I think the bible says he's significant and that's Ezra. Ezra's the guy, he's the biblical author and he put it all together in the final form in what the Hebrew bible is supposed to be. I want to jump in with the passage that I think is pretty important for understanding this, it's from Ezra chapter 7 verse 10, Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, the Torah, and then it says to obey it and to teach its statutes and ordinances of Israel. The interesting thing about the word obey there, it can mean to form it. I think he wanted to obey it but what he did was that he studied the Torah, Torah was the word that refers to the law of Moses but it could be expansive to the whole Hebrew bible and he formed it, he put the final shape to everything and under the superintending of the Holy Spirit and then taught it to Israel. So that's why I would conjecture that the close of the bible happens at that point. Steven Sanchez: I think it is important to remember that the people of Israel, speaking specifically of the Hebrew bible, they were already trained to listen to the voice of God. They knew this before they came into the land. There are going to be other voices speaking. God tells them, you might have a prophet that comes and tell you to worship another God and they ask, How will we know? He give them some test, their ears were already tuned as they were and so when a prophet shows up, he says things that are theologically accurate, they welcomed that as the word of God. It's not a committee sitting there saying I wonder should this be included or that one. They hear it , they know what it is and they keep it. The other things they put to the side. Ezra 7 10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel. -nkjv